Just like HTC and Motorola, Sony has openly embraced the Android development community by providing official bootloader unlocking tool for its devices. This makes it easier for Xperia device owners to gain root access on their handsets, as they can simply unlock the bootloader and then proceed to flash a root permission manager app.

However, unlocking the bootloader of a Sony device disables certain features, which is why most users actively avoid unlocking the boot loader of their handset.

Sony’s latest flagship — the Xperia Z2 — is no exception here and unlocking its bootloader will disable the X-Reality engine and Sony’s TrackID app among other things. The reason behind this is that unlocking the boot loader wipes the TA partition on the handset, which contains the necessary DRM keys for these features to work properly.

Thanks to the hard work of DooMLoRD, jcase, GranPC and a few other XDA developers, Xperia Z2 owners can now enjoy root access on their handset without unlocking its boot loader via a root exploit. The root exploit will also allow users to take a backup of their TA partition, after which they can use Sony’s official bootloader unlock tool without any issues.

The catch here is that the root exploit only works on the older .55 and .69 firmwares and not on the latest .402 FW, which is a bummer.

Nvertheless, if you don’t mind downgrading the firmware on your Xperia Z2 or are already running an older firmware on it, head over to this XDA thread for the download link of the exploit.

• SourceXDA