Check out the top phones added and dropped by U.S. carriers last month

The latest monthly carrier report from Wave7 Research covering May shows a game of musical chairs was played during the month. Take the nation's largest wireless provider, Verizon. Once known as Big Red, in May Verizon dropped the OG Motorola RAZR and the Motorola GS20. The former took the iconic flip design of the original feature phone that sold a whopping 130 million units in four years and turned it into a foldable smartphone.

While smartphone enthusiasts had been calling for the manufacturer to develop such a version of the RAZR for a long time, Motorola had to wait for the technology to become available for it to manufacture a smartphone version of the flipper. With the third generation of the RAZR rumored to feature a new chin and a more powerful chipset (the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1). It also will supposedly remove the large bezels of the predecessor and feature a longer-lasting battery.

In May, Verizon did add the Moto G Stylus 5G to its lineup. Sure, adding a stylus and 5G capability to a mid-range handset does get a carrier's customer base riled up with excitement, affordable pricing also helps. The Moto G Stylus 5G is priced at $11.11 a month over 36 months while the retail price weighs in at $399.99. For that price, you're getting a 6.8-inch LCD display that refreshes 120 times a second (120Hz) and sports an FHD+ resolution.

The Stylus allows users to write notes, sketch diagrams, mark up files, and more. The battery runs for up to two days without needing a charge, and the rear camera system features a 50MP camera sensor with optical imaging stability (OIS).

AT&T dropped some devices in May including the last new LG phone released by a major U.S. carrier, the LG Velvet. In April of 2021, the company announced that it was exiting the mobile phone industry after several years of thinking outside the box with handsets like the LG Wing. The device features a 6.8-inch rotating screen that swivels to reveal a smaller 3.9-inch secondary display. It's cool enough to garner looks from those wondering what the hell you have in your hand, but unwieldy enough to let pass as many consumers ultimately did.

AT&T also dropped the iPhone in May. Okay, don't go crazy. The 2020 iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max units are the iOS devices that AT&T erased from its offerings. With the difference between the 2020 and 2021 iPhone models at roughly $100, it is well worth it to spend the extra dough to get the longer battery life available on the current models.

Lastly, AT&T also waved buh-bye to one of the mid-range Galaxy A series from Samsung; in this case, the Samsung Galaxy A71 5G was removed from the wireless firm's list of available smartphones..

T-Mobile had a busy May as it dropped the Moto G Stylus 5G, the Moto 5G, and the TCL Stylus 5G. Also sent packing at T-Mobile were the Galaxy A12, Galaxy A32 5G, and the Galaxy A52 5G. Now gone from the nation's second-largest carrier is the OnePlus 8T and the Pixel 4a. T-Mobile also cut the price of the Galaxy A71 5G by 20% ($100 to $400). And while T-Mobile didn't outright drop the 512GB iPhone 12 Pro Max like Verizon and AT&T have, it did reduce the pricing on that model by 20% (or $200) to $799.99.

The percentage of postpaid customers at major U.S. carriers upgrading to a new phone declined in the first quarter of 2022 as Verizon saw such upgrades reduced from 5.7% to 4.5%. At AT&T, 4% of postpaid customers upgraded their phones during Q1 2022, down from the 5.3% of postpaid customers who upgraded their handset during Q4 of 2021. And at T-Mobile, 4.8% of postpaid customers upgraded in Q1 of 2022 which was a decline from the 5.8% recorded in the fourth quarter of 2021.