Question about buying a Galaxy S3

[Iron Feet]

My wife has wanted an S3 for a while now. Her birthday is coming up so I want to buy her one. Our carrier is Verizon and we have unlimited data from our plan years ago, so I will be buying this phone outright. I'm not interested in any new plans or any other phones. My wife would agree for what she does, she wouldn't justify spending the extra money on the S4, so the S3 is what I'm getting.

My question is, if I purchase this online from Amazon, is anything required besides calling Verizon and have them activate it?

This is the one I'm looking at Amazon.com: Samsung Galaxy S III/S3 GT-I9300 Factory Unlocked Phone - International Version (Pebble Blue): Cell Phones & Accessories

I just want to make sure this will be compatible and work with Verizon. Thanks.

 

[carnageX]

You can do it online as well.

Just log into your account Go to the line you want to switch > pick Switch Device under Device Management. You can then activate the new device.

Though, if you have a SIM card already, you can honestly just take your SIM card out of your existing 4G phone and put it in the S3 and it'll work fine. It will just show up as your older phone online. So if you want to sell your old phone or get rid of it, you'll have to switch the device over.

However, the S3 you picked on Amazon won't work on Verizon, because it's an international version, and it only has GSM radios, where as Verizon operations on CMDA networks. You'll need to find the US version that has CDMA chip in it to use it on Verizon.

 

[Iron Feet]

Ok, I see that now about the international version.

Her old phone is a Droid X which I don't believe has a SIM card. What or where would I need to get a SIM card for it? Verizon?

Also, the Droid X is a 3G phone while the S3 is a 4G. Will that still work on our old plan?

 

[carnageX]

You'll just have to go into a VZ store and have them switch you over. Ask to make sure you'll get to keep your unlimited if you switch from a 3G plan to a 4G plan.

if you do get to keep your unlimited, then you'll just have to let them switch your phone over, and they'll give you a SIM card and install it in the phone and it should work within a few minutes.