The Samsung Galaxy S4 Developer Edition that runs on Verizon is now available directly from Samsung for $649.99. The Developer Edition of the S4 comes with an unlockable bootloader, meaning that you will have an open gateway into the system, which is great should hacking, rooting and using custom ROM’s be your thing.

The price is steep, but as they say, “that’s the price you pay” if you want to have full access into the device’s system settings using a legitimate device with full developer capabilities.

So bearing in mind that there are already many rooting methods widely available together with a guide for developers to bypass the bootloader on the retail edition of the Galaxy S4, is it really necessary to fork out more money for a device with no extra features, that can’t already be done on the stock S4?

Well, the biggest difference between buying a Developer Edition Galaxy S4 and unlocking the bootloader on your own handset is that the former comes with a warranty. As soon as you unlock your own bootloader yourself, that warranty on your regular Galaxy S4 is void, and if anything goes wrong, Samsung will give you the repair bill.

• SourceSamsung