I’m looking to buy a Pixel 7 Pro and found a local shop offering two options: brand new and “brand new, soft-unlocked.” I was told the soft-unlocked version is carrier-unlocked (likely from US carriers like Verizon) and will remain unlocked unless I factory reset it. If I do reset it, they said it’s a quick 5-minute fix to unlock again.
The price difference between the two is about $60. Does what they’re saying make sense, or should I be concerned about potential issues down the road?
For me the advantage of buying an unlocked phone from the phone manufacturer is avoiding the bloatware from the carrier.
That’s not what OP is doing.
He’s buy a “brand new” phone the store opened and unlocked.
Completely different, and if a store is doing that, they’re probably doing other shady adjacent shit.
I wouldn’t buy any “brand new” expensive electronic that’s already been opened and had shit done to it
I buy all of my phones carrier-unlocked, and have never had a problem.
Potential pitfalls are if the IMEI is blacklisted, which could happen if the phone is reported as stolen, or if the radio deck isn’t compatible with your carrier’s network.
In the US, the AT&T and T-Mobile networks are pretty open, and you just need to pop in your SIM card. I don’t have experience with Verizon to know if you can bring your own device or not, but I imagine as long as the phone can work with Verizon then its probably just a matter of visiting a store to have it activated.
TMobile is pretty open, but AT&T a lot less so (though still more permissive than Verizon).
Basically any capable phone will be accepted on TMob, but AT&T will refuse to allow “unsupported” devices even if they are compatible. They shut out my OnePlus 3 which was working perfectly fine with VoLTE and VoWiFi for being too old despite being on a recent Lineage build. So instead of getting a new device, I switched to T-Mobile lol.
That’s good to know. I’ve pretty much always been a TMO customer aside from a couple of years when I was with Cingular around the time of their buyout. They were pretty open back then.
Potentially no manufacturers warranty if they aren’t an authorized seller.
If you buy it directly from Google it’ll be unlocked.
“will remain unlocked unless I factory reset it”
I’d stay away from anything like that, it’s unnecessary.
You can “unlock” a locked phone.
You can buy a factory unlocked phone.
I wouldn’t buy a “brand new” manually unlocked phone.
You’re also going to spend a lot of money at once, where a provider would do interest free over two years plus likely a discount, and your not leaving till the contract is over.
I always take interest free deals, and so should you.
