How to Buy a Smartphone: Buying an Unlocked Phone

Buying a smartphone from a third party site like Swappa or Amazon can save you quite a few dollars, especially if you buy it used or refurbished. Also, big box retailers like Best Buy sometimes offer deep discounts on new handsets you may not be able to score by going direct through the carrier. But keep in mind, not all smartphones you buy from third parties will work on just any carrier.

This brings up the issue of compatibility, and the discussion of the differences between GSM and CDMA. T-Mobile and AT&T utilize GSM technology for their handsets, while Verizon and Sprint use CDMA. The practical difference for users used to boil down to the fact that GSM smartphones came with removable SIM cards that could be swapped out to work with other services, whereas CDMA smartphones typically had no SIM cards, with user data stored with the carrier.

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