build6

Mae Hong Son should be fun enough by itself, you don't need this extra hassle. Also, I'm thinking you don't really want to be in "not usually populated" border areas, the other people using those areas are using it because they expect it to be empty....

(1) modern smart phones now generally include "all" languages. Its just a matter of switching between them. This is the case for iPhone, and all the new Android phones I have seen.

(2) Without knowing your exact source and model of phones, its hard to tell if they will work properly in Thailand. Other posters have commented on the phone locking issue - many phones are sold "locked" to a particular carrier/telco, and I will say that resolving that issue will be troublesome at least. Further, the world isn't quite standardized in terms of the frequencies phones use. For voice calls pretty much every modern phone will work everywhere, but for smart phones, the real draw is internet access, and for that there can be problems. In Thailand alone,for best coverage, you'll need 850MHz if you're using True or DTAC, but AIS wants 900. If you don't have those and 2100, you can't get 3G at all (that said, I've not seen a phone without 2100). If you need 4G/LTE it gets even more complicated.

(3) are you paying VAT? That's the primary issue with buying anything in the UK, for me. It basically makes everything uncompetitive. I find almost everything i want to buy outright cheaper in Thailand, esp since I can claim the Thai GST rebate. Depending on how substantially below cost your phones are, the VAT may or may not make it worthwhile.

(3) what about warranty support if you buy it in the UK? Things do break, sometimes through no fault of the user. There's something to be said for buying stuff locally....

sony repair center just called me back from a new number and apparently they are closed today (couldn't call the center or return the call afterwards). The cheap plastic flap on the side that was broken due to sonys faulty manufacturing needs to be paid for, the short slide that destroyed the phone broke the screen, the two waterproof layers underneath, and the touch sensor, and apparently it also broke the headphone / sound system somehow which I was not aware of. Anyone have any idea how much I could get for selling the broken phone? If it really is 12k for a new one, it may still be worth repairing as it would save more than 3000 baht with no difference in the phone apparently (warranty doesnt do anything anyways).

Not to depress you further, but my experience with Sony Thailand is that if you choose not to go ahead with the repair, they'll not release your phone back to you unless you also pay a "diagnostic fee", even if your phone is under the warranty period (I argued that notwithstanding their decision that they would not repair it "under warranty", there shouldn't be a diagnostic fee since it was within the warranty period, but I think they're so desperate for money customer retention isn't important to them).

My phone had a removable battery which was useful (I have more than one Sony phone, alas) so I paid it in the end, since the battery was worth more than the fee (what I'd wasted so far was an economic sunk cost so it made sense).

too expensive really. I have been looking at laptops lately as well, and Apple was extremely impressive (hardware, wise) for laptops, but I would look first at the Xiaomi phones over apple.

Generally how Apple operates (as it appears to me) is that "they only do things they're interested in", as opposed to how a lot of other businesses seem to operate in a "there's an empty market segment here - let's fill it". So for Mac laptops there's stuff they simply aren't interested in (whether it's "boring" to their engineers, or can't make any profit for their bean counters), like the ultra-low-end machines, as opposed to companies like HP (a model on sale for every conceivable price point, basically).

If you're thinking of buying a Mac laptop, you need to look at this:

http://buyersguide.macrumors.com/#Mac

It'll give you information about how old the particular model is (and so some indication of how likely there'll be a new model released soon), it's going to really hurt if you put your money down and then the next week they announce a refresh.

iPhones... it's really not cheap (I felt the pain when I paid for the iPhone 6). But I've lately been dealing with various problems with my Android phones (inability to properly restore contact details from backup, for example... all sorts of small niggling problems that add up). If Apple would make waterproof or dual-SIM phones I wouldn't bother with anything else.

Xiaomi is good value for money but I don't think their "business model" will last long term (which is not to say that it'll affect you insofar as you need a phone now). They're cheap basically because they're skirting countries with strong IP law protection (hence no US presence), though even so they got sued in India.

I think approximately $100-200 of the cost of an iPhone goes to licensing alone; if Xiaomi was paying that they wouldn't seem so cheap anymore. Same reason why Xiaomi can undercut other Chinese manufacturers - Huawei, Lenovo etc. can't quite do what Xiaomi is doing because they want to operate in the US, Europe etc. My Chinese friends are telling me about various other new brands in China that are gaining traction ("Meizu"?), my guess is Xiaomi is trying to gain enough scale to survive before they start having to pay the piper...

I've had negative experiences with Sony warranty/support in Thailand also (this is inconsistent across countries, Sony Singapore seems ok).

If you bought the Z2 new then you're not actually trying to save money - is there any reason you must remain on Android? Because I use both and frankly speaking, except for the things Apple doesn't want to deal with (waterproofing (which you don't care about anyway since you lived with the broken flap?), dual-SIM), iPhones really are supported better. My AppleCare warranty even covers accidental damage (there's a "handling fee" but it's nothing compared to a screen replacement).

all the "indicators" you see displayed just indicate the "link" speed, but unfortunately that's not the only thing that matters. It's possible to have a fast link but slow speeds, if the servers are throttling your data speed, for example. It's a "necessary but insufficient" thing - if your link is "H+" then you can get HSPA speeds, but whether you are is a different matter. If you have data allocation to spend on this, you might want to run a speed test to get an indication/estimation of what kind of real speed you're getting. Ookla Speedtest (www.speedtest.net) is one that's commonly used and available for both iPhone and Android)

SMS, technologically, is a terrible system. The service provider can't even guarantee delivery within a country, much less internationally. What you're describing seems pretty much par for the course (the target recipient simply moving in and out of coverage between cell towers, such as while being on a train, would be sufficient to cause this kind of problem, much less roaming between different carriers per the other poster - by "roaming" it doesn't have to mean connecting to a non-Swiss carrier, but handing off between different all-Swiss carriers is enough to cause problems).

Do you and the recipient both have data/internet access on phones? It often comes as a surprise to many but the "free" services are actually more reliable in terms of delivery (plus you get to see indications for delivery, and if the messages have been read) - iMessage, WhatsApp, Line etc. (categorised as "OTT" services) are in fact more flexible and more reliable.

I think those are meant for truck drivers (and are supposed to be paired with maps that won't route 18-wheelers down small roads; the stories you hear of trucks getting stuck on narrow roads are often the result of truck drivers using car GPSes)

Those who are complaining about Thai postal addresses...need to see what its like in Japan.

GPS - address searching generally doesn't work right anyway since there's no standardized way to translate from Thai to English. That's why "points of interest" databases exist; search for the hotel in the "hotels" section of your GPS instead of trying addresses. Even in other countries where postal addresses are to your expectations, street numbers are generally interpolated and not actual.

If your destination isn't in your GPS DB, use the actual GPS coordinates - many of the smaller businesses will post this information (the larger hotels etc can expect to be in the GPS). If not you can obtain the GPS coordinates off Google maps.

Well the fact of the matter is most ppl use whatsapp nowadays and you need to add the + and the country code to the number before you can add the contact because whatsapp won't be able to find and add if you don't have that. Tried it and done it before.

Yes, WhatsApp depends on the ITU convention I tried to describe in my post.

(it should be smart enough to default to "assuming" your country code based on your own SIM card's "nationality", though)

Thailand seems more Line territory than WhatsApp; can't beat the cuteness of Brown and Cony.

I think a bit of background will be useful here. International phone calls are a pretty old concept, with the corresponding "country codes" assigned more or less alphabetically by order of entry - "Singapore" is 65, "Thailand" is 66; USA gets to be "1" basically thanks to them saying "none of you would have telephones if not for Alexander Graham Bell, and he's one of us".

(This is why countries which either didn't exist earlier, or only got their act together later, have higher/odder numbers - China is 86, Cambodia is 855)

Using "+" with a country code is a convenience introduced with mobile phones. It doesn't matter what telco network you're connected to, dialling +66-123456789 will connect you to the phone 123456789 in Thailand, and *you can use this even in Thailand itself*. This is why if you travel a lot, it makes sense to store phone numbers with the "+ country codes" in your phone address book - whether you're abroad or in the same country, you will reach that number. (Some smart phones are smart enough to handle it anyway, but this way you can be sure)

For reasons of capitalism, the telcos will also bill at their highest rate if you rely upon this convenience.

But whatever country you're in, unless the telco blocks international calls/you don't have the money, dialing "+xx-whatever" will connect you.

The other methods all vary by country and telco. For example if yours on DTAC, you can dial "004" before the country code and then phone number, to use DTAC's cheap VOIP setup (basically their own implementation of what Skype does). 004 doesn't work with AIS or True - they want you to use prefixes like 006 or 003. So the point is this - if you're in another country, you'll need to research the code to use and the number to dial, for the specific SIM you're using, because its telco-specific. There's no shortcut. Well OK there's "+xx" but, as above, unless your home carrier has a peering agreement with a roaming carrier *you're actually connected to*, you're going to be going above and beyond in helping paying for some telco exec's mistress's jewelry.

The "good" rates probably apply *only* when you're connected to a carrier that has a peering agreement with True back in Thailand. So if your phone is set to auto connect to whichever network it feels is strongest, it may connect to a different carrier and you'd get a different rate.

One of you doesn't deserve the other, not sure which.

Zenfone generally well received

Just heard back from Samsung, to say no.. not covered in UK.

It's not just Samsung. Sony phones aren't (but some of their cameras may be).

The OP is correct. I was just going to post a question about DTAC-Happy prepaid. I just got off the phone with them. The days when you could top up for any amount and get 6-12 months validity are over (for example, with that int'l SIM card). They've been phasing it out this year. Now they add to your validity period in days, not months. ie. 60 baht, 1 week extra validity I believe.

(1) I've just got back to Thailand. Topped up my DTAC with a 60 baht scratch card. I got 30 days. I did it again, and got another 30 days. I don't know where you're getting that "1 week extra" from.

(2) 6-12 months validity per top up is from The Good Old Days, I think it may be something worth lamenting (like 10-cent burgers?), but not realistic or reasonable to pine for (one caveat, more below).

I'm aware of very few countries that still handle validity like this. Hong Kong still allows for 6 month validity per top up... while deducting a monthly "administrative fee", i.e. it costs money whether you use it or not.

Overall I find Thailand prepaid to be both inexpensive and effective. And, per your own post, you're already aware of paying-to-extend, the rates for which seem very reasonable to me (by comparison, in Malaysia, to extend 1 year it's RM30 (on Celcom), which works out to be about 300 baht, and Maxis prepaid doesn't seem to allow it at all). Paying to extend costs pretty little, and topping up for use gives me about 30 days per top up, which seems reasonable too. I like DTAC for it's flexibility in data plans, and also how they automatically cap your data plan usage at 49 baht (plus tax) per day even if you don't.

must be a sign of the times. i don't recall hearing of so many of these grisly murders in Thailand even 10 years ago. 20 years ago - rarely. now - all the time.

around 10 years ago there was a case of a Thai doctor murdering his wife and then cutting her up. This sort of thing has been going on for a long time. Is it more a reflection of the treatment of women in Thailand?

save money on my flight by going one way instead of buying a return i wont even use

Be aware that one way tickets can cost MORE than return tickets - airlines like to price their tickets in order to "capture maximum profit", based on all sorts of algorithms the bean counters work out, and although it's logical to think that a one way ticket should cost around half of what a return ticket costs, this is NOT normally the case.

Be sure to check if you spend less money buying a return ticket and then having the unused portion refunded (even with the "administrative fees" they'll charge for sure).

With their advertised 3G at max speed of 42 Mbps for mobile internet, how many MBit/s do you actually get?

In Switzerland, the mobile internet connection icon shows "H", which I understand is UMTS, the specifications of my phone says it can handle HSPA, apparently also known as H+

that's what they mean re: 42Mbps, you can get H+ connections. My tests with Ookla have gotten me upwards of 20+ downstream on occasion, but YMMV. Overall for my usage I have no complaints.

Furthermore - I've gotten LTE connections with DTAC prepaid. Test-wise, I once got just a shade under 40. So speed-wise I don't think you have much to complain about.

Dtac used to have long lasting cheap prepaid plans which covered long stays abroad but it seems those days are over

How did you come to this conclusion? You might want to reassess. It's possible to get prepaid up to one year's validity (many posts about this in this forum) and once you've got that it doesn't matter if you're only here a quarter of the year.

What I do is, have a prepaid number, and then activate data plans etc. as and when I require them, so it actually doesn't cost me any money at all when I'm outside of Thailand. Overall I find Thailand to be one of the countries with the most "flexible usage" for prepaid plans, worldwide.

(Hit enter too soon)

Basically just get a card at whatever the going price is from places like Jaymart etc - you can shop around the "big stores" for the best price between them but I would NOT just try to get the cheapest possible deal, even for the "branded" cards. There have been known instances of faked Kingston cards, for example (packaging etc says "Kingston", but isn't really)

It should be possible to trust that the big retailers did not get their supply from questionable sources

It varies. all phones will have some amount of storage built in, but usually not much. Depending on manufacturer, promotion etc, "free" memory cards may be supplied...but what I want to say, is that very often, "you get what you pay for".

Especially if the card is thrown in by the shop and not the manufacturer, the reliability and performance of that card can be questionable.

You may be much better off buying one on your own, where you can choose to get one of the "name" brands (I guess sandisk is OK, though I prefer buying cards from manufacturers that have their own chip fabs, eg Toshiba, Samsung etc).

Bad memory is one of the major sources of problems with computing devices, both intermittent problems that are a real pain to diagnose, and catastrophic data loss ("all of Grandma's pictures are gone!!").

Its actually one of the reasons Apple doesn't provide for expandability, to avoid the risk of bad third party cards causing problems that they get blamed for, particularly since their products are price controlled and vendors have to compete via bundling/"add ons"

I'm sorry to say that I have had a very negative warranty support experience with Sony Thailand (or should I say "Sony Bangkok"?), so much so that I've decided not to buy another Sony phone in Thailand (I've had a much better experience with Sony in Singapore)...

buy it from the country you will use it in most

This actually makes sense just in terms of warranty support alone. Not every company offers international warranties by default. Sony for example doesn't. If it breaks and you're not in that country most of the time...

might be worth a read:

http://www.phonearena.com/news/Heres-how-to-easily-fake-your-GPS-location-on-Android_id62775