How do YOU phone?!

Larztard said:

Excuse me, but was does the term "unlock" mean for phones?

Click to expand...

Eblo said:

It means you can run homebrew apps. It's useful for creating your own.

Click to expand...

Wrong, that's called jailbreaking, and is only big for iPhone users. Any of the other ones, well, tough tits.

RedEnchilada said:

Actually, at least in the Android realm, most devices already allow you to run your own apps simply by loading the APK onto it and running it. (You usually have to enable non-Play Store apps in the options first.) Unlocking a phone refers to detaching it from a commitment to a carrier, so you can freely use it on any carrier you desire. Now, iOS devices do have something called "jailbreaking" which opens the phone to running apps from places other than the App Store, but Android users typically don't need that. (That said, if greater access is required, i.e. capturing video output from other apps, rooting the phone is often required to give those capabilities to other apps. Similar methods are also used for flashing different Android distros onto a particular device.)

Click to expand...

True, but not the definition of an unlocked phone.

A lock usually refers to a CARRIER lock, that is, the carrier your phone does all the cellular and data work through only works on that carrier. IE, you can't take your Sprint phone and get Verizon's data through it.

To unlock is to remove this limitation, usually at the request of the carrier, or by means of deeper tweaking. Mostly this is exclusive to GSM phones, like, say, a Google Nexus 5. To have GSM usually allows the phone to be used internationally. A godsend for people who travel often, as you can grab a disposable SIM card, slap it in, and your phone is active on that country's carriers!

GSM and CDMA are much more complex, but the fact is, some carriers are GSM, others are CDMA. And as a mention, CDMA is kind of like the imperial system. It's a really American-only thing, with Europe having WCDMA. CDMA phones are worse for unlocking, so I won't detail it much.

The gist is, though, if you were to find a phone on eBay labeled "UNLOCKED" and you buy it for your Sprint carrier, you messed up. I'd look into the details regarding carrier bands and know what phones I'd be hunting down.

As an example, there's that link in my OP. It's of the NEC Medias W N-05e, currently on the NTT DoCoMo carrier from Japan. As said, it's NTT DoCoMo, but it can be unlocked and used on most GSM networks, sans support for 4G LTE, which is the only reason CDMA phones have SIM slots nowadays.

I can't afford that near-$500 boss of a phone, but I know the only other phone made like that - the Kyocera Echo, a Sprint exclusive. It can't be unlocked to use on any other carrier, just Sprint and their MVNOs (read about it).

My reasons for this dual-screen phone stuff is my own personal desire, but it's a good example, regarding carrier-exclusive devices. Know your carrier and know their bands before you buy a phone. You might screw yourself over.