The Samsung Galaxy Note 7 was lighting up personal technology reviewers’ eyes for weeks before it hit stores Friday.

The smartphone has a 5.7-inch display that wraps around the edges. It uses an iris scanner to unlock, and it’s water-resistant. It comes with a refined stylus pen and 64 gigabytes of data storage.

The Note 7 has a manufacturer’s price of $865, making it the most expensive smartphone one could buy right now. Apple is expected to announce the iPhone 7 in September.

While wireless service providers are offering an array of freebies with the purchase of a Note 7, from free second phones to Netflix subscriptions, they’re no longer discounting phones in order to lure consumers into contracts. AT&T in January became the last of the four major wireless providers to drop contract-based service plans, so, wireless sales representatives say, most people are paying full price for their phones but doing so with an interest-free installment plan over 24 months to 30 months. The carriers add the payments to the monthly service bill.

The end of contracts is a good thing for consumers because it means the longer they keep their phones, the more they’ll save on their monthly bills, said Mike Gikas, senior electronics editor at Consumer Reports.

“Before carriers announced these installment plans, it was common for them to partly subsidize the phones to minimize the initial cost to customers,” Gikas said. “However, your bill would never decrease — even long after you presumably repaid the full cost of the phone. That’s different now.”

Contract-free doesn’t necessarily mean no strings though.

Consumers who want to switch carriers may have to pay off their phones, and then they could run up against compatibility issues because each carrier’s network runs on one of two technologies.

Mark Cooper — a telecommunications expert and research director at the Consumer Federation of America, a Washington, D.C., nonprofit that counts other consumer advocacy groups as its members — advised, “Know what you want,” and then, “shop, shop, shop.”

Kris Cline, Pacific Northwest director for the Verizon retail franchise Cellular Sales, said he’s seeing a lot of people shopping for new service since carriers stopped requiring contracts.

“People are looking for value, and they should be looking for value,” he said.

Cellular Sales owns the Verizon store at Reed Market Road and SE Third Street in Bend, which is one of the three busiest Verizon stores in the region, Cline said.

Competition among wireless carriers increased after AT&T called off a proposed merger with T-Mobile in 2011 and paid a $4 billion breakup fee, which provided T-Mobile with the cash it needed to make aggressive moves like going to contract-free service in 2013, said Cooper, of the Consumer Federation.

Just last week, T-Mobile upped the ante again by announcing that, starting Sept. 6, all plans will come with unlimited data. Sprint immediately responded with a new offer of two lines with unlimited talk, text and data for $100 a month.

While competing on price, carriers are also questioning the notion of differences in coverage. In announcing unlimited data, T-Mobile took direct aim at Verizon, which has marketed its network reliability since 2000, by saying on the T-Mobile website, “Verizon’s network is older, slower and more crowded.”

Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam addressed competitors’ challenges in a July 26 conference call with stock analysts by saying, “I would argue that if you need to sell your product at half of what Verizon sells theirs, that’s proof alone that networks matter.”

Cline said his company provides a premium level of customer service by helping people choose the right phones and amount of data and troubleshooting devices, which have become more important than wallets.

The more competitive landscape is great for consumers, said Cooper, but it might not last forever.

To get the best deal while you can, here are some tips from the experts:

Weigh the service

The first thing to consider is what kind of network coverage one needs, Cooper said. Consumers can save a lot of money on monthly service charges by avoiding Verizon and AT&T, he said, but they might have to sacrifice coverage. Cooper said he begrudgingly uses Verizon because he wants to ensure coverage as he makes 40 to 50 business trips a year, but the service is expensive.

Another carrier, U.S. Cellular, has its network largely in suburban and rural areas, including Central Oregon. The company offers lower-cost plans for people who use less data, but it’s a better value if the data is used close to home. U.S. Cellular limits data while roaming at 400 megabytes per line per month, and Portland is one of its roaming areas.

Wireless service resellers such as Portland-based Consumer Cellular have always offered service without a contract. Now Consumer Cellular, which employs 510 people at its Redmond call center, is trying to stand out on customer service, said Brian Hepner, vice president of marketing. The company earned top ratings by J.D. Power & Associates and Consumer Reports, he said.

Recommended by AARP, Consumer Cellular markets itself to senior citizens and others who want to keep their phones as long as possible. “We have a different model than most carriers,” Hepner said. “We like to make it as easy and affordable as we can for our customers to upgrade phones, but we do not push our customer to change phones.”

Switching carriers isn’t free

Consumers who’ve already tried to take advantage of their contract-free status by switching carriers might have found their phones didn’t work on another network.

That’s because Verizon and Sprint built their networks around one technology, called CDMA, while AT&T and T-Mobile use another, GSM. The different technologies affect voice and text service, and the compatibility issue can be overcome by choosing a phone that will work on either type of network.

Compatibility is less of an issue for data use because all carriers are using the same technology, LTE, but as CNET columnist Marguerite Reardon explained, they’re delivering it on different radio frequencies. So consumers who want to take their current phones to a new carrier should check the frequency specs used by the new carrier. Reardon put together a chart at www.cnet.com/news/whats-the-best-phone-to-have-when-dumping-your-carrier.

Lenovo, Google and Apple make phones that will work with all four major carriers. The list of iPhones with crossover potential includes the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6S, but not the smaller, cheaper iPhone 6SE.

Consumers who are considering buying service from a reseller will need to find out from which network it leases coverage. Consumer Cellular, for example, leases from AT&T and T-Mobile.

Consumers can buy “unlocked” phones directly from the manufacturer, or from retailers like Amazon. In addition, carriers are required to unlock phones once they’re paid for and other conditions are met. Just because a phone is not locked to a particular network through internal software or a SIM card, however, does not mean its technology is universally compatible. The Federal Communications Commission answers questions about device locking and compatibility on its website: www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/cell-phone-unlocking-faqs.

Stick with a phone to save money

The average time between smartphone upgrades has lengthened from 24 months to 26 months, according to International Data Corp., a market research firm for the information technology, telecommunications and consumer technology industries. That could be because smartphone upgrades are no longer tied to two-year wireless contracts, IDC spokesman Mike Shirer said.

“A separate argument can be made that smartphone innovation has slowed, thus lowering the incentive to upgrade on an annual basis,” he said.

For those who can’t resist a new phone every year, Gikas at Consumer Reports recommends leasing. Sprint is the only carrier that offers a traditional lease, in which it maintains ownership of the phone.

T-Mobile offers a plan that’s akin to leasing in which customers can trade in phones as often as three times a year. AT&T also offers a yearly trade-in plan, but 50 percent of the phone’s full retail price must be paid, and a 30 percent down payment may apply.

— Reporter: 541-617-7860, kmclaughlin@bendbulletin.com