Smartphones in BA

[Easy Go]

A friend has asked me to buy a smartphone (Nokia N95, Treo 680, or Treo 750) in the US and bring it down for her as they are quite a bit cheaper in the US. I understand the obvious issues like it needs to be a GSM unlocked phone, operate on the GSM frequencies in BA, and it will have a US keyboard and power plug. However, I've never had a phone that did data in the US so I never paid much attention to things like 3G and EDGE other than to note that they seem to be important.

Anybody know anything about the technical "gotchas" regarding data networks when using a US model phone with carriers in BA?

[Stan Da Man]

Hi Easy Go:

I don't know too much about the technical side, but I did bring a hacked iPhone with me the last time I was there (last month) It worked very well on three separate networks in be. A. (Movistar and two others I can't remember, which both started with a "C") The data feed was flawless for e-mail and everything else, including the EDGE and wifi based mapping function on the iPhone. The only issue was with making outgoing calls. The phone worked perfectly for three days and then stopped calling US numbers unless I first dialed a country code. So I just switched from Movistar to one of the "C" carriers and everything was back to normal.

My partner is a crackberry addict and he had the exact same issues and lack of issues as above with his RIM phone. Hope that helps.

[MCSE]

If it's the N95 and you get it from bestbuy no need to hack it. It's already unblocked and free to use. Good thing it's that also comes with a gps, and that can be very useful. The norm it's G, so in some wifi spaces you can't get connected. However, the price is not so different if you bring it from the US, 50 us dollars as much.

Never trust the prices in downtown stores. Those are for big buck-soy-producers. Average price in BA it's around usd 700

[Easy Go]

Buy.com has the N95-3 for $480 so that's a pretty decent savings compared to $700. I don't think it's worth the daily hassle of a US plug and English keyboard along with the loss of warranty support but I gave up trying to save chicas from making mistakes many years ago.

The big money is in iPods. A $150 Nano here sells for $300 in BA. Those suckers are tiny so it would be easy to carry a couple of grand in profit down. At least it would be if you could figure out a way to sell them for retail.

Thanks for the info.

[WorldTravel69]

Or should I say getting it ripped off. A Monger lost his Iphone the first night he was here. He had no reason to be carrying it. He drank too much and someone took it.

Just like some other idiot I know. Me. But of course mine was a cheap Motorola.

If you do not plan to use it, leave it in hotel or apartment.