buying a smartphone in USA

tikiwagon

I am going to the states next week and wondered if it was good deal to get a smartphone over there(iphone 4/4s or samsung galaxy 11/111)are they cheaper and will my warranty still hold if i have a problem with it?Also i guess i buy an appropriate sim when i get back and find the cheapest contract or am i wasting my time and it would be better to get one from here in the UK

[Deleted User]

Really bad idea - it's likely they won't work on the UK phone networks since the USA is completely different

grumbler

tikiwagon wrote: »

...are they cheaper

They may look much cheaper, but in fact the difference is not that big because of the local sales tax in USA and the VAT/duty that you formally have to pay when importing it to UK (although you can possibly avoid this).
iPhone 5 prices

and will my warranty still hold if i have a problem with it?

I think it will if it's a worldwide warranty.

Also i guess i buy an appropriate sim when i get back and find the cheapest contract

I don't see any problems with this.

jen245

The only phone you can buy unlocked and that will work is the iphone, which will work out slightly cheaper than buying it here unlocked. Most other phones are sold on US networks, and wont work here. I came across a few stores selling unlocked phones, but they were quite old models, and were second hand.

jayme1

you will have to look out for a few things if you want to buy a mobile phone in the US,
first, sim lock if you buy it from a network you need to make sure you can unlock it.
the network you buy it from, the US has different networks that use different technologies, only AT&T and Tmobile or an MVNO that uses one of those networks can only really be used outside the US, (unless it's a 'world phone' from one of the other networks)
Frequencies, you need to double check the frequencies that the phone you are buying can work with 3G when you bring it back, otherwise you may be stuck with only 2G.
Also any phone you buy from the US may say it has LTE, that will never work with our (coming soon) LTE networks the frequencies are different.

Also in the case of the Galaxy S3 the US version only has a puny dual core CPU compared to the UKs quad core, also if you do buy a network branded version you would have to wait for them to update the phones software (and US networks are much much worse than any UK network in both approving and customising the firmware)

Factor in the US sales tax any import duty and VAT and it soon becomes much easier just to buy the phone from the UK.

But if you can get an international sim free version of the phone you want and it still works out cheaper with all the taxes then it will work aOK when you bring it back.

macman

You'll also need an adaptor for the US charger. Unless it has a worldwide warranty I wouldn't even consider it-how much will you actually save after import duty and VAT?

tikiwagon

Thanks for all the advice,I guess i will leave it and buy one over here i just though they were compatible and and cheaper but not so!

mrcamp

Totally wrong! Pretty much all smartphones sold in the US are 850/900/1800/1900 GSM. So, they will work on any GSM network in the world. What needs to be watched out for is the 3G frequencies on the phone. Most of them have 850/1900/2100 3G bands, but some also have only 850/1900. Of course, you have to make sure you get an unlocked phone.

Actually, you will not see a phone on the tmobile or AT&T website that does not have these frequencies at a minimum - 850/900/1800/1900 GSM. Of course they are locked to those carriers.

ringo_24601 wrote: »

Really bad idea - it's likely they won't work on the UK phone networks since the USA is completely different