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Phone radios.

John The Greater

John The Greater

Lurker
Question about phone radios. I was looking over the S9 directly from Samsung and of course they are selling the different variants (sprint, tmo, verizon, ATT and unlocked) and I got to wondering, because the prices are different. Are the phones specifically built with only the radios for the carrier they're branded for or do they have all the radios, but only the ones for, say, Sprint are active? If I bought the unlocked version would that allow me to just pick my carrier or would it only have particular radios in it?
 
Honestly I haven't looked too much into the s9 as my contact doesn't run out until the s10. The unlocked version is usually the international version though. In the past the international version has never worked fully on Verizon as they use random wavelengths. T-Mobile and (don't take my word for it) Sprint have always been fully functional on the international version though.
 
In theory if you rooted you could possibly open up other wavelengths but that's another kettle of fish if you get the US Snapdragon variant.
 
John The Greater said:
Well, They don't have the S9 listed yet, but that is a great resource, and the implication of the sites usefulness answers my question. Thank you, that is awesome.
Click to expand...

I don't think willmyphonework.net has been updated for a while now, that's why S9 is not there.
Try https://www.frequencycheck.com/ instead, that's pretty comprehensive for phones and carriers, including S9 and US networks.

I would think a US version non-carrier Snapdragon S9(not Exynos) should be OK for most networks in the US, although you may need to check their individual BYOD policies, as to what you can use and activate with your particular carrier.
 
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Shotgun84 said:
Honestly I haven't looked too much into the s9 as my contact doesn't run out until the s10. The unlocked version is usually the international version though. In the past the international version has never worked fully on Verizon as they use random wavelengths. T-Mobile and (don't take my word for it) Sprint have always been fully functional on the international version though.
Click to expand...

"international version" i.e. ones intended for other regions, are most likely to be Exynos S9s, unless it's for Japan or China. Basically Exynos variant S9s don't have CDMA/EVDO modes in them, that say Verizon or Sprint require in the US, or China Telecom requires in China.

Amazon and Ebay often have grey imported Samsung devices, euphemistically described as "international version", but they may be actually for Hong Kong or something.

And it's same for S7, S8, Note6 and Note8.
 
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