[LG G6 Guides, News, & Discussion] AsItLies:
Hey all,

Wanted to say big Thanks! to autoprime for all the hard work, and to everyone who has contributed in this thread, I've learned a lot!

A little perspective, or 'where I'm coming from':

I recently (last month or so) unlocked my Nexus 5 and Nexus 7 and flashed LOS Roms (just donated to them, they deserve it). Both devices were too old to get any updates of any kind. A week or so ago I settled on a Samsung Tab E to replace the 7. I like it, wish they would have used a higher pixel density, but it's okay for my needs. Hated dealing with that knox crap, and the message now at boot and battery charge telling me I f'd up my warranty... oh well.

Am now dealing with getting a more up to date phone, which has brought me here :) It's great that XDA has so much info for ea device. It's a resource that just can't be duplicated. We should all be thankful for that.

So, like many of you, I'm not terribly experienced, I'd like a new phone but not sure which one, and I think it's important that it has the ability to flash a ROM, for when the updates stop, and or when the bloatware drives me nuts (Samsung Tab E is already running LOS, think I mentioned).

So... my point is to let other newb's know, it's important to have some idea, not just 'what' yer doing, buy 'why' yer doing it. And, to be sure you research a phone first, to verify it is unlockable and that there is a TWRP version for it (thanks again autoprime), and there are stable ROMs you 'want' to flash....

It seems almost all phones have variations, some are supported and some are not. I got lucky and the LG G6 I have coming (from B&H) should be the US997 version. Almost had a heart attack when a prior thread mentioned there is a US997z version, which is not supported.

I thought I had done enough research to know which phone to buy! Apparently not! In my panic I figured out what some others where referring to when they said the phone needs to be "sim free".... Did that mean it didn't take a sim? that it was a cdma model? Are only cdma models supported?

No, what "sim free" means is, simply, it doesn't come with a sim tied to the carrier you bought the phone from. So, not to be redundant, but buying a phone from a carrier is obviously a bad idea, as it's not 'carrier unlocked' (which is a different problem with different solutions than unlocking a boot loader). This of course won't stop someone from selling a phone that is US997z and telling you it's carrier unlocked. It still won't work even though it's "sim free"...

As much as I think I'll like the LG G6, it's disconcerting to find that only 2 versions (of the 8 or 9?) are capable of unlocking the boot loader, at this time. It doesn't seem many phones have the simple unlock that google phones have. Is there a brand with a similar philosophy to Googles? Maybe OnePlus from what I can tell? but not sure really.

Sorry for the long winded comment, but if there's anything I've learned from reading this thread front to back, some of us need to be sure to do more research up front. Not every phone is supported, and it will come as a big disappointment if you spend the money first and find you were wrong later.

Anyway, that's again to all, your efforts are much appreciated. I've learned so much... would have taken forever just scouring the various sites on the net.

Cheers.