Have questions on smart phone stuff. Newbie.

[fuzzybabybunny]

My Dell Axim x50v recently got stolen, along with the bluetooth keyboard. I currently have Verizon and one of those cheap free-with-your-plan cell phones.

I used my Axim for GPS, typing notes, shopping lists, checking email, etc. I carried it every day.

I'm currently looking at replacement Axims and the x51v + bluetooth keyboard + RhinoSkin hard case are going for over $300 on eBay - used. Would I be better off just spending $300 on a smart phone? I still plan to buy a bluetooth keyboard plus a case or holder of some sort.

1. What exactly is unlocking? Does it allow any phone to be used with any carrier?

2. What can go wrong?

3. Where do you get unlocked phones?

4. Are the unlocked phones on eBay ok to buy?

5. Are unlocked phones no longer under warranty?

6. Are there any smart phones with VGA (640x480) displays?

7. Does Verizon limit my options of getting a good unlocked phone? I'm assuming I MUST get a CDMA - capable Smartphone, right?

8. Recommendations for around $300? I'd like to stay with Windows OS.

Would something like the AT&T 8525 HTC be ok?

 

[pm]

1. Unlocking usually refers to taking GSM SIM-equipped phone (in the US the two major companies that are on GSM, T-Mobile and AT&T) and removing the requirement that the phone only work with one specific carrier. It normally doesn't refer to CDMA carriers - like Sprint and Verizon - because they don't take SIM cards.

So if you have an AT&T GSM phone and you want to, for example, use it with T-Mobile in the US and that AT&T phone is locked to AT&T. You would unlock it, and then go to T-Mobile with your phone and just put in a T-Mobile SIM. It's usually a bigger deal when travelling abroad. Every summer when my family and I travel to Europe we change over our cell phones to local numbers over there by putting in British or German or Polish SIM cards - which makes calling over there very cheap. Then when we come back, we change them back to US.

2. Well, if you have your phone company unlock it - very little. They give you a code, you punch it in, and it's unlocked. Sometimes some phone functions - like Voicemail Notification - stop working, but most of the time things just work perfectly. But if you hack into it and overwrite memory locations or trick the phone into thinking it's unlocked (like they are doing on the iPhone) when it really isn't, then bad things can happen (like a dead phone). So it depends on how you unlock. Another common way it to buy a code from a website or Ebay and unlock it by hand. Nokia's are generally unlocked this way. This is a good way to unlock.

3. Amazon sells a lot of unlocked phones. And, of course, Ebay. Overseas, most phones are unlocked so you can pick them up while travelling. In major US cities, electronics stores often sell unlocked phones.

4. Yes - as safe as anything on Ebay is to buy anyway. But usually they are totally legit.

5. It depends on how it was unlocked and the limitations on the warranty. If the carrier unlocks it for you (T-Mobile has been really nice about unlocking our phones, for example), then the warranty is intact. If you hack the phone to trick it to being unlocking, that would generally violate the warranty..

6. Not sure. In another thread, it was said these have large displays:
HTC Advantage x7501, E-Ten Glofiish x800, Nokia E90 Communicator, HTC Universal (aka O2 Xda Exec, aka I-Mate JasJar, etc),E-Ten Glofish M800

7. Yes, I would think so. The rest of the world mostly uses GSM. There are some neat phones out there used in other countries that are GSM. And, yes, to use it on Verizon it has to be be CDMA - usually specifically tied to Verizon.

8. Not with anything like a 640x480 display...

And, yeah, an 5825 should be great.
http://reviews.cnet.com/smart-...5-6452_7-32133413.html