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Buying Galaxy Note 3 Neo Duos Abroad

jamike77
4: Newbie

Hi everyone -

 

I would like to purchase the abovementioned phone abroad (either Hong Kong or Dubai) and use it on the Vodafone network. It is not sold in the UK so I'm not able to buy from a local dealer. I am a bit worried that it will lock when I put a SIM in it, as per the article below. Should this be a concern or is it going to work just fine?

 

http://techview.me/2013/10/samsung-clarifies-sim-lock-issue-uae/

 

Thank you!

6 REPLIES 6

drey_p
16: Advanced member
16: Advanced member

Hi there

 

The article, which is nearly a year old,  doesn't state which phones Samsung will be starting with and when so it is going to be hard to work out whether or not your handset will lock if you insert a UK SIM card in it.  It does say that the handset has to be activated using a local SIM card.  So it may be an idea to purchase a local SIM card and activate the phone:

 

 So if you were to purchase a device from UK, you will have to use a UK Telco SIM card to activate your phone. However once activated, the device will be unlocked and you can use any international SIM card for when you go roaming

 

I personally would be buying a phone in the UK where you will get the support for it rather than taking a chance with a foreign handset.

PWIAC

I'd prefer to buy in the UK too but the selection of dual SIM phones is bismal...

drey_p
16: Advanced member
16: Advanced member

Do bear in mind that the support for dual SIM phones isn't good in the UK with a lot of users reporting issues with them.

PWIAC

Sorry what do you mean by "support"? As in if they are purchased outside of the UK?

hrym
17: Community Champion
17: Community Champion

People have a lot of trouble getting them to work.  A lot of them are also incompatible with Vodafone's new 900mhz 3G service, which they're moving to.  The devices have a habit of operating on 850mhz.  They'll still work on 2100mhz masts, as long as you're near one of those and they should be OK with the 2G network.

 

For no particularly obvious reason, some of the devices refuse to make a data connection, even when all the settings have been correctly entered manually.  Because the devices aren't sold here, none of the networks will be able to help you if you have problems and there's only a tiny knowledgebase.  We see queries here but very few people who have any experience.

 

For reliability, you're probably better off with two phones.

drey_p
16: Advanced member
16: Advanced member

You won't be able to get any support from the networks as they don't supply the phone.

 

But by support, I meant that the phones don't seem to work properly on the networks because the phones are supplied / tested on the networks.

PWIAC