Newbie Confusion about Unlocked Phones

[tafkam88]

Hello everyone, I wanted to start out by saying that I did search for my answer but the ones about unlocked phones that I saw did not dumb it down enough for me.....

I have a few questions and I hope someone here can give me some advice as I am very confused about the whole locked/unlocked phone issue. I want to purchase an Android smartphone and use it as a prepaid phone kind of like I did with my old TracFone, I really liked NOT getting any kind of bill once a month.

 

[aysiu]

Are you talking about an unlocked bootloader or an unlocked SIM card?

 

[Crashdamage]

He's clearly talking about unlocking the phone from the carrier not unlocking the bootloader.

OP, if you buy the phone from T-Mobile like they said they will unlock it after a short time so you can use it on another GSM carrier like AT&T.

But keep in mind that (with a few exceptions) you need a T-Mobile phone to use 3G/4G on T-Mobile or AT&T phone to use 3G/4G on AT&T, etc. Mix them and you only get 2G data speeds. Functionality as a phone is fine.

 

[tafkam88]

Thanks for the info I guess the safe bet would be to get a t mobile phone as that is who I will go with; I may switch to wal mart mobile but they use t mob network also. So no advantage to getting unlocked phone to start? I do not travel outside USA and I do not like at&t as a company if that makes a difference

 

[Crashdamage]

I've read and read and read and read, and am now only marginally less confused than before I started, so any help with how to proceed (from someone who has experience) will be very much appreciated.

What exactly do you need help with?