The Galaxy Note 3 is packed to the brim with features and enhancements that, arguably, make it the best smartphone of this year. However, Samsung has also introduced a region locking on the device angering many potential customers. 

Region lock basically means that a Note 3 won’t work outside of the region the device was intended to be used for, unless someone uses a local SIM card and activates the device first. This move from Samsung is mainly to curb grey market imports of their devices.

Chainfire, one of the most respected and popular developers in the Samsung development forums, has come up with an application that defeats the region lock feature on the Note 3. As explained by Chainfire here, Samsung is blocking “a number of whole countries and carriers” for implementing Region lock on the Note 3, and possibly on its future devices. Rumors and leaks also indicate that the company might bring this ‘feature’ to its older device via a software update.

The aptly named RegionLock Away requires root access, and currently has only been tested working with the N9005 model of the Note 3. If you would like to support Chainfire’s work, you can download RegionLock Away from the Play Store for $2.99. Otherwise, download the APK from free from this XDA thread.

Keep in mind that the above method is not permanent, and might be re-enabled by a future OTA update from Samsung.