Bought legit Treo 650 in China, can I use it in the US?

[mandarinstudent]

I bought a CECT Treo 650 in China and want to continue using it when I am back in the States. Is this possible? I'm only asking because my wife's cousin bought a cell phone or two in China and was unable to use them in England. Anyone know about the Treo 650 in particular? Thanks.

[adrianlondon]

If the US and UK are the same, then ...

Normal GSM phones bought in China will work but CDMA phones won't.

I assume all GSM phones in China are unlocked. If not, then get it unlocked before you leave as it's likely to be cheaper.

[billiardsmike]

My 650 was fine for use in the states. ATT and Sprint (possibly others) even offer pre-paid SIM card service if you're only going back for a while.

[cdn_in_bj]

China (and pretty much the rest of the world except for North America) uses the 900 and 1800 Mhz GSM bands. US/Canada uses 850/1900 Mhz. So as long as your phone is unlocked and at least a tri-band (900/1800/1900), which I'm pretty sure it is, then it should work in the US provided you go with a carrier that's on the GSM network. Even better is quad-band (850/900/1800/1900) which will give more reliable coverage, but only recent phones have this.

Just curious, where did you find your CECT Treo and how much did it cost? I looked around for ages a year ago, and finally gave up.

[mandarinstudent]

I got it about a year ago in Changchun about a year ago for 3900 RMB. I think it is way cheaper now. I just called palm and found the official Treo dealer in Changchun. They didn't have any in the store, so they had to order one from Shanghai. At first I searched everywhere and couldn't find one, unless I was willing to buy one that was smuggled in. It was worth it to buy the official one. About a month after I bought it the phone had problems with the sound. I brought it back to the dealer and they replaced it for free.

[billiardsmike]

I bought my Treo 650 (I've been told that CECT 650 is the same, but I wasn't sure at the time and insisted on Palm) one year ago for 3,200 kuai at Zhongguancun. I recently took a friend to buy his Treo 680 and he paid 2,900 kuai. He also got a dictionary similar to PlecoDict installed for free. I haven't played with his dictionary very much, but I think Plecodict is still the bomb!

Has anyone else had a problem with a 650 after one year? Mine locked up twice in the first year or so. That's very acceptable. Since then, it's locked up four times in the last month.

[ipsi()]

I got a Treo 680 in Qingdao (Well, technically. They ordered it in for me) and paid 2750 RMB for it. It didn't come with CJKOS or anything else fancy, but it's been working fine for the past three months or so.

And it worked fine when I came back to New Zealand. Just had to insert a SIM card, so I'd assume that most phones purchased in China would work fine if you insert a SIM card. All my girlfriend's phones have worked fine .

[mandarinstudent]

I bought my Treo 650 (I've been told that CECT 650 is the same, but I wasn't sure at the time and insisted on Palm)

I think CECT is Palm in China. My phone says both CECT and Palm on it. I called Palm directly and they directed me to the official Palm dealer, who then ordered a CECT/Palm phone for me. I was under the impression that if it isn't CECT, then you are buying an American phone that was smuggled into China, hence the lower price.

[muyongshi]

I was under the impression that if it isn't CECT, then you are buying an American phone that was smuggled into China, hence the lower price.

Or a European model, or from anywhere else that sells them...not just the states....

[roddy]

CECT brands and sells Palm smartphones in China. I don't know exactly how it works and there have actually been some changes recently, but mobile handsets need licenses and approval, and foreign firms need a local partner to handle that. Which is part of the reason why you still can't buy a Blackberry in China, although this should soon change.

Anything that isn't CECT will be 水货 - still Palm, but imported from Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, the US, etc.

[cdn_in_bj]

Which is part of the reason why you still can't buy a Blackberry in China, although this should soon change.

Yes, we'll be able to buy them here before the end of the year:

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2207379,00.asp

http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=202601328

http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/newstex/IBD-0001-20445670.htm

[imron]

so I'd assume that most phones purchased in China would work fine if you insert a SIM card

It's worth re-iterating, that as cdn_in_bj mentioned above, North America uses different frequencies for GSM mobile phones than the rest of the world. So something that works fine in China and NZ, or China and Australia, or China and Europe (which all use the same frequencies) isn't necessarily going to work in the US. It's important to check whether it's a tri-band or a quad-band phone.

[muyongshi]

All treo's starting with the 650 (and maybe even the 600) are quad-band (except if they are CDMA of course, or if there is a new frequency I don't know about) so as long as we are talking about a treo we don't have to worry about frequencies, just carriers as those that use sim cards in the states are fewer and fewer.....