Importing a Droid 4 to the UK

[Cerealheed]

For various reasons I've avoided the purchase of smartphones for many years now. I'm a huge PC nerd and I've never really had the need to take anything like that on move with me and the couple of times I have been tempted nothing has really caught my eye. Recently my current phone has packed up after about seven years of service and I've finally decided to bit the bullet and get something a little fancier. As a trained typist my main priority was a phone with a real keyboard as I can't stand virtual keyboards, besides that I just wanted something that was android. After tolling the internet for a couple of hours I have set my sights upon the Motorola Droid 4 XT894, of course the Droid 4 is now discontinued and it seems to have never been hugely popular in the UK even in it's time of greatest popularity.

The entire thing looks perfect for me and after a little more searching, knowing exactly what I was looking for I found an Ebay seller providing fully refurbished phones that appear to be as new. The seller has stated that the devices are fully unlocked for GSM and will work in any country and on any sim card, combined with the fact that they are shipping them worldwide implies that these are aimed at people who want a Droid 4 but don't live in the US, which is exactly the position I'm in. Generally speaking I'm not keen on Ebay as a site for this sort of thing but it seems to be the only option here.

I'm wondering if anyone else has experience with using an unlocked Droid 4 in the UK. I'd probably be using Orange as my provider since I have family members on it but that's definitely not set it stone. Are there any problems I'm likely or certain to face or will I just be able to put my UK sim in to this thing straight out the box and be away? Again I'm not very akin to the ways of smartphones but I'm perfectly technologically literate so in-depth answers are very welcome.

If you need more information to help me then simple ask and I'll do my best to provide the necessary information.

 

[Cyber.Logic]

For various reasons I've avoided the purchase of smartphones for many years now. I'm a huge PC nerd and I've never really had the need to take anything like that on move with me and the couple of times I have been tempted nothing has really caught my eye. Recently my current phone has packed up after about seven years of service and I've finally decided to bit the bullet and get something a little fancier. As a trained typist my main priority was a phone with a real keyboard as I can't stand virtual keyboards, besides that I just wanted something that was android. After tolling the internet for a couple of hours I have set my sights upon the Motorola Droid 4 XT894, of course the Droid 4 is now discontinued and it seems to have never been hugely popular in the UK even in it's time of greatest popularity.

The entire thing looks perfect for me and after a little more searching, knowing exactly what I was looking for I found an Ebay seller providing fully refurbished phones that appear to be as new. The seller has stated that the devices are fully unlocked for GSM and will work in any country and on any sim card, combined with the fact that they are shipping them worldwide implies that these are aimed at people who want a Droid 4 but don't live in the US, which is exactly the position I'm in. Generally speaking I'm not keen on Ebay as a site for this sort of thing but it seems to be the only option here.

I'm wondering if anyone else has experience with using an unlocked Droid 4 in the UK. I'd probably be using Orange as my provider since I have family members on it but that's definitely not set it stone. Are there any problems I'm likely or certain to face or will I just be able to put my UK sim in to this thing straight out the box and be away? Again I'm not very akin to the ways of smartphones but I'm perfectly technologically literate so in-depth answers are very welcome.

If you need more information to help me then simple ask and I'll do my best to provide the necessary information.

It will work with any GSM network outside the US after you update it to ICS or JB. You don't have to unlock it. I purchased a DROID-4 from eBay 6 months ago and it works perfectly with my GSM network (Tata DoCoMo) in India.

However, everytime you reboot the phone, you will get a "This SIM card is from an unknown source" pop-up message. This is merely a notification, and you will be able to use all the features of your network like voice calling, mobile data, etc. I was able to get rid of the annoying message by uninstalling Vzwphoneservice.apk - Haven't seen the pop-up ever since.

Keep in mind that the SIM slot only supports MicroSIM cards, so if you have a regular SIM card, you'll have to cut it to the right size. This can be done easily, there are plenty of tutorials online. And you can buy one of those SIM card cutters which will cut the card to the right dimensions. I used a pair of scissors for mine, lol.

 

[Cerealheed]

Thank you very much for the reply and detailed answer. With any luck I think I'll be purchasing one of these in the not too distant future.

Thanks again.

 

[Cyber.Logic]

No problem.