Need to buy iPhone 3GS

avi

avi

Skilled
I need to buy iPhone 3GS. I was looking at eBay.com and there are really nice auctions going on.

I am also offered 193 USD for iPhone 3GS 16GB Mint.

What would be the final cost ? I will using SNS.

OR is it better to buy locally ? Approx 12k for 8GB.

Thank you !
 
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Just be super careful while buying the 3GS. If it is a newer model and you intend to flash the iPad baseband then DO NOT do that. It will permanently break your iPhone's cellular radio and render the phone part useless and you will end up with an iPod instead.
 
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Thank you !! I wasnt aware of this and I will consider the tip :)

And most prolly I will be buying an unlocked device.

I am confused whether I should buy locally or use SNS.
 
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^^I am still skeptical because an iPhone 3GS flashed with 6.15.00, i.e. the iPad baseband, renders the GPS (partially??) useless.

I would advice you to search on iPhone specific forums like macrumour or modmyi and see what they say before proceeding.

The seller may be right here but you see that not everyone is so much into GPS and if the person has been using Google maps then what he says cannot be assumed since google maps will use data connection which will work to pinpoint approx location. Problem comes with offline GPS apps.
 
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Ebay Auctions for Iphone 4 Are running at abt 280-300$ for an 8Gb one .

Also getting it via SNS will Cost you 10$ for shipping and 2.3 % customs roughly both will come under 1K .

so i would suggest strech your budget a bit and get an iphone 4 for around 15K + 1K - 16 K

PS - I have take dollar rate as 53 , which i feel would fall sharply in a few days due To the NEW FDI NORM
 
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avi said:
Don't need offline GPS, then would that be fine ?
Click to expand...
Basically the GPS chip doesn't work with iPad baseband for majority of the users, maps would work on basis of triangulation of cell towers and wifi location

Sent from my MB860 using Tapatalk
 
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@mpaspc - wow, nice suggestion there. But I cannot extend budget. And also fine with 3GS. If one can get i4 8GB is 16K then I think I can get 3GS at half of the price. May be I should wait ?

OR how about buying 3GS refurb ? A friend of mine coming next month.

@sanav - thanks for replying. I will dig more about it
 
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I won't suggest iphone 3GS to anyone since in the coming few months it will have very less resale value .

Also iphone 4 is a significant upgrade to the 3GS .

also buy only factory unlocked iphone , if it is unlocked by updating to the Ipad Baseband then most people will lose their GPS and chances for selling it are reduced then .

My suggestion - If you are getting a factory unlocked 3Gs for 12k Max buy it or extend ur budget and get an iphone 4 at 16k
 
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All those $280-300 iPhone 4 pieces will be carrier locked. Factory unlocked pieces cost a lot more. Make sure of that before you go ahead and buy, unless you want to use the Gevey-Sim method.

Also many sellers will list their iPhones as 'unlocked' whereas in reality those sellers are unaware that upgrading or finishing their contract with their service providers doesn't suddenly render their old phones 'unlocked'. It becomes contract free, and many of these sellers don't know that. I have been burned once before due to the sellers' lack of information. I repeatedly asked him about the unlock status, demanded to know the baseband, firmware and contract status. Only when the seller told me that his phone was out of contract and, in fact, not carrier unlocked did I back out of the deal.

In your case, if you must stick to a 3GS, then it'll be wise to get it locally than ship it from USA.
 
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babhishek said:
i have a factory unlocked iphone 3gs 16gb black, bought from KL with box and accessories at 16k if anyone is interested ;)

on ios5 and everything works great!
Click to expand...

Please avoid advertising personal sales on the threads other than in the Market sections. Open up a sale thread in the relevant section with the required snaps.
 
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I second what Pheonix says above.

On ebay, many sellers are not well informed about the unlocking stuff and all and hence you may actually end up with something you cannot use completely.

Specifically, if you find someone mentioning things like "Updated to latest iOS 5" etc etc then double-triple-cross check with the seller what baseband the phone is on. In 99.99% cases they would have also updated the baseband making the unlocking almost impossible.

I was lucky enough since the seller from whom i got the iPhone 4 had clearly mentioned it is on 1.59 baseband with pics attached of the same on ebay. But he had also updated to iOS 5 without updating the baseband. This helped me in unlocking it with Ultrasn0w to use my Tmobile SIM here.
 
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mpaspc said:
I won't suggest iphone 3GS to anyone since in the coming few months it will have very less resale value .

Also iphone 4 is a significant upgrade to the 3GS .

also buy only factory unlocked iphone , if it is unlocked by updating to the Ipad Baseband then most people will lose their GPS and chances for selling it are reduced then .

My suggestion - If you are getting a factory unlocked 3Gs for 12k Max buy it or extend ur budget and get an iphone 4 at 16k
Click to expand...

Budget is very strict, I will look for FU 3GS.
phoenix844884 said:
All those $280-300 iPhone 4 pieces will be carrier locked. Factory unlocked pieces cost a lot more. Make sure of that before you go ahead and buy, unless you want to use the Gevey-Sim method.

Also many sellers will list their iPhones as 'unlocked' whereas in reality those sellers are unaware that upgrading or finishing their contract with their service providers doesn't suddenly render their old phones 'unlocked'. It becomes contract free, and many of these sellers don't know that. I have been burned once before due to the sellers' lack of information. I repeatedly asked him about the unlock status, demanded to know the baseband, firmware and contract status. Only when the seller told me that his phone was out of contract and, in fact, not carrier unlocked did I back out of the deal.

In your case, if you must stick to a 3GS, then it'll be wise to get it locally than ship it from USA.
Click to expand...
raksrules said:
I second what Pheonix says above.

On ebay, many sellers are not well informed about the unlocking stuff and all and hence you may actually end up with something you cannot use completely.

Specifically, if you find someone mentioning things like "Updated to latest iOS 5" etc etc then double-triple-cross check with the seller what baseband the phone is on. In 99.99% cases they would have also updated the baseband making the unlocking almost impossible.

I was lucky enough since the seller from whom i got the iPhone 4 had clearly mentioned it is on 1.59 baseband with pics attached of the same on ebay. But he had also updated to iOS 5 without updating the baseband. This helped me in unlocking it with Ultrasn0w to use my Tmobile SIM here.
Click to expand...

Thanks to both of you ! Will keep everything in mind.

So which baseband 3GS I should get ?
 
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@seenuguddu

Check below link for information on unlockable basebands of the 3GS and then decide on what you should be buying. This is if your iPhone 3GS has not been already flashed with the iPad baseband

[How To] Check if you can Unlock

But if it has already been flashed with iPad baseband i.e. 6.15.00 then although unlock is available, you tend to loose the GPS functionality. I would advice you to assume this and not keep false hopes of getting a working GPS on a 6.15 baseband 3GS, just to avoid disappointment later.
 
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