One phone for US, EU and Africa?

[Android Question]

I am thinking about purchasing a new android and I would like to have the ability to use it at home and over seas. Preferably I would like to be able to pop in a different SIM with prepaid minutes.

US and Africa (East Africa) are most important. Europe is a nice to have but not essential.

Any suggestions?

 

[Scootmien]

Hi and welcome to Android Forums

Europe uses GSM predominantly. The USA uses a combination of CDMA and GSM depending on service operator and Africa is predominantly GSM, so your best bet is to get a GSM phone.

Saying that, there are a multitude of phones on the market that will fit your needs, from low budget low end phones up to cutting edge phones. All that you need to think about are things like:

• Removable battery
• SD card holder
• Internal RAM memory size
• Screen size and resolution
• Processor speed
• Availability of accessories
• Cost of handset
• Contract/Pay as you go
• Reliability of manufacturer/reputation
• Battery life

Samsung are at the top of the Android tree at the moment, with Sony, Huawei, LG, HTC and Motorola up there with them (plus more i've surely forgotten) and each of those brands will have a phone to fit your needs and budget requirements.



The phone world is pretty much the mollusc of your choice.

Happy hunting!

 

[Tim K]

It would help if you could post the service type and frequencies the carriers use in the countries you are hoping to have service in. I assume east african carriers run GSM networks, but I'm not sure what frequencies they run on. An option might be the Motorola Droid Razr line that Verizon sells in the US. It can run on CDMA/LTE here in the US and can run on GSM overseas....depending on which bands are operating there.

Here are the supported frequencies....
CDMA 800/1900,
GSM 850/900/1800/1900,
LTE 13,
W-CDMA 850/900/1900/2100

My understanding is you can just pop in a micro SIM from a local carrier, adjust the APN settings and go.
International travel with Razr Maxx - Page 3