What to do with older Galaxy S3?

[Charlie98]

Disclaimer: I'm not hip to all the mobile tech, I personally have 0 experience with any other mobile platform besides Apple. Please don't crucify me...

My mom has an old Galaxy S3 16GB phone (off contract, currently unused at the moment) from T-Mobile.

1) I'm wondering if I can use this for my daughter on our ATT plan? (i.e. will the phone even work with AT&T?)

2) Do I have to break the phone first, or will T-Mobile open it up for me?

3) Can I expand the memory?

4) Are there any other glaring issues I should know about?

Thanks! :thumbsup:

 

[Yuriman]

Somebody please correct me on these if I'm wrong, as I've had limited experience using phones on the "wrong" carriers, but here is my understanding:

1) Verizon and Sprint are cross-compatible, and AT&T and T-Mobile are cross compatible - at least to some degree. I think they have different 3G frequencies, but share 4G and basic talk and 2G frequencies. It depends on what radios are available in the phone, but you can very likely activate the T-Mobile phone on AT&T, you just might miss a bit of the coverage in areas where only 3G towers are available.

2) ? You might need to call and have T-Mobile unlock it before you can, but they should do it without question.

3) If it has a microSD card slot, you can put one in. You can't add RAM, and the existing internal storage is not removable.

4) I expect you'll be alright. You'll likely have to spend $150 or more to get a phone that's better than the S3, though you might consider selling it and picking up something else if it's more convenient.

 

[DealODay]

To answer your questions

1) Not all phones work with AT&T, there's many (3 or 4) different versions of the s3,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samsung_Galaxy_S_III as seen in the model varients section

2) I have no idea if they'll give you a fee for that,call them up and ask if there is a fee to unlock and then come back here and ask if there's a cheaper method.

3) 100%, open up the back, it's that little slot near the camera.

4) No, s3 is a great phone but over time the battery does degrade. So if you find it not lasting a whole day, buy a new anker battery (no cheap chinese knockoffs that are potentially dangerous) and you'll basically have a new phone.

 

[Charlie98]

To answer your questions

1) Not all phones work with AT&T, there's many (3 or 4) different versions of the s3,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samsung_Galaxy_S_III as seen in the model varients section

2) I have no idea if they'll give you a fee for that,call them up and ask if there is a fee to unlock and then come back here and ask if there's a cheaper method.

3) 100%, open up the back, it's that little slot near the camera.

4) No, s3 is a great phone but over time the battery does degrade. So if you find it not lasting a whole day, buy a new anker battery (no cheap chinese knockoffs that are potentially dangerous) and you'll basically have a new phone.

Ah! It's a SGH-T999, which corresponds correctly to the wiki chart as referenced.

I'll talk to a T-mobile store and see if I can unlock it, and go from there.

Thanks!

 

[Dulanic]

Ah! It's a SGH-T999, which corresponds correctly to the wiki chart as referenced.

I'll talk to a T-mobile store and see if I can unlock it, and go from there.

Thanks!

Store can't unlock it. Use tmobile chat for the easiest way. Otherwise call them. It takes about a week to get the unlock code.

Also it will work on AT&T with HSPA but no LTE. That is the only restriction for the S3 between carriers.

 

[isekii]

Usually takes less than a week. More like 24 hours atleast that's been the case for me. I've unlocked 20+ phones through t-mobile.

You can do this through the live chat via T-mobile.

 

[LPCTech]

I am still using a GS3 SGH-T999. Its 4 years old and works flawlessly, original battery. I will use it until it stops functioning lol. All my data gets a regular backup. Was and still is a great phone. Durable AF.

 

[Charlie98]

Usually takes less than a week. More like 24 hours atleast that's been the case for me. I've unlocked 20+ phones through t-mobile.

You can do this through the live chat via T-mobile.

Live chat worked, sort of. They responded within 24 hours and said they submitted the request to the manufacturer... and a response generally takes 7-14 DAYS. So we will see. Hopefully Samsung mobile is better than Samsung SSD...