Asklemmy

43890 readers

1220 users here now

A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions

Search asklemmy 🔍

If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!

Open-ended question
Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
An actual topic of discussion

Looking for support?

Looking for a community?

Lemmyverse: community search
sub.rehab: maps old subreddits to fediverse options, marks official as such
!lemmy411@lemmy.ca: a community for finding communities

~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_A@discuss.tchncs.de~

founded 5 years ago

MODERATORS

What do I need to watch out for when buying an unlocked phone on the used market? (lemmy.ml)

submitted 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) by yo_scottie_oh@lemmy.ml to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

24 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I want my next phone to be "unlocked" so I can use it w/ any carrier - Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, Mint, etc. I'm based in the US, but if I travel internationally, it would be nice to be able to just pop in a local SIM card and continue using my phone like normal.

What gives me pause is, I see used phones listed as "US Version," and reviewers claiming the phone was not unlocked (for example, this Pixel 7a on Amazon).

Questions:

What am I missing here? Do these reviewers just not know what they're doing, or are they buying from shady resellers?
Does "US Version" imply I would not be able to use the phone internationally by just popping in a local SIM card?

Thank you!

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] poweruser@lemmy.sdf.org 15 points 3 weeks ago (8 children)

Stay away from any that are the "Verizon version"

Verizon deliberately conflates the term unlocked to mean not locked to a carrier (can use a non-Verizon SIM) instead of the bootloader being unlocked (can install a custom OS ROM such as GrapheneOS or LineageOS).

Their "unlocked" phones are all locked, so if you want a new OS that doesn't have their closed-source spyware then F you for buying the Verizon version

[–] NauticalNoodle@lemmy.ml 3 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

Even if you don't have a Verizon version initially, when you switch over to them as a carrier, they may push an update to your phone thatt locks the owner out of a bunch of features.

I discovered this when my unlocked Galaxy S8 was moved fron Consumer Cellular to Verizon. -It sucks that after 20+ years they still have better coverage.

load more comments (7 replies)