Cricket Wireless stores

[Bruinator]

Has anyone bought a phone from one of there stores? If yes, what is your opinion of it? For instance, I bought a phone from amazon, which came in a cricket box, to see if I would like it. Is there any difference in quality buying it from the store or is it the same. Brand is LG.

[Marujan]

same

[goretsky Supervisor]

Hello,

 

Usually a phone that is bought from a carrier like Cricket Wireless, or their parent company AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, etc. has apps from the carrier pre-installed on it.  There might also be some default settings which are different, like having the carrier's home page for the web browser and so forth.  Sometimes a device may have a different amount of memory or storage, too, but that goes for models that are sold online, too.

 

Regards,

 

Aryeh Goretsky

 

[PGHammer]

On 2/18/2019 at 2:50 AM, goretsky said:

Hello,

 

Usually a phone that is bought from a carrier like Cricket Wireless, or their parent company AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, etc. has apps from the carrier pre-installed on it.  There might also be some default settings which are different, like having the carrier's home page for the web browser and so forth.  Sometimes a device may have a different amount of memory or storage, too, but that goes for models that are sold online, too.

 

Regards,

 

Aryeh Goretsky

 

True indeed, Aryeh - something which I rediscovered with the current trend toward SoCs (which started years ago - and with Qualcomm).   One of the earliest Android phones was the original Galaxy Nexus, which shipped in multiple varieties - with each one aimed at a specific carrrier's network.  I myself had the toro version, which was aimed at Verizon's network.  As a result, I could NOT use a ROM developed for non-toro Nexus phones - with one exception - I COULD use ROMs that were developed around the "tuna" spec - "tuna" was a generic specification that worked on all Galaxy Nexus phones, not just one.  Still, tuna could not take advantage of specific features unique to each specification..  Not fun for developers, and not fun for phone OEMs, either.  Therefore, what if the ONLY differences were in the firmware - not the hardware?  Enter the generic SoC - and, naturally, one of the earliest such came from Qualcomm.  Even today, Qualcomm is the largest supplier of generic SoCs in the Android - and non-Android, incidentally - marketplaces - though they are far from the only one.  My S7 is driven by the Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset - a generic SoC.  It is hardly unique - even the S7 has an alternative SoC option itself - from Samsung - the Exnyos SoC.  Since the S7, the two SoC brands have done battle - Qualcomm in North America, and Exnyos everywhere else.  (While you can GET Exnyos-driven Samsung phones in the United States - Amazon in partcular is the largest source of them - they are NOT covered by US warranties.)

 

As I pointed out above, my S7 is driven by the Qualcomm Snapdragon generic SoC.  My S7 has another feature - Verizon branding - literally - all over the phone - including the original firmware.  If the phone was blown off the original contract, the IMEI gets blacklisted - it's called being "network locked", and you can't take it back to that carrier.  So I'm screwed, right?  Surprisingly, no - what I need is a SIM from another carrier - even an MVNO works, as long as I use a SIM from a network OTHER than the one that locked out the IMEI.  I had my Galaxy Nexus at the time, and I had service with the Safelink Wireless division of Tracfone, the largest MVNO in all of North America - and I did NOT want to leave.  Fortunately, I didn't have to - Tracfone - and thus Safelink - uses TWO carrier networks; Verizon being one (and where I was at the time) and T-Mobile being the other.  What I needed was a SIM for T-Mobile's network to match my new phone - which was an order away.  Porting the phone number itself - from Verizon's half of the Safelink/Tracfone network to the T-Mobile half - was doable online and cost exactly squat.  Service since then has been problem-free, along with gaining several benefits due to the carrier switch (such as Voice over Wi-Fi).

I can now purchase a new (unlocked OR T-Mobile-branded) phone; migration itself will be a yawn (the reason I can buy a T-Mobile phone is because I am using T-Mo's network, despite being on an MVNO) - the one reason it is unlikely that I would is because I am with an MVNO, and thus it would be easier for ME to handle my own migration, as opposed to having to worry about it being fumbled by the sales folks - which DOES happen all too often.

Edited February 23, 2019 by PGHammer
accidental early-exit from orignial posting