When will the factory unlocked version of the iphone 5s be released ?

i can confirm - i bought the tmobile 5S online from apple at full price - when it came i took the tmobile sim out and put in the att sim from my iphone 5 and activated it fine - i didnt have to first activate it on tmobile - i also just got back from a trip to Montreal - bought a Bell Canada pre paid sim and inserted it into the 5s and it worked fine

I have heard if you buy the phone from tmobile its locked to them but if you buy from Apple either online ot in an Apple store and pay full price its unlocked - that was my experience

This is not true - i bought a tmobile 5s from Apple online at full price - when it cam i removed the tmobile sim and put in the att sim from my iphone 5- worked fine - never activated the phone on tmobile

phone is unlocked completly not just outside the US

i used a tmobile full price 5S on both ATT in the US and Bell Canada in Montreal - dont know if Canada qualifies as "international" but the phone worked fine

mark

Mark, could you also calrify one thing for me.

What if i were to buy the phoine from a Tmobile store in the US at full price, then the phone would work anywhere just like you specified right? Or should it be bought online only?

The Tmobile stores are also selling the phones at full price so what woul be the difference between those phones and the ones being sold in the Apple store?

Thanks,

Sreejayan

srijayan wrote:

Mark, could you also calrify one thing for me.

What if i were to buy the phoine from a Tmobile store in the US at full price, then the phone would work anywhere just like you specified right? Or should it be bought online only?

The Tmobile stores are also selling the phones at full price so what woul be the difference between those phones and the ones being sold in the Apple store?

Thanks,

Sreejayan

NO only from the Apple retail stores in US .NOT T-Mobile stores

I bought the tmobile version at apple store. From what I can tell it's completely unlocked. Tried it with a Chinese SIM that I have, and it worked.

At the time I bought it, I had a micro SIM card, so had to change to a nano sim. Went to AT&T and they replaced my sim. However when the scanned the IMEI on the phone to match it to the SIM card, it would not recognize it. It would state "item not in inventory".

The girl at AT&T just went on, and the new sim got activated.

The phone has been working well for 2 weeks now., on AT&T service.

I don't know what is so hard to understand.

Apple unlocked phones will work on any GSM network, which is AT&T and T-Mobile in the US, and almost every carrier around the world. The only other choice is CDMA and that is Verizon and Sprint in US and practically no-one anywhere else in the world. My unlocked phone works wherever I am, I just buy a local sim card, stick it in, and go.

The ONLY difference between an unlocked phone w/ T-mobile Sim and no sim is that they ship the phone with a T-mobile nano sim card so you don't have to buy one, but you will still need to get it activated with T-mobile.

The phone with no sim, hardware and software wise are exactly the same, just no sim card, so you have to go get your own, trim the one you have if you have a 3GS or 4S, or whatever. They simply ship it with a T-mobile sim for convenience.

I will say, although I cannot find any documentation on this, but the unlocked phones my daughter and I have, get better reception than phones sold by carriers, or phones that have been "self" unlocked. But doing side by side comparison, we have more bars.

Just to put everyone out of their misery Apple started selling unlocked iPhone 5S on the online Store in US

No word as to whether they are also yet available in Retail stores

( Nothing to do with T-Mobile version )

Apple is now selling "SIM free" unlocked iPhone 5s - shipped without a SIM card. The only differece from the T-Mobile phone (also listed as "unlocked") is that the latter is shipped with an inactive T-Mobile SIM card for convenience if you want to use T-Mobile.

any idea if they are in stores or just online

ps I was really addressing the Indian Sub Continent where T-Mobile isn't really of interest 😉

The factory unlocked iPhone 5s is available in apple stores in the US. Check

http://store.apple.com/us/buy-iphone/iphone5s/64gb-space-gray-unlocked