Identifying whether my iPhone 4 is factory-unlocked or not?

[KareemMakk]

Hello!

I want to buy an iPhone 4 tomorrow from a store near where I live (it's not an authorized dealer...the iPhone costs $1000 there). Although there is an authorized dealer nearby, the iPhone from there would cost $400 more.

However, I am really willing to buy a factory-unlocked iPhone 4 instead of a software-unlocked one, and I am going to check out the unauthorized dealer tomorrow. I am afraid that the salesman would trick me into buying a software-unlocked one without my knowledge. The reason for which I want a factory-unlocked iPhone is so that I wouldn't have to jailbreak it each time I update it and risk getting it locked by mistake in case that there is no available software yet to unlock it.

Therefore, I would like to know what are some features that would help me identify a factory-unlocked from a software-unlocked iPhone.

For example, what is the default iPhone software that Apple releases with all iPhone 4's (if there is a default software version)? Would the Cydia icon be visible on a software-unlocked iPhone (I'm afraid that it would be hidden in some way)? Also, I would PLEASE like to know some more ways to identify the factory-unlocked from the software-unlocked iPhone without having to restore it.

Thanks in advance for the help.

 

[wvphysics]

My BS alarm gets twitchy on anyone selling a "factory unlocked" iPhone in the US.

 

[Warbrain]

My BS alarm gets twitchy on anyone selling a "factory unlocked" iPhone in the US.

They exist in other countries.

 

[wvphysics]

They exist in other countries.

Hence, "in the US"

 

[IrishVixen]

It should be fairly easy to ensure they're not trying to give you a soft unlock.

Two things: First, check the firmware under settings. If it's 4.0.2 or 4.1, it's not jailbroken and any unlock would have to be from the factory. Neither of those firmware versions can be JB'd on an iPhone 4 at this time.

Second--if the firmware is 4.0 or 4.0.1--Do a hard reboot on the phone (hold the power key and home button down until "slide to power off" appears, then use that). Turn the phone back on. Watch carefully. The silver apple logo will appear first. IF a line of colored pixels then appears at the top of the screen, the phone's been jailbroken and possibly has a software unlock. If no colored pixels appear and the top of the screen stays solid black until the home screen with apps appears, the phone is running stock firmware and therefore cannot have been unlocked by an end user running ultrasn0w. The ONLY JB method that works right now on an iPhone 4 will always show these pixels when rebooted. No colored pixels, no jailbreak, no software unlock.

If it's JB'd, I'd assume a soft unlock is in place.

Not sure how you tell if a phone really is unlocked short of putting a SIM into it and activating it. Might want to run a Google search on that.