[Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra] Brixster:
I could really use some help and advice on a subject I've spent countless hours trying to research. I live in the US and just bought the S22 Ultra without fully understanding what I now know, that the Call Recording feature - which I must have - is entirely disabled on the native "U" and "U1" variants sold in the US.

Why Samsung does this when recording is predominantly legal in most states is beyond me. And why someone hasn't yet figured out how to hack the software to turn it on everywhere is a shame, but this is where we are now, and so I am trying to find a practical workaround.

I have been using Skvalex Call Recorder for years on other phones with mediocre results because of its inability to properly record the audio from the other side of the call with the microphone, so when I heard that this Samsung phone allowed native, actual call recording, I jumped at the chance to get my new S22 Ultra.

Boy was I wrong, because that's when I realized that the CR feature is enabled in only a handful of countries, not the US, and that the only solution short of rooting the phone is to change the CSC code Samsung uses to identify which country-based phones are permitted to use the CR feature.

Okay, I thought, that's a great solution, but boy was I wrong again!

Well, that sounded easy enough until I learned that you can only change the CSC code on a phone designated for the same region as the country, in this case either the "B" variant (for Ukraine) or the "E" variant (for India and all the remaining CR-permitted countries), but definitely not the "U" version I now own.

It quickly became clear that no US phone can ever have CR without rooting, and beyond the complicated process of rooting an S22 Ultra for most, not only does that step void your warranty and completely disable the Samsung Knox functionality which breaks many apps, it also disables all future OTA updates, and you lose most of the trade-in value after Samsung charges you hundreds of dollars for a new motherboard once the Knox fuse chip is tripped. So, rooting is really not a great option for the normal user who wants to trade in every year or two, and doesn't want to hassle with having to manually apply updates every month.

Okay, I said to myself, the only other alternative is to bite the bullet and buy one of the "B" or "E" variants from overseas and then change the CSC ode, which sounded like a perfect solution (setting aside the need to buy another phone) until I discovered that the US and International versions of the phone actually have slightly different specs, and this is where it all comes down to - and I really need some help with this! - whether the International version will even properly work in the US at all.

Well, I'm sure at least the "E" version with the same Snapdragon chipset as the US version will work, but the question is will it work well, will it work as well as the US version for everyday use, not for someone merely traveling to the US and is happy just making a connection??? What will I lose in either speed or connectivity on the AT&T network?

The issue seems to be that the two variants operate on slightly different bands, as you can see below. There is a fairly large amount of overlap between the two sets of bands, but from what I can tell the main difference that could/would affect performance is the lack of any 5G mmWave connectivity on the International variant.

Now, I have zero knowledge about most of this, and from what I can read in most cases mmWave is not all that useful, but again, the issue is whether getting call recording on my phone is worth the trade-off of not having the most complete set of available bands on my phone?

If I could ask you good folks to give me your best advice as to what is else is actually missing from the list below on the International specs that would affect everyday performance?

ANY HELP WITH THIS WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED!!!

S22 ULTRA - US VARIANT

GSM MHz band Quad-Band 850/900/1800/1900

Primary 2G network CDMA 800/1900, GSM 850/900/1800/1900

Primary 3G network CDMA2000 1xEV-DO

UMTS 850/900/1700/1900/2100

Primary 4G network LTE Cat20 (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 12, 13, 14, 18, 19, 20, 25, 26, 28, 29, 30, 66, 71)

TD-LTE (38, 39, 40, 41, 46, 48)

VoLTE

Primary 5G network SA/NSA/Sub6 (1, 3, 5, 7, 8, 20, 28, 38, 41, 66, 71)

mmWave (260, 261)

Primary data network GPRS, EDGE, CDMA2000 EV-DO Rev 0, CDMA2000 EV-DO Rev A, UMTS, HSDPA, HSUPA, HSPA+, TD-LTE, LTE, LTE-A, 5G SA/NSA, 5G NR

Secondary 2G network GSM 850/900/1800/1900

Secondary 3G network CDMA2000 1xEV-DO

UMTS 850/900/1700/1900/2100

Secondary 4G network LTE Cat20 (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 12, 13, 14, 18, 19, 20, 25, 26, 28, 29, 30, 66, 71)

TD-LTE (38, 39, 40, 41, 46, 48)

VoLTE

Secondary data network GPRS, EDGE, CDMA2000 EV-DO Rev 0, CDMA2000 EV-DO Rev A, UMTS, HSDPA, HSUPA, HSPA+, TD-LTE, LTE, LTE-A, 5G SA/NSA, 5G NR

S22 ULTRA - INTERNATIONAL "E" VARIANT

GSM MHz band Quad-Band 850/900/1800/1900

Primary 2G network GSM 850/900/1800/1900

Primary 3G network UMTS 850/900/1700/1900/2100

Primary 4G network LTE Cat20 (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 12, 13, 17, 18, 19, 20, 25, 26, 28, 66)

TD-LTE (38, 39, 40, 41)

VoLTE

Primary 5G network SA/NSA/Sub6 (1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 12, 20, 25, 28, 38, 40, 41, 66, 77, 78)

Primary data network GPRS, EDGE, UMTS, HSDPA, HSUPA, HSPA+, TD-LTE, LTE, LTE-A, 5G SA/NSA

Secondary 2G network GSM 850/900/1800/1900

Secondary 3G network UMTS 850/900/1700/1900/2100

Secondary 4G network LTE Cat20 (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 12, 13, 17, 18, 19, 20, 25, 26, 28, 66)

TD-LTE (38, 39, 40, 41)

VoLTE

Secondary data network GPRS, EDGE, UMTS, HSDPA, HSUPA, HSPA+, TD-LTE, LTE, LTE-A, 5G SA/NSA