Why buy an unlocked phone over a carrier phone?

Search This thread

Dillsnik

Senior Member
Nov 29, 2006
472
11
Unless of course you want to use it on different networks, ie international.

Carrier phone comes with those fat discounts, so i don't know why anyone would ever PREFER to pay full retail?

Yet people say they prefer to do it.
 

JustinUhhh

Senior Member
May 30, 2011
234
24
DFW
Unless of course you want to use it on different networks, ie international.

Carrier phone comes with those fat discounts, so i don't know why anyone would ever PREFER to pay full retail?

Yet people say they prefer to do it.

The unlocked international versions are often available before the US carriers release their modified versions. They also often have higher resale values for people who like to switch phones a lot.
 

Dillsnik

Senior Member
Nov 29, 2006
472
11
ok, i was assuming both versions are available. but higher resale makes some sense, although that alone doesn't add up to not wanting carrier brand.

Maybe less bloatware, faster updates, etc?
 

nistco92

Member
Aug 24, 2011
35
9
Less bloatware is a big part of it, I think, but there are also contractual benefits. It's sometimes easier to cancel a plan without paying a hefty termination fee if you paid for the phone outright. Additionally, certain plans (e.g. T-Mobile's "best plan ever") do not provide subsidies for good phones (e.g. HTC Sensation). Basically, it's a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation. You can buy the phone outright and then get a cheaper plan or buy a subsidized phone with a more expensive plan. If you plan on keeping your phone more than 2 years and/or switching carriers, it's a good investment to get the cheaper plan.
 
  • Like
Reactions: fasttechelec

JustinUhhh

Senior Member
May 30, 2011
234
24
DFW
I don't even think they have less bloatware, or get faster updates. They can't update their phone until a carrier somewhere releases a build for that phone. Unless they are going off an ASOP build which still requires that devices drivers to be released. I've never had an unlocked phone myself. I assume it would also make it easier to travel internationally, but if the carrier had already released their version of the phone I wouldn't go and buy an unlocked version. :p
 

wendellc

Senior Member
Oct 10, 2009
822
49
I buy unlocked usually because I like to get the hottest devices first and they are usually released overseas before coming to US; Galaxy S2 for example. I am also not on a contract.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
 

jm0990

Member
Feb 29, 2012
15
0
El Paso
If you're talking about new phones, the difference is the 2 yr contract. If you're talking about used phones, the difference is probably about ten bucks (or whatever the cost is to get an unlock code).
 

thebobp

Senior Member
Feb 16, 2012
1,189
203
Unless of course you want to use it on different networks, ie international.

Carrier phone comes with those fat discounts, so i don't know why anyone would ever PREFER to pay full retail?

Sometimes (subsidized price + contract cost over 2 years) actually costs more, or negligibly less than (unlocked price + equivalent prepaid cost over 2 years). That was the case with me, and it depends mostly on what plans the carrier offers, as well as what promotions happen to be on at the time. When that happens, a contract is just plain not worth it.

Even if it is slightly or somewhat worth it (which is the most it's going to get), that's still 2 years of vendor lockin you have to consider.

And, of course, even the option of using your phone internationally is worth something, even if you have no actual plans of going yet.
 

s9pa

Member
Dec 20, 2010
22
1
The reason people get unlocked phones vary, but most can be classified under these:

- Phones that are not available in a given market
- Update without a two year commitment to a given carrier
- Cheaper to get a used phone on ebay/amazon than a new one from the carrier if you are not due for an upgrade
- Unlocked bootloader, rooted, or bloatware free. -- As most carriers nowdays want their phones locked.
- Possible higher resell value
 

gmengass

Senior Member
Mar 3, 2012
94
35
allows you to use other carrier sim cards. Good if you travel and use different country sim cards on other networks.
 

bleach168

Senior Member
Apr 14, 2010
218
31
The first step is understanding that you don't get a "fat discount" when buying a carrier branded phone. You end up paying more than the full price of the phone in most cases.
 

Drzfr3shboialex

Senior Member
May 9, 2010
1,850
131
They get updates first look at the international phones and compare them to ours. The SG got the update over seas to gingerbread and here in the states it took forever.

sent from my Virtuous Unity :D
 

mike21pr

Senior Member
May 16, 2008
1,333
81
San Juan
•Unlocked to use anywhere
•More resale value
•No bloatware from carriers
•Faster / more direct updates without needing carrier approval
•Usually more dev support since carriers variants isolate models from one another
•Availability much before carrier versions (mostly, depends on exclusivity)
 
  • Like
Reactions: 4ktvs

taktd

Member
Jul 25, 2011
17
3
There was a time when carriers would impose restrictions on features which were stock from the manufacturers and threaten them with not buying handsets if they did not implement these restrictions. For example, features like a music player would be locked out in favor of the carrier's music service and music player to help support their store. The phones would be heavily branded and often hardware locked out of even flashing to a different firmware/rom.

If you do a present value of all the payments you will pay to the carrier for the life of the contract + the cost of the "discounted" handset you have to pay today, you will find in many cases the cost ending up greater than buying the unlocked phone outright. I suppose time-value of money plays into it... (but not really with this economy)
 

acetkbez

Senior Member
Apr 3, 2011
158
17
Boulder
its not too hard to unlock your own phone, also quite a few phones are global phones, the carrier branded ones just don't say that you can use them overseas
 

4ktvs

Senior Member
Sep 3, 2011
834
46
And they don't put crap in them to kill things. When you are not locked in for 2 years they tend to be more helpful. Unlike the droping 4g LTE big red. I am starting to think most of the AT&T hater's had a 2g iphone and got a droid and now think there is no better than the big red, becuase TV SAID SO 1000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 times. There ads are starting to make me sick, becuase they lie.

End of post.
 

Sykotron

Member
Mar 6, 2012
19
1
After reading things like this I'll never buy a phone from a carrier again. I just don't want to be help to some absurd plan when much cheaper ones are available.
 

Archector

Member
Mar 5, 2012
40
3
no choice

I live in Venezuela, and if I want to get a decently priced smartphone, my only choice is to buy an unlocked one over amazon or ebay if I cant get some dollars and a courrier service.

For example, you cant get an USED LG Optimus 2X here in my country at 4.500bsF, that's like 500$.

Nowadays, the smartphone market is growing a lot here, taking apart the fact that we have the greatest blackberry users per capita in South America.

Something like that happens in Brasil, Argentina etc.
 

luftrofl

Senior Member
Jul 18, 2010
133
66
San Francisco
Unless of course you want to use it on different networks, ie international.

Carrier phone comes with those fat discounts, so i don't know why anyone would ever PREFER to pay full retail?

Yet people say they prefer to do it.

Because those "fat discounts" are short term - the discounts are usually lost over the course of the contract you have to sign. You save a few hundred initially but end up paying a few hundred more by the end. I say 'usually' because it's not especially common in the U.S.
 

Top Liked Posts

  • There are no posts matching your filters.
  • 5
    Unless of course you want to use it on different networks, ie international.

    Carrier phone comes with those fat discounts, so i don't know why anyone would ever PREFER to pay full retail?

    Yet people say they prefer to do it.

    The unlocked international versions are often available before the US carriers release their modified versions. They also often have higher resale values for people who like to switch phones a lot.
    1
    Less bloatware is a big part of it, I think, but there are also contractual benefits. It's sometimes easier to cancel a plan without paying a hefty termination fee if you paid for the phone outright. Additionally, certain plans (e.g. T-Mobile's "best plan ever") do not provide subsidies for good phones (e.g. HTC Sensation). Basically, it's a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation. You can buy the phone outright and then get a cheaper plan or buy a subsidized phone with a more expensive plan. If you plan on keeping your phone more than 2 years and/or switching carriers, it's a good investment to get the cheaper plan.
    1
    Unbranded phone=$10 unlimited data on at&t.
    1
    •Unlocked to use anywhere
    •More resale value
    •No bloatware from carriers
    •Faster / more direct updates without needing carrier approval
    •Usually more dev support since carriers variants isolate models from one another
    •Availability much before carrier versions (mostly, depends on exclusivity)
    1
    I should have modified my post up there :)
    Anyway, a special thank to adelmundo and few others that help me to adjust my mindset about this. I never heard of StraightTalk plan b4.
    Can you provide some info about the plan?
    I've tried to search but very confuse about what it is? Is it a AT&T pre-paid plan? or is it a company that using other phone provider services?

    Straight Talk is an MVNO that provides prepaid mobile plans in the USA. They sell the phones and refill cards at Walmart and online and they use either AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint depending on what phone you purchase. Before you wanted to to get your unlocked phone on Straight Talk, you would have to buy a phone from them such as the Nokia N71, and take the SIM card and put it into your unlocked phone.

    However a few months ago, Straight Talk introduced a Bring Your Own Device option where you could purchase a SIM card from them for $15 and then put it into your phone and pay $45/month for their unlimited everything plan.

    Keep in mind though that although they advertise as Unlimited everything, there are some caveats to what "unlimited" really means. The voice and texting for the most part is unlimited, but there is no roaming I believe. Where the problem lies is the data part of unlimited. In their TOS, you are not allowed to stream music or video (like YouTube, Netflix, Pandora, etc.) Some people have been given warnings and have even had their SIM deactivated when they used to much data. On the safe side, some people have gone by the under 100 MB/day or 2 GB/month of data use to be safe. No one knows exactly what Straight Talk's criteria is or how they can determine if you're streaming or not. Most times they will give you a warning or 2 before they cut you off. If you look in howardforums.com, there are threads about Straight Talk, but as I have said, know one knows their exact criteria.

    Most of the time I am on WIFI at work or at home, so I use very little 3G data. Their speeds are good if you do use 3G. You can even get HSPA+ (aka Faux G) if you have a phone capable of it. I had gotten on average ~2 Mbps down and as high as 8-9 Mbps in some areas.

    If you bring your own phone that is GSM capable, you can use both phones that are AT&T or T-Mobile compatible. If you choose a phone that is T-Mobile compatible, you can request a T-Mo SIM. If you choose a phone uses AT&T bands, you can request the AT&T compatible SIM. You can even bring an iPhone on their network and can request the mini-SIM as well. I have also heard they treat the T-Mo phones differently as well, allowing them to use more data since T-Mo's data is unlimited, but throttled after 2GB. Although I don't know for sure since I'm not using the T-Mo SIM.

    Straight Talk's website is straighttalk.com btw.