Best Posts in Thread: ATTN: PHONE THAT WORKS IN USA & PHILIPPINES

I also have a Verizon Samsung Galaxy S5 that has worked without issue in Guatemala, Homg Kong, Macau, and here in the Philippines.

Press and hold that sim card warning until it changes, then tap the information (i in the circle). That opens up the app, press "force stop" and the stupid warming will be gone until the next time you restart your phone.

 

You are correct about what frequencies T-mobile uses, but what you missed is that the phones they sell support more than the frequencies that their system uses. For example, an D851 is the LG G3 version they sell. Notice the specs on the 2G band that the device supports. With any non-quad band phone you definitely need to check, but with modern smart phones 2G quad band is pretty much a given. 3G and 4G are another matter.

 

UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE

Today I rec'd my "VA" phone - UNLOCKED.

I rec'd an iPhone S6 - model A 1633.

I have much to learn and many apps to get in order to make this phone the kind of tool that will work for me.

Here's what PC Mag has to say about this phone....

Apple iPhone 6s (Unlocked)

I'm currently set up with as 45 dollar a month plan (no contract - I pay for this) and my primary carrier is Verizon (for now).

My therapist put the request in for a phone and this is what they (the VA) approved me to have.

On Friday, I need to go down to the tech store and buy all the peripheral storage/safety gear. That's another 150 bucks.

I go back to the VA this coming Monday and let them know of my progress with this phone.

Going out of town soon - be back after AUG 10.

V/R,
nwlivewire

 

Get a galaxy s7, when you get off the airplane in manila hand it to the free tourist sim card booth from globe, have them root it and install a sim card and number. When you get done with them walk to the same free tourist sim card booth from smart, repeat except they install sim card in second slot. Personally I like the galaxy s5 because I can carry a spare battery in my pocket and change them anytime I need to. My galaxy s5 here in the us is a verizon phone and had no problem using a globe sim card this past February. I also have an iPhone 6 from verizon which is my work phone and it worked well with a smart sim card.

 

If you like a big screen Sony makes a phone that supports a lot of frequencies and has large screen 6.4" screen.

 

I guess this is in reverse of what he is needing, but I bought 4G Android Firefly's (3 of them), (of course all are unlocked) at Robinson's Mall. Used them while still in the Philippines, and still using them here in the U. S. with AT&T sim cards with no problems. Great phones!

 

I need to ask a couple of questions before I make a recommendation. There are a lot of phones that will work fine in both countries. How is your visual acuity? It sucks having to find your glasses just to read your phone and my arms aren't long enough so I prefer a larger screen. I can also find larger screen phones with larger batteries that let me charge every other day even with fairly heavy usage, like what the Dude mentioned, using it as my internet modem.

The phone with the most powerful processor, most advanced android operating system may have 3GB of ram...but that is because they have to have that or it wouldn't work. Most of them have fairly high capacity batteries and still they have a hard time getting through a day. Yes, it's cool that they could compute orbital mechanics in realtime, but do you really need to? As good as they are, they still can't beat my laptop that cost half as much and I can wait until I get home to do such work.

I have a Huawei Media Pad X1 7 inch screen, 1.6Ghz quad core processor, 2GB ram, LTE for Smart HSPA+ (up to 42 mbp/s) for just about every carrier and the battery (5,000 Mah) life with casual use is 4 days. It will stream video for about 10 hours. Has a camera that is good enough it is my only camera and records some pretty d*mn nice video. Has good audible and quality sound. This has been superceded by the X2 with a better screen, more powerful processor. I thought about upgrading but there is nothing wrong with my X1. It's a tank, will not fold in half. It is the maximum size that will fit in a pants pocket. Makes a good tablet also. Was my internet modem tethered to my laptop. Not good for people with below average sized hands. Wifi hotspot and reception are good as Huawei makes pocket wifi, routers/broadband sticks. Did I mention it makes great calls? Good on both ends.

Huawei makes the Mate2. 6.1 inch screen 4000 Mah battery, LTE works about anywhere. Pocket Now on youtube calls it the phone that will not die. Pretty much the same internals as my X1 but smaller form factor but still pretty large and easy to read.

You might consider buying your own phone and have them buy you a tablet that makes phone calls. Huawei Media Pad M2 is 8 inches and almost pocketable due to very high screen to face ratio. Has very high specs, works as an LTE phone, modem, hotspot, good camera. I can get one in the Philippines for a little over $300 USD. I might pick one up there. Backup for the backup sort of thing.

If you don't have a tablet and think you might want one, I would certainly get one in the US as they are much cheaper and the selection is no comparison. I just bought my brother a Onda V891W 8.9 inch dual boot windows and android 4.4 64GB retina screen tablet for $130. 1.84 Ghz quad core, 2 GB ram. Retina 255 points per inch screen 1920X1200. I specifically wanted Kitkat because it is a light operating system with everything he needs and nothing he doesn't. Kitkat runs well on phones that have 1/2 GB ram. The latest and greatest isn't always better. Same tablet if you could even get it in the Philippines would be $300 or more. Bring all your tech electronics with you.

I also have an AT&T Gophone Microsoft 640 that I picked up at Walmart for $60 because I wanted to play with a Windows phone. Microsoft 640 sells for about $240 in the Philippines

AT&T will unlock them for the asking as long as you have never registered the phone with them, just go to their website.

I actually like Windows phone. I like this phone and it is great value for the money. With windows you basically get root access automatically and can move apps to the microsd card (128-200GB) "IF" the person who wrote the app allows it. The 640 has average 5 inch 720p screen, lackluster but useable camera. If I were having someone else pay for a phone, I might pick one of the high end Windows phones with 20 megapixel camera. Cortana works fine as your personal assistant. Wifi reception on this phone is nothing short of awesome. battery life on this phone is about 3 days.

So...how is the eyesight, hand size? and are you planning any missions to mars and handicapping yourself by doing it all on your phone just for laughs?

I like a good-very good camera on a phone because of the old saying, "the things you see when you haven't got your gun". I may be an indifferent photographer but at least the shots are clear.

 

For the U.S. don't bother unless you are going to be spending a lot of time there. Grab a prepaid feature phone (the dumb phones) and buy load from the same place. You can get these from Walmart and probably lots of other places I believe.

Get the smart phone in the Philippines. Don't even worry about having them buy it for you if they won't swing for that. Get a Cherry Mobile, which is a local branded "generic" phone probably made by the same manufacturers which make all the other phones on this list. Think generic PC's back in the day. They worked as well as an HP but the branding was different.

For a smart phone, RAM is the most important feature as that's going to determine how many things you can run on it before you throw it out the window in frustration (make sure you throw it out a window with no bars). You can get something with 1gb of RAM for $100 and the frustration level is about "kick a stray dog" level. I'm guessing for $150 to $200 you can get to 2gb of RAM. Probably good for the occasional F-Bomb.

Next item to look at is that it has LTE rather than just 3G, which gives you a faster connection depending on your area.

Depending on your bandwidth needs you might be able to use this phone for your primary internet connection (tethering) and get voice and texting for $50 / month.

Install the Google Voice dialer app and you are good to go.

I you need help, hit me up when you get here.