Update: I wanna thank everyone for the advice, I’m shipping the bunk phone back for refund today and ive got my eye on a few from swappa and back market for when I get the money to buy.
I’ll probably try out graphene but after looking into crdroid I’m pretty stoked about it having all the customization I’ve been wanting for ages. Which ever feels cleaner to manage and easier for the family to pick up will probably be the go to.
So I fell for the classic blunder and ended up with a pixel that’s not OEM unlocked despite being advertised as such. After a few hours of searching it looks like the only way I’m getting an OEM unlocked pixel is full price from Google itself. I don’t have $400 for a new phone, I bought the one I have for $150 in 2019.
Are there any cheaper ways to get control of my phone?
Why not buy a used Pixel?
That’s what I bought, pixel 7, $150 on amazon but not OEM unlocked. After doing a deep dive on it I’ve found that the only seller on amazon, eBay, and aliexpress that sells one guarantee OEM unlocked is out of stock with no estimated restock. Only other option similar is a refurbished 7a from Google at $350
Return Pixel 7 to Amazon and start looking for used Pixels on Craigslist or FB Marketplace
Or Swappa
USA only, but Swappa is often recommend online. I see a few here listed as unlocked
https://swappa.com/listings/google-pixel-7
I’m looking through swappa and it looks like the unlocked tag is for carriers, how to I verify it’s not going to be a repeat of my current situation?
The international model is
GVU6C, which I believe is the model that is sold directly by Google, which is always unlockable. There are several of those on Swappa.https://www.phonemore.com/models/google/pixel-7/