Buying a mobile in USA to use in UK

viney

I am hoping to go to USA in late April and am thinking about purchasing a mobile from there to bring back with me and use in the UK.

The reason for purchase abroad is
1) I hope the models will be even newer than in th UK
2) I am hoping that the price will be cheaper than the uk for handset only.

Has anyone done something similar and can they recommend anything for what is a good one to buy (not available in the UK) and price wise?

thanks

fonefather

the prices for handsets in the uk are more reasonable than in the us. your best bet for getting the price down is to bargain with cash at your local electronics/gsm dealer in whichever city you are flying out to.

as long as the phone is tri/quad band then you're sorted.

If you want to look at the latest handsets, I would recommend the following sites:

https://www.gsmarena.com
https://www.mobile-review.com

both sites give good reviews of phones.

hth.

bazza1603

Hi,

Becareful as I am sure the bands are slightly different so it may not work. Perhaps someone can confirm this?

Best regards

Barry

viney

Thanks Bazza, thats a bit worrying as the UK ones are sold as being usable in the USA (Triband) , I would like to think the reverse is also true.

Thanks fonefather for the links will check them out.

kmhtkmhtkmht

That is one of the dumbest things I heard.

Why on EARTH would you do that?! I grew up in New York City and was schooled here in the UK and since I was 14 I already knew phones were cheaper here than in America - American phones are WAY behind. I.e. I was rocking a Motorola V3 that I bought for 300 on Ebay and in America they were selling for 2500, people coming up to me asking what's that...

monty77

viney wrote:

I am hoping to go to USA in late April and am thinking about purchasing a mobile from there to bring back with me and use in the UK.

The reason for purchase abroad is
1) I hope the models will be even newer than in th UK
2) I am hoping that the price will be cheaper than the uk for handset only.

Has anyone done something similar and can they recommend anything for what is a good one to buy (not available in the UK) and price wise?

thanks

1) Quite the opposite
2) Nope, 'fraid not

Spend your $$$ on trainers, clothes and maybe a laptop

A

jf2404

monty77 wrote:

1) Quite the opposite
2) Nope, 'fraid not

Spend your $$$ on trainers, clothes and maybe a laptop

A

I agree, Ours are far advanced than the US, it's not worth the hassle, especially not knowing if it will work back in the UK and as most sales people they will just say it will work to get a sale, then you'll get back and find out it wont.

JamesM_2

Just came back from the states myself and had a similar idea to yours, as others have said phones are more expensive over there, they run on different frequencies (even tri-band can cause problems if you want to use it over here) and the charger would need an adapter.

viney

Thank you all.

That has sorted that out, trainers and clothes it is then!

andy88_2

There are 4 bands for GSM (and make sure it is GSM, as there are others)
850 and 1900 in Americas
900 and 1800 in rest of the world (not Japan)*

This is why a quad-band will cover everything

If you buy tri-band you get
850, 1800, 1900 in Americas
900, 1800, 1900 in Europe

as 850 and 900 are the more common ones a tri-band can be a compromise depending where you are going

Sorry to be boring after the event; it sounds like you've gone off it anyway; it might be useful for others

*edit due to Bextech's reply below

BexTech

Shouldn't that be:

850 and 1900 in Americas
900, 1800 Virtually the rest of the world!

In the UK Vodafone & O2 are 900 with the odd 1800 sites.
T-Mobile & Orange are 1800.