I've ordered an unlocked S23 ultra but am being warned on various Google fora that it's "tuned" to US bands and won't work with a foreign sim in a foreign country when I travel (which I do regularly for work). The connection is much better with a local sim. I checked with Samsung tech support and they told me not to worry, but some people are adamant that my new phone won't work abroad. Does anyone have relevant experience or knowledge? Thanks
No issues in the UK, the EU, and Aus. India seems to be the most hit and miss but that's due to regional carriers and no national provider. I have never had any issues in Canada either with my US purchased s23 Ultra.
Thanks to all. I'm the person who originally asked the question. I've had my new S23 Ultra for 3 months and been to about 6 countries since then. The phone worked perfectly in each, with the exception of Japan where I'm pretty sure it was a local service provider issue with my T-mobile roaming service - just could not get internet. I conclude that, notwithstanding the long post from KiwiBird above (note, I'm using a phone purchased from Samsung in the USA, and a T-Mobile sim), this issue with incompatibility was just fake news.
How easy is it to swap out the SIM card? Not the physical part, but the setup once I change it. have an S22 so on a T-Mobile network in the US. Also can you still us your local number or do you need to swap the sim back and forth. I am traveling to Hungary and Romania and the esims are inconsistent in their reviews. Thank you.
@Members_OvkeADn Have you looked into T-Mobile's international plans? They seem to be very reasonable and would allow you to use your normal phone number.
If you swap out your SIM for a foreign SIM, you won't have access to your US number until the US SIM is reinstalled. All of your contacts will need to call/message you by using your overseas number. When you call/message someone, they will see that it comes from that overseas number.
I use a local Sim here in Singapore and a T-mobile e-Sim - both are active and I have the global access thing with T-mobile. I use my US number for most contacts. It works fine as you suggest.
May be a bit late to answer but this was one of my concerns. I just got a sealed S24 U from USA and inserted a Costa Rica SIM card, it works just fine on 4G, no 5G here yet. So it is not region locked to USA. No 5 min call on USA SIM before unlocking or any of that.
