T-mobile Galaxy SIII - 198$ Walmart| 390$ Costco w/ Value Plan| YMMV

does anyone know if walmart sell the upgrade/no-contract? or is it only available via t-mobile?

can't find it in stores yet.

Quote from roadrun777 : Was that with a contract or off contract? Was the phone carrier locked? Does it have a locked boot-loader? Do you remember the specs on it? Have any pictures of it? The reason I ask is they made so many variations of the Galaxy II that you could buy four different phones that are supposed to be the same phone but each one would have differences in hardware and even be made in different countries. If I was going to pay straight cash for a phone I would expect it to be carrier free, sim unlocked, and boot loader unlocked (or at least unlockable without a hack). Otherwise you get a phone that is a $300 paper weight and is locked to one carrier.

OP clearly stated that it's a T-mobile phone. If you want it unlocked take it to a Tmo store and they'll unlock it for you as long as its not on contract. Unlocked bootloader? I've yet to see a phone come that way that wasn't meant for devs. All your other questions can be answered with a simple google search. For what you want, you should probably just buy a GNex from Google.

Quote from jufluco : You mean 280AR But yea... The point is valid.

there was a local shop that sells it here for 330 with a 50$ mail in rebate its 330 + taxes out the door.

Quote from Technosquid : Dear Samsung, There are too many cores nowadays. Please eliminate three. P. S. I am not a crackpot.

I disagree. You're trying to get Samsung to put negative one cores in their phones :p

(The US versions of the SGS3 run on a dual core S4 Snapdragon processor, which is Cortex A15 based, while the international ones run on a Cortex A9 based quad core Exynos processor)

Quote from tspx23 : there was a local shop that sells it here for 330 with a 50$ mail in rebate its 330 + taxes out the door.

so.. 280AR.. I am not seeing where you are trying to take this party

This always tends to back fire in my face but i'll go ahead and just say it anyways
Folks please stop asking if its contract or no contract, lets get real here, this is a $400-$600 phone walmart will not be selling this phone for $198 with no contract thats just rediculous.
Please stop asking.

doublepost

Quote from PennStateFan : What was the ETF (if any)? Does Walmart have their own ETF?

First off sorry for conufsion, thread is about the S3.


ETF is 200 dollars so essentially you could walk out with an S3 for 198$ + tax + 200$ ETF about 420ish for a brand new S3.

Downside is that you didn't fulfill the contract so T-mobile reserves the right to blacklist your phone making it unusable on T-mobiles network. This is very very rare, but it does happen. You can always unlock it and use it on ATT or Straight Talk in that case.

Quote from roadrun777 : Was that with a contract or off contract? Was the phone carrier locked? Does it have a locked boot-loader? Do you remember the specs on it? Have any pictures of it? The reason I ask is they made so many variations of the Galaxy II that you could buy four different phones that are supposed to be the same phone but each one would have differences in hardware and even be made in different countries. If I was going to pay straight cash for a phone I would expect it to be carrier free, sim unlocked, and boot loader unlocked (or at least unlockable without a hack). Otherwise you get a phone that is a $300 paper weight and is locked to one carrier.

I don't think that is quite true... The Verizon version will theoretically work on only Verizon. Sprint version will only work on Sprint, though both are CDMA and LTE.

The AT&T, T-Mobile, and the international version will theoretically work on any network with a SIM.

I chose the T-Mo S II since it was the most capable of the three SIM versions, but I could use any of the three on T-MO.

This is before putting on a custom ROM.

These phones probably cost the companies something between $300 and $400. They either will give you the phone for a deal and subsidize the rest on a contract, or without the subsidy, you can expect to pay close to full retail for any of them as the carrier isn't covering part of the cost.

They only way for Wally World or anyone else to sell a $650 phone is to do so near retail or subsidized or a mistake, but otherwise wishing for a sub-$500 unlocked is not practical.

All Wal-Mart phone deals are B&M only. The online version is serviced by LetsTalk.

Quote from testshoot : I don't think that is quite true... The Verizon version will theoretically work on only Verizon. Sprint version will only work on Sprint, though both are CDMA and LTE. The AT&T, T-Mobile, and the international version will theoretically work on any network with a SIM.

All US Galaxy S3's have micro sim cards so theoretically once the source releases you can flash any version to work with any carrier.

Verizon Droid 3/Razr all work with GSM

Quote from tienvu18 : Called Portland, OR walmart looks like they have the same deal, the one i called only had the blue one though

does it require to sign a contract?

I'd like to give non iPhones a try but there are just soooo many similar phones from Samsung alone! it's really confusing. Any of them standout at a price similar to iphone?

Quote from nguyenvanhiep : I'd like to give non iPhones a try but there are just soooo many similar phones from Samsung alone! it's really confusing. Any of them standout at a price similar to iphone?

So you want an overly expensive phone? All joking aside, the contenders in android right now is the Samsung Galaxy SIII and the HTC One X. You can also get the Galaxy Nexus for $400 but it is slightly older.