geting a Android phone from china :-?

[arun.kubasad]

hey guys am from india,,and am planning to get DHD from china,as my bro is there for a business tour..
i know i will have no warranty on that in here..(as per htc guys)
i just read that there is BAIDU in china and now am confused.
am new to linux/android world.
i seriously dono wats locked-unlocked versions or rooting thing..
If i go for nexus s ,what about the warranty and service centre in india? pls throw some lights on this
what is the price of the both ?
let it be any phone i wana buy it from china,as it ll be cheaper for me.

 

[Talon_za]

I have a similar question so I hope you don't mind me climbing on board with this one.

I'm in the United States for 4 months. I want to buy an Android Phone, specifically the HTC Evo Shift 4G. I know the phone might be network locked but I got told that if I use the phone for 3 months they will unlock it for me.

So my questions are:
- When I get back to South Africa will there be any problems?
- Is there any kind of Android Region Locking?
- In South Africa, we don't have 4G yet, only 3G... will this be a problem?

 

[snapper.fishes]

hey guys am from india,,and am planning to get DHD from china,as my bro is there for a business tour..
i know i will have no warranty on that in here..(as per htc guys)
i just read that there is BAIDU in china and now am confused.
am new to linux/android world.
i seriously dono wats locked-unlocked versions or rooting thing..
If i go for nexus s ,what about the warranty and service centre in india? pls throw some lights on this
what is the price of the both ?
let it be any phone i wana buy it from china,as it ll be cheaper for me.

I doubt it will be any cheaper. The tax on Techno products in China is quite high. Also, there are reports that China banned android market, so no phones come with market installed.

 

[Guamguy]

Android has no region locking, but there might not be an English option on the phone. Some Android phones in China don't have the Android Market. Hard to guess which.

China has three carriers. China Mobile uses a unique 3G technology that isn't compatible where else, so 3G phones you buy from this won't work 3G out of the country. China Unicom has the universal 2100 3G GSM/UMTS that is supported all over Asia and Europe, but China Telecom is a CDMA EV-DO operator.

China does have unique Android phones you either won't see anywhere else, or you will see in China before you see in other countries.

 

[mikedt]

i just read that there is BAIDU in china and now am confused.

Baidu doesn't really have much to do with mobile phones, except providing search and content.
http://www.baidu.com/
It's a search engine, portal and content provider/aggregator. Most Chinese people use Baidu instead of Google, Yahoo! or Bing as their default homepage and search engine.

 

[HustlinDaily]

I have a similar question so I hope you don't mind me climbing on board with this one.

I'm in the United States for 4 months. I want to buy an Android Phone, specifically the HTC Evo Shift 4G. I know the phone might be network locked but I got told that if I use the phone for 3 months they will unlock it for me.

So my questions are:
- When I get back to South Africa will there be any problems?
- Is there any kind of Android Region Locking?
- In South Africa, we don't have 4G yet, only 3G... will this be a problem?

Do they have CDMA networks in South Africa?

I always assumed that it was GSM only over there.

 

[Talon_za]

Do they have CDMA networks in South Africa?

I always assumed that it was GSM only over there.

Yeah, we are on GSM. CDMA is only used in USA and is an old technology. I know that some carries have switched over to GSM, I am told that AT&T and T-Mobile are using GSM now.

This restriction would be on the phone so thanks for bringing that to my attention, I actually totally forgot to check that. My guess is that if the phone supports GSM that the Android version installed will be equipped to handle it.

 

[HustlinDaily]

Yeah only GSM carriers here are AT&T/T-Mobile. AFAIK, none of the AT&T Android devices have the 2100MHz 3G band which is used throughout Africa. Your best bet would be to get a T-Mobile Android device (since you liked the Evo Shift, the T-Mobile G2 might be worth a look. Personally I'd recommended the Nexus S since it will be fastest to updates and comes unlocked out of the box) and get it unlocked.

As far as the OS supporting it goes (not quite sure what you mean by that), you might have to manually load in the APN information (not 100% sure about that to be honest) but yeah, once it is unlocked, the OS will be able to handle the network.

Verizon also has 2 phones which can support GSM networks (Droid Pro/Droid 2 Global)

 

[mikedt]

Yeah, we are on GSM. CDMA is only used in USA and is an old technology. I know that some carries have switched over to GSM, I am told that AT&T and T-Mobile are using GSM now.

CDMA/EV-DO is also used in Canada, China, Australia and probably quite a few other countries. I won't say it's an old technology, any more what GSM is. It's a different technology.

AT&T and T-Mobile in the US have always been GSM. Verizon and Sprint are CDMA/EV-DO networks, although they do offer some GSM/HSDPA capable phones, I'm sure Verizon and Sprint are not going start using GSM/HSDPA in the US.

 

[arun.kubasad]

i was tempted just cos my bro is getting sony ericsson w995 for around 7k bucks in china (Indian currency) which is around 18 k bucks over here..
so reading all the posts, is it better i get it from local dealer?

 

[Guamguy]

Samsung Captivate on AT&T has the 2100 band. All GSM Samsung Galaxy S are triple band UMTS, regardless of region and carrier, one of which is always 2100.

 

[HustlinDaily]

Samsung Captivate on AT&T has the 2100 band. All GSM Samsung Galaxy S are triple band UMTS, regardless of region and carrier, one of which is always 2100.

Never knew that. That is interesting (and awesome).

Thanks. Learn something new on this board every day.