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Any advantage to buying Japanese iphone 7?
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willmtaylor
macrumors G4
I don't think that's something we'll know until all of the specifics are made public.
Out of curiosity, where are you? I've had the privilege of traveling to JP several times in the last few years.
Out of curiosity, where are you? I've had the privilege of traveling to JP several times in the last few years.
Nice! Love it here. We used to live in Ebisu (Tokyo) and tend to make that general area home base when we visit - can see friends and eat all our favorites and the in laws are all about 30-40 minutes by train.
willmtaylor
macrumors G4
Very cool. I've spent time in Narita, Shibuya, Yokohama, & Kamakura. Then I've also done volunteer work in the northern tsunami-hit areas of Rikuzentakata and Ofunato in the Iwate prefecture.
Hal~9000
macrumors 68020
Nit sure about which LTE bands the Japan version will have (will need to wait till Apple puts these up on a spec page after the event) but if you want FeliCa tap-to-pay capabilities then you'll have to buy the Japan version: https://www.macrumors.com/2016/08/25/apple-iphone-sony-felica-chip/
eyoungren
macrumors Nehalem
Just one very minor, but possibly annoying thing to note if you buy and bring the phone home.
Japanese law requires that all phones sold in Japan that have a camera make a noise when taking a picture and prevent the user from disabling that sound.
Specific to the Japanese iPhone then it means that you cannot disable the camera shutter sound, even by placing the phone on mute.
Just bringing that up because there's always someone in these forums asking how they can turn off the camera shutter sound on a Japanese iPhone.
Can you even buy a phone there without an alien registration card? When I lived there, you couldn't.
Juan007
macrumors 6502a
I will be doing whatever I can to order the Japanese version, if it has NFC capability that other versions don't have. But I don't think Apple would make that mistake. We all know what a disaster the TSMC vs Samsung chipgate scandal was, Apple isn't dumb enough to lie to consumers and sell two different products under the same name again.
willmtaylor
macrumors G4
Juan007
macrumors 6502a
I don't frequently travel to Japan, but I have traveled to Japan many times in the past. I do have a Suica card in my drawer (haven't used in a few years, hope it still works!). The point isn't weather I'm going to travel to Japan in the next year (answer is possibly, but probably not), the point is that I don't want an inferior product. I'm paying $650 for a product, it's a reasonable expectation for a premium device.
willmtaylor
macrumors G4
Different =/= inferior.
JP models are rumored to have an NFC reader that only works with JP tech. That's not superior.
willmtaylor
macrumors G4
We aren't referring to where it's manufactured, but rather which region it's designed to be used in.
I wasn't aware of region-exclusive hardware features, my mistake. Hopefully this year Apple makes a single SKU with all of the bands included, not a separate SKU with only 1 additional band.
Juan007
macrumors 6502a
If JP models have a part / feature that NA models don't have then the JP part is superior.
willmtaylor
macrumors G4
IMHO, nope. Perhaps "superior" is in the eye of the beholder, but having useless, impractical add-ons does not make one product superior (just ask Samsung 😉).
If I live in Hawaii, I'm not going to order a Canadian Jeep Wrangler simply because having an optional engine block warmer makes the Canadian version superior. 😕 That's completely illogical. 😵
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eyoungren
macrumors Nehalem
But what if that part only works IN Japan and not outside of Japan?
TheBigDog
Suspended
Yeah, you're unlikely to be eligible for any replacement schemes if you take it out of the country of purchase 🙂
Good luck with that.