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o/t: Buying Phones from Hong Kong/Asia



Barrel of Fun

Abort, retry, fail
Does anyone have any success :) / horror :eek: stories of buying smartphones from Asia via Amazon?

I had mine nicked, inadvertently cancelled the insurance a while back and have 8 months left to run on my contract, so in the market for a replacement.

Thanks in advance.
 
Aug 23, 2011
1,864
My brother bought an "iPhone" from somewhere over there via ebay a few years back and it felt like a cheap imitation and didn't work particularly well. This was about 4 years ago so things may have improved
 

dougdeep

New member
May 9, 2004
37,732
SUNNY SEAFORD
I just bought a very good tablet from China, great price, but got stung an extra £30 import duty by UPS

A little unfair on UPS there, the government impose import duty.
 


Matrix10

New member
Jun 7, 2011
501
Bexhill
A little unfair on UPS there, the government impose import duty.

To be fair to UPS I think it was picked up by customs at the airport, they charged UPS and they charged me. I have ordered a few thing fron China, sometimes you are lucky and it gets through sometimes it does not.

I ordered 20 LED Bayonet Lamps at £2.40 each and they got throuh OK, so my home is now lit with 12Watt lamps to replace 60Watt and much better than those early low wattage bulbs
 

beorhthelm

A. Virgo, Football Genius
Jul 21, 2003
35,239
be aware that some phones have models that are region specific and might not work here, as they dont support the frequencies used here.
 


Guinness Boy

Tofu eating wokerati
Helpful Moderator
NSC Licker Extraordinaire
Jul 23, 2003
33,694
Up and Coming Sunny Portslade
be aware that some phones have models that are region specific and might not work here, as they dont support the frequencies used here.

That used to be ALL Japanese phones. Not sure if it's changed in the last few years.
 

severnside gull

Well-known member
May 16, 2007
24,540
By the seaside in West Somerset
I bought a Samsung S4 last year in Hong Kong for HK$300 which is just over £20 Add a payg SIM bought over here and it works although very obviously not "real". My wife has it for occasional use. Internet connection and phone signal can be a bit iffy but by and large it is okay for what it is.
Would I recommend it to someone? No.
I bought my (legit) S3 from a dealer in Shanghai two year ago and it cost £150 or thereabouts and I switched in my existing SIM but I could go in the shop and check it was a genuine dealership. Buy unseen online? No way!
 

jmsc

New member
Jul 19, 2003
647
Old Shoreham Road :o(
My last 3 phones have been bought via ebay from Hong Kong with
no problems at all. One of them had a problem and they even paid
for the phone to be returned for repair.

As I am out of the country a lot, I want a high quality dual sim
phone, these are not available in the UK (apparently the HTC
One dual sim phone is just about to be released to the UK market!)
 

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