Apple iPhone 7 is a prized possession for any owner but being an Apple product, its greatest distinctive feature is that is comes with a 2-year lock-in period contract with the carrier or reseller through which it is purchased. Finding a way how to unlock iPhone 7 comes from the fact that if you purchase your device from an AT&T American network carrier, the iPhone 7 will only work through AT&T SIM card. The phone will not accept any other SIM card of any other brand like Verizon, Vodafone, and Sprint, O2 or any other carrier and will not intercept any signal from any other carrier. It will only work with the carrier it is locked to i.e. AT&T.
This can be quite hindering and cumbersome to many users .It may also mean incurring extra bills and settling for less advantageous services which may not be palatable. Hence it’s quite natural for the phone owner to wonder about an iPhone 7 unlock. Broadly there are three methods with which you can go. Let us look into the various methods and their different aspects of unlocking iPhone 7.
Method 1: Hardware Unlocking
It is an invasive method of unlocking iPhone 7, i.e. you have to open the phone and play around with wires to unlock it. This method is not recommended unless one is an electrical engineering expert, have extensive knowledge of the hardware of iPhones. Here a specially designed SIM-Card is squeezed with the card that you wish to use. This tricks the carrier with which your iPhone is locked into believing that you are using the same carrier. This method has been deemed untrustworthy by many users. Many have stated that this method does not work at all. If working, the signal quality is extremely poor and sudden drops are extremely common during phone calls. Moreover, this method requires an iOS version and iPhone model. Till now, any known hardware method of iPhone 7 unlock is not known. What is being done is simply trial and error experimentation which puts your phone in great disadvantage.
The biggest disadvantage with his method is that it carries maximum risk of damaging the hardware of your iPhone which is quite an expensive set. Moreover, as soon as you open the hardware, the phone’s hardware and software warranty gets null and void with the company. Hence for any software issue, they would charge for support and any hardware issue implies that one has to buy a new handset which is not a very palatable idea. Moreover once the phone is out of warranty with Apple, its resale value is severely compromised, leaving you at a dead end.
Method 2: Software Unlocking iPhone 7
In this method, you need to find the firmware version of your iPhone, then download the relevant software and run it by just following the instructions of how to unlock iPhone 7. This method requires a jailbreak phone, which implies that you will require a jailbreaking tool to first jailbreak the iOS of iPhone 7. Even though jailbreaking is no longer considered illegal but so far no proper tool has been developed to jailbreak iOS 10. Some claim of having jailbreak tool for iOS 9 and would ask you for a fee but no authentication is available. Even if you get one, you need to ensure that it is 100% safe, has a credible reputation and is quite easy to use. Post it, you would require unlocking software but this software too has not been updated since past few years. Hence by all known sources, software iPhone 7 unlock is not possible as of now. Even if you get it done, you must remember jailbreaking immediately voids any warranty but the silver lining is that it can be reversed by logging into iTunes and setting your phone back to factory default settings.
This method is not advisable as by jailbreaking, your whole operating system is changed and any app could now have full access to the phone. It also leaves your phone vulnerable to malicious adware, malware and virus which can cause both hardware and software damage. After this, you can no longer run apple updates. For it, each time, you would require to restore it to factory default which implies that the phone gets locked all over again. The entire process can be quite cumbersome.
Method 3: Factory Unlock iPhone 7
This is by far the safest and highly recommended method since it not only supports iPhone 7 and iOS 10th version but also leaves the warranty of the phone completely intact. It is the only official method that is approved and recognized by Apple as well as all the mobile carriers worldwide. This method also guarantees a permanent unlocking with no fear of any software or hardware damage. This can be initiated through the carrier through which your iPhone 7 was purchased or any other reputed vendor. The focus of this method is only on the carrier and is independent of the firmware version, iOS version and even the model of the iPhone.
In this method of unlocking iPhone 7, you would first need to know the IMEI (Internet Mobile Station Equipment Identity) number of your iPhone which is a unique number associated with your phone. This can either be provided to you by your current carrier or you can find it yourself by typing *#06# and then pressing the dial tab on the phone. The process is similar to making a regular phone call. This would give you the IMEI number of your phone which must be noted down absolutely correctly. This number can be forwarded to us, the registered unlocking vendor who authorizes it and confirms to Apple to add the IMEI number to its unlocked database. Various legalized and authorized tools are also available online which can help you in iPhone 7 unlocking.
This method comes with a small fee. Most services undertake this process willingly once the lock-in period of 2 years is over. If done early, they charge a fee which is variable.
Things to Consider with iPhone 7 Plus Unlock
UPDATE: The Apple iPhone 7 has been around for a while and we can assure now that the same factory unlock works in case you are wondering how to unlock iPhone 7 Plus. No matter if your device is the regular size or the bigger version Plus, unlocking it from carrier needs just the same effort. Choosing the right unlock product is something that needs to be explained, though. There are two types of unlocks for iPhone – Clean and Premium. Clean is the one you would get in a general situation when you want to unlock your iPhone 7 Plus from carrier. Now Premium offers more opportunities and costs also more because of that reason. If the iPhone 7 Plus is on contract or blacklisted, you need to use the Premium unlock. In such case there is no help from the Clean. Another important thing is that the iPhone 7 Plus you are going to unlock is activated first. After activation the device gets registered in Apple’s database and our unlocking iPhone 7 Plus will be successful.
Final Thoughts
Can you unlock iPhone 7? Sure, but it has its own advantages and disadvantages. You can either purchase an unlocked iPhone, which is obviously super expensive or you can try any of the methods of how to unlock iPhone 7. But the bonus of it lies with you and thus it requires careful thought and consideration. You can shop our e-store to find the right unlock product.