Japanese Phones compatibility on Indian networks ?

Crazy_Eddy

Crazy_Eddy

Staff member
Luminary
Do phones sold in Japan work well on Indian networks?

A fellow member bought a Sony Xperia 1 V and hasn't been able to get 5G working on Airtel.
I also guess they will be using different radio bands?

I do see some members here using Japanese iPhones successfully. But I'm curious about Android phones.
 
Should be careful while buying electronics from Japan, they have hard to unlock region features.
Purchased a Canon camera as requested by a friend since it came at lower price, found we cannot change it's menu language fully. It's region specific, even applying English version firmware does not help.
 
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I bought a refurb pixel 3 from Flipkart and it turned out to be a JDM phone. It worked fine on Indian networks, but it did not have NFC, rather a japan specific nfc type tech.
en.m.wikipedia.org

Osaifu-Keitai - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org en.m.wikipedia.org

Not saying yours will work (I've had mixed results with these online checkers) but at least one thing will not
 
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Crazy_Eddy said:
A fellow member bought a Sony Xperia 1 V and hasn't been able to get 5G working on Airtel.
Click to expand...
So 4g and below works then?
Crazy_Eddy said:
I also guess they will be using different radio bands?
Click to expand...
This has been the main problem starting with 4G. The military holds onto the lower frequencies leaving higher battery inefficient frequencies to be auctioned. They can be quite arbitrary and is the main reason for region specific phones
 
Sorry, I should clarify my original question :-
Someone asked me if it's a good idea to buy a phone in Japan, and I had said no it may not work flawlessly here, based on the Xperia example.
Just wanted to check if I was mistaken.

I see threads on xda about modifying carrier policy files on xperias to get them to work, so it does appear to be a carrier issue.
But I don't want to recommend a phone that needs tinkering.
 
It is not a good idea to purchase an Android phone from Japan. Unless it is "Sim-free" as they call it, you will run into carrier problems and they cannot be bootloader unlocked. Then Japan has regulations like the camera sound cannot be turned off which can become irritating when using in other countries.

iPhones are universal in nature, like for example, you can use Suica on Apple wallet as Apple pays those fees to Sony and includes necessary NFC support irrespective of country. Samsung and Google, for example, cheap out and only include it in Japanese models, which can be irritating when travelling.
 
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