Other carrier phones on Bell?

[torradan]

I've been looking all over the place for info, and I can't find a straight answer anywhere. I'm getting more confused the more I look. Some places say I can do it, some places say I can't for various reasons (bell won't activate it because its not a bell phone, different frequencies, etc).

I want a new phone. Period. I have an i7500, and while its been a very nice phone compared to what I used to have, I'm having some serious Elcair/Froyo envy. Basically, I should have done more homework before my wife renewed our contract and I told her to "bring me home an android-based phone" when you go to the store to upgrade us. I also should have known she'd have picked up the cheapest one available.

The i7500 is already rooted and has Galaxo on it, but well, I'm just not content.

Anywho, I've been looking around at different brands of phones on kijiji and craigslist because I don't want to pay full price to just buy the phone from Bell (Vibrant or Desire Z).

Any suggestions or anywhere else I can read up further to find a good android based phone that I can use with Bell?

 

[princetonbc]

check this out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g94eTJWW444

 

[torradan]

Oh my! Now to get it past the CFO (aka wife) -- the price of buying a phone outright makes her choke and have spasms. I think after the last leg of working out of town, I can convince her that we can indeed part with a little bit of $$$ we're saving for a house. Good part of working out of town = I have just about zero expenses thanks to per diems Be ending my 4 month stint in PEI/NB at the end of this month.

I was thinking more of a phone from the states, since I go there a lot, and they have an actual selection of good stuff. The droid series - just as an example. Or any of the neato HTC phones offered. Or along those lines.

The Vibrant does look pretty nice though, and I could be happy with it until the next latest-and-greatest comes out.

 

[princetonbc]

I like my Vibrant we are still waiting for Samsung to release the 2.2 froyo upgrade which is a bit of a sore point but they said that we should have it by mid December.

I know what you mean about the CFO having spasms. I need to get my wife a new phone as well but do not want to get another contract so I am going to buy it outright and add it to my contract. When you consider the $500 + taxes for the phone compared to the $700 plus for a year contract so you can get the phone for 150 it makes sense.

good luck!

 

[mikeh36]

It depends on the phone really. If, for example, you pick up one of the original Google Nexxus phones then as long as it's radio band is the same as Bell's then you can just pull the SIM from your I7500 and slip it into the Nexxus. You don't have to deal with Bell at all.

FWIW I just dumped my I7500 (giving it to my son after less than a year) and re-contracted for the Desire Z. It's a totally different experience than running Galaxo or GAOSP on the I7500. I thought about the Galaxy S but I don't trust Samsung anymore as far as phones go.

 

[torradan]

Hey guys,
Thanks for all of your advice earlier.

I ended up having a lot of issues with the i7500 (rebooting, dropping calls, shoddy reception, etc), not to mention how I was treated when I called into customer service for a hand with things, so after a lot of complaining and taking it right up to the top, they gave me another hardware upgrade.

So, in the end, I picked up a Desire Z the other day ($79.99 with a 3 year contract for the christmas special, I basically ended up tacking 2 months onto my existing 3 year). They told me they'd recycle the i7500 if I wanted them to, but I opted to keep it, and its now going to go into my work bag/tool bag so I can have something that can get bumped and battered during work for the rare times I need to need a phone. The DZ would get wrecked.

 

[azazel]

For what its worth: I bought a Sony Xperia Play off of Kijiji from someone who had it unlocked and it works with Bell.

Just make sure its a GSM phone and you're fine