Used the Samsung method to swap phones. About 100 GB of data. I used the cable method. Swapped my SIM. Took about a day for that process to finish and the phone to settle down.
Quick review:
- The phone came in an AT&T box with the SKU of S926U. I panicked and messaged the seller since the listing said S926U1, which is the factory unlocked variable (no carrier branding/bloat). He said he flashed the U1 firmware on there. Didn't expect that response. But good news: everything he said seems to be correct. It comes up as a U1 and has zero AT&T splash screens or app/bloat. And Mint works fine (it wouldn't if it was locked to AT&T).
- It does appear to be completely unused and is mint.
- I like the 6.7" form factor. I missed having a larger phone back from when I had my Nokia 1520.
- The S24 regular has sort of the same design as my old S21 but the S24+ has flat sides with more rounded edges. I don't remember if the S21+ was like this but this thing feels and looks way more premium. Quite pleased with the industrial design.
- Everything is faster, as I was hoping and expecting.
- Android Auto is different on Android 16 and I already found a bug where it doesn't show the cell signal. Sigh.
- I had to sign into all my apps. Seems like if I used the Samsung password manager this would have been easier. But I use MS, which only works via the browser. I have to manually go get the passwords but that's not that bad anyway.
- I saw this online but it defaults to FHD+ instead of the max QHD+. QHD+ would be 513 ppi which is COMPLETELY unnecessary. Given my eyes and increase in battery life with FHD+ I plan to leave this as it came.
Mint Mobile
Re: Mint Mobile
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Re: Mint Mobile
I was going to update my experience with the S24+ but wanted to look back at previous phones to get some context.
First Android was the LG V30 that I bought used in Jan 2019 for $220 (inflation calc says this would be $284 today). As far as I can tell that was roughly a 1 year old phone which is shockingly new. Of course despite that I would go on to have dusty camera lens issues because it had already gotten a (poor) physical repair and it took replacing the full back (after shattering it) to realize this was the original cause. So newest phone, but the only phone that I had experienced something like that. Snapdragon 835. 4GB RAM.
Forum says I used it through Jan 2023 or a solid 4 years. I suspect this isn't the longest I've had a phone but it's up there. I think it was a good phone aside from that hardware/camera thing. My last phone with a headphone jack (and had some high end DAC stuff to go with that as a novelty even in 2019).
Then I got my S21 in Jan 2023 for $280, or $303 inflation adjusted. This would have been an approximately 2 year old phone. FWIW, the V30 was 64GB and the S21 was 256GB so quadrupling of storage in 4 years. Snapdragon 888. 8GB RAM on my base variant (the S21+ was also 8GB - only the Ultra had a 12/16 option). Native 5G and my first 5G phone.
I had zero hardware issues with my S21. It was more the software side that began to get in my way. Not so much OneUI stuff but just performance in situations with the camera, Google Messages and (more recently as I have been exposed to it), Android Auto. I had no case for this phone and probably was the hardest on it of all my phones for dropping and exposure to like car fluids and stuff. Never an issue. So, I have to give the hardware high marks. But despite replacing a V30 that I had used for 4 years (and was itself a 5 year old phone), retrospectively I feel like maybe the performance improvement wasn't as drastic as I was expecting. This is interesting. It wasn't all bad - the network performance was quite a bit faster than the V30 being 5G and even stuff like GPS reception was superior as my V30 required an external GPS antenna to work in my S550! I think Samsung makes top grade hardware.
So after updating my S550 to Android Auto it really exposed the performance issues I was having as noted above. I couldn't take the lag anymore, most notably if I picked up my phone while projecting and tried to do ANYTHING with it. I did not try any kind of hard reset and that may well have at least given it the best chance. Also, Samsung/T-Mobile had recently stopped supporting updates, as the phone reached 5 years on the market.
In fact, I was so annoyed with the software experience at the end that I seriously considered switching to an iPhone 14. Would probably have done the Pro but perhaps the Pro Max would have been worth it. That is now a 4 year old phone design with only 6GB of RAM, yet is probably about as snappy as an S24. And the prices were similar. But after researching platform switching issues (mainly RCS messages which cannot platform switch in either direction right now), I decided against it.
In late March 2026, which would be 38 months of use, I replaced my S21 with an S24+. I still refuse reading glasses so I wanted to move back up to a larger 6.7" phone. The V30 and S21 were a step down in screen real estate from my Nokia 1520 even though the diagonal was slightly higher. I guess it was the tall/thin aspect ratio.
I got a 256GB S24+ open box (which is the best initial quality of any of my Android phones), unlocked. It arrived in like new condition as advertised. I paid $450 which is a huge bump up from previous phones. Snapdragon 8 gen 3 whatever that means. 12 GB RAM. Another 2 year old phone design like my S21 was when I got it. This makes sense. I used it for 3 years and got 3 models newer (S21 -> S24).
I won't discuss the + part of the S24+ (yet) but I will say this one gave me more out of the box speed increases than I remember on my S21. Despite shifting over 100GB of my digital garbage the phone is quite snappy. I am sure it would be lightning quick on a clean reset but I need mah dataz. But yeah, it feels quick and I'm pleased with that. As for the + part, I am very pleased with that, as well. Not just the size but the industrial design of the phone looks and feels top rate. It also sort of resembles an iPhone and I have no issue with this. The screen is OLED like all my previous Android phones but it gets much brighter outside than they did, kind of like what I am used to from iPhone LCD displays. It's in such mint shape and is so nice it is the first phone that I am seriously considering case options for. I suppose spending $450 could have something to do with that, as well.
In conclusion, this S24+ feels like I am having the best Android experience I have ever had, even comparing new for new (to me). Even Android Auto is improved (but not free of bugs). I do wish they offered the Ultra camera array in this form factor as I may have paid even more for that.
As a bonus, I did get this phone unlocked so only Samsung is in the way of updates as opposed to adding T-Mobile. This is good. Additionally, Samsung started promising 7 years of updates instead of 5. I do not know if this will translate into minding user experience or just jamming security updates out there to comply with their own policy. I think I know the answer but maybe I'll remain optimistic. It'll be particularly interesting to feel how this performs in 3 years when it is 5 years old like my S21 was. Kind of depends on a lot of variables, like if anyone starts caring about making good software again.
First Android was the LG V30 that I bought used in Jan 2019 for $220 (inflation calc says this would be $284 today). As far as I can tell that was roughly a 1 year old phone which is shockingly new. Of course despite that I would go on to have dusty camera lens issues because it had already gotten a (poor) physical repair and it took replacing the full back (after shattering it) to realize this was the original cause. So newest phone, but the only phone that I had experienced something like that. Snapdragon 835. 4GB RAM.
Forum says I used it through Jan 2023 or a solid 4 years. I suspect this isn't the longest I've had a phone but it's up there. I think it was a good phone aside from that hardware/camera thing. My last phone with a headphone jack (and had some high end DAC stuff to go with that as a novelty even in 2019).
Then I got my S21 in Jan 2023 for $280, or $303 inflation adjusted. This would have been an approximately 2 year old phone. FWIW, the V30 was 64GB and the S21 was 256GB so quadrupling of storage in 4 years. Snapdragon 888. 8GB RAM on my base variant (the S21+ was also 8GB - only the Ultra had a 12/16 option). Native 5G and my first 5G phone.
I had zero hardware issues with my S21. It was more the software side that began to get in my way. Not so much OneUI stuff but just performance in situations with the camera, Google Messages and (more recently as I have been exposed to it), Android Auto. I had no case for this phone and probably was the hardest on it of all my phones for dropping and exposure to like car fluids and stuff. Never an issue. So, I have to give the hardware high marks. But despite replacing a V30 that I had used for 4 years (and was itself a 5 year old phone), retrospectively I feel like maybe the performance improvement wasn't as drastic as I was expecting. This is interesting. It wasn't all bad - the network performance was quite a bit faster than the V30 being 5G and even stuff like GPS reception was superior as my V30 required an external GPS antenna to work in my S550! I think Samsung makes top grade hardware.
So after updating my S550 to Android Auto it really exposed the performance issues I was having as noted above. I couldn't take the lag anymore, most notably if I picked up my phone while projecting and tried to do ANYTHING with it. I did not try any kind of hard reset and that may well have at least given it the best chance. Also, Samsung/T-Mobile had recently stopped supporting updates, as the phone reached 5 years on the market.
In fact, I was so annoyed with the software experience at the end that I seriously considered switching to an iPhone 14. Would probably have done the Pro but perhaps the Pro Max would have been worth it. That is now a 4 year old phone design with only 6GB of RAM, yet is probably about as snappy as an S24. And the prices were similar. But after researching platform switching issues (mainly RCS messages which cannot platform switch in either direction right now), I decided against it.
In late March 2026, which would be 38 months of use, I replaced my S21 with an S24+. I still refuse reading glasses so I wanted to move back up to a larger 6.7" phone. The V30 and S21 were a step down in screen real estate from my Nokia 1520 even though the diagonal was slightly higher. I guess it was the tall/thin aspect ratio.
I got a 256GB S24+ open box (which is the best initial quality of any of my Android phones), unlocked. It arrived in like new condition as advertised. I paid $450 which is a huge bump up from previous phones. Snapdragon 8 gen 3 whatever that means. 12 GB RAM. Another 2 year old phone design like my S21 was when I got it. This makes sense. I used it for 3 years and got 3 models newer (S21 -> S24).
I won't discuss the + part of the S24+ (yet) but I will say this one gave me more out of the box speed increases than I remember on my S21. Despite shifting over 100GB of my digital garbage the phone is quite snappy. I am sure it would be lightning quick on a clean reset but I need mah dataz. But yeah, it feels quick and I'm pleased with that. As for the + part, I am very pleased with that, as well. Not just the size but the industrial design of the phone looks and feels top rate. It also sort of resembles an iPhone and I have no issue with this. The screen is OLED like all my previous Android phones but it gets much brighter outside than they did, kind of like what I am used to from iPhone LCD displays. It's in such mint shape and is so nice it is the first phone that I am seriously considering case options for. I suppose spending $450 could have something to do with that, as well.
In conclusion, this S24+ feels like I am having the best Android experience I have ever had, even comparing new for new (to me). Even Android Auto is improved (but not free of bugs). I do wish they offered the Ultra camera array in this form factor as I may have paid even more for that.
As a bonus, I did get this phone unlocked so only Samsung is in the way of updates as opposed to adding T-Mobile. This is good. Additionally, Samsung started promising 7 years of updates instead of 5. I do not know if this will translate into minding user experience or just jamming security updates out there to comply with their own policy. I think I know the answer but maybe I'll remain optimistic. It'll be particularly interesting to feel how this performs in 3 years when it is 5 years old like my S21 was. Kind of depends on a lot of variables, like if anyone starts caring about making good software again.