Questions about purchasing imported lumia 800 (Canada)

[neville1355]

Hey all,

NCIX.com (canadian site) is having a sale on the Lumia 800 ($629 unlocked, $110 off normal price). It's tempting... especially considering that I'm currently locked on Bell for a while and would like to switch handsets.

The price isn't such a deal breaker since I can easily cover it on revenue I've made from selling my apps on webOS.

What I'd like to know is:
1) I've seen some mention of issues getting HSPA+ working in Canada. Has anyone been able to get this working on Bell? I'm in the Toronto area.

2) App store -> if the phone I buy is imported from the UK, will I be shown the UK app store or the Canadian one? Will there be issues in regards to the app store with some apps not loading correctly?

3) Is $629 really that good of a deal? It's the lowest price in Canada, for sure... but with the unlocked US version coming on Feb 20th, I feel like waiting just a bit longer might be worth while. Furthermore, I tried to look up the contract-free price of the Lumia 800 in the UK to get an idea at possible retail price but I was unsuccessful. I would expect the unlocked price to be $599... maybe $499?

4) My understanding is that the UK Lumia is quadband (sans 850). Is the Unlocked Feb 20th vesion going to be pentaband? This is actually a huge deal for Canadians as discount mobile companies usually run on the 1700MHz frequency. It would be the difference between $70 per month and $40 per month unlimited plan.


Thanks for reading this far, and thanks in advance for your help!

edit: the sale ends Tomorrow (January 11th) so I'm hoping you guys can help me out before then. Thanks again!

 

[JedH]

Hey all,

NCIX.com (canadian site) is having a sale on the Lumia 800 ($629 unlocked, $110 off normal price). It's tempting... especially considering that I'm currently locked on Bell for a while and would like to switch handsets.

The price isn't such a deal breaker since I can easily cover it on revenue I've made from selling my apps on webOS.

What I'd like to know is:
1) I've seen some mention of issues getting HSPA+ working in Canada. Has anyone been able to get this working on Bell? I'm in the Toronto area.

2) App store -> if the phone I buy is imported from the UK, will I be shown the UK app store or the Canadian one? Will there be issues in regards to the app store with some apps not loading correctly?

3) Is $629 really that good of a deal? It's the lowest price in Canada, for sure... but with the unlocked US version coming on Feb 20th, I feel like waiting just a bit longer might be worth while. Furthermore, I tried to look up the contract-free price of the Lumia 800 in the UK to get an idea at possible retail price but I was unsuccessful. I would expect the unlocked price to be $599... maybe $499?

4) My understanding is that the UK Lumia is quadband (sans 850). Is the Unlocked Feb 20th vesion going to be pentaband? This is actually a huge deal for Canadians as discount mobile companies usually run on the 1700MHz frequency. It would be the difference between $70 per month and $40 per month unlimited plan.


Thanks for reading this far, and thanks in advance for your help!

edit: the sale ends Tomorrow (January 11th) so I'm hoping you guys can help me out before then. Thanks again!

Don't do it. I bought it when they listed it as quad-band and I ended up returning. Despite having the option of 1900 here for HSPA it worked nowhere near as good as my HTC that had 850 and 1900.

The US Lumia and Telus Lumia are to be 850/1900/2100 I believe which should be all you would need in Canada, I think in the states some companies use predominately 1700 HSPA bands. Typically Telus and Bell (and maybe Rogers?) share their network coverage in lots of Canada so coverage should be consistent.

I was tempted to keep the Lumia as a dev phone, it was that nice, but end of the day I figured I'd be happier just waiting for a North American one.

Also I believe your Live ID/region you select when first starting the phone determines the Marketplace you see.

There's also the 900...but it may be LTE sim locked to AT&T for awhile.

 

[neville1355]

Thanks JedH,

I'll hold off until the US unlocked one comes out on Feb 20th. Hopefully it's pentaband!