Can I buy an iPhone in the US and use in Zimbabwe?

yeah if zimbabwe have the same phone system support as the phone you buy as in gsm or cmda

but if you want to use a local carrier and not roam using the American carrier (which is pricy)

then you have to buy a sim unlocked phone which is

a 650$ vs. a locked model 199$ if you look at a 16GB iphone5

Keep in mind that the US iPhone 5 uses different LTE bands than iPhones sold outside the US. It is unlikely an iPhone 5 purchased in the US will work on LTE networks outside the US.

Also, prices stated on Apple's website do not include tax as it varies by city, county, and state ranging anywhere from 5-12% or more.

Actually you can now make that the "useless" unlocked Apple iPhone at their store, AT&T iPhone and T-Mobile iPhone. And the "useless" Sprint iPhone is not unlocked on the GSM side.

The fact that the GSM side is unlocked on the Verizon is the result of a deal with the FCC when they acquired more bandwidth. Nothing says this will continue into the future.

They will have to purchase their iPhone from Verizon and as with any of them their warranty will not be valid outside the US. And some providers do not use the same LTE bands as are on the Verizon and European phones.

not fully true. the verizon a1429 supports multiple LTE bands which will work on compatible bands across the world.

only the useless at&t version is locked to US LTE bands.

ok so did I say anything wrong?