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I am considering purchasing an unlocked smart cell phone from Amazon, before I return to Costa Rica in March. Can anyone offer any advice, in terms of buying an unlocked smart phone here in the U.S., and using it in Costa Rica? I have rented cell phones in Costa Rica for several years, and would like to have a personal cell phone. Any advice would be appreciated!
Costa Rica’s cellular providers all work on the 850mhz GSM frequency, so your unlocked smartphone must either be dedicated to 850mhz or be designated as “quad band” one of which is that 850mhz band.
No Verizon-compatible phone will work in Costa Rica whether it’s unlocked or not because Verizon runs on the CDMA system which is entirely incompatible with GSM.
In 2011, I bought a Deejay World Phone from amazon.com. It worked very well. This year, 2012, I forgot it but then I purchased a $40 Nokia from a local store in Orosi and 30-day SIM card and I was good to go. You might want to check out DeeJay World Phones of Amazon, just make sure it is an International phone. At any rate, you can pick up a SIM card after get off the plane and start to walk to towards Immigration and Customs at the ICE kiosk.
Tom
Portland, Oregon[quote=”sstarkey”]Buy an unlocked IPhone then get a prepaid SIM card in CR. Expensive but worth it.[/quote]
No question . . . I’m an Apple devotee and love my iPhone, but it’s not necessary to spend the long dollar to get a perfectly functional unlocked, quad-band GSM phone that’ll be compatible with the GSM networks in Costa Rica.
David,
You sparked my interest in a possible unlocked iPhone. Am I correct in assuming, that because Costa Rica now has 3G, I would merely have to purchase a unlocked 3G iPhone? Also, if I read correctly, you have to cut the SIM card you purchased yourself, to fit into the iPhone?
David:
Do you happen to know which cellphone we have available in Costa Rica is the best for shooting video and taking photographs?
Scott
[quote=”Sailor”]David,
You sparked my interest in a possible unlocked iPhone. Am I correct in assuming, that because Costa Rica now has 3G, I would merely have to purchase a unlocked 3G iPhone? Also, if I read correctly, you have to cut the SIM card you purchased yourself, to fit into the iPhone?[/quote]
An unlocked iPhone [u]OTHER THAN ONE THAT’S BEEN LINKED TO VERIZON[/u] should work in Costa Rica without any problems.
I can’t say about Claro and Movistar, and I’m not certain about the ICE kiosk in the airport, but the ICE offices, at least, have a SIM cutter that will size their full-size SIM to fit in the iPhones up to iPhone 4S.
(Somebody jump in here!) I think I know that the new iPhone 5 takes a SIM that’s even smaller than the pared-down one that the iPhone 4S and earlier models use. Since the iPhone 5 hasn’t been introduced into Costa Rica yet, it’s unlikely that any of the carriers will have a SIM to fit it. (Can anyone add to that?)
[quote=”Scott”]David:
Do you happen to know which cellphone we have available in Costa Rica is the best for shooting video and taking photographs?
Scott
[/quote]Scott, I am neither a picture taker nor a video shooter, so I can’t be much help. The 8 megapixel camera in the iPhone 4S (available from ICE) should take a heckuva picture, but that’s just my hunch.
[quote=”Scott”]David:
Do you happen to know which cellphone we have available in Costa Rica is the best for shooting video and taking photographs?
Scott
Since I love to take pictures and videos throughout Costa Rica. I recently purchased the cell phone sized Sony “Bloggie.” Which takes 12.8 megapixel still pictures and 4 hours of 1080p HD video. It also has a 4x digital zoom, and image stabilization. I often carry this camera, when I cannot or do not want to carry one of my larger digital cameras. The best price I paid for this unit, was $70.00,from Amazon.
Thanks for the info about the iPhone 4S. I’m in Florida through the holidays & was trying to decide which unlocked iPhone to bring back. I knew the 4 would work but wasn’t sure about the 4S!
Jessica
[quote=”DavidCMurray”}
An unlocked iPhone [u]OTHER THAN ONE THAT’S BEEN LINKED TO VERIZON[/u] should work in Costa Rica without any problems.
[/quote]David – so if the unlocked iPhone 4s was EVER subscribed to Verizon back in the States, there is no way to make it work in CR? My daughter has a 4s (on the Verizon system) but wants to go back to Android and I was going to buy her 4s, but if it will not work here……
I’m afraid you have it right, Bill. It’s not just a matter of the iPhone having been “subscribed” (your term) to Verizon. The electronic components inside the iPhone which commit it to use on a GSM system or on a CDMA cellular system are incompatible. There’s nothing you can do to one of them to make it functional on the other system.
This isn’t an administrative issue of who sold the iPhone or what its internal software settings are. It’s a matter of the nature of the two cellular systems (GSM and CDMA), how they operate, and the frequencies they operate on.
[quote=”Scott”]David:
Do you happen to know which cellphone we have available in Costa Rica is the best for shooting video and taking photographs?
Scott
[/quote]Samson Galaxy ….
my daugthers friend just got one as a “pre-christmas” gift. I have a great camera, but have to say that it can not beat this cel phone.
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