See title. I’ve heard that the S23 and S24 have region locking for international SIM/eSIMs, is this true? (ie: SIM refuses to work because of software lock)
Almost every phone have region blocking
Why?
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Celltower channels used on 3G, 4G and 5G communications vary slightly country to country. That’s why some imported cellphones signals don’t work out of the box (until they are configured, if they can be. If not, basically no cell tower communication. You can still use wifi tho)
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Vendor promotions and warranties. As you pointed out, SIM/eSIM are locked to a certain vendor CARRIER. Thankfully, Any phone can be unlocked out of this with the right tools.
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Application/feature restrictions (eg TikTok and what not)
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Samsung was caught disabling phones in Mexico because people were buying phones from other regions where they were cheaper.
https://www.sammobile.com/news/mexican-government-asks-samsung-not-block-phones-imported-illegally/