Question Should I buy a device from tmobile directly or from samsung?

[Ke24]

Have a s22 Ultra with T-mobile paid off and want to upgrade.

I noticed that if I buy from Samsung directly they give me way more credit for the trade in. Both the new Z fold 6 and s24 Ultra would be $30 a month for the device where they are $70 or $50 a month respectively if I get it initially paired with T-mobile.

My instinct is just to buy an unlocked from Samsung and then add it to my T-mobile account. Are there any downsides to doing that?

 

[mustang7757]

Welcome to AC!
Which are you leaning towards? You had foldable before and T-Mobile will work without an issue

 

[VidJunky]

I know I'm late to the party, but you never replied to the thread.

Welcome to Android Central forums. I personally like the unlocked phones. Most of the time adding them to an existing account is no big deal and even though unlocked isn't as big a deal as it used to be there are some perks and disadvantages. Back in the day it was a perk to not have all of the carrier's bloatware to deal with. A lot of preinstalled apps that you could usually disable but couldn't uninstall. Anymore I think the bloat is less by nature and it seems there is more that can be uninstalled even if the device begins its life as carrier locked. I say begins its life because these days most carriers also unlock your device, making it free to transfer to other networks, by default once you met some basic requirements. Often those requirements are, paying off the device or paying it in full, having service in good standing for 60 or 90 days, and not carrying a balance on your bill to name a few. So what are the disadvantages you might ask. Well some carriers may withhold services from unlocked users, only offering it to branded device holders. Verizon used to do this with Visual Voicemail, and not long ago they did it with Find My Mobile, Samsung's answer to Google's Find My Device. I'm pretty sure they've stopped doing both of those but I don't know all carriers, all plans, or all features so there still could be some out there.

Anyway with devices today it's hard to really go wrong either way. I will say that if you need service on your device it's easier to take it to a carrier center than sending it to Samsung or dealing with a YouBreakIFix center for some things.

Best wishes whichever way you go. Let us know what you decided.