I miss the days when I could walk into a BestBuy or Fry's and pickup a midrange phone for $10-$40. MetroPCS seemed to restart the trend for a while until resellers killed the deal, so what are currently some heap midrange phone deals?
And are there some sales predicted or expected in the next few months?
To set expectations:
I'm looking for "locked" phones that can be unlocked, atleast eventually (worst case being the year wait on MetroPCS).
To me, midrange phones are the Samsung A54, Moto G Stylus 5G 2024 and similar
The current deals on my radar are the:
Samsung A54 for $100 all in from Walmart, probably 60 day wait to unlock
Moto G Stylus 5G 2024 for $100 ($20 + 75) all in from MetroPCS and their yet-to-be-verified unlock in a year
Of course with the Holidays coming soon, there is bound to be some sort of deal then. No clue as to what devices will be discounted though.
Metro might have something better for free (or close to it) with the $75 first month. Interest in Metro seems to have fallen off a cliff as nobody has the patience to wait a full year.
One of the Tracfone brands usually has an Iphone SE discounted during the holiday season. That probably happens again this year. People who participated in the Power offer are hoping Straight Talk has another good deal where a different phone is free with the purchase of a month of service.
The Samsung Galaxy A54 5G requires a bit more research because Total says "Text SAS546VL to 611611 for mobile tutorials" and that seems to match A54 model# SM-A546VL, which isn't on the AT&T whitelist either
What do you think about:
It's on the AT&T whitelist and should work with T-Mobile too
I do not know how strict AT&T or their mvno's are with variants of supported models. Perhaps some mvno's are less strict than others. Not sure.
With Samsung devices, users typically have to make sure the formerly locked phone now has proper region code and firmware version before it works on the new service provider.
I am the wrong person to ask about buying pre-owned phones as I would rather buy a new A35 or Edge 2024 non-plus from Metro and wait a year than buying online somebody's used A54. I did notice from the link that device is locked to Xfinity.
Provided your current device is still functioning, you might just have to wait until there is a phone offered at that price range that also meets your definition of mid-range.
How confident are you that Metro will unlock these phones in a year (assuming you are not paying for service outside the initial mandatory $70 plan)?
What backup plan do you have in-case Metro refuses to unlock these phones in a year saying they need X months of paid service?
Some people have been complaining that the midrange Moto phones from Metro don't unlock and it seems like there are some additional steps you need to perform - are you aware of this? What are those additional steps?
I purchased two phones from Metro last year. Paid for the initial month of service on both. They both were unlocked after a year
I think you're mistaken about your timeline. The earliest reports we will have about the new unlock policy working will be May 1st, 2025 - 8 months from today (2024-09-16)
On May 8th, just after 8 am PST, MetroPCS published:
Any phone that is bought on or after May 1st, 2024 will not be carrier unlocked by T-Mobile for a minimum of 365 days
It's possible your devices were subject to the previous 180 day unlock policy, given that you bought them last year, before the May 1st, 2024 cutoff, which is known to work.
If the written policy of Metro says 1 year after activation, then I have no reason to believe otherwise.
Six months of waiting is about my limit. Maybe if security patches were for 10 years like Windows, I would be more willing to wait a year and take the risk. Instead, most of the Motorola devices are only supported for about 3 years after the phone is released. Not even when the phone was purchased. Certainly not starting at the time the phone unlocks.
Never heard of any additional steps on Motorola midrange phones. What is it? Complain to the FCC??? I am sure there will always be instances where someone's phone fails to unlock as expected.
