Looking for a Smartphone?

[Jason Dunn]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?MfcISAPICommand=GetResult&query=SPV+Smartphone&cgiurl=http%3A%2F%2Fcgi.ebay.com%2Fws%2F&ht=1&from=R10&currdisp=2&itemtimedisp=1&st=2&SortProperty=MetaEndSort&BasicSearch=' target='_blank'>http://search.ebay.com/search/searc...rt&BasicSearch=</a><br /><br /></div>If you're looking for a Smartphone in the US, there's one place to go: eBay! That's right, everyone's favourite hotbed of grey market items is now featuring unlocked Orange SPV Smartphones that will work in North America. Most of them have expensive "buy it now" options for $750+, but <a href="http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3012323140&category=11026">this one</a> doesn't have any reserve on it. The bidding starts at $250, which isn't bad.<br /><br />Then again, I'm confident we'll see major carriers releasing Smartphones soon enough in the US, so don't spend all your money now!

[DavidHorn]

You can expect the prices of these to drop quite a lot now that a little app has been released that obtains the phone's unlock code easily.

And if you have an unlocked phone - where better to go than SmartGamer.org? OK, that was shameless.... ;)

[bdegroodt]

Caveat emptor!

Many of these "unlocked" phones are only kind of unlocked. They require some special handling if you ever power them off and aren't truly unlocked. I found this out almost the hard way through a seller on Ebay myself. Anyone that's going to buy from there would be well advised to ask the seller if it is a fully unlocked phone or if you have to go through a process of unlocking it again each time it is powered off.

Here's a forum feed on this process for further education's sake. (http://www.modaco.com/smartphone/viewtopic.php?t=897&highlight=)

[Mike Temporale]

If you're really interested you can also pickup "unlocked" SPV from here:

http://www.gsmphonesource.com/cellphonespecials.html

I've never dealt with them, I just noticed an ad for unlocked SPV.

[dlipetz]

Then again, I'm confident we'll see major carriers releasing Smartphones soon enough in the US, so don't spend all your money now!

Jason - without violating any NDA you be under, why are you so confident about Smartphone release soon in the US? I made a post in the thread about the Mitac regarding the mysterious Samsung SCH-i600. Now Samsung has invested in Symbian. No major carriers have announced Smartphone plans in US, and there have been virtually no stories leaked on the Internet regarding this. I'm beginning to believe that MS may be having trouble with Smartphone adoption here in the US. Boy, I hope I am wrong.

Would be ecstatic if an announcement is made at CTIA. Especially if it includes the SCH-i600. Maybe it's just me, but I don't want a camera in my phone.

[Jason Dunn]

Jason - without violating any NDA you be under, why are you so confident about Smartphone release soon in the US?

I can't say, sorry. But think positively! :wink:

[Wuss912]

I can't say, sorry. But think positively! :wink:

Thats a positive Non-Confermation..
now if i could only get a cdma2000 smartphone...

[revolution.cx]

There is a program that was recently released that permanently unlocks the SPV so it will work on any GSM network. Even survives a hard-reset. This is a big change from the power up hack that people used to have to do.

Surprisingly it seems this has driven UP the cost of phones on ebay since they are now mostly advertised as unlocked.

I've had my SPV for a week now and I'm very impressed. For a first generation device they got a lot right and most of the wrongs are because they left something out and not because they stuffed in some half broken feature.

TMobile has announced they will have SPV+ hardware this summer.

[ThomasC22]

TMobile has announced they will have SPV+ hardware this summer.

Source?

Not that it matters to me now that my SPV is already on it's way I'm just curious as to what T-Mobile's plans are.

[ThomasC22]

TMobile has announced they will have SPV+ hardware this summer.

Source?


Forget it, I found it (http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=7007).

Although I find it odd that this article says that it will be exclusive to T-Mobile when infosync has an article saying that Orange will use it as a successor to the current SPV

[Mike Temporale]

the first batch of orders for Orange amounted to almost 200,000 Units, although Orange UK promptly lost 1,440 of them

I wonder if these are the ones that are showing up on ebay? :lol:

[ARW]

It would appear that the i600 is dead, according to much speculation and now msmobiles comment. This would CDMA without a Smartphone option, so GSM with AT&T would be the best bet for an appearance in NA.

It's too bad, the i600 looked just about perfect.