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Short answer yes.
The longer answer has to deal with the way that our cellular networks are set up. Most people “rent to own” their phones here and usually trade in their phone long before they get to the owning part.
Contracts are set up so you can get discounts, but only if you stay with the carrier for 2-3 years. The discounts are given as monthly credit towards your bill and if you pay off the phone early you forfeit all future credit.
This system allows for carriers to sell more expensive phones at rates that, while not low, most people will stomach. Phone manufacturers avoid selling good budget phones here and I think that’s a big part of the reason. Why sell a budget phone when you can probably convince someone to finance a flagship?
Now, as an enthusiast aware of other budget phones you might think importing might be an option, but that unfortunately isn’t the case. A couple years ago all the carriers here switched off using the 3G network for phone calls and instead we use Voice Over LTE (VoLTE). This new system requires cellular carriers to explicitly support phones/models for them to be able to make traditional phone calls. These support lists are not public and make it incredibly difficult to tell if a phone not sold by the carrier will function on their network. Gone are the days were you can just check the bands the phone supports and pop in a sim.
This got a bit long and probably was more me ranting than actually explaining anything, but I hope someone finds it at least a little bit informative
Yikes, I knew your systems were different, but holy hell I didn't expect all that. VoLTE is part of the GSM standards, how'd the USA carriers make it work like a proprietary system?
No clue, all I know is imported phones don’t always work, it varies from carrier to carrier, and the only way to check is with the IMEI