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Unlocked iPhone 3G S (16GB) for £490.00 exc VAT

dream said:
Me too. As far I know it can not be unlocked yet. Maybe he is confused between 3G and 3G "S".

Anyway I believe that it is better to pay more for unlocked iphone cause I do not want to play "Cat & mouse" game.

Developers unlock/jailbreak it then apple updates the OS and locks it.
Again dev team unblock then Apple updates and locks :confused:
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I didn't know it wasn't unlockable yet, but trust me, it usually only takes a few weeks - a month for them to get a new hack working.

If you're getting a factory unlocked phone then you won't have to play the cat and mouse game, but if this dealer just unlocks phones using the dev team method (like many do), then you will not be able to update your phone unless you want to unlock it each time.
 
I agree and if I pay £580 for a 16gb or £650 for a 32gb I will sure as hell be keeping it for a good 2 years!

And when you think about it O2 are charging £440 and £540 for locked ones so an extra £110 is not that bad considering

I did some calculations and for a 32gb from Brussels would cost me £575 + £60 for eurostar + £30 to get to london so a grand total of £665 ;)
 
matttye said:
I didn't know it wasn't unlockable yet, but trust me, it usually only takes a few weeks - a month for them to get a new hack working.

If you're getting a factory unlocked phone then you won't have to play the cat and mouse game, but if this dealer just unlocks phones using the dev team method (like many do), then you will not be able to update your phone unless you want to unlock it each time.
Click to expand...

I have seen that specially on ebay and they are very clever on how they say it, these are factory unlocked and will remain unlocked no matter which firmware you put on.

From experience yeah you save money but its not worth the hassle
 
daleski75 said:
I agree and if I pay £580 for a 16gb or £650 for a 32gb I will sure as hell be keeping it for a good 2 years!

And when you think about it O2 are charging £440 and £540 for locked ones so an extra £110 is not that bad considering

I did some calculations and for a 32gb from Brussels would cost me £575 + £60 for eurostar + £30 to get to london so a grand total of £665 ;)
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true. just remember, as i said, the warranty is only valid in brussels, not in london.

you'd have to send your iphone back to brussels to get a new one. i was contemplating getting a factory unlocked iphone from beligum/italy as well, but considering how i'm from the US, it would take about two weeks just to use my warranty if anything happened. which is a reallly really long time without a phone.



mattye, while yes, it usually does take a fairly short amount of time for the dev team to jailbreak the iphones, right now, the 3GS falls under an interesting and somewhat annoying situation.

the 3GS technically can be jailbroken at the moment, but since the 3GS is still being released internationally and apple is going to be releasing 3.0.1 firmware relatively soon, the dev team is holding off on releasing the jailbreak.

and the dealer has no way of unlocking the iphone on their own right now, they can only purchase factory unlocked iphones and resell them at the moment.


to each his own, everyone values things differently. i would pay 100 bucks more to get a factory unlocked iphone, but the warranty issues are what really stops me, since the warranty is tied to the headset and everything in between.
 
pelicanflip said:
true. just remember, as i said, the warranty is only valid in brussels, not in london.

you'd have to send your iphone back to brussels to get a new one. i was contemplating getting a factory unlocked iphone from beligum/italy as well, but considering how i'm from the US, it would take about two weeks just to use my warranty if anything happened. which is a reallly really long time without a phone.



mattye, while yes, it usually does take a fairly short amount of time for the dev team to jailbreak the iphones, right now, the 3GS falls under an interesting and somewhat annoying situation.

the 3GS technically can be jailbroken at the moment, but since the 3GS is still being released internationally and apple is going to be releasing 3.0.1 firmware relatively soon, the dev team is holding off on releasing the jailbreak.

and the dealer has no way of unlocking the iphone on their own right now, they can only purchase factory unlocked iphones and resell them at the moment.


to each his own, everyone values things differently. i would pay 100 bucks more to get a factory unlocked iphone, but the warranty issues are what really stops me, since the warranty is tied to the headset and everything in between.
Click to expand...

Well I have just gone and paid for a 32gb unlocked iPhone 3GS to replace my locked O2 16gb 3GS which I will be selling upon receipt of the new one.

If I change my mind I will just cancel the order
 
hmmm I believe £100 extra for unlocked iphone is not that much :)
 
daleski75 said:
Yup I agree totally Dream, I am now just zapping my dell mini 9 to put that on ebay and see what else I can sell to pay off the £650 off my card!

Hmm my soul? hahaha
Click to expand...


If you have a Dell and are thinking of buying an unlocked iPhone, I fear you've already traded your soul a whiles back... ;):)
 
With Play.com they say that the warranty will be honoured in the UK. I still don't know if they're coming from abroad or sourced in the UK. Their iPhones are factory unlocked / SIM-free. Are you sure this website is selling factory unlocked ones or just ones they've unlocked themselves?

I should be getting mine in a day or two for £200 less than the list price on the website - a blip on the day pre-oders launched meant I got mine for £499.99 rather than £799.99 - I would never pay £800 for a phone, but a sim-free phone at £500 when O2 charge £440, I thought it was a bargain at the time... since then I've decided to stick with my O2 phone and try and sell this sim-free one on eBay. The 3GS 16GB sim free ones are going for £750-800... lots of iPhones on eBay claim to be 'unlocked' but they've just been hacked and they usually go for £450-550.
 
OllyW said:
As long as the lack of Apple warranty doesn't bother you.
Click to expand...

um, you do know that by buying a factory unlocked iphone from italy/belgium/other countries that sell them, they still come with a 1 year warranty by apple?

the only catch is, the warranty is only usable in the country that the iphone was purchased in. so an iphone bought in italy would have to be sent back to italy in order to use the warranty, and vice versa for any and all countries.
 
pelicanflip said:
um, you do know that by buying a factory unlocked iphone from italy/belgium/other countries that sell them, they still come with a 1 year warranty by apple?

the only catch is, the warranty is only usable in the country that the iphone was purchased in. so an iphone bought in italy would have to be sent back to italy in order to use the warranty, and vice versa for any and all countries.
Click to expand...

Sorry, I meant UK warranty. :eek:

I know Play.com will cover any warranty work on the unlocked phones they sell but they are charging a premium so it's to be expected.

How will you know which country the phone is sourced from? There's no mention of Apple UK on the box my 3G came in. :confused:
 
OllyW said:
Sorry, I meant UK warranty. :eek:

I know Play.com will cover any warranty work on the unlocked phones they sell but they are charging a premium so it's to be expected.

How will you know which country the phone is sourced from? There's no mention of Apple UK on the box my 3G came in. :confused:
Click to expand...

I suspect when you open it up the plug will give it away... UK plug = comes from uk; EU plug = comes from italy/etc; Aussie plug = you get it :)
 
wpc said:
I suspect when you open it up the plug will give it away... UK plug = comes from uk; EU plug = comes from italy/etc; Aussie plug = you get it :)
Click to expand...

Didn't think about that. :eek:

Let's hope they don't end up with an Aussie ones, it's a long way to send it back if anything goes wrong.
 
If I bought a factory unlocked 3GS from Italy and used it in AT&T in the US do you think that they would be able to tell that it was an iPhone and charge you the mandatory iPhone data package that they sell with all their locked ones? It doesn't matter if they do, I was just wondering.
 
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