American iphone

[gonte]

Stranded in Florida at the moment and was browsing in the shops and found unlocked Iphones for $199. He says they will work in the uk but he is the salesman what's the genral consensus about this, is it worth a punt, I know that the charger is 110v but part from that ?

[cyberface]

If they're *really* unlocked, they'll work.

There's a difference between 'factory unlocked' and 'hacked' though. Factory unlocked means it'll work with any SIM, with any official Apple software update - you don't need to worry about anything. A hacked unlocked phone will revert to being locked if you update the software (purposely or accidentally), and you need to re-jailbreak and re-unlock.

One way to tell is to get a demo, look at the phone and see if Cydia is installed as an app... if it is, then the phone has been jailbroken... and may be a 'hacked' unlocked phone rather than an official, factory unlocked phone.

Factory unlocked phones are *expensive* - I'm selling my last one for £400 which is very cheap (it's a 32Gb iPhone 3GS) so for $199 it's either a mk1, a hacked phone, or something dodgy...

[gonte]

Thanks I'll leave that alone then. I don't know enough about them to give it a go so will wait for my upgrade.