korean phones

[eeddaa]

HI ALL! ^^ what i really want to know is, i travel to korea pretty often and its expensive to keep renting their phones.. i want to buy a korean phone which also allows me to use it back home (its useful with the korean dictionary and translator and awesome designs).. where can i purchase one? cos i understand not all korean phones are unlock and able to use out of korea.. THANKS in advance..

[dtymazda]

The problem is Korea uses CDMA as a cell phone technology, and here in the US, Sprint and Verizon are your major CDMA cell phone providers. So you'd have to find a phone compatible with Korean CDMA frequencies, AND US CDMA frequencies, and then get the phone added to the US network.. Verizon is notorious for not being very friendly to non verizon phones, so I doubt they'd be much help, but I don't know about sprint's policies.

It's not like GSM where you could simply switch out the SIM card for one in the new country, and assuming the phone supports the new country's GSM frequency, you'd be golden.

Good luck!

[eeddaa]

thanks alot!! yea.. i know that korea's using CDMA.. but i heard the they are using WCDMA as well.. and that is equivalent to 3G.. so from what i've found out, i have to find my desired phone in a 3G version and check if they have a SIM card slot.. if by trying to fit in my SIM card in the phone and my SIM works on the phone, i can actually use it back home..
so i was actually wondering where to purchase phones cheaply.. cos i know to buy a phone with a line, i have to get a korean to purchase it for me.. so how about just the phones without any contract?

[javiskefka]

You can find many phones, from cheap to not so cheap, at Yongsan Electronics Market.

[laola]

i do not know cheep phones, but friend of us used iphone, and it worked in korea and sweden, he loves this phone, also internet everywhere.