I genuinely can’t remember the last carrier phone I had. I get whatever $200 every few years. So far it’s been a Sony, a used pixel, and a Motorola, and I just found out my current Motorola is supported by graphene, so I might see how long I can make it last. It’s honestly perfect, the Sony was/is beautiful but had a slightly wrap around the sides screen making it very sensitive in the way you hold it even with a case.
I worked for a phone manufacturer for a while and got to see firsthand the wild BS that happens with carriers. Primarily how the carrier-branded SKUs consistently provided a much sloppier experience than unlocked. Verizon was pretty bad about it, but Boost Mobile was the absolute worst, loading apps so sketchy that every once in a while Android’s own malicious app removal mechanisms would remove them. One time they preloaded an app that actually caused certain system functionality to not work correctly and we had to start advising people to disable that particular app.
I laughed so hard when the Sprint/T-Mobile merger happened and Boost was propped up to supposedly become national carrier. Looks like they were allowed to fail at that and sell off their radio spectrum and are back to being a MVNO
Yeah this is generally a carrier thing and why people should be buying manufacturer unlocked phones and not directly from the carriers
I genuinely can’t remember the last carrier phone I had. I get whatever $200 every few years. So far it’s been a Sony, a used pixel, and a Motorola, and I just found out my current Motorola is supported by graphene, so I might see how long I can make it last. It’s honestly perfect, the Sony was/is beautiful but had a slightly wrap around the sides screen making it very sensitive in the way you hold it even with a case.
I worked for a phone manufacturer for a while and got to see firsthand the wild BS that happens with carriers. Primarily how the carrier-branded SKUs consistently provided a much sloppier experience than unlocked. Verizon was pretty bad about it, but Boost Mobile was the absolute worst, loading apps so sketchy that every once in a while Android’s own malicious app removal mechanisms would remove them. One time they preloaded an app that actually caused certain system functionality to not work correctly and we had to start advising people to disable that particular app.
I laughed so hard when the Sprint/T-Mobile merger happened and Boost was propped up to supposedly become national carrier. Looks like they were allowed to fail at that and sell off their radio spectrum and are back to being a MVNO