How does the carrier matter?

[venom0706]

All my life, I have bought phones unlocked and SIM-free and payed the whole sum of cash when buying. After that I would just put my old SIM card and use my phone normally. My question is, why people discuss phones, related to carriers so much? How important to the phone is it which carrier you are using, since in the end you use the phone for talking and every carrier provides that?

 

[Inders99]

No cell coverage means your expensive phone is just a fancy calculator.

 

[venom0706]

No cell coverage means your expensive phone is just a fancy calculator.

Not exactly, as it becomes a normal device after I put in my SIM card.

 

[LeoRex]

Another component is that different carriers administer their phones differently.... Most carrier branded phones have been modified to suit the carriers needs... both hardware AND software. A Samsung Note 4 on Sprint will be different than one on AT&T.... different radios.. and a carrier like Verizon loads a fairly significant amount of added on software (i.e. Verizon Backup) whereas T-Mobile does not.

There was a study recently... I think they tested a Galaxy S4 across various carriers and the battery life (specifically screen on, active time) varied by as much as 20% across the different carriers, with the phones that have been most heavily modified suffering the largest drop in endurance.

Most all carrier branded phones get updates to the Android operating system from the carrier.... Depending on the phone and carrier, updates to your phone may take a long time, if at all, since the update has a long, long road... First, Google releases the new version, the OEM grabs the code base and modifies it to suit their needs. Then that is then sent to the carrier who them modify it again to match their guidelines. So even if the OEM decides to update your phone's base software, there is no guarantee that your carrier will accept it and pass it along to you.

The carrier/OEM relationship here is pretty complicated, and, in my opinion, completely unnecessary. Many of the carrier-based modifications are redundant, sometimes twice over.. with overlap from both OEM-based and Google sourced features. For every carrier feature that is quite useful (such as T-Mobile's WiFi Calling), there is one that makes little to no sense ($4.99/m VZ Navigator) It's a tangled mess sometimes. Many users get tired of this (including yours truly) and gravitate towards the Nexus line, which cuts out the middle men.

In a perfect world, carriers would stock unlocked, unbranded and unmodified phones (well, maybe T-Mobile can keep WFC.. that's legit ) but consumers vote with their wallets, and carrier-sourced phones are still the overwhelming majority of phones out there.

 

[Morq]

- Carries slow down system updates - they always have to modify new android versions adding their crapware everywhere, while unbranded phones are clean of it.
- Carries install additional software. I had a T-mobile branded Samsung S5, it had a pletohora of applications installed on it (im from Poland btw) which sometimes even notified me of stuff that I found totally irrelevant but unable to remove any of them.
- Carries can block phones features. Tmobile offers 'wireless payments' done by tapping the phone against the terminal at stores and stuff. It only offers it for customers of either banks associated with Tmobile or when having credit card @ Tmobile themselves. I did not have such account and didnt plan on getting it, so my s5 could not be used to pay for anything using my banks application connected to my banks account. However my unbranded nexus 6, even though still on tmobile network, can use my banks application for wireless payments. Magic.

All in all - if possible, stay clear of branded phones. If they give you one, sell it and buy yourself unbranded one

 

[venom0706]

Thanks for the replies! After I read your opinions, it seems that carriers have more negatives than positives. Unlocked phones seem a much better alternative. So what advantage to then carriers offer? A lesser price for the phone perhaps? Because most unlocked phones are usually bought by paying the whole sum of money for the phone at once.

 

[Inders99]

Not exactly, as it becomes a normal device after I put in my SIM card.

This is probably a noob question but isn't an unlocked phone only able to be used with a GSM network? AT&T? What if the GSM network blows and there's better coverage with crappy Verizon? Maybe I'm just not understanding this...you still need cell towers/coverage.

 

[zorak950]

Factory unlocked phones have traditionally been GSM only, since that's what most of the networks in the world use, but as radios have improved, and they've become able to cram more band support onto them, devices that support both GSM and CDMA in a single model have started to become more common.

 

[Inders99]

So you can just sign up for VZ or AT&T with no contract then right? Plus you get the benefit of not having bloat right? (sorry for all the questions)

 

[sting7k]

Thanks for the replies! After I read your opinions, it seems that carriers have more negatives than positives. Unlocked phones seem a much better alternative. So what advantage to then carriers offer? A lesser price for the phone perhaps? Because most unlocked phones are usually bought by paying the whole sum of money for the phone at once.

The SIM card you put in your phone is getting cell service from a carrier; same as all of us.

 

[sting7k]

So you can just sign up for VZ or AT&T with no contract then right? Plus you get the benefit of not having bloat right? (sorry for all the questions)

If you already have a device compatible with their network then yes you can.

 

[Inders99]

If you already have a device compatible with their network then yes you can.

Ok...so I'll go back to my original point that you still need good coverage regardless of locked or unlocked, thanks!

 

[sting7k]

Ok...so I'll go back to my original point that you still need good coverage regardless of locked or unlocked, thanks!

I agree, you should choose based on who provides the best service in the areas you most frequently visit. If all the carriers have good coverage then you can decide based on price or available devices IMHO.

 

[kirksucks]

Up until pretty recently Verizon phones didn't use sim cards at all. And even now some recent CDMA phones won't get 4G/LTE with your non Verizon sim. I'm not sure how open Verizon is about bringing unlocked phones in. Especially if they haven't been set up for CDMA. It's slowly starting to change.

Where I live I'm pretty much suck with Verizon because of their coverage. And stuck with subsidised phones because I'm not rich.

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