T-Mobile and an unlocked Samsung Galaxy I9100 S2?

[MertleBGr8]

I was thinking of pairing a T-Mobile Pay As You Go plan with an unlocked Samsung I9100 Galaxy 2S. But a review at Amazon said to beware of this phone with T-Mobile, because it doesn't have the 1700 band radio. Is this correct? I called T-Monile and they said they couldn't tell me, but the way to know is to drop a SIM card into it and see. And then for that matter, if I were to buy any unlocked Android phone to use with T-Mobile, how do I know, in advance, if a paticular unlocked phone will work with T-Mobile?
And while I'm here:do most Android phones work on a CDMA carrier, like Virgin Mobile, given the carrier allows unlocked phones?
Thankyou for any insight or help, -I"m coming over from the iphone world and am learning.....

[nakedsnake]

T-mobile is going to release their version of Samsung Galaxy S II on Oct 12 2011. Their version of the phone will work on 1700 Mhz band that T-mobile uses for their 3G/ 4G service. In simple terms, the T-mobile version of the phone is compatible with T-mobile's 3G (high speed mobile internet). If you buy the (non-Tmobile) phone currently available from amazon, you can still make calls but data will be on slower EDGE speed rather than faster 3G speed. If you don't care about data, and just need a nice phone to talk and text, and you are going to use only Wi-Fi for data, then you can go ahead and use the pay as you go plan with the unlocked version.

I am not sure what you are asking in the second question...Do you want to know if most android phones are CDMA? Then no. It depends on the manufacturer. I would say most phones are designed with GSM (SIM card based). I personally prefer GSM phones as I can upgrade my phone any time without having to call my carrier. There are many non-CDMA android phones in the market.

[MertleBGr8]

thanks nakedsnake for the info, especailly about the data capability.
At the time of the post, I had thought all android phones were GSM based, but hten someone told me some have CDMA chips in them too, so they'd work on any carrier that accepted unlocked phones.