How to Buy an Unlocked Samsung Galaxy S7 in the US

Samsung's Galaxy S7 Edge is, overall, our favorite mobile phone in America today; the smaller Galaxy S7 has been my personal phone of choice for a while now. But Samsung made a pair of good phones even better recently by announcing factory-unlocked versions of the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge, designed for all four major U.S. networks.

These special unlocked versions are the only Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge devices to include the right frequencies and technologies for all of the US networks.

But because unlocked Samsung Galaxy S7 phones have been so in demand, there are a lot of gray-market, European or Asian models floating around. These lack some of the US frequency bands, which means they won't be at their best on our networks. It can be very hard to tell which model to get. Even Samsung buries the units on its own website, making them hard to find.

The key is to look for the model numbers SM-G930U (for the S7) or SM-G935U (for the Edge). That "U" is very important. You'll see a lot of phones with model numbers like 930F or 930A. Those are not the factory unlocked US model. You need the "U" at the end.

Here are some direct links for how to buy these unlocked phones online. Unlike many of our comment spammers, I'm not writing this piece as an affiliate marketing strategy. I'm writing it because the retailers are making it unnecessarily difficult to buy these phones. Our automated commerce link engine can't seem to figure out how to link you to the right ones, either. It's a mess.

The Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge have one major down side: shorn of their carrier payment plans, they're really expensive at $660 and $760, respectively. Fortunately, there are some very good less expensive unlocked phones out there, too. Our list of the Best Unlocked Phones offers options down to $149.99.

If you don't understand why unlocked phones are important, they're safer, more secure, more flexible, and have a higher resale value than carrier-locked models. Learn more in The Case for Unlocked Phones.

About Our Expert

Sascha Segan

Former Lead Analyst, Mobile

My Experience

I'm that 5G guy. I've actually been here for every "G." I reviewed well over a thousand products during 18 years working full-time at PCMag.com, including every generation of the iPhone and the Samsung Galaxy S. I also wrote a weekly newsletter, Fully Mobilized, where I obsessed about phones and networks.

My Areas of Expertise

US and Canadian mobile networks
Mobile phones released in the US
iPads, Android tablets, and ebook readers
Mobile hotspots
Big data features such as Fastest Mobile Networks and Best Work-From-Home Cities

The Technology I Use

Being cross-platform is critical for someone in my position. In the US, the mobile world is split pretty cleanly between iOS and Android. So I think it's really important to have Apple, Android and Windows devices all in my daily orbit.

I use a Lenovo ThinkPad Carbon X1 for work and a 2021 Apple MacBook Pro for personal use. My current phone is a Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra, although I'm probably going to move to an Android foldable. Most of my writing is either in Microsoft OneNote or a free notepad app called Notepad++. Number crunching, which I do often for those big data stories, is via Microsoft Excel, DataGrip for MySQL, and Tableau.

In terms of apps and cloud services, I use both Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive heavily, although I also have iCloud because of the three Macs and three iPads in our house. I subscribe to way too many streaming services.

My primary tablet is a 12.9-inch, 2020-model Apple iPad Pro. When I want to read a book, I've got a 2018-model flat-front Amazon Kindle Paperwhite. My home smart speakers run Google Home, and I watch a TCL Roku TV. And Verizon Fios keeps me connected at home.

My first computer was an Atari 800 and my first cell phone was a Qualcomm Thin Phone. I still have very fond feelings about both of them.

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