[webwysard]

Evening all,

Going to NY next month so just to stay in touch with friends and family there and here, I'll need a smart phone which works with American networks.

The reason for a smart phone is that I can access internet while out and about. One option is to have my phone unlocked, but not sure if it will still work perfectly or buy a new phone while there or take a phone from here in case my own wont work.

Anyone with an experience in same situation or knowledge ?

Thanks.

[mick_n3]

I’ve just brought a Huawei Ascend G510 £130 vodafone (did hear somewhere they had them on offer this week for £110) Pay as you Go to replace a Blackberry until the end of my contract. must say for the price it isn’t half bad, only bad point I've found in the 3 month I've had it is battery life is average but I just got a spare (genuine) battery from Amazon for a fiver,. Details here Review here

[peterg1965]

I am taking the plunge today and going for a Galaxy S4 on 4G. Big decision having had an iPhone 4 for 3 years. Sorry, that doesn't answer the question, but I would have thought that most of these phones work on US networks once the phone is unlocked. Is it just a case of then buying a US network SIM?

[m@rk]

How are you going to connect when you get there?

Will you use your UK SIM (and pay through the nose) or buy a local SIM when you get there?

Some US carriers don't use SIM cards (or even the GSM system the rest of the world does) so you will be limited to using the carriers that do (T-Mobile) so on that basis I would suggest that you wait till you get there then you can buy a PAYG phone from any of the carriers

[Business edition]

I would of said to you to get a samsung S4 galaxy. Because when it first came out I was due an upgrade and I didn't want other iphone. So I decide to go with the s4 awesome phone at stsrt. The down sides are that it keeps crashing with is really annoying and the auto correcting is annoying also.

Other then that the phone is great can't knock it.

[Giff]

Most phones are now quad band, what you have already will probably be fine.

[m@rk]

Originally Posted by Giff

Most phones are now quad band, what you have already will probably be fine.

However most US carriers use CDMA and NOT GSM so even a quad band phone will not work on MOST US networks

[makkan00]

Originally Posted by m@rk

However most US carriers use CDMA and NOT GSM so even a quad band phone will not work on MOST US networks

+1
As said earlier, get your phone unlocked and use GSM sim (limited choice).

Or buy any cheapo GSM phone from there.

[m@rk]

Originally Posted by makkan00

+1
As said earlier, get your phone unlocked and use GSM sim (limited choice).

Or buy any cheapo GSM phone from there.

Or even better buy a cheap CDMA phone (these phones don't have a SIM card) which means you can choose from a lot more carriers