What does fully unlocked mean?
It looks like it could mean everything is unlocked but the bootloader. Is that it?
It’s pretty clear in the features:
The listing regarding the bootloader is NOT clear because EVERY phone in the US is sold with a locked bootloader. (Most are carrier locked which is a completely separate discussion and they are unlockable by the seller/ carrier to work on other networks.) The reason the question keeps coming up regarding bootloader unlocks is that there are two versions of each Pixel phone made. The first is produced for Google website sales and is relatively easy to bootloader unlock. The second model is produced with a different bootloader firmware for the US cellular carriers, which come with the bootloader locked but are unlockable in some very specific cases. Unlocking the bootloader increase the value of the phone because you can load third-party firmware that will greatly extend the life of the phone to allow security updates far into the future. This is why selling Pixel phones in mixed sets is probably yielding lots of returns. On the whole they can be identified by the first two numbers of the IMEI. To my knowledge, the Google models’ IMEIs start with a 99 and are much more useful phones which is what people are trying to find and should be sold in separate listings.
Yes, we understand the difference in Pixel models. We’ve been trying to be clear when the bootloader is unlocked and when it’s not. If it’s a mixed lot, we will err on the side of caution and say the bootloader is not locked.
We clearly state on this listing that the bootloader IS locked.
Assuming these are like the ones from the prior S&D Pixel 3 lot, I can confirm the bootloader is indeed locked. Also, the phone works with Metro by T-Mobile if anyone needs to know.
Can anyone that bought one of these comment on how dinged and scratched the units are? I wouldn’t mind light scratches but wouldn’t want any deep scratches or literal dents.
But like the other person has stated you aren’t really answering peoples question. We know the bootloader is locked but the ones from Google that aren’t Verizon or us cell variants can be easily UNLOCKED. SO when you say the phone is unlocked to work on any carrier but the bootloader is locked, that’s not really answering the question these people are asking. There are 2 models one is easily unlocked and one isn’t unlockable or easy to. So anyways moral of the story if you want a Pixel that you can unlock its safer to just try to find one new from google or from a seller that can answer the question.