Comments on: Cell phone lessons from Hong Kong

As CNET discovered on a recent trip to Asia, cell phones are of a different breed in Hong Kong.

[maximusdog]

se 600????

First nice article. Second a 600? Your a tech site and you use a 600? Im guessing they dont pay you **** but come on! Take something from the shelf.

[zeid]

Welcome to the world

Everywhere around the world phones are sold like this, only usa and uk sell phones with carries, so welcome to the world my friend

[chkmate21]

Yawn! All these are previous years phones!

Welcome my friend to the world of choice. Here in India we can switch carriers like changing clothes every morning. And the phones you showed were news about 3 months ago. Now we're waiting for the next lot!

[reboot870]

HK cell phones

I agree with you that its the perfect way to obtain a phone not currently sold here. For instance, the US phone market is just announcing the LG Chocolate Platinum and Hong Kong has had it over a year! I wanted to buy it there, however, I didn't bring enough cash.

Signal strength is a must there anyway. My cousin gave me an old old phone of his and it worked like a charm. No dropped calls or anything. HKers are commuters so they barely have time to check their emails and news at home so everything is wireless for them, which explains the strong signal strength.

[stonyokwe]

*Question - would those work here in the US?

[maceyr]

I bought my unlocked GSM Treo 650 back last March

So I totally agree that it's the best thing. I love being able to buy the phone I want without being tied to a lengthy multi-year contract that if forced upon us in North America. Of course, you pay for unsubsidized price, but it's still cheaper than buying it in North America.

Again, make sure you get one that supports the 850 and 1900 mhz band so that it will work in North America. A few years ago, they only offered tri-band with the 1900mhz so reception may not be great if you rely only on the 1900mhz.

Remember that you can bargain and get better prices if you compare them from various places. The problem is remembering what price you got from where. I've always had the problem of remembering the location of the shop since they all look the same.

[drole.homme]

Good Ole Money Hungry CEOs

It's amazing how N America (even more US) is really the only country to have a 2
yr contract with it's customers. We don't understand the flexablility of a sim
card and having three phones for life's stages. I love AT&T and t-mobile for
this. I have 2 phones, a cheap phone I got for free and a Pearl. One for work
and one for the clubs. Plus I have a Orange prepaid sim card for when I go to
France or England. Curse you Verizon and Sprint for your control. VIVA LES SIM
CARDS!

[bigyam77]

Total RIPOFF when FREE SAFE solution is here!

Unbelievable rip off...I just got my iphone and was able to unlock it for free and
using software only, no hardware needed!

Shared some deets here http://hkiphone.blogspot.com/

If anyone has other experience please let me know! Let's help each other out.
Sad to see such profiteering!

[ladedahdedah]

theres a reason why the US makes it so difficult to get new phones. Imagine everybody changing phones every time there's a new one on the market. This will lead to a massive amount of unneeded toxic waste (yes, some people are stupid enough to throw their batteries in the trash). Isn't it enough that we're materialistic? Why must we contaminate the world for no reason?