Dual Sim US Phone questions.

[monarchco]

Alright, apparently the market still doesn't like dual sim phones.

I thought we had turned a corner when I bought my OnePlus 7 pro. - which I am still using.

 

 

I'm looking for a phone to replace it that ideally has better battery life(than a stock 7 pro), and is less prone to heating up(snapdragon 888 should be a good amount more efficient).

I'm looking at both the Samsung Galaxy S21+, and the Oneplus 9 pro. The OnePlus 9 pro is not dual sim for US market, only euro market. And the S21+ has its esim disabled in the US because reasons. Only euro market is it dual sim.

I like the Sony Xperia 1 iii, but its battery life is too poor imo(although it appears to be currently the only US market flagship phone with dual sim capability).

 

I need to use whatever phone I get with both AT&T and Verizon. Because of the circumstances, this means I have to either get a euro S21+ or a euro onepus 9 pro. I'm not confident in the band lists I'm able to find, and samsung doesn't publish any supported bands on their own website. Oneplus only published bands for the US phone. 

 

Can someone help me figure out if a euro S21+ or Oneplus 9 pro would work with Verizon and AT&T?

[JP!]

Check GSM Arena for the bands, usually they are very detailed.

 

Also, try the Mexican market as it should have a lot of dual SIM phones, but also has common bands with US. Maybe Canada as wel?

 

JP

[monarchco]

18 minutes ago, JP! said:

Check GSM Arena for the bands, usually they are very detailed.

 

Also, try the Mexican market as it should have a lot of dual SIM phones, but also has common bands with US. Maybe Canada as wel?

 

JP

From my understanding, most phones sold in Canada and Mexico are the same regional phones sold in the US.

[JP!]

Canada i don't know that well, but in Mexico most phones sold there are dual SIM.

 

https://www.samsung.com/mx/smartphones/galaxy-s21-5g/specs/

 

https://www.amazon.com.mx/s?k=dual+sim&__mk_es_MX=ÅMÅŽÕÑ&ref=nb_sb_noss_1

 

JP

[monarchco]

54 minutes ago, JP! said:

Canada i don't know that well, but in Mexico most phones sold there are dual SIM.

 

https://www.samsung.com/mx/smartphones/galaxy-s21-5g/specs/

 

https://www.amazon.com.mx/s?k=dual+sim&__mk_es_MX=ÅMÅŽÕÑ&ref=nb_sb_noss_1

 

JP

Firstly, wow wtf are those prices on amazon.

 

Second, I trust samsung about as far as I can throw them. and they're a massive tech company.

They also list the American phone as an esim device, even though its explicitly disabled with no way to enable it even with rooting.

Apparently they've also dont this nonsense with the S20, and note 20 where they list it as dual sim via nanosim+esim, but then have esim completely disabled for US market.

 

 

Based off what I can find the S21 only has 4 skus. North American, Global, Korea, and China. It's possible that Mexico has the global version(sm-g996b/ds), but its also possible that samsung is awful about providing accurate information on their product pages.

 

If it is the global version, than my question still stands.

The global sm-g996b/ds has these bands:

 

So the question becomes:

- How important is B29 and B30 on AT&T? My understanding is that they're only supplementary bandwidth, and never deployed by themselves(so not having these bands wouldn't prevent a connection in certain areas other phones can). (note: b14 is a government reserved band so I dont care about not having it).

- How important is 5g n2 for Verizon? I know of a phone that is 5g verizon certified(so guaranteed to run on their network), but does not have any 2g CDMA support either(xperia 1 iii). That phone however additionally has N2 band.

 

 

My current use case based off the networks where I am, is that I use AT&T for calls, and communications primarily, but use Verizon primarily for data. Occasionally these roles switch depending on location, if verizon has poor signal and AT&T has better.

 

Functionally I want to make sure this phone will work for Verizon and AT&T in my use case.

 

[JP!]

I am not familiar anymore with the bands on the US, i don't even know if CDMA still exists there.

 

Carriers in the US tend to customize and remove features from some phones and sometimes even use different names for the devices, perhaps that's why there is no eSIM, but probably the retail version should have (not sold through carriers). The DS (as in sm-g996b/ds) on Samsung product names/codes stand for Dual SIM, if that helps.

 

Edit:: https://www.androidcentral.com/does-galaxy-s10-support-dual-sim

 

There used to be a couple of sites you could check the frequencies in detail, try this one: https://willmyphonework.net/

 

JP

[Donut417]

16 hours ago, JP! said:

don't even know if CDMA still exists there.

Sadly it does. HOWEVER T Mobile bought Sprint and so their CDMA network will be shut down at some point. Verizon what slated to shut theirs down, but discovered that a lot of devices used it still and they have since decided to not shut it down. 

 

23 hours ago, monarchco said:

How important is B29 and B30 on AT&T? My understanding is that they're only supplementary bandwidth, and never deployed by themselves(so not having these bands wouldn't prevent a connection in certain areas other phones can)

It could be based on area. From my understanding the carriers have to have licenses regionally thru the FCC. Meaning what bands are used, or at least how much of a band is used depends on the local area and the FCC licensee the carrier has for that area. 

[JP!]

Regarding bands, they can be used individually (e.g. in your region it could be only B29) or can be used together (carrier aggregation e.g. your region uses B29 + B30 together).

 

If you are not sure, there is the risk of buying a phone that does not support exactly the band / frequency used by your operator in your region, so you will get no service or only a previous technology (such as 3G). Find out which bands your current phone supports and just get the same bands and you should be fine.

 

If you want to risk or have more than one option, priorotize the lowest frequency available, which if used by your MNO, gives a greater coverage.

 

My guess is the risk is low, except with 5G.

 

JP