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Galaxy S20 Unlocked vs. Carrier Version (Verizon)

Elsewhere in the world I'd say unlocked will give you faster updates, no carrier locking, no carrier bloatware (but will have whatever bloatware Samsung load themselves), no carrier removing features which might be inconvenient for them.

In the US most of those remain true, but US unlocked Samsungs have often been the last to get updates rather than the first.

But paying more to have VZW bloatware? That seems pretty crazy unless VZW are refusing to allow the unlocked handsets on their network.
 
I wonder if choosing a carrier version will let you do carrier billing instead of paying outright.
 
Dunno, the "from" prices were clearly not the full retail price even for the unlocked phone, but I didn't proceed further to find out, because not being American I wouldn't be able to buy it.

(Well I suppose if I wanted the Snapdragon rather than the Exynos we get here I could have ordered an unlocked one to go to a family member in CA and asked her to bring it with her when she visited in the Spring, but paying full price for a phone which wouldn't have a warranty isn't that appealing whatever the relative merits of the different SoCs).
 
Hadron said:
Dunno, the "from" prices were clearly not the full retail price even for the unlocked phone, but I didn't proceed further to find out, because not being American I wouldn't be able to buy it.
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For some reason they had it checked that you were trading a phone in (thus the lower price) by default.
 
Hadron said:
Elsewhere in the world I'd say unlocked will give you faster updates, no carrier locking, no carrier bloatware (but will have whatever bloatware Samsung load themselves), no carrier removing features which might be inconvenient for them.

In the US most of those remain true, but US unlocked Samsungs have often been the last to get updates rather than the first.

But paying more to have VZW bloatware? That seems pretty crazy unless VZW are refusing to allow the unlocked handsets on their network.
Click to expand...
All that bloatware is usually removable, or able to be disabled. And unlocked phones have always worked on Verizon, did you see something to the contrary?
Unforgiven said:
I wonder if choosing a carrier version will let you do carrier billing instead of paying outright.
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Looks like it would connect you to VZW financing, but we won't know until it lets you proceed.


My problem with unlocked is visual voicemail didn't work on my unlocked phone, and the Verizon integrated video calling didn't work either. I think that is less of an issue with better Duo integration though.
 
Verizon is a pain as they have their own Visual Voicemail solution and try to make you use (pay) for it. Since I've been on unlocked phones I've had much better luck with VVM.
 
Unforgiven said:
Verizon is a pain as they have their own Visual Voicemail solution and try to make you use (pay) for it. Since I've been on unlocked phones I've had much better luck with VVM.
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I'll look into that. They did finally allow the free version (one click play audio) to work, but it was completely not functional on unlocked HTC U11. The video call was a pain too, but now you have to do it outside of a call (used to be able to toggle to video while in call). That might be because wife has wifi calling turned off though, maybe we both need it on. Works fine via duo though
 
NightAngel79 said:
All that bloatware is usually removable, or able to be disabled. And unlocked phones have always worked on Verizon, did you see something to the contrary?
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No, I was just wondering how they'd get anyone to pay an extra $200 if an unlocked phone would work.

(Of course I'd not spotted the pre-ticked trade-in, which would open the additional possibility that VZW were just meaner when it came to trades ;)).
 
Hadron said:
No, I was just wondering how they'd get anyone to pay an extra $200 if an unlocked phone would work.

(Of course I'd not spotted the pre-ticked trade-in, which would open the additional possibility that VZW were just meaner when it came to trades ;)).
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Wouldn't be surprised if THAT was the case, lol.
 
No clue, but the price is right with trade-in, I tell ya. Sounds very interesting to me.
 
NightAngel79 said:
All that bloatware is usually removable, or able to be disabled. And unlocked phones have always worked on Verizon, did you see something to the contrary?

Looks like it would connect you to VZW financing, but we won't know until it lets you proceed.


My problem with unlocked is visual voicemail didn't work on my unlocked phone, and the Verizon integrated video calling didn't work either. I think that is less of an issue with better Duo integration though.
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I was told that VoIP wouldn't work or maybe wouldn't work seamlessly. I'm trying to find out if this is true or would Duo and Voice as default dialer and Google's visual voicemail solve both your issue and my question?
 
I know this is an old thread but the questions still hold true today! I've been trying to get or find answers to these issues and haven't found any solutions yet. So I'm hoping people are still monitoring this thread that may have the answers or can at least point me to them!
 
xxxG8TRFANxxx said:
I was told that VoIP wouldn't work or maybe wouldn't work seamlessly. I'm trying to find out if this is true or would Duo and Voice as default dialer and Google's visual voicemail solve both your issue and my question?
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So I can't change the default dialer from Samsung at all. So even with the unlocked I don't think you could use Duo as the default. Though for video it does use Duo.
 
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