As per title really - looking for a new handset, and rather than be had over the back of the couch by carphone whorehouse or similar, have been looking for a reliable supplier of SIM free handsets at better prices.
Needless to say, all the most attractive looking online deals seem to be accompanied by multiple tales of woe from past customers (or at possible competitors posing as past customers!)
Spec? Basic one for phone calls and texts only or a smartphone (which OS?) or summat in between?
Think I've seen basic voice/text unlocked SIM free phones in Tesco for a tenner. These sort of basic phones do seem to be coming a bit more common, I guess because the rise of the smartphone is creating a demand from those that don't want a smartphone.
I think quite a few shops do have unlocked mobiles for sale, but finding which of them on display are actually unlocked can be difficult, as they invariable sit on the rack with some mobile phone company's logo on them. Phone shops like Carphone Warehouse also sell unlocked ones (or they used to), they just keep very quiet about it, but the staff there are more likely to understand what you mean by "unlocked".
Having said that, I bought my last one on eBay. There's some risk, of course, as the cheapest ones are sent directly from the far east, and you've no idea if the trader is honest (but I guess most of them are). The phone I got a few years ago was correctly described as "Vodafone branded" but "unlocked", and that's true. It came with a Vodafone SIM that I thew away once I had used up its few free minutes, and the splash screen still says "Vodafone" when I switch it on, but it is genuinely unlocked. For a cheapish phone, may be worth a gamble.
Probably smartphone, probably android, must have qwerty, preferably a slider rather than blackberry style.
Yup, saw those actually while window shopping.
Was going to go with Tesco after Vigin pissed me off, but then they could not seem to manage to phone me back when they said they would, In the mean time I found:
Fairly limited choice right now, but you might find an HTC Desire Z - that's what I got a few months back, but they were end of line then (and cheap, relatively speaking - I think I paid £240 for mine)
Gordon
Yup they still seem to be available, although even more pricey than the SE Xperia mini pro, which I quite like the look of at the moment....
And quite a few other companies as well. Though in theory the loop hole only works for low value goods, less than =A318 IIRC. So things like CD's, DVD's etc are OK but a full price smartphone shouldn't be.
Apparently it was fairly recently moved down to £15....
Just changed to =A315.
Which, unfortunately, hits us on medicines purchased from the USA (not =
available in the UK in the form required). Price of one sort is =A317.97= =
(IIRC) so was just under the previous limit.
But we did get lucky the other day and get a package of one medicine way= =
over the limit but not charged.
On CI-based sites everything maxes at =A314.99.
I'm more of an Indigo Starfish shopper myself. What's all this loophole closing about? I'm getting worried!
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