Yes, I experienced this Verizon (fully paid phone at the initial purchase) sadistic method and the more than torturous “unlocking” series of events.
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Apple Removes SIM Card Tray on All iPhone 14 Models in U.S.
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Honestly, for the prices US carriers offer when financing a device having it locked (sometimes for just 60 days like on Verizon) doesn’t sound so bad. Everywhere else you usually pay full price, they don’t.
Don't Americans pay a lot per month, though? The UK contract I had for the last decade cost me about 8 bucks a month with lots of data and it worked in over 100 countries for no extra cost (sadly this deal has now ended 😭). I could afford to buy iPhones up front! When I was in China I had unlimited use for $4 a month...
Yes, we pay a lot per month unless it's prepaid, then it's just how much you use it.
I can't imagine that's any cheaper if you're a regular user... My American friends and colleagues always moan that they pay way more than the rest of us.
T-Mobile One (like the Magenta plan), unlimited all that. $100.00/month all taxes/fees/etc. included for 3 lines.
It isn't for heavy use, but it can be a LOT cheaper for light use.
I pay close to $70 per phone and I have 2.
They do pay full price to unlock in the US. When financing, the iphone remains locked until it’s fully paid. When purchased outright, the carrier will unlock immediately or at most within 2-3 billing cycles.
Another thing americans never evolved to is a calling party pays scheme for cellphones. Everywhere else incoming calls are free, but in the US they’re not: they’re still deducted from the plan minutes or prepaid balance just as it was done when cellphones started in 1990. It’s unbelievable how backwards they are in certain things.
In my case, dedpite for the phone to have been fully paid for, Verizon somehow “forgot” to unlock. We discovered this when my son inserted a SIM card in Europe. From then on it became a bouncing game between us, Verizon and Apple for a few days of torture spending hours on the phone Europe-to-Verizon. In summary, if you pay for the phone in full, NEVER buy it from a service provider. I have a suspicion for all phones dispatched by Apple to respective providers to be initially locked.
I bought a 13 Pro Max in early August through Verizon. I had it unlocked the next day online for about $20 and was using it on T-Mobile. I put my Verizon sim into my S10+ since I don't really get great speeds in my area anyways, just about 15-40mbps. On T-Mobile I get 5G speeds of 500-700.
Yeah iphones that come ready for a particular carrier, whether bought from Apple or the carrier, are initially locked and the unlock has to be requested from the carrier, who will unlock only if it’s fully paid. Better to buy the unlocked sim free version. More so now that in the US you can finance that one using Apple Card.
Don't Americans pay a lot per month, though? The UK contract I had for the last decade cost me about 8 bucks a month with lots of data and it worked in over 100 countries for no extra cost (sadly this deal has now ended). I could afford to buy iPhones up front! When I was in China I had unlimited use for $4 a month...
). I could afford to buy iPhones up front! When I was in China I had unlimited use for $4 a month...
Not necessarily. Sure some postpaid plans like those offered by big 3 cost a lot if a single line, I think the price is ok for what they offer on multi line accounts as they also offer many other benefits like free access to streaming services. Some postpaid carriers often offer free additional lines too.
For a single line then I recommend a prepaid provider like Visible. Unlimited everything for $45 a month.
Only if you buy from the carrier itself. This iPhone launch had a really good trade in promo from some carriers. T-Mobile Magenta Max for example can get around $1000 in trade in credits for an iPhone 13 Pro/Pro Max. This isn’t offered anywhere else.
Apple only locks iPhones bought via AT&T financing.
As someone who used to get by with prepaid for my main SIM I don’t want to go back to the main physical operators in AU anytime soon unless someone else is paying for it. So if I get the new phone this year I’ll have some options.
While perhaps "not expensive" to you you and I, it's still 10x the cost of other countries, and much more than the cost in the overwhelming majority of nations, so competitively it is undeniably expensive, no?
I keep a UK post-paid SIM for when I'm in UK, and pay for SIMs for my elderly parents too. It costs a grand total of £12 a month- about $14 US. Data is only 5GB a SIM for my parents and 12GB for me, but unused allowance rolls over for 18 or 24 months so there's tons available. If I wanted unlimited data use on all three I could pay £12 extra a month on each SIM, so even in that scenario it's much much cheaper.It isn't for heavy use, but it can be a LOT cheaper for light use.
I pay close to $70 per phone and I have 2.
Wow, 20x what you'd pay in lots of places around the globe! You were pointing out how expensive it is, right?
When I travel, buying a prepaid at my destination is a lot less than adding international roaming minutes onto my plan.
I get some with my AT&T but …. It frequently doesn’t cover what is needed.
I was able to keep refreshing the Apple Store Canada pickup availability page Friday morning until I found the model I wanted and paid for it using a US credit card. For some reason, Apple Pay on my iPhone kept giving me a billing address error, but it worked fine using Apple Pay on my Mac with the same credit card. Just drove up today to pick it up and was able to pop in my AT&T Prepaid SIM card right at the Apple Store and do a basic setup to get up and running. I'm already back in the US and about to do a proper restore from my backup. I'm so relieved to have a SIM card slot.
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