Buying the US variant of the Samsung Galazy s7 for use in the UK

[Anonymous]

Hi guys,

As the titles states, I'm looking to buy the US variant of the Samsung Galaxy S7. This is because only the US variant has the Qualcomm Snapdragon SoC which is easier to develop roms for. The UK version has the exynos which is closed source and receives hardly any development.

If I were to buy the US version, would it work here in the UK with a uk o2 sim card?

Thanks

[Cleoriff]

I will ask @MI5 to answer this question...

[jonsie · Accepted solution]

Specs here :

Global Network

LTE (Global) B3, B7, B20; GSM Quad B5, B8, B3, B2 (850/900/1800/1900Mhz) UMTS Quad B5, B8, B2, B1 (850, 900, 1900, 2100 MHz); TDS CDMA 34, 39 TDD LTE 38, 39, 40, CAT 4 / CAT 6 / (CAT 9 capable)

From those it would appear not.

[Bambino]

If it's a GSM phone it will work here, but be advised that if you buy a US version, you will not have a warranty for the phone in the UK. Samsung warranties are country specific.

[MI5]

If the above is correct spec for the US phone, yes it will.

[viridis]

B20, it will work.

BTW, our social media person thing @Chris_K told us that Samsung had told him that it was sd820 inside UK models?
I've tagged him to see if he can confirm.

[Anonymous]

One person says yes, one says no! I'm so confused. Also, I have no idea where to begin on which phone to buy as there are different celluar versions e.g verizon, sprint, tmob etc.

Jesus why couldn't they just release one global variant!

I don't know if the above is true, or what any of it means. Jonsie where did you get those details from? Also, is there any downside besides warranty to using the US version here?

[MI5]

Your other, more important issue, is that they will be carrier locked and some US networks are CDMA, not GSM and they certainly won't work.

[jonsie]

The specs were from the Verizon page

http://www.verizonwireless.com/smartphones/samsung-galaxy-s7/?cmp%3DKNC-C-HQ-NON-R-AC-NONE-NONE-2K0P...

If the guys say it will work ok then I stand corrected and go with that.

[viridis]

There will be a few different us models due to the different wireless systems over there, op needs to find the model (normally ending in A,C or T if like note 5) that supports band 20 for lte.

Here is the discussion from Chris regarding cpu
http://community.o2.co.uk/t5/Welcome-News/The-Next-Galaxy-Unveiled-21st-Feb/td-p/944915/highlight/tr...