SE's Use With Sprint vs Global Compatibility?

[Sgooter]

Is the iPhone SE as globally compatible as the iPhone 6S? The Apple site FAQs are unclear to me regarding use of the SE on Sprint. If you intend to be on Sprint, then you need to get a specific Sprint-enabled SE. For the other 3 major carriers, the standard SE is already compatible. At least, this is how I'm interpreting the FAQ info. And it goes on to state that a Sprint SE, if purchased at full price, is unlocked. I'm looking for 6S-type global compatibility for the SE, and it's not clear to me that a Sprint SE will be compatible with the other 3 major US carriers. Hope someone here or Apple can clear this up soon. The Apple chat rep didn't know the answers earlier today, but I'm OK with that shortcoming for now, given that it's day one. The SE is a cool phone.

 

[libra89]

I'm guessing it might have global compatibility but wouldn't play nice on the other carriers networks. My guess is based on how they have done things recently.

 

[Sgooter]

The iPhone SE is now listed on willmyphonework.net, so you can see the SE's carrier-compatibility ratings there. The Sprint version of the SE is sub-model A1723; and sub-model A1662 is for AT&T, Verizon (I think), and T-Mobile. Based on the site's ratings, the SE has good compatibility with many USA carriers depending on the sub-model. However, the SE falls short of the near-universal compatibility performance of the iPhone 6S. IMO, the SE is a good phone for the price, and you'll get what you pay for.

 

[wolfedude88]

The Sprint SE will work on all US carriers if I'm not mistaken, the only issue is it is missing one of the LTE bands for AT&T's network. The band its missing I think is for when areas get bogged down(I think I read that somewhere).

So that should be the difference between the two models, should work with all carriers still. I will be testing it out when I get my Sprint SE.