Unlocked smart phones
 

Not sure if this in the right section but....

I spend up to 8-10 weeks a year in Israel. For mobile telephony I have relied upon a local PAYG provider using a basic cheap unlocked phone from the UK. For internet/e-mail on the move I have used a very good and surprisingly cheap overseas data roaming package from T-Mobile UK with my Blackberry; but it only works with older style Blackberrys; not the new Z10 or Q10.

In Israel now is a new mobile telecom company with very attractive rates for a whole bundle of stuff but I need an unlocked smart phone. It would make sense to have a regular contract for telephone and internet/e-mail on one local device than to have two devices with two lots of costs.

The catch of course is the cost of an unlocked smart phone. How easy are these to buy in the UK? What is the likely cost? Can you unlock a smart phone?

The likely annual saving if the new phone was free would be about £200 plus reduced hassle.

Advice please??

There are plenty of options for buying unlocked smartphones. I've used this company before and they are pretty reliable.

CeX (UK) Buy & Sell Games, Phones, DVDs, Blu-ray, Electronics, Computing, Vision & CDs

Just click on to the store near you and browse the selection of phones available. I can't comment on Blackberrys but iphones are easy to unlock yourself. There are plenty of tutorials on youtube to do this.

I am not a natural user of e-bay, but daughter lost her smartphone, and the offers from Voda-ugh, her supplier, were ugh. I suspect they wanted a full year's p & l from daughter, just cos she lost her phone.

So I went on to e-bay.

There are lots of "Samsung Galaxy S 2" phones on there. I really like that phone. They all seem to sell at circa £120 . Probably 2 years old - end of contract.Some of the "buy now" phones are 120 to 150.

(With samsung, unlike i-cost-a-shed-load-phones, loading a sim does not lock up your phone.

So I bought one. Through an auction. It came quickly, and was exactly as advertised. Obviously there is some risk, but the payment method - pay-I'm-not-your-pal provides pretty robust protection.

Have a look. Read the guidance before bidding!

We have recently bought a new unlocked Samsung Galaxy S3 mini for about £200, on Amazon.co.uk.

Bought a sim package elsewhere and away we went with no problems.

Fully kosher unlocked phones from reputable sources have been available for ages in the UK. Even iPhones have been available unlocked off-the-shelf for ages now. Sounds like you're mentally stuck in the "old" UK of locked phones... :cool:

(Kosher in the informal slang context here, rather than having been kissed by a Rabbi....although it wouldn't surprise me in the least if some entrepreneurial Jewish chap was selling kosher phones :E !).

I can assure you that there are Jewish kosher phones which are 'blessed by the Rabbi'. They only permit calls and basic SMS; no media messages and no smart phone ability. Trying to hold back the tide of modernity with limited success!

Depending on your provider, you should be able to get them to unlock your phone. I have had 2 iPhones on O2 unlocked by them for free, both in and out of contract.