My friend is in Shanghai to visit me and he is planning to buy an iPhone4 here..

If he buys an iPhone4 from an Apple store in Shanghai, can he use it in Europe without any problems?
Anyone has had this experience before?

Yes, you can use it in Europe. But you will have issues with maps, currently they display some location outside China in chinese. And it's not known, if next update will fix it or not.

All phones in China are unlocked so you can just pop in a European SIM card and you're good to go. But as LtSaw mentions, maps could be an issue.

iPhone 4, we found, were more expensive in China than in the US. Not sure of the price in Europe, so just might want to check that out.

mekoda wrote:iPhone 4, we found, were more expensive in China than in the US. Not sure of the price in Europe, so just might want to check that out.

As Markanis says, it might be cheaper in the US but it's locked. Not much use if you want to use it outside of the US. In China they're unlocked so even if they cost more it might suit some people better.

In Europe it's more expnsive than in China. Also phones sold in US are with contract with AT&T. THey can work only in US and are useless in Europe. The cheapest option is to buy an iPhone from Hong Kong.

Praetor951 wrote:

Marakanis wrote:Well, it's my understanding that you CAN buy them unlocked in the U.S. but only from an Apple store directly (in person). The price is also significantly higher than a phone subsidized by AT&T.

Yes, you can buy them from B&M Apple stores in the US but the phones are still locked to AT&T.

Ironic isn't it that in the land of the free, the phones are locked!

In te u.s it's 599 without contract extension not no contract. For example you can't just go in and buy the phone. You need to have a valid service with Att. These are for ppl who are not eligible for upgrade. You need to be close to the end of your 2 yr agreement for the cheaper 199 pricetag.

It makes sense. Why buy a phone locked to Att if you dont have their service?

The only thing you can do in the u.s. Is buy the phone. Run the contract one month and then cancel and pay the high penalty fee and end up somewhere at the china iPhone price with a locked iPhone.

In the end factory unlocked phones demand a higher resale so it might be more expensive but not really in the big scheme.

If they are not technical ppl then the hk version is probably the best.

Btw, today we found out that you need to make a reservation to buy an iPhone4 from Apple Store in Shanghai
It seems that you can't just go in the store and buy it..

HK has a law that prohibit locked phones from cell phone companies.
So the " country official" phones on sale there will be unlocked.
That is a nice convenience for Iphones since that allow software system upgrades.

If you buy a jailbroken iphone, then you have to wait for new jailbreaking software after each system upgrade , otherwise your phone is useless outside the authorized phone company network.

There are also "water imports" iphones that are sold in electronics marts in HK, these are just jailbroken iphones from UK, US.

Most of iphones I run across in Canada are also unlocked.

I did some research on this as I was trying to replace my lost iPhone. From what I found and as others have mentioned, you can buy an unbundled (no carrier contract) phone in the US but it will cost a lot and you'll still need to get it unlocked. The iphone 4's being sold now in the US aren't unlockable yet (or weren't when I checked) and run firmware 4.2. So it seems pointless to buy it in the US. But if you can get a hold of an older US iphone 4 (someone who bought them when the first came out) that never upgraded to 4.2 firmware, you can unlock it. And I think the 3g/3gs are still unlockable even if they upgraded to 4.2 firmware bc of their baseband is different, but I could be wrong as I'm not a techie. Sorry if this is confusing...I get confused just trying to type this out!

dincer80, what number did you call to make an appointment to purchase the iphone 4, and how long do you have to wait until your appointment date? I'm thinking about just buying an unlocked 4, if I can find one.

It just works







(snicker)

tihZ_hO wrote:It just works


(snicker)

Iwank...

That should be a default app on iPhones and iPads!

i-things for China are usually defeatured, like PC, Wiondows software, etc. What about for iPhone 4?

check the warranty position. iPhone china may only cover repairs in China. I'd only buy it with an international warranty but that might cause the price to increase. Otherwise, there ought to be no problem using China iphone outside China. As mentioned Chinese characters might pose a problem. And sometimes Google is always locked to Google China for searches - even if you type in the .com

bossytoe wrote:dincer80, what number did you call to make an appointment to purchase the iphone 4, and how long do you have to wait until your appointment date? I'm thinking about just buying an unlocked 4, if I can find one.

We didn't make a reservation actually..
But we got a "how to make reservation" manual from the guy that helped us..
According to that, the website is :
http://www.apple.com.cn/retail/iphone4

dincer80 wrote:

bossytoe wrote:dincer80, what number did you call to make an appointment to purchase the iphone 4, and how long do you have to wait until your appointment date? I'm thinking about just buying an unlocked 4, if I can find one.

We didn't make a reservation actually..
But we got a "how to make reservation" manual from the guy that helped us..
According to that, the website is :
http://www.apple.com.cn/retail/iphone4

Be sure to try the Kool-Aid

Thanks dincer80!

I tried to get a registration online and it wouldn't go through. I think they are out of stock, which is frustrating, but oh well. I'm sure it's part of their marketing campaign (yes, I drank some kool-aid...but not enough to convert ALL my electronics to Apple...so there is a little piece of my soul left! ) and they are holding off on making them available.

I went into the store last night to ask, and they kept steering me to the online reservation system. They said each day a certain number of reservations will be available depending on the stock supply and once those are gone, you have to try again another day. Rar!

I asked about the 3gs having Wifi and they said it did, but for the price I might as well get a 4. Or at this rate, I'm going to just have to get an old 3gs off eBay. I forgot to ask about the warranty details....but I guess if I end up finding a used one, it won't matter.

We bought iPhone-4 for 5370RMB today; not from Apple store of course
HK version..

dincer80 wrote:We bought iPhone-4 for 5370RMB today; not from Apple store of course
HK version..

Seems like a decent price for a HK version -- where did you get it?

I was getting ready to buy one - what is the difference between HK and Mainland versions?

TheBeaver wrote:I was getting ready to buy one - what is the difference between HK and Mainland versions?

iPhones are more or less the same everywhere but the mainland China ones have some software differences, so Google Maps is in Chinese which is a bit of a pain if you're not Chinese. It also has the YouTube App removed (which makes sense as it's blocked in China) although you can install it in about a minute if you want it back and use a VPN or just use it when outside China.

The differences can be a deal breaker for some but mapping isn't something I use a lot of so it's fine for me and the fact that the iPhone is free from China Unicom if you sign for 2 years on any plan upwards of 386 rmb per month makes it a much better deal for me than buying a HK one.

^Thank you, Chingis

Is it true China Unicom requires a 7000 rmb "deposit" upfront?

TheBeaver wrote:^Thank you, Chingis

Is it true China Unicom requires a 7000 rmb "deposit" upfront?

You could call it a deposit but effectively it's a pre-payment. I have the 386 per month package, they refund 291 rmb every month for the duration of the contract, so I get back the entire 7,000 rmb and a free phone. I'm happy.

Of course this is useless for people who use their phones infrequently but my average bill would be around that anyway. Even if it's sometimes a little less, when you factor in the value of the phone (5880 rmb) I come out on top.

For me the biggest problem was having to change my number but I heard the government is looking in to enforced number portability like they have in the UK and US which makes it illegal for phone companies to prevent you from keeping your number if you change providers.

nok123 wrote:Seems like a decent price for a HK version -- where did you get it?

There is a building at the corner of Tianmu Xi Lu - Meiyuan Lu..
Hundreds of small phone stores inside..
They don't seem very "secure" at first glance
I went to a specific one for which I'd got several positive feedback before..
3rd floor, store #115
There is a girl named Pan Xiu and her brother inside..
They don't speak English, but they have a laptop where you can use Google translate for some details
If you want they can also jailbreak the phone for you to bypass Apple's limitations.. We didn't want it; so do it at your own risk

dincer80 wrote:

nok123 wrote:Seems like a decent price for a HK version -- where did you get it?

There is a building at the corner of Tianmu Xi Lu - Meiyuan Lu..
Hundreds of small phone stores inside..
They don't seem very "secure" at first glance
I went to a specific one for which I'd got several positive feedback before..
3rd floor, store #115
There is a girl named Pan Xiu and her brother inside..
They don't speak English, but they have a laptop where you can use Google translate for some details
If you want they can also jailbreak the phone for you to bypass Apple's limitations.. We didn't want it; so do it at your own risk

Thanks dincer80 -- very useful to have actual feedback from someone who's purchased at a specific place. I think I'd rather have the HK version versus the Chinese version, as I'd like to limit the amount of 'tinkering' need to make the maps display English.

Jailbreaking Apple iPhones so now "it just works"

If you’re an Apple fanboy you probably know that the US government has ruled you can now legally jailbreak your iPhone, which means freeing your phone from the limitations imposed upon it by Apple.

Read the article here