Every phone I’ve ever bought in the past I’ve bought from Verizon store and the cost is always egregiouy extortionate. I know there is a less expensive way. Please tell me.
How to be sure the second-hand phone is in good shape & functional & legal & not stolen/ resold by criminals etc?
Update: Thanks y’all! I made my selection & purchase through Swappa. You made a girl happy today.
A number of my friends have used Swappa with success. They seem to have a competent return policy and most sellers include a checklist of quality steps they look for. All listings have a top level quality grade you can filter by.
They do seem to be a little higher price than what you can find on eBay or Craigslist, but require less “digging” to find a good phone.
In the US Bestbuy sells their returns as open box and if your local store has any you can usually check out the exact item you plan to buy in store.
Another option, though the most expensive, is to go with a manufacture’s own refurbished units. Both Apple and Google list refurbs for a couple percent off directly on their websites.
You said everything I came here to say, so I’m just seconding your recommendations.
Can you tell me what a locked phone is versus an unlocked phone? What happens if somebody buys a locked phone? What functionalities would be limited?
And why do people sell locked phones? How did they become locked? How can phones be unlocked?
Sure! “Locked” means that it has to be activated on and can only be used with a specific carrier network. Back in the day almost all phones were sold by and locked to the carrier, and usually paid off as part of your phone plan, the idea being to lock YOU in to the carrier by making you buy a whole new device to switch networks. That might sound anticompetitive… 😶
Now, phones can be unlocked to work on different networks even if they were bought locked, and it can be really easy online, or a bit of a process depending on the carrier.
My recommendation would be to go unlocked. It’s just less of a headache.
Thank you. On swappa they do not specify whether a phone is locked or unlocked* but they do provide a warning that if a phone is locked it cannot be unlocked. 🤔 I’m a bit leery of this. What do you suppose that’s all about?
But when I browse their “unlocked” category first they say it can be activated by any carrier, then read further down it says it can only be activated by three carriers: “unlocked” (is that even the name of a carrier?) or “cricket” or some other carrier I’ve never heard of. If I buy a phone from their “unlocked” category but it says it can only be unlocked by cricket or whatever, could T-Mobile not unlock it for me? I am a T-Mobile customer.
https://swappa.com/faq/devices/unlocked-device
This has most of the information you’re looking for. As it says, an unlocked US phone might not be compatible with a foreign carrier (like if you go to another country) because not all carriers use the same “radio band frequencies” for carrying their phone signals. Phones don’t just have one radio in them - there are loads, at least a dozen, to handle different frequency bands. If your phone doesnt have the right radio to pick up/transmit in a carrier’s frequency band, it won’t work with that carrier - it doesn’t have the right hardware.
Locking meanwhile is a software thing, and that can be undone in most cases. Swappa does specify if the phone is unlocked, that’s what those categories are. “Unlocked” is all unlocked phones. The phones you see here, for example, will work with any US carrier: https://swappa.com/listings/google-pixel-9?carrier=unlocked
(And you can put GrapheneOS on it, but I’m just a graphene fanboy daily driving it for several years now so don’t mind me 😂)
Edit: Cricket Wireless is an “MVNO” or “Mobile Virtual Network Operator”. They buy airtime on networks owned by other companies like T-Mobile at wholesale prices, and re-sell the service as their own. You save money on your plan, but if there’s network congestion it’s always the MVNO customers who get slowed down/booted off first.
Swappa looks good thank you and I’m narrowing down my selections now but first can you please ELI5 the difference between a “locked” phone and an “unlocked” phone, some of them specifically say they’re unlocked but the other ones don’t specify, and if I buy a locked phone then it can’t be unlocked? What does that mean, if it’s locked I can’t get service to it? Please explain if you have a moment.
Locked means you can only use it on one specific carrier like only ATT or only T-Mobile. They should specify which network it’ll work with. Unlocked means it’ll work on any carrier (assuming the phone has the physical antenna for that networks broadcast frequency).
It is possible to unlock a phone, but there’s normally a waiting period which can be quite long. The process, fees, and eligibility to unlock will depend on your jurisdiction.
You probably want an unlocked phone.