How to Buy an Unlocked Samsung Galaxy S7 in the US

Samsung's Galaxy S7 Edge is, overall, our favorite mobile phone in America today; the smaller Galaxy S7 has been my personal phone of choice for a while now. But Samsung made a pair of good phones even better recently by announcing factory-unlocked versions of the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge, designed for all four major U.S. networks.

These special unlocked versions are the only Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge devices to include the right frequencies and technologies for all of the US networks.

But because unlocked Samsung Galaxy S7 phones have been so in demand, there are a lot of gray-market, European or Asian models floating around. These lack some of the US frequency bands, which means they won't be at their best on our networks. It can be very hard to tell which model to get. Even Samsung buries the units on its own website, making them hard to find.

The key is to look for the model numbers SM-G930U (for the S7) or SM-G935U (for the Edge). That "U" is very important. You'll see a lot of phones with model numbers like 930F or 930A. Those are not the factory unlocked US model. You need the "U" at the end.

Here are some direct links for how to buy these unlocked phones online. Unlike many of our comment spammers, I'm not writing this piece as an affiliate marketing strategy. I'm writing it because the retailers are making it unnecessarily difficult to buy these phones. Our automated commerce link engine can't seem to figure out how to link you to the right ones, either. It's a mess.

The Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge have one major down side: shorn of their carrier payment plans, they're really expensive at $660 and $760, respectively. Fortunately, there are some very good less expensive unlocked phones out there, too. Our list of the Best Unlocked Phones offers options down to $149.99.

If you don't understand why unlocked phones are important, they're safer, more secure, more flexible, and have a higher resale value than carrier-locked models. Learn more in The Case for Unlocked Phones.

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