When you purchase a mobile phone in a shop (whether online or
brick-and-mortar) you only have two options really: either the phone is
sim-free or is locked to a specific network.
A sim free phone is
and can only be a phone that is actually able to take any sim card AND
has been manufactured that way. This is different from an unlocked phone
that was manufactured with a software that can only recognise and
function with a certain type of sim card (i.e Vodafone or T-Mobile).
Sometimes (actually quite often) retailers sell phones advertised as
"unlocked to all networks" when in fact they sell sim free phones. Why
is this important?
It is extremely important because a phone that
has been unlocked means that initially was built to work on a specific
network and the business/individual that bought it subsequently did
unlock by entering the software/motherboard of the phone and actually
tampered with it. This can go from just calculating the "unlocking code"
that is just loaded to the phone software to actually flash a new
software into the phone. If it is done properly then it can be OK and
your phone works fine. If it is not done properly then you could have a
phone that developed bugs/faults.
Importantly, a phone that has
been unlocked by means other that the manufacturer unlocking code (that
can be obtain from your network at the end of a contract period) will
always have the manufacturer warranty invalidated. Bear this in mind
when buying what is in the end an expensive piece of kit.
So
yours truly would strongly recommend that you insist on buying only a
sim free phone, and make sure that it has not been unlocked. So
retailers actually advertise "unlocked to all networks" to help people
understand that they can use the phone with any sim card. Others use the
same terms but in fact they sell a product that has been subsidised by a
Network operator and sold at a cheap price to attract the customers. So
normally an unlocked phone or a locked phone will almost always be
cheaper than a sim free phone but in the end it might turn out to be
more expensive as you might end up with a faulty phone and no warranty
to cover your product.
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