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Phone Unlocking Question ??


MidfieldGeneral
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I'm on T-Mobile and have been offered a phone that's simlocked to 3, does anyone know if I'd have any problems getting this unlocked so that I could use my simcard in it ?

The reason I ask is because somone told me a couple of years ago that 3 network simlocked phones could not be unlocked at the time ?

Cheers

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SE W995 mate

 

Pretty much all Sony Ericssons can be unlocked by the DCU-60 cable they come with, you just download a program from the net and buy a credit. The credit for the program I used was £7 via eBay. It'll keep all the 3 branding though - flashing is another kettle of fish altogether.

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SE W995 mate

 

Pretty much all Sony Ericssons can be unlocked by the DCU-60 cable they come with, you just download a program from the net and buy a credit. The credit for the program I used was £7 via eBay. It'll keep all the 3 branding though - flashing is another kettle of fish altogether.

 

What do you mean by 3 branding and whats the difference between flashing and unlocking ?

Are both easy to do ?

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The 3 branding as in the things they choose to lock you out of, such as certain settings and shortcuts. For example on a 3 handset you can't turn 3G off, dramatically reducing the battery life. On the home screen you won't be able to change the shortcut to 3's online services. Flashing is completely re-writing this firmware, getting rid of all that by putting on a generic version or T-Mobile's firmware if you wanted to.

 

Unlocking is just removing the sim locks, letting you use any network's sim.

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I've bought the phone now because I got it for a decent price, a price of which I should have no bother recouping should I have any problems lol.

I'm completely clueless when it comes to stuff like this so will I be able to flash it myself (probably not advisable) or could I pay someone in a shop to do it just like I would pay them to unlock it ?

Also would I lose the warranty if I was to flash the phone ?

 

Cheers for your help fella, much appreciated

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You'll lose warranty if you flash it, but not by unlocking it. I think you'd struggle to find someone to flash it tbh, it's a lot more specialised that unlocking which is very simple by comparison.

 

A brief Google suggests the W995 is a pretty new model and as such is not officially supported for unlocking yet. It's in a beta build of some software though. Flashing it is completely seperate btw, both would need paying for (by credits) and doing.

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Btw flashing yourself (ie for free) is VERY complicated, I wouldn't recommend attempting it unless you're willing to do a ton of reading up and risk potentially bricking your phone.

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Sod that then lol.

I'll just get it unlocked and see how I go from there. I'm not the kinda person that uses every app on a phone anyway, just wanted something that wasn't littered with software problems like my bloody awful Pixon is. And also something that was much less hassle for playing music on, which the Samsung is a complete nightmare.

 

Cheers for your help Dave :)

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A few places in town unlock most phones for a tenner Dave so I think I'd rather pay the extra and have someone that knows what they are doing sort it.

Cheers for the links though mate. If I have no luck in town with the phone being so new then at least I've got them to fall back on :)

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