TVJunkie Posted January 10, 2014 Share Posted January 10, 2014 I split my time between the states and Thailand. I'm currently in Thailand and I have the itch to buy a new mobile phone. Am I better off buying a phone here in Thailand or waiting until I get back to the states to buy one? I've heard people say that a phone from the states will work here if it is unlocked. Is the reverse always true? Will a phone purchased in Thailand always work in the states or do the carriers in the states have it locked down? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
khwaibah Posted January 10, 2014 Share Posted January 10, 2014 My phone SG2 purchased in Chiang Mai works in the USA. No problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David48 Posted January 10, 2014 Share Posted January 10, 2014 Would a Thai phone have the menu in Thai? Make sure you can set the language to English Just asking like ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Familyonthemove Posted January 10, 2014 Share Posted January 10, 2014 I travel to US and my phone bought in Thailand works fine in US. Some regions in US have limited 3G frequencies - so you need a phone that covers all the major 3G frequencies (most new phones do - but some dual SIM phones are limited on one of the SIM cards.) All phones bought in Thailand will have English - but some phones sold in US will not have Thai. Of course buying a SIM-free phone in "the land of the free" is tough and getting phones unlocked in the US is getting harder all the time. Phones also cost more in the US when bought without a contract. I'd recommend a dual SIM bought here so you can have a US SIM and a Thai SIM live and no need to switch SIMs. iMobile IQX is a good one ... or one of the Samsung or Sony Dual SIMs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
infernalman7 Posted January 10, 2014 Share Posted January 10, 2014 Buy in Thailand. Thai phones are unlocked and are often the "international GSM" version. All Thais phone will have English. Most US phones are locked to a specific network manufactured specifically for certain networks (frequency locked). Also, most phones from outside of the US will not work with Verizon or T-Mobile since they do operate on some weird frequency that aren't used outside of North America. My recommendation: go for the big brands. Because most of their phones will operate on more frequencies. I.e. Apple, Samsung, HTC, Sony, LG. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpokaneAl Posted January 10, 2014 Share Posted January 10, 2014 I also split my time between the US and Thailand. While it may not answer your question, I purchased an unlocked iPhone 5 before leaving the states and it works just fine in both places. I got a month to month deal with AT&T that I cancel when I leave the states and am currently using a True month to month plan here for data, email and phone calls which will also be cancelled when we head back to the states in April. Sent from my iPad using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DogNo1 Posted January 10, 2014 Share Posted January 10, 2014 My daughter recently visited me in Tokyo and she and the kids were able to purchase a T-Mobile plan that let them send texts to each other while they were here. That's remarkable because Japanese phones are manufactured in a way that makes them unusable outside of Japan. More companies are somehow making wireless connections available to their products in many countries (think Kindle). Unfortunately Kindles bought in Japan do not work wirelessly outside of the country and books bought on Amazon Japan cannot be viewed on Kindles manufactured for other countries. Now for buying any sort of media, I am careful to use my Amazon USA account. Does anybody else have similar troubles? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martyjustice Posted January 11, 2014 Share Posted January 11, 2014 TVjunkie. The question no one has asked, what provider do you use in US? If it is Verizon, Sprint that limits your choice because they are not GSM providers. ATT and Tmobile are Gsm providers. All phone companies in Thailand are GSM. If you have ATT in US any quad band (4 diff gsm freqs) will work. If you have Verizon (a CMDA provider) then you will need a phone that does both Gsm/Cmda and is unlocked(can change simm). At the time I bought my phone at Verizon the only phone that did both and unlocked was an Iphone 5. Also think about the availability of the simm in Thailand. If you opt for a iphone the only provider in thailand that will guve you a microsimm without buying the phone is dtac. Chech dtac's data coverage in your area (it was geat in Warin). Sorry its so long any other questions you can pm me. Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NeverSure Posted January 11, 2014 Share Posted January 11, 2014 I just bought 2 of the new Google Nexus 5 phones and they are worldwide unlocked. They are 4G, take a sim card, do many channels GSM and also LTE. Cost: US$249 (8200 baht) each with 16G memory. Android. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpokaneAl Posted January 11, 2014 Share Posted January 11, 2014 TVjunkie. The question no one has asked, what provider do you use in US? If it is Verizon, Sprint that limits your choice because they are not GSM providers. ATT and Tmobile are Gsm providers. All phone companies in Thailand are GSM. If you have ATT in US any quad band (4 diff gsm freqs) will work. If you have Verizon (a CMDA provider) then you will need a phone that does both Gsm/Cmda and is unlocked(can change simm). At the time I bought my phone at Verizon the only phone that did both and unlocked was an Iphone 5.Also think about the availability of the simm in Thailand. If you opt for a iphone the only provider in thailand that will guve you a microsimm without buying the phone is dtac. Chech dtac's data coverage in your area (it was geat in Warin). Sorry its so long any other questions you can pm me. Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app As mentioned previously, I have an iPhone 5 and was able to use True and their provided micro SIMM chip. It was easy and I was in and out and using my phone in less than 30 minutes. Sent from my iPad using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
streetlite Posted January 11, 2014 Share Posted January 11, 2014 I live in Thailand. I want to put a US number and my Thai number on a business card so that whichever number is called it will route to Thailand. Is this possible with a dual simm phone? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martyjustice Posted January 11, 2014 Share Posted January 11, 2014 Streetlite. Yes its possible but the very high roaming charges on the US phone simm in Asia. Why not just forward the US number to the Thai number and pay the direct rate. Used Clearwire for phone service. US to Thailand was 3 cents a minute. Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChristianBlessing Posted January 13, 2014 Share Posted January 13, 2014 Check out the Motorola Moto G (international). 8 GB for $179, 16 GB for $199, unlocked. Sent from my Nexus 7 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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