TMO S9 free gift?

[anon(1733)]

I don't believe samsung offered any promos this time. sucks. But it was free. Fun while it lasted.

 

[CincyGuy]

How is paying a little extra on your month bill worst than coming out of pocket over $800 upfront, doesn't it equal out in the end anyway?


Also I would love to purchase the unlocked models but the T-Mobile boot screen isn't that big of deal to me compared to missing these features plus I can network unlock my phone for $25 online (do it every year) -

1. No RCS/Advanced Messaging

2. No 4x4 MIMO

3. No 256 QAM Technology

4. No 600Mhz Band 71 LTE Frequency

***Samsung Galaxy S9/S9+ are the first phones on T-Mobile to use the Band 71 frequency.

Since the unlocked models are made to be used on multiple carriers then they won't have 600Mhz Band 71 LTE since that's only unique to T-Mobile.

That's why unlocked models of any phone you buy tend to only have primary bands that all carriers in that country/region use and not carrier specific bands besides CDMA bands for the few carriers that use them.

You will definitely lose network features with the unlocked models unfortunately, losing those features aren't worth using an unlocked phone to me but that's a personal opinion.

Source for all those missing features from the unlocked model please? Because I have read that exactly nowhere else.

 

[CincyGuy]

Source for all those missing features from the unlocked model please? Because I have read that exactly nowhere else.

And even Tmo employees don't know if the unlocked is exactly the same as their branded version:
https://support.t-mobile.com/thread/143924

..which unfortunately for me probably means I'll order the Tmo version just to be safe. Crap.

 

[amyf27]

I don't think any goodies at all. You usually don't extra goodies for JOD .. You just get to maybe avoid a down payment.

So far, TMOisn't offering theJODcustomers zero down. Its still the $120 down. Thats what's been holding me back on preordering.

I got the Note 8 zero down but I think they ran that deal because of the Note 7 ordeal and wanting to get a good bump in customer sales.

 

[jerrycau123]

No freebies from T-Mobile

 

[jerrycau123]

No freebies!

 

[Extremevl]

And even Tmo employees don't know if the unlocked is exactly the same as their branded version:
https://support.t-mobile.com/thread/143924

..which unfortunately for me probably means I'll order the Tmo version just to be safe. Crap.

Check out the multiple post I made in this thread from the other day -

https://forums.androidcentral.com/s...ork-capabilities-vs-unlocked.html#post6177484

Also this shows the S9/S9+ US model frequency bands -

https://www.techwalls.com/samsung-galaxy-s9-sm-g960-g965-model-number-differences/

 

[daddyd302]

Well since there's no freebie to lure people to preorder, I have no need to preoder it this year. I'll wait it out and see what happens.

 

[Extremevl]

Well since there's no freebie to lure people to preorder, I have no need to preoder it this year. I'll wait it out and see what happens.

Maybe Samsung is going the Apple route and will stop offering freebies going forward...I wounder how that would affect sales?

 

[CincyGuy]

Check out the multiple post I made in this thread from the other day -


Also this shows the S9/S9+ US model frequency bands -

https://www.techwalls.com/samsung-galaxy-s9-sm-g960-g965-model-number-differences/

Ok, well that post makes a general statement at the top of the page "Both phones feature Gigabit LTE technologies called 4X4 MIMO, carrier aggregation and 256 QAM..." which is the only places those things are mentioned. And, the unlocked US version shows it has band 71:

I see the post was updated today, so maybe it didn't show that info when you first looked it up. But, I don't who Techwalls is or how valid their info is, so how official they are to support your comments either way ...¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Either way, I have enough doubt that I will probably get it through Tmo, unless I am able to find something that looks like it came from Samsung listing out some of these things with respect to the unlocked version. No rush for me since I won't be preordering...the wife wants my S8, so I have no trade-discount coming. Might as well wait it out a month or two to see what special offers come out post-release. They usually do it around early May IIRC.

 

[Extremevl]

Ok, well that post makes a general statement at the top of the page "Both phones feature Gigabit LTE technologies called 4X4 MIMO, carrier aggregation and 256 QAM..." which is the only places those things are mentioned. And, the unlocked US version shows it has band 71:
View attachment 279951
I see the post was updated today, so maybe it didn't show that info when you first looked it up. But, I don't who Techwalls is or how valid their info is, so how official they are to support your comments either way ...

Either way, I have enough doubt that I will probably get it through Tmo, unless I am able to find something that looks like it came from Samsung listing out some of these things with respect to the unlocked version. No rush for me since I won't be preordering...the wife wants my S8, so I have no trade-discount coming. Might as well wait it out a month or two to see what special offers come out post-release. They usually do it around early May IIRC.

I posted this in response to another question but it seems valid here as well -

600MHz Band 71 frequency may be include in the unlocked model, if so I'm sure T-Mobile would block any phones from using that band unless it's running their software.

US wireless carriers love to do software blocks, how many phones come from the manufacture with hardware to listen to radio stations, software that allows tethering and so on but wireless carriers use their software to block or outright remove it...

It's business at the end of the day, if you want all the features on T-Mobile's network then you have to run T-Mobile's software which means you're buying T-Mobile's version of that phone. I know every carrier does this business practice, Verizon seems to be the worst at it, but they all do it.

I used to only buy unlocked phones but I started noticing I was missing certain features or my signal/data wouldn't be as strong/fast as someone using the same phone, but the carrier version, right next to me.

That really turned me off with unlocked phones and with so many new network features already in place and coming down the pipeliine (5G, more frequency bands, RCS Messaging and so on) then I can't deal with missing that stuff just to have an unlocked phone...