You really don't. Nokia is a company in limbo right now.
Despite Nokia's problems, Symbian will still dominate worldwide for at least another year thanks to the high-volume, low-value phone sector.
Lets say you don't want to sign a long term contract with a wireless company. You will end up buying at least two phones..one for Robbers and Belus...one for Wind and Mobilicity. Wasting money on a second phone makes no sense for someone who doesn't want a contract. Nokia is the only company willing to make a penta-band 3G phone. Symbian may be clumsy but you'll get use to it. Symbian does have Swype now.
T-Mobile's Vibrant/Galaxy S has AWS but also has unlockable 850/1900 3G as well. There's been many reports of people using that phone on AT&T and Bell 3G after unlock.
If you believe the BGR info, all the new 3G Blackberrys also have multi band phones that are just factory lock to one of the two modes (one with Aws, the other with 850/1900), but hardware-wise identical phones. Saw some rumour (crackberry) about the Torch 3G bands was unlocked for AWS but at his point nobody has shown real evidence for this.
Nokia may be the only one openly doing pentaband phones now, but it seems looks like many manufacturers are already using multi-band chips and antennas. Carriers probably don't like multi band phones so ask them to lock it down.
I'm hoping that the rumours of the next iPhone being dual mode (CDMA and GSM/HSPA) and multi band to work on any carrier is true. Not that I want an iPhone, but it will put pressure on other manufacturers to come out with these flexible phones. If anything it will make these chips cheaper due to economy of scale.
Remember how we used to have to check the bands for 2G GSM phones, now just about every phone has wuadband GSM and youndon't even worry about this anymore. Hope next year 3G will make the same leap.
T-Mobile's Vibrant/Galaxy S has AWS but also has unlockable 850/1900 3G as well. There's been many reports of people using that phone on AT&T and Bell 3G after unlock.
I have heard that UMTS 850, while being in the menus, does not work with the T-Mobile phone so you'd only get partial coverage with Bell.
..and the rumored IPhone will have CDMA but not GSM. Also, I think it might have WiMax instead of HSPA.
It lets you choose a phone, your country then your carrier. It tells you if the phone is compatible with your carrier or not. I tried a couple and it seems to be bang on.
The list isn't complete though - only contains few countries and only the big carriers.
Originally Posted by okboy
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