[Q] Pros and cons of unlocked Note 8

[usmaak]

Best Buy has preorders for both the carrier locked and unlocked versions of the Note 8. I am coming off of a Note 4, and am very interested in the Note 8. My question is, are there any real benefits to me for buying the unlocked version vs. the Verizon version.

In the area in which I live, cell service mostly sucks across the board, but Verizon sucks the least. So I will not be changing carriers. So far, this is the pros/cons list based on the information that I've been able to find. I might be incorrect about one or more of these.

Pros:
Can change carriers whenever.
No carrier bloat.
Might get future updates more quickly.

Cons:
Might lose wifi calling.
Might lose wireless hotspot
Insurance is more expensive.

Best Buy has deals on pre-orders. For any Note 8, you get either a free memory card and wireless charging dock, or a Gear 365 camera. If you have their Best Buy card, then they have 24 month no interest financing. If you buy a carrier version of the phone, in addition to the other freebies, you get up to $150 off. The price of a Verizon Note 8 is $33.78 per month. The price of the unlocked Note 8 is $38.74 per month. Verizon also has a trade-in on my Note 4 of $240, which knocks the price down to $22.75 per month.

So given all of this, is there a compelling reason to get an unlocked phone? I know that carrier bloatware sucks, but there are solutions for it. At least there are on my Note 4.

One other question is, if I got a phone not tied to a carrier, does that make it easier to root in the future?

 

[nuclearrage]

I pre ordered the unlocked phone and the reason was what happened to me with the note 7 (both times) and the ability to switch from AT&T to Verizon if I want to. Also lack of carrier bloat. Samsung has insurance for 12 bucks a month that is better than the carrier crap insurance. Wifi calling is a non issue for me, didn't realize that I might not have hot spot, but unlocked will get root first, and then Hotspot no trouble.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G935A using XDA-Developers Legacy app

 

[treoreloaded]

I too pre ordered the unlocked version from samsung's website. I am with att right now and is planning to switch to t-mobile of project fi. not sure yet which of the two. but defintely a good plus having the unlocked version. I am not really concerned about wi fi calling since majority of the stuff i do to communicate is through text messages and through facebook messenger.

 

[chong67]

I have a unlock S8. I use it 100% fine on my T-mobile. But I can't do video call to another T-mobile customer. Thats the only difference.

 

[ahenderson223]

I picked up the AT&T variant. My insurance is only $8.99 and if I call before 4pm I will have my phone the next day. Also if I need to warranty my phone they will send me another phone before I have to ship mine back to them. I'm not worried about bloat if that was the case I would just buy a OnePlus 5 or wait for the Pixel 2 you can uninstall or disable anything you don't want. I really don't see a need to root anymore. Im not all about flashing ROMs just to lose the features that make the Note the Note.

Sent from my SM-G955U using XDA-Developers Legacy app

 

[netnerd]

i preordered ATT note8, i worry the unlocked note8 wont have all the att LTE bands.
on my att galaxy s8+ i getting 115mb down, 28mb up on att LTE Advanced

 

[apprentice]

Speaking from my experience here in the UK, I have found that locked phones are a bad deal generally. They don't get the latest updates very quickly and you can only stick with one SIM card. They also devalue the phone when you want to sell it, and whilst you could use an unlocking service, they aren't always available for you phone or carrier combo.

You don't really get much (if any) carrier bloatware here however, so that's not a consideration. WiFi calling doesn't always deliver a good call connection and I have had occasional issues with this when using my hands-free car connection.
.

 

[usmaak]

I picked up the AT&T variant. My insurance is only $8.99 and if I call before 4pm I will have my phone the next day. Also if I need to warranty my phone they will send me another phone before I have to ship mine back to them. I'm not worried about bloat if that was the case I would just buy a OnePlus 5 or wait for the Pixel 2 you can uninstall or disable anything you don't want. I really don't see a need to root anymore. Im not all about flashing ROMs just to lose the features that make the Note the Note.

Sent from my SM-G955U using XDA-Developers Legacy app

For me, root is only useful for two reasons.

1. Ad blocking.
2. Tracking down the nuisance wakelocks that android always seems to have. I've had many android phones going back to the Evo, and the only ones that I didn't end up hating were the ones that I could root. My most current phone is a Note 4 and I blew it and lost root a couple of weeks ago and couldn't get it back. Now I can't tell what's keeping my phone awake all of the time.

I'm not into flashing anymore. When I had the Evo, I must have flashed it with 100 different ROMs. Now I just want a stable phone that doesn't get killed by wakelocks.

 

[ahenderson223]

Battery life has been good to me on my last couple of Android devices. As far as updates on my S8+ I'm running the most current software and security patch that the unlocked unbranded has.

Sent from my SM-G955U using XDA-Developers Legacy app

 

[pete4k]

My problem is, as a former note 7 user, I need to buy Note 8 direct from Samsung to get discount and it is a nightmare to SIM unlock the phone on Tmobile, if purchased from Samsung. Samsung can't unlock it, only T-mobile can and since the phone comes direct from Samsung, T-mo has no record of it. So you need to spend a lot of time talking to higher level support, they need to input your IMEI manually into their system, probably call Samsung to verify status of the phone etc. It's just too much headache. So I was wondering if I could buy unlocked phone and load T-mo software to get wifi calling back, but I just hope the phone will remain unlocked? Anybody knows?

 

[jackdforme]

My problem is, as a former note 7 user, I need to buy Note 8 direct from Samsung to get discount and it is a nightmare to SIM unlock the phone on Tmobile, if purchased from Samsung. Samsung can't unlock it, only T-mobile can and since the phone comes direct from Samsung, T-mo has no record of it. So you need to spend a lot of time talking to higher level support, they need to input your IMEI manually into their system, probably call Samsung to verify status of the phone etc. It's just too much headache. So I was wondering if I could buy unlocked phone and load T-mo software to get wifi calling back, but I just hope the phone will remain unlocked? Anybody knows?

Been done many times over on s8 unlocked so I'd think yes.

Sent from my SM-G955U using XDA-Developers Legacy app

 

[AndroidCommander]

My problem is, as a former note 7 user, I need to buy Note 8 direct from Samsung to get discount and it is a nightmare to SIM unlock the phone on Tmobile, if purchased from Samsung. Samsung can't unlock it, only T-mobile can and since the phone comes direct from Samsung, T-mo has no record of it. So you need to spend a lot of time talking to higher level support, they need to input your IMEI manually into their system, probably call Samsung to verify status of the phone etc. It's just too much headache. So I was wondering if I could buy unlocked phone and load T-mo software to get wifi calling back, but I just hope the phone will remain unlocked? Anybody knows?

I don't understand all of this rhetoric about wifi calling not working. I had a mid level Samsung Grand Prime from Sprint that did not have ANY service hooked up to it. I think the previous owner that sold it on ebay left his sim card in it since he switched carriers but I never hooked it up to service and for a time of many months, went around making wifi calls anywhere there was a wifi connection just to go off the grid and remember what it was like when we didn't have mobile phones and the only communication when out-and-around town, was a pay phone on the corner gas station ...... if it didn't have two or three people waiting in line to use it.
I understand that some carriers software disable their wifi calling features in some models of phones because they don't want anyone to be able to make a call unless they are paying for service, but seams from my experience that it only requires network service provisioning which is probably why my GP worked with the SIM, even though it wasn't active which means that it SHOULD work on any phone with any carrier that has a network SIM regardless of it being active with service. I realize (although not personally experienced) that some carriers disable wifi calling in their branded phones even with provisioning and SIM unless there is active service and I think some disable it even with active service so as to charge extra for it, am I right? That should be fixable by a patch or something. Do not all ROM's correct that nad make wifi calling work?

---------- Post added at 05:31 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:21 PM ----------

PS. I think unlocked branded phones are the way to go just because of the lack of bloatware and ability to switch carriers at will and/or pop in a SIM from another carrier where you don't have good coverage or travel out of the country. To highlight, I just this year worked in two different towns where T-mobile had almost nonexistent coverage (one of which was instrumental in loosing a job) and being able to pop in a pre-paid sim would have corrected that. I thought this 2-3 years ago but didn't listen to myself and purchased a T-Mobile Note 8 last year and have been kicking myself for it ever since.

 

[iceepyon]

I prefer having a unlocked device that way I can use it with any Cell Provider I want.