IPhone in Italy

dingding

HI,

Anyone any experience of purchasing an IPhone in Italy. I believe they come unlocked by default and they can be sold by several networks.

Any advice greatfully recieved as I don't understand Italian.

I will be in Italy next week for a couple of days.

Thanks

G-Money

I'd be interested to know more about this too. I'm guessing the iPhone interface is in Italian. Any way to switch it to English?

cojomo2

it straight forward..
buy, pur your sim in, hook up to itunes, and 2 min later you are away.

its not set to itilian..well mine wasnt..i assume this is because i activated it with my itunes a/c which is irish, not italian...

dingding

Thanks for the advice.

CyberDave

I believe you can buy iPhones unlocked in Belgium as well. I am heading over there for a couple of days. Has anybody bought an iPhone 3G in Belgium?

nava

CyberDave wrote: »

I believe you can buy iPhones unlocked in Belgium as well. I am heading over there for a couple of days. Has anybody bought an iPhone 3G in Belgium?

As far as I know in Belgium unlock BUT is country lock so it can only be use with providers in Belgium, if you were to get it you would not be able to use in Ireland unless u use a SIM adapter or jailbreak and when available unlock it.

3DataModem

Hi.

I just purchased an iphone 3G in Belgium.

No contract, no SIMLOCK, no country restrictions.

Came home, stuck in my three.ie SIM card, fired up itunes, and 2 mins later I am up and running. All applications working perfectly.

EDIT: Let me add that one shop told me I could only use in with Belgian SIMS. I checked 2 other shops and they confirmed this was bullsh*t. I purchased it in a big electronics chain called "Saturn" and got a 2 year warranty.

CyberDave

I am back from Belgium and didn't even check out the iPhones over there because of the earlier advice posted. I wish people would make sure what they are saying is 100% correct before they post. Agh well.

finbarrk

How much did the phone cost in Belgium?

3DataModem

I paid €525 for 8gig.

The 16gig was €625 (€615 in some places)

There are no "deals"... it is illegal for a network to subsidize the cost of a phone.

Terrible if you are in Belgium, fantastic if you are from outside Belgium!

samhail

What kinda price is it in italy ?

godskitchen

Why even bother getting an iphone in another country now? If its the same price? Get it in NI and unlock it with yellowsn0w.

3DataModem

Because I get my 2 year warranty?

Because I don't have to worry about how future iphone updates will affect my unlocking?

Ditto re: application compatibility?

Because I was in Belgium anyway?

godskitchen

3DataModem wrote: »

Because I get my 2 year warranty?

Because I don't have to worry about how future iphone updates will affect my unlocking?

Ditto re: application compatibility?

Because I was in Belgium anyway?

I have the same warranty.

No future update will affect the unlock, it does not work that way, if I am wrong then simply do not get the update until Dev-Team crack it, which they will.

Aplication compatibility? I dont understand what you mean by that......

Ok you were in Belgium anyway......was it nice?

finbarrk

3DataModem wrote: »

I paid €525 for 8gig.

The 16gig was €625 (€615 in some places)

There are no "deals"... it is illegal for a network to subsidize the cost of a phone.

Terrible if you are in Belgium, fantastic if you are from outside Belgium!

God, I thought you were getting some sort of a bargain by buying it abroad.
Thats a rob for any phone.

3DataModem

godskitchen wrote: »

I have the same warranty.

Unlocking a carrier-locked iphone voids the warranty. Even if you do a system restore, apple can determine which iphone's were used on 'unauthorized' networks (especially if used to connect to apple services e.g. itunes / appstore etc). To me it is worth a few extra quid not to take this (small) risk.

godskitchen wrote: »

Ok you were in Belgium anyway......was it nice?

Yes it was . Very cold at night, but a great new year's eve.

3DataModem

finbarrk wrote: »

God, I thought you were getting some sort of a bargain by buying it abroad.

finbarrk wrote: »

Hell no. iPhone is not a bargain anywhere! Just don't fancy being stuck with O2 for life (starting with a €45 per month contract for 18 months), when I have a similar deal with three.ie for a lot less than that and can move to any other network as I choose.

finbarrk wrote: »

Thats a rob for any phone.

You're probably right, but with the GPS, email, web-browser and full video ipod features, it's not a total bumming, just a gentle ripoff!

dingding

Thanks for all the advice here. I got a 16B model for 569 euro in a TIM store in Italy.

They had the 8GB model for about 500 euro.

The shop assistant authorised the phone on itunes and checked my 3 sim worked in it before I left the shop.

Great with 3 as I can roam like I am at home on the 3 italy network.

Thanks for all the advice.

As regards the previous posters, not any cheaper than Ireland, but the fact that I can use any network without having to hack the phone is great. 3 are handy for me because I travel a lot in countrys that have the 3 network.

It is doing an update to 2.2 now