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Buy iPhone 4 in USA to use it in Europe ?

A

alexz"

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 12, 2011
13
0
Hi guys, im going to LA in 2 weeks.

I am still using my 3G iphone, really want to get an upgrade !

Should i buy an iphone 4 in the US ?
Is it possible to get one without a contract ?
It is compatible in Europe ?
Do i need a micro sim ?

Thanks for your help !
 
alexz";12602994 said:
Hi guys, im going to LA in 2 weeks.

I am still using my 3G iphone, really want to get an upgrade !

Should i buy an iphone 4 in the US ? No
Is it possible to get one without a contract ? Yes, if you are an existing AT&T customer
It is compatible in Europe ? It will be locked to AT&T so will need to be unlocked to work on other networks
Do i need a micro sim ? It's an iPhone 4, so yes

Thanks for your help !
Click to expand...

Answers in bold.

I wouldn't bother myself. :)
 
Try and get a factory unlocked model from Apple in a country that sells them. UK, Canada, etc.
 
maybe strength in the euro, taxes, etc? We have a scientist at work from Italy buy one here for those reasons. There are plenty of places to do the unlock in italy he claims. he paid full retail at best buy.
 
I actually broke down and bought a white iphone 4... I'm moving to Spain soon and I do plan on breaking my contract with AT&T... I'm just gonna bite the bullet and pay it... You can get contracts/minutes in Europe...

I will say that my fiance has movistar in Spain and they upgraded her to an iphone 4 (for free) and she gets free tethering!..
 
If you bought one from Apple in the US, it'll be locked to AT&T. There's no way to get an official unlock. You'll have to use the Gevey sim.
If you sell you locked phone, you should be able to use that money towards a factory unlocked.
JackSpearo said:
I actually broke down and bought a white iphone 4... I'm moving to Spain soon and I do plan on breaking my contract with AT&T... I'm just gonna bite the bullet and pay it... You can get contracts/minutes in Europe...

I will say that my fiance has movistar in Spain and they upgraded her to an iphone 4 (for free) and she gets free tethering!..
Click to expand...
 
eastercat said:
If you bought one from Apple in the US, it'll be locked to AT&T. There's no way to get an official unlock. You'll have to use the Gevey sim.
If you sell you locked phone, you should be able to use that money towards a factory unlocked.
Click to expand...

what??? you can't jailbreak it and use it in Europe??? is there any way to jailbreak it/hack it so I can use it in europe?

if not, I'll have to take it back and get my money back... crap crap crap... please help!
 
Last edited:
JackSpearo said:
what??? you can't jailbreak it and use it in Europe??? is there any way to jailbreak it/hack it so I can use it in europe?

if not, I'll have to take it back and get my money back... crap crap crap... please help!
Click to expand...

You can JB it but you cannot unlock it to be used on other carriers.
Jailbreaking does not mean unlocking.
Take it back unless you want to use a gevey turbo sim to unlock but that can also be blocked with the next firmware update so keep that in mind also.
 
The only time you can get a "Europe" iPhone while in the US would be a warranty replacement, in which apple has the ability to unlock an iPhone from AT&T and relock it to your carrier in Europe. (or unlock it if it was a carrier unlocked model )
 
Never buy an iPhone in USA, it's such BS that even you pay $600 without contract obligation the phone is still locked to AT&T.

If this were last summer I would understand, because the supply was extremely limited in other countries where iPhone is factory unlocked. Now it's easily available everywhere, so F0CK Apple and AT&T.
 
dontwalkhand said:
The only time you can get a "Europe" iPhone while in the US would be a warranty replacement, in which apple has the ability to unlock an iPhone from AT&T and relock it to your carrier in Europe. (or unlock it if it was a carrier unlocked model )
Click to expand...

Not true.
Apple's global warranty does not apply in full to iPhone 4.

I had to go to the Apple store in Shanghai because my home button failed, they told me the new Apple warranty policy does not allow the store to repair/replace out of region iPhone 4.

I came back to New York, went to the Apple store, to verify if the store in Shanghai was telling the truth, they confirmed it.

The reason being:
In most of cases, Apple needs to replace the phone. Since there is locked and unlocked version, they don't want to give you something that's not what you have originally.
So you are out of luck if your phone breaks when you are out of country.
 
bbmiLo said:
Not true.
Apple's global warranty does not apply in full to iPhone 4.

I had to go to the Apple store in Shanghai because my home button failed, they told me the new Apple warranty policy does not allow the store to repair/replace out of region iPhone 4.

I came back to New York, went to the Apple store, to verify if the store in Shanghai was telling the truth, they confirmed it.

The reason being:
In most of cases, Apple needs to replace the phone. Since there is locked and unlocked version, they don't want to give you something that's not what you have originally.
So you are out of luck if your phone breaks when you are out of country.
Click to expand...

All the phones are the same, the lock is applied when the phone is activated. At least this is the case in the UK, where there are now 5 official carriers and you can also buy unlocked. It makes no sense to have 24 different versions of the phone when you can just have 4.
 
so if I wait and buy the iphone 4 from the spanish company movistar... would that be unlocked or what? what should I do? I'm confused :-(
 
yetanotherdave said:
All the phones are the same, the lock is applied when the phone is activated. At least this is the case in the UK, where there are now 5 official carriers and you can also buy unlocked. It makes no sense to have 24 different versions of the phone when you can just have 4.
Click to expand...

Correct.
 
yetanotherdave said:
All the phones are the same, the lock is applied when the phone is activated. At least this is the case in the UK, where there are now 5 official carriers and you can also buy unlocked. It makes no sense to have 24 different versions of the phone when you can just have 4.
Click to expand...


Don't see how that's the case i US.
I assume US phones the carrier lock is "built" in during manufacturing.

From what the Apple store told me, if you bring in a UK unlocked phone for replacement here in US, they can only give you a AT&T locked US phone, they don't have unlocked phone, and they can not factory unlock a US phone for you, that's why they do not service/replace your phone unless it's US phone.
 
bbmiLo said:
Don't see how that's the case i US.
I assume US phones the carrier lock is "built" in during manufacturing.

From what the Apple store told me, if you bring in a UK unlocked phone for replacement here in US, they can only give you a AT&T locked US phone, they don't have unlocked phone, and they can not factory unlock a US phone for you, that's why they do not service/replace your phone unless it's US phone.
Click to expand...

Actually they do replace/service iphones from other countries here in the US.
The carrier lock is not "built" in or hardware.
Its just an IMEI database with locked and carrier unlocked iphones on Apples servers.
Once they put in your "factory" unlocked iphone serial in their system the replacements imei also transfers and carrys the same properties as the one you handed in.
 
Applejuiced said:
Actually they do replace/service iphones from other countries here in the US.
The carrier lock is not "built" in or hardware.
Its just an IMEI database with locked and carrier unlocked iphones on Apples servers.
Once they put in your "factory" unlocked iphone serial in their system the replacements imei also transfers and carrys the same properties as the one you handed in.
Click to expand...

So you are saying, those replacement phones in black box in USA, they are unlocked, only when the store initiate the replacement process for you, the replacement phone's IMEI gets scanned into the system, and at that moment it gets "locked" because it's to replace a AT&T locked phone?
 
Buy a factory-unlocked iPhone in the UK direct from Apple. Then you can use it with any sim that supports it. Even better, wait an buy an unlocked iPhone 5 and you'll have a world phone that will support all sorts of networks.
 
bbmiLo said:
So you are saying, those replacement phones in black box in USA, they are unlocked, only when the store initiate the replacement process for you, the replacement phone's IMEI gets scanned into the system, and at that moment it gets "locked" because it's to replace a AT&T locked phone?
Click to expand...

That's exactly what happens.
 
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