When you purchase a mobile phone in a shop (whether online or brick-and-mortar) you only have two options really: either the phone is sim-free or is locked to a specific network.
A sim free phone is and can only be a phone that is actually able to take any sim card AND has been manufactured that way. This is different from an unlocked phone that was manufactured with a software that can only recognise and function with a certain type of sim card (i.e Vodafone or T-Mobile). Sometimes (actually quite often) retailers sell phones advertised as “unlocked to all networks” when in fact they sell sim free phones. Why is this important?
It is extremely important because a phone that has been unlocked means that initially was built to work on a specific network and the business/individual that bought it subsequently did unlock by entering the software/motherboard of the phone and actually tampered with it. This can go from just calculating the “unlocking code” that is just loaded to the phone software to actually flash a new software into the phone. If it is done properly then it can be OK and your phone works fine. If it is not done properly then you could have a phone that developed bugs/faults.
Importantly, a phone that has been unlocked by means other that the manufacturer unlocking code (that can be obtain from your network at the end of a contract period) will always have the manufacturer warranty invalidated. Bear this in mind when buying what is in the end an expensive piece of kit.
So yours truly would strongly recommend that you insist on buying only a sim free phone, and make sure that it has not been unlocked. So retailers actually advertise “unlocked to all networks” to help people understand that they can use the phone with any sim card. Others use the same terms but in fact they sell a product that has been subsidised by a Network operator and sold at a cheap price to attract the customers. So normally an unlocked phone or a locked phone will almost always be cheaper than a sim free phone but in the end it might turn out to be more expensive as you might end up with a faulty phone and no warranty to cover your product.
I hope this article is informative. I will appreciate your feedback.
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