Hello everyone, I wanted to start out by saying that I did search for my answer but the ones about unlocked phones that I saw did not dumb it down enough for me.....
I have a few questions and I hope someone here can give me some advice as I am very confused about the whole locked/unlocked phone issue. I want to purchase an Android smartphone and use it as a prepaid phone kind of like I did with my old TracFone, I really liked NOT getting any kind of bill once a month.
· Does any manufacturer (besides Apple) sell a smart phone that is unlocked?
· For what I want to do (see below) should I get a carrier specific phone with no contract and then have them unlock it?
· Why can’t I easily find a new unlocked phone with a warranty? I am not trying to do anything illegal or to try to trick the carrier or the manufacturer.
· I keep reading that Google sells phones directly that are unlocked but maybe they stopped doing this?
· My goal is to find a high end phone (right now it is the Galaxy S II) either from a retailer like Wal Mart where I would get a manufacturer’s warranty or someplace like eBay which would not come with a warranty but most have option for Square Trade 2 years for $80, plus no tax and that saves me a bit of money as well.
I am planning on making a full price purchase of a smartphone and I am leaning towards the Samsung Galaxy S II for a couple of reasons, one of which is its large screen as I hope to get a phone with a minimum of 4.5 inch display.
I am very confused with the whole idea of unlocked phones. I read somewhere that Google actually sells unlocked phones and that seemed like a safe bet but from what I can see they do not sell them directly.
I see some on Amazon, and lots of other places but I don’t think they have a warranty. I see some on Ebay and I could get a two year Square Trade warranty for $80 and that is fine, although the strange part is if I buy a new one at Walmart then they charge over $100 for some reason.
I also am a bit weary of how the phone was unlocked if it is new, was it done in an authorized way and if now, how would this affect me?
Then there is the issue of International phone vs US phone, warranty issues, will this work with this carrier and little differences in model numbers.
Is a phone unlocked by the manufacturer itself before any branding goes on it better than one from say, T-Mobile that they have unlocked? I have heard that the carrier unlocked ones are still locked a bit as far as the proprietary software frequencies it may have?
My goal is to start out having a high end smart phone and only using it with pre-paid cards as I do not want to start any plan, even a no contract plan, with any type of monthly commitment. I am leaning towards T-Mobile and I talked to one of the customer service reps, and was told that if I purchased one of their phones without contract ( $570 at Wal Mart for the Galaxy S II) then they would unlock it after 40 days of activation.
I was also told that I could just use the prepaid cards, say the $100 one that would give me 1000 minutes and or texts at one text charged as a minute. No data, but for a start this is fine with me.
If I change my mind I can always go with one of their no contract monthly deals for data but for me, I usually have consistent access to wifi so I want to see how it goes with no data plan.
I would love to just purchase a pre paid “data pack” ie a card for x amount of megabytes of data for x amount of money and it would not expire, just decrease as I use it until it is used up kind of like the minutes do, but I have not found a carrier where I could do this.
Any help would be much appreciated. I am planning on spending around $600 (hopefully less if possible) and I don’t want to make a mistake and get the wrong phone.
Thanks
Mike
Newbie Confusion about Unlocked Phones
