Slight update. I see that Phonesource-USA sells two year warranties for around $27 but service is handled through a third party (details below). While this is a good price, I have no experience attempting to get warranty service from this third party. Since the phone you purchase must be returned to the correct service station (for example, Hong Kong, for Sony Ericsson phones), your repaired phone might take weeks to fix and return to you. It's a risk you take purchasing a phone intended for the U.K., Europe or Asia.

From Phonesource-USA FAQ's:

The phone does NOT come with any warranty as the phones are imported from Europe or Asia. However, we offer a 24 month warranty through www.cpscentral.com . If you do not purchase the warranty, then you need to contact the manufacturer in the phone's country of origin for service. If you do purchase the warranty, then you need to contact CPS for service. Please do not contact us regarding the warranty as we have no access to any warranty information, nor do we have any relationships with the phone manufacturers to facilitate the repair.

The 770I, as with other unlocked phones, is available from several sources. Try PhoneSourceUSA, a Hong Kong company with offices in Nevada. The company ships extremely fast and offers some of the best high-end mobile phones I've purchased from overseas. (They sell direct and on eBay.)

http://www.phonesource-usa.com/product_listing.php?keyword=770i&x=0&y=0

Another good source for all EuroAsia phones is GSMArena.com and, on eBay, Integron Technologiies.

U.S. phone buyers should know that if you purchase a Nokia, Sony Ericsson or other phone intended for use in another part of the world, there is NO warranty service in the U.S. Nokia is rapidly expanding retail stores in the U.S.--and other manufacturers may do the same--but, until then, Tri-Band and Quad-band mobile phones, usually with an "i" after the main model number--lack warranties.

Tri-band phones operate at 1900Mhz, the predominant U.S. frequency used by AT&T, T-Mobile and a few smaller cellular carriers. There are few areas of the country only offering 850Mhz analog coverage, because carriers, through their roaming agreements with other carriers, blanket the country.

Generally speaking, if you stick to to major brand names and buy from a reputable source, you'll have few problems with unlocked GSM phones. (Nokia and Sony Ericsson are the easiest to configure for WAP, SMS, MMS and email over the Web.) T-Mobile also has an unsupported phone division with an automated setting service.

All major U.S. carriers--AT&T, Verizon and Sprint--now offer 3G services on selected handsets, and T-Mobile will introduce its 3G service in 2008. 4G is the hot technology currently under development overseas, offering download speeds of over 100Mbps.

T-Mobile offers one year contracts if you pay a higher price for the subsidized phone. I don't believe that AT&T Unity offers anything but two year contracts.

Your N-95 can be self-configured. Here are the instructions from NokiaUSA.com:


Your Nokia phone comes with functionality built in that will automatically set-up operator services such as Browsing, MMS and Internet.

To check that the phone is correctly configured for this, please follow these three easy steps:

Settings Check

On the phone, from the main menu, press and hold the 0 (zero) key until the browser window opens. If prompted simply select a web site to connect to.
The phone will now try and connect to your service provider.
If you are now connected and the homepage is displayed correctly, the settings in the phone are correct and no further action is required.
If you receive an error message or the homepage is not displayed correctly, there maybe a problem with the settings in the phone.

Please follow the next six steps to re-configure the phone with the correct settings for your operator:

Settings Wizard

On the phone press the Menu key.
Scroll to and select Tools.
Scroll to and select Sett. wizard to launch the Nokia Settings Wizard.
Scroll to and select Operator.
Follow the wizard's on screen steps to automatically configure the phone with the required operator service settings.
Repeat steps 1 to 3 of the Settings Check above to verify that the settings are now working correctly.

Yes, China Mobile does not require contracts, which is one reason why Apple's iPhone was rejected. See IWire at: http://www.itwire.com/content/view/16087/53/

No. You can not use any old handset--especially older AT&T Wireless TDMA phones. In fact, when Cingular merged with Bell South and AT&T Wireless disappeared, many former AT&T Wireless customers were livid, because they were getting excellent reception on AT&T's analog network. Switching to Cingular's digital network, in many cases, lowered signal strength and call quality when analog handsets were swapped out with digital handses. A digital handset is required for AT&T service.

The cost of the phone on a two year contract has never been the main reason for the contract (with the iPhone an exception, due to AT&T's payment to Apple). 1-2 year contracts with all carriers take care of customer-acquisition costs (advertising, line provisioning, network maintenance, customer service call centers and non-paying subscribers.) The same principle applies to credit cards

Do the math. If the average carrier's customer AMR (average monthly revenue) is, say, $50, the customer is agreeing to pay at least $1,200 over a two-year term. Plus, along the way, many customers will purchase additional products and services (ringtones, wallpaper, text messaging and, best of all, data plans). Data plans, whether for BlackBerry email or smartphone Web access) produce the highest profits.

Now that AT&T has 65 million customers, it can afford to do what carriers in Europe, the U.K. and Asia have done for years--give you a SIM card. The big difference? If you live in EuroAsia, you can buy SIM cards in multiple countries and swap them out of your GSM phone as you travel, without a contract in most cases.

Verizon and Sprint customers. Although your phones don't have SIM's (your service is tied to ESN's hard-wired into your phones), the amount of $$$ you're committing to V and S over a two year contract is similar.

It's the year 2013 and Vista Lite Online is replacing Vista Sub-Premium. Meanwhile, Apple's Cougar is attacked. View Microsoft's press release issued by Red Redmond:

http://marketingbeyond.typepad.com/marketingbeyond/2008/01/microsoft-news.html

I've read all the replies to Engaget's short, incomplete review--almost intended to set up a cat fight among users. Mobile device users, especially found on Engaget, are quite adamant about favorite manufacturers, carriers, form factors, features and performance. But Dextius should'nt get rammed for liking a Palm Treo, a solid device that isn't in the same league as an expensive Nokia but meets his requirements.

In one of my eBay guides, I mention that only 30% of a mobile device's features are ever used and buyers should choose a device based on needs:

http://reviews.ebay.com/Choosing-a-Smartphone-Sony-Ericsson-p990i-Example_W0QQugidZ10000000001923787

So that readers have the specs on the N95, Treo 750, iPhone and HTC Touch (not mentioned here), I set up a comparison chart on Phonescoop:

http://www.phonescoop.com/phones/compare.php?id%5B%5D=1325&id%5B%5D=1294&id%5B%5D=1110&id%5B%5D=1054&id%5B%5D=

In 2008, due to Google, the Open Handset Alliance and other third-party developers, we're going to see a lot of Android-based mobile devices hit the market. For my vision of the ultimate mobile device, see my posts on MarketingBeyond or Mobile Telephony Innovations:

http://innovativemobile.blogspot.com/2007/12/talk-to-your-telephone-sprints-touch.html

The ultimate Android-enabled phone of the future is described on MarketingBeyond: http://marketingbeyond.typepad.com/marketingbeyond/2007/11/ideal-android-m.html