Best phone for international travel?

[Pondering]

Any recommendations on a phone for use in US (primary location) and Greece, Northern Ireland and Great Britain? Plan to use prepaid if possible. I know I'll need GSM, but what flavor of GSM? It will also need to be unlocked. Probably looking at higher end phone such as Galaxy S3 or (shudder) iPhone (please tell me there's an android solution).

Thanks for any advice offered!

 

[gtbarry]

I think an unlocked S3 would be a great choice.

You will need a new SIM for each country you are going to if you are not going to have an expensive international roaming plan.

The advantage to the S3 is that at 3G speeds it has all four frequencies (850/900/1900/2100 MHz) and I believe that should work in all countries you will be going to. You should check with the carriers that you are likely to use locally to see what their data frequencies are.

Not sure about the frequencies on the S3 for faster than 4G.

 

[boyo1991]

You can go with the s3.. dont use apple though please! =p

The s3 will have all you need, but as a reference for whats going to be coming out, when are you planning on traveling?

 

[Pondering]

Thanks for the responses. Travel will begin in August, possibly sooner. Trying to research prepaid carriers now in all three countries, but am getting so much commercial "noise" in my search returns so its hard tease out local specs as to what GSM freqs I'll need.

 

[gtbarry]

Rumor has it that the S4 will be released around April of this year. And google will have their IO conference in May (a place where Nexus devices are often announced).

So your options could broaden by the time you buy. Or the current devices might be more affordable.

BTW, the S3 is not the only mobile with quad band frequencies. A lot of mobiles are quad band. But the S3 is just a very nice device. Also, like many Android phones, you will be able to charge via Micro-USB - which will be fairly easy to find while traveling should the need arise.

 

[Hadron]

Thanks for the responses. Travel will begin in August, possibly sooner. Trying to research prepaid carriers now in all three countries, but am getting so much commercial "noise" in my search returns so its hard tease out local specs as to what GSM freqs I'll need.

Europe is easy: all GSM (2G) will be either 900 or 1800 (many networks have both), and 3G (UMTS, aka WCDMA) is 2100. That's it - cover those and you're good (unless you want LTE as well, in which case the only UK coverage currently is in the 1800 band, but limited to a number of large cities and grossly overpriced - not sure what will change by time you travel. Don't know about Greece).

 

[Digital Controller]

I have moved this thread into the Device Comparison forum since you are comparing devices meant for International Travel!