Advice needed : buying an locked iPhone

[avin7000]

Hi guys,

I am about to buy an AT&T locked, 04.11.08 BB, iPhone 4, 16GB. Currently it is JB'ed.

Now I want to know whether the phone is fully functional or not. I have checked camera, music, video playback etc everything seems to be working. What other things I should check ?

Is it possible that it may have any hardware fault related to unlocking ? Suppose if tomorrow unlock comes out & if I fail to unlock it, then I'd be in big problem.

Any suggestions are welcome.

Thank you

 

[Europa]

Moved to iPhone Unlock.

I don't recommend buying this phone if you are not with AT&T. There is currently no unlock for that baseband and the baseband cannot be downgraded. It will work fine minus the phone features until you update the firmware or need to restore it, at which point it will become an expensive paperweight because you won't be able to activate it and get past the emergency call screen (unless you have access to an active AT&T SIM). Since we don't have an ETA for an unlock, I don't think it's a wise purchase.

 

[avin7000]

Thanks for replying Europa. I am aware about unlocking condition, but I am getting it at very good price, that's why I wanted to know

 

[Europa]

You're welcome. You could always resell it if it ends up getting stuck at the emergency call screen.

 

[avin7000]

So that's a hardware problem ? I mean some phones can't be unlocked ever ? If that is a possibility then I will be taking a risk

 

[Europa]

I wouldn't call it hardware problem. It will fuction fine with the carrier its locked to. It's a waiting game. I don't know when the unlock will become available. I think it's very likely that we will evenuatally see one, though.

 

[avin7000]

I think you got me wrong. Let me make it clear Say tomorrow unlock is released by JB team. So my concern is, are there any known issues with iPhone which never gets unlocked even though unlock is available ?

Hope I am clear this time !

 

[iphoneint]

You can always use the phone using Wifi only and it will be fully functional minus the voice calling and sms capabilities. If that is what you are referring to. There would not be any other functionality differences for those applications that use data only as long as you have a Wifi data connection.

 

[Europa]

I think you got me wrong. Let me make it clear Say tomorrow unlock is released by JB team. So my concern is, are there any known issues with iPhone which never gets unlocked even though unlock is available ?

Hope I am clear this time !

No. If an unlock for the iPhone 4 with the latest baseband is released, it will work just fine on your phone. Not unlocking it doesn't cause problems. The only thing that affects this is baseband updates. If you are waiting for an unlock, never update to a stock firmware. Keep it on the old firmware or make a custom firmware with a preserved baseband.