iPhone XR iPhone XR T-Mobile vs Sim Free

[Prinzmetal]

Hey guys,

I live in Europe and really want to get my hands on an iPhone XR, but the prices here are catastrophically more than the prices in the US apple store. I have a friend who’s in the US for a few more weeks, but probably the unlocked XR version won’t be out by the time she leaves, so I was wondering if I could send her money to buy a T-Mobile version, which claims to be unlocked if paid fully in advance. I know in the past carrier models used to differ with simfree ones (bands and that stuff), but if I can trust a source I found online (which I can’t seem to find anymore), the T-Mobile and Simfree models are exactly the same so that shouldn’t be a problem now, right?

Also, can this be done only online or in-store too?

I’ll take any advice on whether this trick will actually work to save me a lot of money and still have a fully functioning, unlocked phone Thanks in advance!

 

[gurase]

I personally ordered the Verizon model online from Apple. It’s unlocked. I was able to order it without a Verizon account. Any model should be unlocked if you pay full price, but I have seen some cases with AT&T models on Reddit where people still needed to request an unlock from AT&T.

Online would probably be easiest since some Apple Store employees aren’t aware that paying full price means an unlocked phone.

 

[Prinzmetal]

I personally ordered the Verizon model online from Apple. It’s unlocked. I was able to order it without a Verizon account. Any model should be unlocked if you pay full price, but I have seen some cases with AT&T models on Reddit where people still needed to request an unlock from AT&T.

Online would probably be easiest since some Apple Store employees aren’t aware that paying full price means an unlocked phone.

Thanks for the reply. Apple store makes it clear that the phone will work on other US carriers, but I wish someone could confirm about outside US too.

I noticed that there are different US and European models, but the main difference seems to be the lack of 28th LTE band. So worst case scenario is that somewhere I won’t be able to use LTE and will resort to 3G, right? The countries I most frequently visit don’t use this 28th band according to google.

Incidentally, I read some bad reviews about Verizon too. T-Mobile seems to be the safest option I think.

 

[Prinzmetal]

Gonna try to bump this thread. Apologies if this is against the forum rules.

 

[4492865]

So far, T-Mobile version has always worked for me