Unlocked iPhone 4s from Apple with Tmobile SIM

[eomligutw]

Hi all you experts . . . I am hoping you will be able to help me with my decision if to migrate from Blackberry to an iphone or android phone.

Having gone to the apple store several times enquiring about their UNLOCKED phone and how it would perform given that I am a Tmobile customer and dont have plans to switch providers. Here are the answers I got and am totally confused as to whose right and THIS coming from the Apple store . . .

1) One rep said that Apple configures their phone specific to their providers network like for Sprint, at&t and verizon. As such it can use all the features iphone has. However since there is NO such configuration for tmobile, tmobile will NOT be able to use features like MMS, Siri and other features that require a 3G bandwith.

2) Another rep said I should be able to use ALL the features of the iphone and should have no problems at all as they had several customers who were tmobile customers as well

3) Another rep said that the only complaint she got from tmobile customers was that the iphone was slow in certain things when accessing the web but other basic features it worked just fine

4) Another rep said that I should look up some forums to see how people who use the iphone 4S (since its apples first WORLD phone) with tmobile and what they have to say about it. When I asked them that if they configure their phones to suit their providers - whats the point of an unlocked phone as the biggest benefit for me to have an unlocked phone, is that when I travel anywhere in the world, I can just switch SIM cards . . . and that SIM card should include tmobile in the US as well. I said otherwise why would people bother with an unlocked phone if Apple are going to sit and configure their phones based on the providers bandwith . . . The rep had no answers for this.

So my question is this - I am simply looking for the phone to work well in terms of no dropped call, good connection, clear & loud voice when I speak and when I am hearing the other person, usage of SMS, Imessage and Whatsapp, usage of about 3-4 other applications that I use frequently. I really dont care about SIRI but I do care about MMS as I would like to be able to email my photographs straight from the iphone itself.

So in line with the above - would those people who use their iphones with Tmobile care to advise me of the pros and cons please?

Much appreciated . . . eomligutw

 

[Eileen89]

I purchased the Factory unlocked 4S directly from Apple and use it with my postpaid AT&T sim and my T-Mobile prepaid sim. Everything worked out of the box with AT&T. With my T-Mobile sim I was able to get everything to work except for MMS. I did find a good thread in this link however that "might" help you get MMS to work with T-Mobile if you are interested. I never pursued this thread to try what was mentioned in there because I don't use my T-Mobile sim in my 4S that often. https://t-mobile.jive-mobile.com/#jive-discussion?content=/api/core/v1/discussions/9292

Hope this helps.


Sent from my iPhone 4S using Tapatalk.

 

[eomligutw]

Thanks Irish Rose. That does help. My only concern is tmobile is my main provider and I use my mobile phone as my main phone all the time when I am in the US and when I travel abroad, I buy local SIMs and use a local number. Am not too concerned about all functions working when abroad as thats what an unlocked phone is for.

I am more concerned about regular day to day use with having tmobile as a provider. One of the common complaints apple told me people said was that the phone was slow . . . have you noticed that as am not sure if you use data on your prepaid tmobile?

Thank you!

 

[Eileen89]

Thanks Irish Rose. That does help. My only concern is tmobile is my main provider and I use my mobile phone as my main phone all the time when I am in the US and when I travel abroad, I buy local SIMs and use a local number. Am not too concerned about all functions working when abroad as thats what an unlocked phone is for.

I am more concerned about regular day to day use with having tmobile as a provider. One of the common complaints apple told me people said was that the phone was slow . . . have you noticed that as am not sure if you use data on your prepaid tmobile?

Thank you!

You are welcome, eomligutw. I don't think you'll have any issues with T-Mobile here in the US. The unlocked 4S as I mentioned works well with T-Mobile. Because, the 4S doesn't support T-Mobiles 3G or HSPA+ frequency bands the only data you will get from them is EDGE. Their EDGE network is very slow, but not unbearably slow. I only used EDGE data once when I first got this unlocked 4S just to test it out and both the upload and download speed was well under 1Mbps. I think you'll be ok with the unlocked 4S and come to like it a lot as I do now.... Any other questions just ask, and good luck with your decision.


Sent from my iPhone 4S using Tapatalk.

 

[EmceeGeek]

They have to tell you that unless you buy a factory unlocked iPhone but before those were available, I just bought an AT&T iPhone from apple at retail price, plugged into my MacBook and popped my tmobile sim in and I got the message saying my iPhone was officially unlocked. Like I said though, tht was when the 4S first came out! They have an actual unlocked phone now and yes my data and mms worked perfectly. All you have to do is google search how to configure the settings properly for tmobile (if I remember correctly its a software you have to install called i-something I forgot.... maybe bot?). However, you'll only be using edge or 2G data speeds. which is as slow as sprints iPhone 3G but still....

+ forgot to mention, if the 4S imei is registered with AT&T at all, you won't be able to unlock it. Can't put one over on them anymore.

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