Outside the US? Then you’ll be getting worse versions of the Google Pixel 8 and iPhone 15

stopthatgirl7@kbin.social to Technology@lemmy.world – 33 points – Outside the US? Then you’ll be getting worse versions of the Google Pixel 8 and iPhone 15
techradar.com

An unequal approach

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The missing features are software based. They’re not selling inferior phones. The article even mentions that getting this to work in other countries involves different issues such as regulation and legality of the features. This really is not new.

And sometimes missing "features" are a good thing. Like when you see people complaining about annoying ads on monitors / system apps, etc. in the US but not elsewhere

There were examples when the same phone was released with different hardware in different regions, but it's not mentioned in the article...

E.g. in 2022, Samsung S22 European version had Exynos 2200 SOC, while in other regions it had Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, IIRC there were some performance differences between them.

Hasn't Samsung done that for a while?

For S23 there is only one Worldwide version with Snapdragon. They had separate versions since S7.

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It's been a common thing for years from all major phone manufacturers, as far as I know. It was the reason I careful when buying a One Plus 7 Pro back in the day.

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Ehh. For iPhone you are only missing out on “Live Voicemail”. I can’t remember the last time I even got a voicemail so don’t think I’m missing much

I get 5 Chinese spam calls a day… since turning on live voicemail they’ve mostly stopped, and the ones that make it through get deleted without me listening to them.

I LOVE the feature.

It happens on device before your carrier. So you don't have to pay for voicemail. Big unexpected surprise for me (as I don't have vm). Otherwise it's on the fly and instant. Thought I wouldn't care but sending unknow callers there is slick.

Do carriers still charge for voicemail?

Yes. Often an add on. In Canada, it's especially the case with koodo (telus' "discount" brand) or lum (sasktel's).

E.g., https://www.koodomobile.com/en/rate-plans

Pick 1 FREE Perk (available in Self Serve) Premium Voicemail Unlimited International SMS (from Canada) Rollover Data

Where the roll over data is the much better choice that would hurt to give up for roll over data

This isn't a thing on any carrier I've personally used (in the US). Voicemail is just expected. Visual voicemail, however, is a paid feature.

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