Carrier /Locked /Unlocked?

[pr0230]

Please help me understand!!! Thanks in advance!!!

A thread was started with the title.
Definitive Qualcomm (A1660/A1661) v. Intel (A1778/A1784) iPhone 7/7 Plus Thread

In the discussions people were debating which phones were better ( Verizon/At&T etc...) because of the chipset used for the phone.... Stick with me ... Before this Apple was selling UNLOCKED phones that you could buy and sign up with ANY carrier at a later date... Prior to this I asked how was that possible since in years passed, If you bought a sprint phone you were locked into Sprint with that phone. The answer was that todays phones have both sets of chips... SO My questions are:

Are both sets of chips in the phones? OR can an unlocked chip set do all carriers?
There seems to be a debate over which chip set is better... Sounds like the Verizon chip set is better...
Could I buy an Unlocked Verizon to use on a Sprint network?
So apple WAS selling phones that could be LATER used on ANY carrier. They ARE NOT selling that option at this point... Isn't that a moot issue if the phones are UNLOCKED?

 

[T5BRICK]

Are both sets of chips in the phones?

No. the Verizon/Sprint iPhone 7 has the Qualcomm chip while the AT&T/T-mobile iPhone 7 has the Intel chip.

OR can an unlocked chip set do all carriers?

An unlocked Verizon/Sprint iPhone 7 will work on all four major US carriers, both CDMA and GSM. An unlocked AT&T/T-mobile will work on just the GSM based carriers.

There seems to be a debate over which chip set is better... Sounds like the Verizon chip set is better...
Could I buy an Unlocked Verizon to use on a Sprint network?

If Sprint allows the device on its network, it will work. I don't know what their policies are though. I believe they've relaxed their rules a little recently.

So apple WAS selling phones that could be LATER used on ANY carrier. They ARE NOT selling that option at this point... Isn't that a moot issue if the phones are UNLOCKED?

Basically. It's very likely that Apple will start selling a new "sim free" iPhone that is actually just the Verizon/Sprint model.