Travel Technology - Best Buy: Unlocked Phones

Perhaps it is old news, but for those of you looking for unlocked phones and do not want to wait for a shipment from Amazon or Ebay, Best Buy now carries unlocked phones:

www.bestbuy.com/unlocked

Thanks for this.

Saw them in my local store today. Appears to only be in stores with the special mobile "desk". Prices are insane, some models are at least $200 more than Amazon, Expansys or Overseas Electronics. I guess if you need instant access to an unlocked phone, they might be a decent option...

Saw them in my local store today. Appears to only be in stores with the special mobile "desk". Prices are insane, some models are at least $200 more than Amazon, Expansys or Overseas Electronics. I guess if you need instant access to an unlocked phone, they might be a decent option...

Such exorbitant rates for an unlocked phone are typical in retail environments, though $200 is a bit more than reasonable. I paid entirely too much for the first one I bought, but work was paying and it was noon and I had a 6pm flight to London and not a lot of time to mess around. So it goes.

I grabbed an E71 for $459+, which is not all that much higher than I saw on Amazon and I needed it immediately.

unlocked is worthless if it does not have the bands you will need,

you really need a phone with the 4 GSM bands for use in the USA and Europe / much of Asia etc (except Japan + Korea)

I just have 2 phones, a cheap Nokia for Europe and my regular Nokia phone for the USA,

Also make sure it comes with a charger that will work overseas....

Rally

Crazy prices, but I guess that's the price we pay for convenience.

The one that really struck me as crazy is $70 for the MOTOFONE. I love that phone to death as something I care nothing about traveling in bad neighborhoods of third world countries or hiking/rafting/etc, but I like it so much because it's so cheap, and easily replaceable. $70 is not throw away cheap.

Some phone vendors will allow you to unlock your phone after a certain period of time. TMobile gave me the code to unlock my Blackberry Pearl. Not the same as buying an unlocked phone from the start, but something to consider.