Hi all. I have an informational favour to ask. I'm not in a position to go to local stores and the info isn't readily available online. I want to buy an unlocked phone as a gift. Two that I am looking at are the Moto G and the Alcatel Idol 3. Both have websites that sell unlocked phones mail order in the States, but if I indicate Canada they send me to a carrier (Bell or Telus). Would anyone here know if the Canadian versions of these phones are carrier locked, if the American ones are not? I'm happy to buy one off-contract if I know it can be taken to any carrier. Alternately, does anyone have a different recommendation in the $300-400 range? I know that Canada Computer sells the Asus Zenfone, but I know little about this Intel-powered phone. All help is appreciated. (obLinux: Android only). And don't even mention the Oneplus; nice phone, supremely flaky company. Thanks!
Hello Evan, I think staples site is just broken, I checked the usual suspects and it looks like a bunch of canadian online computer retailers have unlocked Moto G, I think it would be interesting for you to browse the smartphone sections on each website: Newegg -- http://www.newegg.ca/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100023269&IsNodeId=1&Description=moto%20g&name=All%20Cell%20Phones%20-%20Unlocked&Order=BESTMATCH&isdeptsrh=1 NCIX -- http://search.ncix.com/search/?qcatid=0&q=moto+g CanadaComputers ships things -- http://www.canadacomputers.com/advanced_search_result.php?cPath=&sort=2&category_id=415&keywords=moto+g&cPath=&sort=2&filter_id= Alex. On 22/10/15 05:56 PM, Evan Leibovitch wrote:
Hi all.
I have an informational favour to ask. I'm not in a position to go to local stores and the info isn't readily available online.
I want to buy an unlocked phone as a gift. Two that I am looking at are the Moto G and the Alcatel Idol 3. Both have websites that sell unlocked phones mail order in the States, but if I indicate Canada they send me to a carrier (Bell or Telus).
Would anyone here know if the Canadian versions of these phones are carrier locked, if the American ones are not? I'm happy to buy one off-contract if I know it can be taken to any carrier.
Alternately, does anyone have a different recommendation in the $300-400 range? I know that Canada Computer sells the Asus Zenfone, but I know little about this Intel-powered phone.
All help is appreciated. (obLinux: Android only). And don't even mention the Oneplus; nice phone, supremely flaky company.
Thanks!
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On 10/22/2015 05:56 PM, Evan Leibovitch wrote:
Alternately, does anyone have a different recommendation in the $300-400 range? I know that Canada Computer sells the Asus Zenfone, but I know little about this Intel-powered phone.
Google recently came out with an updated Nexus 5. I have the original and I'm quite happy with it. It's unlocked, even though I bought it through Rogers.
I have the OnePlus One for almost a year, and I am very, very pleased by it. They have general availability now, so I would recommend it. It's very powerful, and have a great price. Don't remember if they ship to Toronto, they had some issues last year. On Oct 22, 2015 20:55, "James Knott" <james.knott@rogers.com> wrote:
On 10/22/2015 05:56 PM, Evan Leibovitch wrote:
Alternately, does anyone have a different recommendation in the $300-400 range? I know that Canada Computer sells the Asus Zenfone, but I know little about this Intel-powered phone.
Google recently came out with an updated Nexus 5. I have the original and I'm quite happy with it. It's unlocked, even though I bought it through Rogers.
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The Moto is unlocked anywhere you buy it here. It's an amazing phone for the money. Stewart
I'm interested in a replacement for my old LG, but in the same small form factor. Alas, vendor sites are at best unintelligible and at worst disinformation. I looked at the moto x pure edition on the motomaker site , but I can't tell if it's tiny or bigger than my head (;-)) --dave On 22/10/15 07:47 PM, Stewart Russell wrote:
The Moto is unlocked anywhere you buy it here. It's an amazing phone for the money.
Stewart
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-- David Collier-Brown, | Always do right. This will gratify System Programmer and Author | some people and astonish the rest davecb@spamcop.net | -- Mark Twain
Whenever I'm looking at phones and want to get a better idea about size, I go to http://www.gsmarena.com/ They have nearly every phone imaginable in their database, and include specs for them. Pretty handy. -jason On Fri, Oct 23, 2015 at 9:04 AM, David Collier-Brown <davec-b@rogers.com> wrote:
I'm interested in a replacement for my old LG, but in the same small form factor. Alas, vendor sites are at best unintelligible and at worst disinformation. I looked at the moto x pure edition on the motomaker site , but I can't tell if it's tiny or bigger than my head (;-))
--dave
On 22/10/15 07:47 PM, Stewart Russell wrote:
The Moto is unlocked anywhere you buy it here. It's an amazing phone for the money.
Stewart
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-- David Collier-Brown, | Always do right. This will gratify System Programmer and Author | some people and astonish the restdavecb@spamcop.net | -- Mark Twain
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-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 On 22/10/15 05:56 PM, Evan Leibovitch wrote:
And don't even mention the Oneplus; nice phone, supremely flaky company.
Could you clarify? I've been thinking of a OnePlus Two as my next phone... Bob Jonkman <bjonkman@sobac.com> Phone: +1-519-635-9413 SOBAC Microcomputer Services http://sobac.com/sobac/ Software --- Office & Business Automation --- Consulting GnuPG Fngrprnt:04F7 742B 8F54 C40A E115 26C2 B912 89B0 D2CC E5EA -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2.0.20 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Ensure confidentiality, authenticity, non-repudiability iEYEARECAAYFAlYppoUACgkQuRKJsNLM5er0xgCfSUrXekq78+2OKYLcy6XUmr6l uqAAn2NS08P43SkYuQ9FAfIEoWiXpsRI =HKuw -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
On 22/10/15 11:16 PM, Bob Jonkman wrote:
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1
On 22/10/15 05:56 PM, Evan Leibovitch wrote:
And don't even mention the Oneplus; nice phone, supremely flaky company. Could you clarify? I've been thinking of a OnePlus Two as my next phone...
Evan said it's a flaky company and didn't pass judgment on the phone. I have one and I quite like it. My son bought a Zen Phone. It seems OK, too. I haven't switched to Oxygen OS. I quite like Cyanogenmod, though the update I got in August has had a few issues, not the least being that Bluetooth stopped working after the update. I reinstalled the OS and all was well. I notice I have another update but I haven't spent the time to figure out how to install that update now that I have TWRP, which I'd installed to reinstall the OS. -- Regards, Clifford Ilkay +1 647-778-8696
I've been asked why I said about the OnePlus: "nice phone, supremely flaky company". Here are my reasons for saying this after being in the queue to get a 1+1 and then abandoning that world in favour of conventional retail (I ended up with an LG G4): - The invite system. In the early days it was excusable, a way to control distribution at a time when they didn't anticipate demand and were literally creating a market category. Now they have an idea of what demand is, so retaining the invite system for the 1+2 becomes just a lame publicity stunt. The substantial effort to obtain an invite, IMO, adds to the cost of the phone unless your time is worthless. Furthermore ... the invites, when they come, arrive without warning and have a 24-hour expiry, so it's nearly to buy one when you want to do so ... like when you need to replace your existing phone. What the hell is up with that? - To get an invite (without buying one or getting a rare "sharable" invite) you have to participate in their social media presence, dominated by fanboyz and cool-geek-wannabes. Apple fans, though bigger in numbers, have nothing on this crowd when it comes to blind loyalty. Last year when I joined the forums, looking to get an invite, it was one of the most content-free discussion experiences I have ever encountered - The online company reps are very friendly and open to talk about features and Neat Stuff, completely unresponsive about issues or deficiencies. There is robotic, heavily scripted, ever-cheery-even-when-useless feel to customer service that I can best characterize as that of staff at Disneyland; I found it immensely frustrating; - OnePlus has had quite a lot of problems with Canada Customs; for a six-month period last year they completely stopped shipping to Canada, and their ever-so-useless support staff wouldn't explain why. After piecing together some user forum posts it appears that OnePlus lied on its customs declarations, and a whole bunch of devices were held at customs for a LONG time. They have switched shippers often enough to make one uncomfortable. This matter may be solved by now, but my experience eliminated my confidence in the company to handle shipping issues should I ever need to send the phone back for repairs. (There are no repair depots in Canada of which I am aware), - The company's management totally botched its OS strategy. It failed to anticipate the (totally predictable) problems it would have as CyanogenMod commercialized, which (amongst other things) kept it out of India for nearly a year. Its update schedule has never met targets, Why it is not just going with stock Android is a mystery, I foresee problems with Oxygen as well; everything they know about Android seems to come from the custom-ROM-modding world, and that environment has its limits. When the OnePlus One came out it was indeed a market-reshaper. For a long time it was the only phone in its class, and was worth the grief listed above. But now Asus, Motorola, Alcatel, Huawei, Xiaomi and others have discovered that the real growth market for phones is in this midrange rather than flagships. So now, if I don't care to buy a OnePlus within the 24-hour window they bestow upon me, I can tell them to go screw themselves and check out the worthy competition. I hope I have answered the question sufficiently :-) On 23 October 2015 at 05:38, Clifford Ilkay <clifford_ilkay@dinamis.com> wrote:
On 22/10/15 11:16 PM, Bob Jonkman wrote:
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On 22/10/15 05:56 PM, Evan Leibovitch wrote:
And don't even mention the Oneplus; nice phone, supremely flaky company.
Could you clarify? I've been thinking of a OnePlus Two as my next phone...
Evan said it's a flaky company and didn't pass judgment on the phone. I have one and I quite like it. My son bought a Zen Phone. It seems OK, too. I haven't switched to Oxygen OS. I quite like Cyanogenmod, though the update I got in August has had a few issues, not the least being that Bluetooth stopped working after the update. I reinstalled the OS and all was well. I notice I have another update but I haven't spent the time to figure out how to install that update now that I have TWRP, which I'd installed to reinstall the OS.
-- Regards,
Clifford Ilkay
+1 647-778-8696
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-- Evan Leibovitch Geneva, CH Em: evan at telly dot org Sk: evanleibovitch Tw: el56
I don't think they are flaky, they are starters and sometimes suffer from the growth pains. They heavily underestimated the demand for the One, got overwhelming traffic on their servers multiple times, got stabbed in the back by Cyanogenmod, but kept sending phones. They solved most problems. I know there are hundreds of people hating them on their forums, but come on, they sold 1M units only in '14. Some of those will have issues, as normal, but the majority of the phones are very, very good. I will stick to the One for now. It's very powerful, beautiful, cheap, have amazing battery life, the camera is good enough, and I don't need Android 6 right now. I even tried a CM build earlier this week, but reverted to Resurrection Remix. On Oct 23, 2015 01:16, "Bob Jonkman" <bjonkman@sobac.com> wrote:
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On 22/10/15 05:56 PM, Evan Leibovitch wrote:
And don't even mention the Oneplus; nice phone, supremely flaky company.
Could you clarify? I've been thinking of a OnePlus Two as my next phone...
Bob Jonkman <bjonkman@sobac.com> Phone: +1-519-635-9413 SOBAC Microcomputer Services http://sobac.com/sobac/ Software --- Office & Business Automation --- Consulting GnuPG Fngrprnt:04F7 742B 8F54 C40A E115 26C2 B912 89B0 D2CC E5EA
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2.0.20 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Ensure confidentiality, authenticity, non-repudiability
iEYEARECAAYFAlYppoUACgkQuRKJsNLM5er0xgCfSUrXekq78+2OKYLcy6XUmr6l uqAAn2NS08P43SkYuQ9FAfIEoWiXpsRI =HKuw -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --- Talk Mailing List talk@gtalug.org http://gtalug.org/mailman/listinfo/talk
Content-type: Multipart/Related; boundary="Message-Boundary-13779" --Message-Boundary-13779 I got my unlocked Moto G from Canada Computers in Mississauga. Quite happy with it. Paul King On 22 Oct 2015 at 23:56, Evan Leibovitch wrote: Date sent: Thu, 22 Oct 2015 23:56:17 +0200 From: Evan Leibovitch <evan@telly.org> To: GTALUG Talk <talk@gtalug.org> Subject: [GTALUG] (off topic) unlocked phones Send reply to: GTALUG Talk <talk@gtalug.org> Hi all. I have an informational favour to ask. I'm not in a position to go to local stores and the info isn't readily available online. I want to buy an unlocked phone as a gift. Two that I am looking at are the Moto G and the Alcatel Idol 3. Both have websites that sell unlocked phones mail order in the States, but if I indicate Canada they send me to a carrier (Bell or Telus). Would anyone here know if the Canadian versions of these phones are carrier locked, if the American ones are not? I'm happy to buy one off-contract if I know it can be taken to any carrier. Alternately, does anyone have a different recommendation in the $300-400 range? I know that Canada Computer sells the Asus Zenfone, but I know little about this Intel-powered phone. All help is appreciated. (obLinux: Android only). And don't even mention the Oneplus; nice phone, supremely flaky company. Thanks! --Message-Boundary-13779--
I'm the last person to ask about cell phones -- I barely use them. But I do have some opinions. - I like the idea of vanilla Android. This has been reinforced by my brief experience with a Asus Zenphone -- too busy and full of bonus crap. - Nexus phones have an inferred commitment to frequent upgrades not filtered by carriers or manufacturers. My Nexus 4 and (Nexus 10 tablet) have just now fallen off this (I'm sad, but longevity sure beats other brands) - I think that Nexus phones are never carrier-locked. - I have the impression that Motorola phones shared some of the culture of Nexus. Who knows if that will change under Lenovo. - in raw hardware, among phones with all the bands available in Canada, the Asus Zenphone seems like a bargain. - I agree with you: I don't like locked phones, I don't like the hidden costs of subsidized phones, and I don't like the complexity of service offerings. Having said that, I got my Nexus 4 very inexpensively through careful analysis and exploitation of a carrier offering. - I have yet to root a phone, but I like the idea that I could.
CanadaComputers, Walmart, Staples are the usual place I check to see if phones are on sales. I'm also looking for a phone. As for phones, - Motorola Moto G (2nd) - Samsung Galaxy Grand Prime - LG Optimus F60 are at my price range. -- William On Thu, Oct 22, 2015 at 11:56:17PM +0200, Evan Leibovitch wrote:
Hi all.
I have an informational favour to ask. I'm not in a position to go to local stores and the info isn't readily available online.
I want to buy an unlocked phone as a gift. Two that I am looking at are the Moto G and the Alcatel Idol 3. Both have websites that sell unlocked phones mail order in the States, but if I indicate Canada they send me to a carrier (Bell or Telus).
Would anyone here know if the Canadian versions of these phones are carrier locked, if the American ones are not? I'm happy to buy one off-contract if I know it can be taken to any carrier.
Alternately, does anyone have a different recommendation in the $300-400 range? I know that Canada Computer sells the Asus Zenfone, but I know little about this Intel-powered phone.
All help is appreciated. (obLinux: Android only). And don't even mention the Oneplus; nice phone, supremely flaky company.
Thanks!
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participants (12)
-
Alex Volkov -
Bob Jonkman -
Clifford Ilkay -
D. Hugh Redelmeier -
David Collier-Brown -
Evan Leibovitch -
James Knott -
Jason Shaw -
Mauro Souza -
Paul King -
Stewart Russell -
William Park