A brand-new flagship smartphone that needs a physical swap because software cannot fix it is a rough start, so if you are on AT&T with a Pro Max, install the update before you do anything else. Interestingly, I’m on AT&T, and I always try to get the Pro Max size. This year, however, I have been thinking about skipping this version and moving to an every-other-year type of upgrade. I’m glad I thought this way.
This is really odd, honestly. I can’t remember the last time a specific smartphone (size and model) simply stopped working on a particular cellular network. My guess is that it has to do with a specialized cellular chip that only exists in the Pro Max. A software fix to the carrier settings seems to prevent it from happening (maybe this carrier setting routes things differently with the chip?).
Regardless, who would have predicted this? Years ago, we heard about smartphones or tablets getting “bricked” because of bad OS updates. This is more nuanced, I feel.