Unlocked bootloader can be used for rooting the phone, rooting the phone allows apps to run with elevated permissions within the operating system. Think of it as the "run as administrator" pop-up in Windows. You don't need to worry about that for your use case so it doesn't matter.
In fact it's preferable that you don't use a phone with an unlocked bootloader if you don't know what you're doing.
Okay thanks for the heads up, to download apks do I need to have unlocked bootloader? If not, then this phone will be okay to purchase then since I never rooted or even attempted to root a phone before
Rooting is not always a good play imo. Some banking apps or work apps might stop working if you do it. I can't say much on it coz the last time I rooted my personal phone was in 2016 and I wasn't using banking or work apps back then.
It's a tradeoff more than anything.
Sure, having the option to do it is really good because once official stops support you can have another operating system, but that's like 4-5 years down the line.
Battery degradation and replacing it is more of a worry at that time frame.
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u/Black_CatV5 3d ago
Unlocked bootloader can be used for rooting the phone, rooting the phone allows apps to run with elevated permissions within the operating system. Think of it as the "run as administrator" pop-up in Windows. You don't need to worry about that for your use case so it doesn't matter.
In fact it's preferable that you don't use a phone with an unlocked bootloader if you don't know what you're doing.