What do you mean by unlocked/locked cell phones?

[LostSoul01]

I am just looking forward to buy a new cell phone and I was going through various sites like eBay, Amazon etc, and I came across these unlocked cell phones. So I just wanted to know about these unlocked cell phones. I think that from one of the china mobile products. It would be very helpful if you let me know what the unlocked cell phone is and should I buy one of these or else go for the regular one. And also I would like to know what is the difference between the unlocked one and the regular one and which one is the good for me, because the features that I am looking in a cell phone are that it should have a big screen, better connectivity options and also a good sound quality.

[Abhimanyusuta]

Hi there, I read your question and I would like you to know that the basic difference between a locked and an unlocked cell phone is that the locked cell phone comes with the pre configured carrier/operator settings which means that you cannot select the operator of your choice whereas on the other hand in the unlocked cell phone you can select the operator that best suites you, which gives you better plans for your cell phone like the data charges, good network coverage etc. if you ask me I will suggest you to go for the locked one cause here everything comes configured and you don’t have to call the customer care and wait in the holding queue for a long time. Best of luck for your cell phone.

[Mumtaz86]

I think that the unlocked phones are the one which are not locked to a particular network carrier like (Cingular, AT&T, and Vodafone etc). These phones are also called as the GSM mobile phones. Here you can select any network as per your needs. All you have to do is to get a sim card and give the company your cell phone’s IMEI number which is a unique number for each cell phone that helps to keep a track of the cell phone like where is it and who is currently using it. That helps in case if your cell phone is lost. Once the IMEI number is given to the company then you will be getting all the facilities provided by the company. And if you ask me I will suggest you to go for the unlocked one.

[Joshe]

Many mobile phones sold in the US and also in some other countries are "SIM" locked so you can only use the SIM (smart card) issued by the operator from whom you bought the cell phone. If you try to use a SIM from another network the phone will show a message that "SIM rejected" or something like that. Cell phones are locked because the operator lowers the phone's cost so that they can convince the subscribers to join their network. Since SIM cards can be used in any compatible phone the carrier that sold the mobile phone does not want their subscriber to get a free or a deeply subsidized phone and then going to some other mobile phone or the operator leaving the phone that they helped him to purchase.

[Andrea000]

You can even unlock a locked phone by either entering an unlock code which is provided by the original carrier or also for some mobile phones you can go to some web sites which offer code calculators to unlock the cell phone. Some mobile repair shop charge for "unlocking" the cell phone, you can get it unlocked over here. The other alternative way is to find someone who can unlock for you either by getting the code or by "flashing/flexing" the cell phone to get it unlocked. And once this phone is unlocked then you can use it like any normal unlocked phone with any operator or carrier you want by putting their SIM card in it.