Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge get rooted before they even go on sale

The S6 Edge is compatible with CF-Auto-Root. Photo: Samsung

The S6 Edge is compatible with CF-Auto-Root. Photo: Samsung

If you can’t live without root access on your Android, you’ll be pleased to know that there is already a root method for Samsung’s all-new Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge — weeks before they even go on sale.

It’s the super-simple CF-Auto-Root method from famed hacker Chainfire, and it’s currently compatible with the T-Mobile versions of the Galaxy S6 (SM-G920T) and S6 Edge (SM-G925T), which ship with an unlocked bootloader.

 

A bootloader unlock will need to be developed for the rest of the Galaxy S6 lineup before CF-Auto-Root can be used on those, but until the devices go on sale and hackers get to work on them, it’s hard to say just how long that will take.

If you’re planning to get your Galaxy S6 or S6 Edge on T-Mobile and you’re interested in this root, bear in mind that it will almost certainly trip your Knox counter, breaking certain Samsung enterprise features and possibly Samsung Pay as well. It will also void your warranty.

There may be future root methods that can get around Knox, but I wouldn’t get your hopes up. Samsung has made major improvements to the platform recently, and despite being launched last fall, it’s still impossible to root the Galaxy Note 4 without tripping it.