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The Samsung Galaxy S23
jaeger26's profile

Contributor

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2 Messages

Thursday, March 1st, 2018 3:50 PM

Buying Galaxy S9 direct from Samsung-Unlocked or Locked to AT&T?

I am planning to buy a Galaxy S9 Plus direct from Samsung due to a special promotion available to me. If I buy an Unlocked phone can I use that on AT&T to start a phone contract? I do not have a mobile contract currently but I am getting one soon. I currently have Uverse for TV and Internet.

 

Would there be any disadvantages to buying an unlocked phone? Or should I bite the bullet and pay the markup for the locked phone?

 

Thank you in advance.

Tutor

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5 Messages

5 years ago

I just had both an online 'chat' and a call to AT&T tech support and both said I would not lose any features...????  I was about to send back 2 S9's unlocked from Samsung, and am now really confused!!!

Tutor

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8 Messages

5 years ago

Well I just got my unlocked S9+ yesterday. Did the setup as usual and used smartswitch and I lost visual voicemail. Just had to download the app from apkmirror. So you can at least do that. 

GLIMMERMAN76

ACE - Expert

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23.6K Messages

5 years ago

You lose hd voice wifi calling and video calling if you get the Samsung unlocked versions.

broosek

Teacher

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11 Messages

5 years ago

Weird. I tried installing AT&T's anti-spam caller app (after they sent me a note about it!) but the app told me I couldn't use it for lack of HD Audio - a feature reportedly lost to unlocked phones.
GLIMMERMAN76

ACE - Expert

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23.6K Messages

5 years ago

@broosek

 

What version of the s9 are you using?

broosek

Teacher

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11 Messages

5 years ago

SM-G960U1
GLIMMERMAN76

ACE - Expert

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23.6K Messages

5 years ago

Well that's the unlocked version so you don't get HD voice.  

Tutor

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5 Messages

5 years ago

 

So, after again speaking to both Samsung and AT&T techs, I was told that if I installed AT&T's SIM for our present account..business, that all features would in fact be there...???  Was about ready to send the phones back to Samsung and replace with AT&T versions. Not sure what direction to go...

broosek

Teacher

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11 Messages

5 years ago

My SIM is an AT&T SIM taken from earlier device. I don't believe the SIM is sufficient; I believe there's code and/or different apps not included on a generic unlocked phone. For instance, Visual Voicemail is now built into phone dialer ... except it's not present on unlocked phone.

Tutor

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5 Messages

5 years ago

Thanks for the reply. The tech indicated that it was dependent upon your
current plan with AT&T, and what you had included....could that be the
case?? Hard to believe that the most recent version of Android would leave
Visual Voicemail out of their dialer..
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