Easy phone to root?

[skelms]

I'm looking to buy a new phone this year. I plan to buy a sim free, not on a contract phone (probably from expansys). I'm wondering what phone brands have easily unlockable boot loaders and root. I know nexus phones are easy to unlock/root, but I want to have sd card. I'm thinking Sony z 5 (i live in Japan so it's easy to buy Sony) , or possibly the asus camera zoom. Just saw Motorola x force (droid turbo 2 in us) that peaked my interest because of large battery and shatterproof screen.

 

[Slug]

I'm thinking Sony z 5 (i live in Japan so it's easy to buy Sony)[...]

Unlocking the Z5's bootloader is easy; go to Unlockbootloader, obtain the unlock code, and use ADB to unlock it. However there are a couple of important caveats to consider.

Certain pre-loaded content on your device may also be inaccessible due to the removal of DRM security keys. For high-end devices running recent software versions, for instance Xperia Z3, the removal of DRM security keys may affect advanced camera functionality. For example, noise reduction algorithms might be removed, and performance when taking photos in low-light conditions might be affected. The secure user data partition may also become inaccessible, and you will not be able to get any more official software upgrades if you unlock the boot loader.

After unlocking your device, you should not enable My Xperia (found in the settings menu under security on some devices running Android 5.0) as this might cause the device to malfunction.

The latter is vital; My Xperia locks the bootloader as a security measure, and doing so after unlocking via code WILL hard-brick the device.