Nexus1 cost and comparison - resisted buying a unlocked Iphone

richb6987

I have waited and resisted buying a unlocked Iphone on the promise of a strong independent competitor to apple. I have a original iTouch which I love but refused to be tied into one operator by purchasing the phone.

Does anyone know how much it will cost in the Irish Market.
Will it be significantly cheaper than importing an unlocked iphone
Is there any potential issues with the phone carriers not been compatible with phone.

From my perspective if there is no significant price difference with an unlocked iphone I cant see the reason for waiting so long

dubmick

I am in pretty much the same situation as you. Absolutely itching to get a new phone but won't pay Vodafone €50 a month for 18 months for the privilege.

maxximus

same as that lads , thinking of going to the states next month , wonder will i be able to order the nexus 1 to my hotel

jd83

richb6987 wrote: »

I have waited and resisted buying a unlocked Iphone on the promise of a strong independent competitor to apple. I have a original iTouch which I love but refused to be tied into one operator by purchasing the phone.

Does anyone know how much it will cost in the Irish Market.
Will it be significantly cheaper than importing an unlocked iphone
Is there any potential issues with the phone carriers not been compatible with phone.

From my perspective if there is no significant price difference with an unlocked iphone I cant see the reason for waiting so long

I just got a nexus and had an iphone which im selling. If I where you id go with the nexus it does a lot of things the iphone does except cheaper and isnt locked to a network. Ive only had the nexus a few hours so maybe if you are more patient than i am wait and see how things play out and what others say about it. Im hearing there are a few problems with 3g but i havent experienced it.

Im on vodafone, call quality is fine, 3g is fine, sms is fine. My wifi is a bit slow but could be my wifi and not the phone.

I got mine by doing this:

http://www.gamaze.com/blog/2010/01/how-to-order-googles-nexus-one-smart-phone-if-you-live-outside-the-us-uk-hk-or-singapore/

DanGlee

Same boat here lads. Saving a few quid for a Nexus One, it looks awesome. had a touch diamond, so can defo vouch for HTC and good quiality. I heard about the 3G issues, hope its just teething problems.

Its always a risk being an early adopter!

Just out of curiosity, how did you get your Nexus One? I went ontoo the google/phone site and it was "not available" in my area. Did you get it via eBay or somebody you know in the US?

jd83

Go to:
http://www.gamaze.com/blog/2010/01/how-to-order-googles-nexus-one-smart-phone-if-you-live-outside-the-us-uk-hk-or-singapore/

All together including the delivery charges and myusabox charges it cam to 456 euro. But you could get caught by customs so may end up more.

richb6987

Great solution. Will have to take a serious look at it later.

In the meantime do we have an idea of cost and availability in Ireland if you are too fearful of setting up US mailing addresses etc.

jd83

Not sure how much. But like most things in this country the price will probably be more than the us one.

Alanstrainor

jd83 wrote: »

Not sure how much. But like most things in this country the price will probably be more than the us one.

Well the cost is the same everywhere i thought? It's only the tax and delivery charges that are added. So this will add 21.5% and whatever the delivery charge will be.

jd83

Yh hopefully it is but just i wouldnt be suprised if they tried to charge more. How much is it in total if your buying from the uk.

5500

Mine's after being shipped to the uk, i'll let you know if there's a bill for customs when it arrives

jd83

did you go the myusabox route?

5500

No i have a london address so just used the hotspot shield when ordering and put down my delivery address as there

richb6987

I would be interested in the UK price as well. If you use the hot spot sheild to order from the US can you confirm when you Sign up for a Google Checkout account we can use our own Visa or Pay Pal account and home addresses. Its just the shipping address that is important.

jd83

richb6987 wrote: »

I would be interested in the UK price as well. If you use the hot spot sheild to order from the US can you confirm when you Sign up for a Google Checkout account we can use our own Visa or Pay Pal account and home addresses. Its just the shipping address that is important.

I had a us shipping address and irish billing address in google checkout and I used a visa card. It worked fine.

zing

How much did myusabox charge for forwarding it ? Considering getting one and wondering what's cheapest option - using a service like myusabox or getting delivered to family member in US and going with USPS/Fedex/DHL/etc.. directly to send it on.

jd83

3 euro to setup account, then 26 euro to deliver it with shipnex then the courier charged me 26 euro in vat. I think including everything i paid 456 Euro. Ask myusabox to get rid of any google invoices in it.

5500

richb6987 wrote: »

I would be interested in the UK price as well. If you use the hot spot sheild to order from the US can you confirm when you Sign up for a Google Checkout account we can use our own Visa or Pay Pal account and home addresses. Its just the shipping address that is important.

Yes you can use your irish address for the credit card and uk address for shipping. I had a problem with my mastercard for some reason but when i added visa to the account it worked fine

zing

jd83 wrote: »

3 euro to setup account, then 26 euro to deliver it with shipnex then the courier charged me 26 euro in vat. I think including everything i paid 456 Euro. Ask myusabox to get rid of any google invoices in it.

By any chance do you still have the packaging details to get weight & dimensions from ? Also wondering if the EUR 26 you paid in vat could be gotten round by having the item declared as gift (if originally delivered to a family member and repackaged).

jd83

They charged me 26 euro to ship based on their rate for 2 pounds. The 26 tax or duty was based on the fake invoice. When you go to ship the item in myusabox there is a box for instructions i just said remove the google invoice and repackage. They did this and they also stuck a fake invoice with gift and value of 75 us dollars on it.

zing

Cheers for that - wasn't sure where that extra 26 quid duty/tax was coming from. Makes sense now.

Stephen

Also, my Irish (AIB) mastercard worked fine with google checkout and a US shipping address.

Solair

It sounds like the 3G issues are AT&T Mobile specific. US 3G frequencies are not as standardised as they are in Europe, different carriers are using UMTS on different frequencies.

European carriers all use UMTS (3G) on a nominal: 2100mhz downlink and 1900mhz uplink. Regulators are freeing up the original GSM 2G 900mhz frequency for 3G use soon, so that should improve building penetration etc.

The nexus one supports all of these out of the box.

However, in the United States some operators use 1700mhz and 2100mhz either independently or as up and downlinks, while others, notably AT&T use 850mhz and/or 1900mhz ... confused?!

Not every handset will support all the US frequencies at the moment as they are quite complex and messy. This is why the Nexus One, and many other handsets struggle on certain US 3G networks.

The Nexus One definitely supports European standards, so I don't really see that there will be any problem using it with any of the Irish networks. However, I would give 3 a miss as their data services are non-existent outside of 3G areas i.e. you don't even get EDGE/GPRS. So, if you've no 3G, you just have no data at all.

That was certainly my experience of their network using an unlocked iPhone anyway.

O2 and Meteor seem best equipped for smartphones as they have the whole gambit of data services : GPRS, EDGE, 3G, HSPA/HSPA+
Vodafone lacks EDGE, which can leave you with somewhat painfully slow data if you can't pick up 3G/HSPA

jimmycrackcorm

TBH - wouldn't a Motorola Milestone be a better option for around the same price?

karlr42

jimmycrackcorm wrote: »

TBH - wouldn't a Motorola Milestone be a better option for around the same price?

Only if the physical keyboard is a must, I would say.

richb6987

So has anyone got a review of the phone yet. Is it worth it

Bluefoam

I know a couple of people who have moved from iPhone to Nexus 1 and say its definitely superior... I'm on a hero and love android, plus Google have tried to replicate some of the sense UI in the nexus, which can only be positive.

lord lucan

richb6987 wrote: »

So has anyone got a review of the phone yet. Is it worth it

Check out this thread,http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055788763,good few boardsies with them now.:)

foobar

jimmycrackcorm wrote: »

TBH - wouldn't a Motorola Milestone be a better option for around the same price?

Nexus one specs are better all around unless you need the keyboard.