Whatever partnership Samsung has with Verizon, please stop. Verizon adds so much bloatware to the phone—Verizon Cloud, Verizon call filter—and there is a Verizon logo when starting the phone. I know "just switch carriers" is a fair suggestion, and the worst part is that I know Samsung already has those features, but I cannot use them because Verizon will not allow it
All phone manufacturers sell locked and unlocked devices. Locked devices often have bloatware and carrier-specific features. For example, Verizon has its own video calling features that work only with other Verizon devices. I only buy unlocked devices, then put in a Verizon SIM and just use the Samsung features. I recommend always buying unlocked devices to avoid this.
You have the option to a) switch carriers or b) buy and unlocked phone. If you buy a carrier branded phone, you get carrier branded bloatware and restrictions. You can keep Verizon as a carrier if you like them so much (why?) even if you buy an unlocked phone. I presume you buy a carrier locked phone from Verizon because of the discounts, payment options or even "free" device. That is the tradeoff you make. You can get a good deal on unlocked devices direct from Samsung, or during major sales from retailers (Black Friday, Cyber Monday, etc.,) or by buying last year's model. You don't even have to buy a flagship S series, you can buy the very functional A series. Bottom line is don't blame Samsung for Verizon's policies and don't buy carrier locked phones.
I would agree with the posters above, Unlocked devices are the best way to avoid the carrier bloatware. Sadly software restrictions will be added to unlocked devices when a Sim is "provisioning the device". Sometimes just changing carriers will not be enough to remove the carrier bloatware on the device, if it is listed as a system app or something to that effect.
On a weird side not, I had to get a best buy TV employee involved when I bought my S25 Ultra Factory unlocked, as the only people manning the phone section were AT&T employees, and as soon as I mentioned that I wanted Factory Unlocked, they said they cant help me. Not sure why Best Buy would only staff this department with salespeople for 1 specific carrier, as Best Buy does not care which carrier you use, but I bet that salesperson would have pressured me into changing to AT&T if it was not already my carrier. I left Best Buy with a Factory sealed Factory unlocked device, which I then had to take to a AT&T store to get activated (I could have activated this from home, but I did not know that at the time)
Just FYI, you don't need to go to the carrier to activate your phone if you already have a carrier's SIM. Just pop your SIM from your old phone into your new one and you are good to go. You might get a text from your carrier asking you to verify you changed phones.
