Windows Phone in the US

[anon(9837710)]

asd

 

[Laura Knotek]

The 650 will be available in the US. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/mobile/phones/all/#order_by=latest

 

[anon(9837710)]

Wow, they must have added that very recently, because I've been checking and haven't seen the 650 listed until now. Secondly, in all the announcements and news I've never seen them mention it releasing in the US. Even still, neither of those supports T-Mobile's LTE band 12. How unfortunate... I guess when the time comes I'll have to switch carriers... Hopefully something changes before then. I really don't want to leave T-Mobile.

I've also looked at the Alcatel OneTouch Fierce XL, while not as stylish as a Lumia, it is still windows 10 phone for T-Mobile, but the phone is pretty large. Maybe there will be a smaller model soon.

Edit: Oh wow, I just saw the 550 was added to their list too, and this one does support band 12. I don't know when these were added to their US website, but I sure am thankful. And even though the 550 isn't really an upgrade over the 640 that at least tells me that Microsoft hasn't given up selling their phones in the US after all, which is definitely good for the future.

 

[libra89]

The 550 works nicely on T-mobile, just no VoLTE (at least as of when I tried it out in December) and Wifi Calling. Microsoft started selling the 550 in the US in January.

 

[RumoredNow]

neither of those supports T-Mobile's LTE band 12.

I'd wait before pronouncing these 650 listings as incompatible.

The spec for radio is probably just copied over from the Global variant. None of that LTE is NA tuned.

FWIW, seems Cricket will have a limited time to offer 650 before anyone else. Don't get that one just because you see it is out. Cricket is a notoriously tough nut to unlock and I believe they always lock you out of Field Test so no chance to enable "hidden" bands.

B&H Photo may carry a Factory Unlocked Latin America variant. Those almost always have the bands you need anywhere in the US or Canada right out of the box.

 

[shakeyplace]

I actually think there is probably a lot of truth to this, I'm in Canada, but it's still next door and they are the same phones.
Microsoft's website has only a half dozen phones, all unlocked. None promoted by carriers. Only four Lumia available and two of them are the 950 models. A quick look at Bestbuy, they have a category for Windows phones. None available. The top three carriers and only one, Bell, has one model available. They have 3 Blackberry models.
The Wiki for the OS says it was announced in July 2014, Released to manufacturing November 20, 2015 and availability is "TBA"
Last year when there was all the Windows 10 hype there was many more models available on the Microsoft Store website but probably just as dismal with availability from the carriers as well as in stores. It's just nowhere.