Anyone have any suggestions for an International phone (GSM capability)? Preferably Sprint and definitely not a Blackberry. The primary purpose will be texting and voice calls when necessary. If it is Sprint, I would prefer non-4G, so I don't have to pay the additional $10 monthly fee as I will only use this phone for International travel. I'd prefer not to worry about renting a phone or picking one up at the airport, as I would only have to pay $10/month to add a phone to my current Sprint plan. The Sprint website isn't much help and in this case their Customer Service hasn't been much help either. It appears there are only one or two phones that have GSM capability, so I thought I would post here for some recommendations and advice, rather than continuing my google assault. The countries I will be travelling to in the next 6 months do not currently have CDMA.
Right now I believe BlackBerry is the only option on Sprint for people looking for a world phone. Next month there should be a couple of new options: - The new HP Pre 3 - Motorola's Sprint version of the Droid Pro (can't remember what they're calling it). The Pre3 will obviously be the best option if you can get it.
Thanks. I have a few months before the next International trip, so I'll be on the lookout for these models.
HTC Touch Pro 2 for Sprint comes unlocked and can be used worldwide. I have used it overseas in UAE, Qatar and India, and it works fine. Side Note: As soon as you change your phone to any other phone, you will automatically bear the new $10 data charge. No way out of it. So basically if you have a HTC Hero and you switch to a Palm Pre, or a Touch Pro 2, you will start paying the $10 monthly 4g fee.
You may almost be better off just buying a cheapo triband Samsung or Nokia phone off craigslist than adding $10 a month to your sprint account. Heck you can get a used iphone 3g for about $150 and that would be better than paying $10 a month for 2 years.
It is possible for a phone to have both CDMA and GSM radios at the same time. These are called "world phones". Outside of the Blackberry world, they are not common, but they do exist.
A few years ago I had a phone that used both, but it weighed about 5 pounds and eventually broke down.
