Phones Best country-agnostic international GSM alternative

[jnpy!$4g3cwk]

Goal is a good switch-the-SIM unlocked GSM smartphone for use in the U.S. (T-Mobile, but, should also work on AT&T if necessary), Australia, and, for good measure (this part is wishful thinking right now), Europe.

Easily switchable SIM, replaceable battery, easily removable microSD, all required.

International functionality should be a good usable browser on 3G, but, tons of other apps are not necessary. Expect to use with prepaid SIMs internationally with modest 3G use.

Good (fast, real) GPS a must. Good, usable GPS navigation apps a plus.

Good camera with geotagging.

Mid-price, mid-size. Flamboyant design basically a negative; innocuous looking is just fine.

Looked at Nokia 808, but, frightened off by complaints about 3G/HSDPA/HSPA+ stability issues.

 

[KentuckyHouse]

Now that the S4 is coming out, you can pick up a very lightly used unlocked or international S3 on the cheap. That would be the route I'd recommend.

Frankly for what you've described, I'd go for the international version.

 

[Krimsonmyst]

If you have any sort of budget, the international S3 would be the goods. Model is GT I9300.

If you want best and brightest, the international (octo-core) S4 would be the go. GT I9500.

 

[The iGentleman]

Goal is a good switch-the-SIM unlocked GSM smartphone for use in the U.S. (T-Mobile, but, should also work on AT&T if necessary), Australia, and, for good measure (this part is wishful thinking right now), Europe.

Easily switchable SIM, replaceable battery, easily removable microSD, all required.

International functionality should be a good usable browser on 3G, but, tons of other apps are not necessary. Expect to use with prepaid SIMs internationally with modest 3G use.

Good (fast, real) GPS a must. Good, usable GPS navigation apps a plus.

Good camera with geotagging.

Mid-price, mid-size. Flamboyant design basically a negative; innocuous looking is just fine.

Looked at Nokia 808, but, frightened off by complaints about 3G/HSDPA/HSPA+ stability issues.

If you are looking for a phone that can fully function on both AT&T, TMobile, and work internationally, you may want to look into the Nexus 4. The Nexus 4 is pentaband, and thus will work fully on both AT&T and TMobile, and has the bands to function internationally also.

 

[Nermal]

If you are looking for a phone that can fully function on both AT&T, TMobile, and work internationally, you may want to look into the Nexus 4. The Nexus 4 is pentaband, and thus will work fully on both AT&T and TMobile, and has the bands to function internationally also.

Nexus 4 does not have an SD slot, and it may also have a non-removable battery (not sure).

 

[viskon]

I

If you are looking for a phone that can fully function on both AT&T, TMobile, and work internationally, you may want to look into the Nexus 4. The Nexus 4 is pentaband, and thus will work fully on both AT&T and TMobile, and has the bands to function internationally also.

+1. The reason I have a Nexus is that it works anywhere on any gsm carrier.

If you are looking for a pentaband phone with microsd and removable battery, Nokia might be your only hope - my wife has a Nokia C6 that meets all your criteria. Only problem is that it runs Symbian.

Edit : on the other hand, picking up one of the later Symbian phones, like the N8, might not be such a bad idea if you are looking for a secondary phone to be used while traveling.

 

[adder7712]

Nexus 4 does not have an SD slot, and it may also have a non-removable battery (not sure).

Correct, the Nexus 4 lacks a removable battery and a SD card slot.

I'd recommend the Galaxy S III, or the HTC Butterfly (with a SD card slot but no removable battery).

 

[The iGentleman]

Nexus 4 does not have an SD slot, and it may also have a non-removable battery (not sure).

The problem is, there isn't any current phone (that I am aware of) that will have each of those characteristics, so I recommended a home that would offer the most functionality (can work on all GSM networks fully).

 

[blackhand1001]

The nexus 4 And used galaxy nexus are both pentaband gsm phones. They work on essentially any gsm network .

 

[jnpy!$4g3cwk]

Thank you all for your pointers.

I admit that I need to do more research, but, there is a massive amount of information out there but little of what I am looking for. As an example, Apple at least gives a small amount of information on this page:

http://www.apple.com/iphone/LTE/

What it boils down to is that Apple has optimized the iPhone 5 into two models that cover most of the world's existing or planned LTE implementations. For the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and Puerto Rico, the hardware supports GSM band 4 - "AWS" (combined 1700/2100 MHz, although whether T-Mobile actually uses 1700/2100 as AWS is not clear), and, a suballocation of GSM 17 - 700 MHz ("700b"). The other GSM model that supports many other countries carriers, uses GSM 1 (2100 MHz), 3 (1800 MHz), and 5 (850 MHz).

This information is helpful as far as it goes, but, I don't see where it says what bands it supports for GSM voice, Edge if that is still supported, and various 3G formats. I guess it is assumed that the phones also support the right combination of other capabilities in all those markets.

When I look at the specs for some of the phones that folks have kindly suggested, I can't seem to get full information on what formats are actually supported in what bands, and consequently, what capabilities the phone would have in the U.S. on, say, T-Mobile/AT&T, and, in Australia on, say, Telstra.

Does anyone know of some web pages out there where this information has been collected?

 

[jnpy!$4g3cwk]

If you have any sort of budget, the international S3 would be the goods. Model is GT I9300.

If you want best and brightest, the international (octo-core) S4 would be the go. GT I9500.

How can I tell if/what 3G data service will work on T-Mobile in the U.S. for the international versions?