prepaid phones for China

[Bossman]

As others have already advised, get a basic unlocked quadband phone and you are all set. These can be had for $50 or less. Does anyone even sell triband phones these days? Then when you get to China get your sim card and pop it into the phone. How simple can it get!

[pwilliams89]

I have not made up my mind to use Tracfone, I'm just curious why a quadband phone won't take any SIM card. I guess you believe a Chinese SIM card wouldn't work with a Tracone even though it's quadband. My next question would be, do you know a US brand that would work? I'd love to buy a China Mobile phone in the US but I'm surprised I haven't found them online anywhere, at least not yet.

Instead of being rude, you could politely answer my questions and help me figure out what it is I can use and not use.

[pwilliams89]

Originally Posted by Bossman

As others have already advised, get a basic unlocked quadband phone and you are all set. These can be had for $50 or less. Does anyone even sell triband phones these days? Then when you get to China get your sim card and pop it into the phone. How simple can it get!

Hey Bossman, yeah that's what I'm thinking of doing. I want to get as cheap a prepaid as possible. For example, I found a $18 Tracfone online that's quadband. I'm sure I could figure out how to unlock it too. The only thing else I need to be sure of is that it could read Chinese characters. I thought this might be a function of the SIM card (which will be Chinese) but possibly this has to do with the software of the phone? If it depends on the phone, then I might be out of luck cause I'm not sure that the Tracfone would have language capabilities besides English and Spanish.

[Bossman]

First of all, I do not believe anyone here is being rude. The guys that post here are extremely knowledgeable about what they post.

Tracfones are firmware locked and will only work with a tracfone sim. So eliminate that quickly! Most world phones have an option where you can select your language of choice. Just select Chinese.

Also check ebay. However here -

Unlocked quadbands on amazon - Amazon.com: unlocked quad-band phone

Originally Posted by pwilliams89

Hey Bossman, yeah that's what I'm thinking of doing. I want to get as cheap a prepaid as possible. For example, I found a $18 Tracfone online that's quadband. I'm sure I could figure out how to unlock it too. The only thing else I need to be sure of is that it could read Chinese characters. I thought this might be a function of the SIM card (which will be Chinese) but possibly this has to do with the software of the phone? If it depends on the phone, then I might be out of luck cause I'm not sure that the Tracfone would have language capabilities besides English and Spanish.

[pwilliams89]

Originally Posted by DRNewcomb

It appears that you've already made up your mind to use a Tracfone. I'm afraid you are going to have to learn the hard way that it won't work.

Thanks Bossman, I was referring to this guy. He could have just told me about firmware locked, I didn't know there were different "lock" types. I assumed any locked phone could be unlocked.

[Bossman]

Pretty much true. With the exception of a handful of phones of which Tracfone is one of them.

Originally Posted by pwilliams89

I assumed any locked phone could be unlocked.

[pwilliams89]

I see, well I looked at some of those phones on Amazon but I'm trying to find in the $20 or $30 range, if that's possible. Are there any cheap prepaid brands in the US I could unlock, or is everything going to be similar to Tracfone? Maybe I'll just have to suck it up and get an international phone?