HTC SIM-Free phones compatible on 3

[laywill]

I had my nearly 12 month old HTC Hero on 3 (£20/month - 200 minutes, 3000 texts, 1Gb data, 3000 3-to-3 minutes) stolen at a concert yesterday. 3 Customer Support offered over the phone to cancel the current contract and get an early upgrade for:

- the best part of £450: an HTC Desire (500mins, 5000 texts, 5000 3-to-3 minutes, all you can eat data)
OR
- for about £285 an upgrade to an HTC wildfire (500mins, 5000 texts, 5000 3-to-3 minutes, all you can eat data)

I declined doing either of those there and then because I was thinking considering about letting my existing contract run for the 12 months that are left and buying a SIM-free phone for that time; then negotiate an upgrade or hunting around for a new deal in 12 months time.

So I've asked the people at 3 to freeze my old phone and SIM card, and asked for a replacement SIM card to be sent out for the existing contract for the moment. I'm sending off for the insurance claim (having thankfully added the insurance to my contract when I took it out) and they are going to look to get me a replacement or equivalent phone.

However for a while I've been wanting to get a Desire, and even more so a Desire HD.

So I started to Google and have found a brand new un-opened Sim-free one on Amazon for £219.00 which strikes me as a pretty good deal if I can then flog off whatever I get through the insurance (which sure as heck wont be a Desire or Desire HD!) to reclaim some of my precious pennies.

A little bit more googling and I read on one particualar site that 3 use a different frequency band to everyone else (2100 rather than the usual 1800 or 1900 i think). I checked the HTC Desire HD specs on teh HTC website and it didnt list 2100 under the frequencies that it works on... but then nor did any of the smartphones which 3 sell according to their manufacturer's specs.

So I'm rather puzzled as to whether if I buy a sim-free phone and put my 3 SIM card in it whether it will work, work with some features disabled, or just not work at all because it wont be able to connect to the three network? But then would it work because I get free usage of the Orange network because I'm on 3 and they use the frequencies which all phones list in the specifications?



Any help in clarifying any of this would be very gratefully appreciated since I'm completely lost with all this now!!

Cheers

laywill

[MadduckUK]

just need a 3G phone for the 3 network, and you would have to look pretty hard to find one that isn't nowadays.

since you are obviously of the android persuasion you should probably go for a Orange San Francisco, dirt cheap, a screen that will have you weeping tears of joy after the HVGA hero screen, can be unlocked for free, 3G (obviously), xda devs have a section for it and cyanogenmod make firmware for it.

hundred quid, worth at least 2

[laywill]

Really?! Thats great news

I am indeed a "would be iPhone, but cant afford it, so bought Android, and loved it " man. I watched the Hexus review and watching the attached video from Orange thought the San Fransico looked remarkably unresponsive when navigating the home screen :/

After being endlessly teased by mates about how rubbish my Hero was I'm inclined to make sure my next phone is going to be much closer to what I really want than the Hero was. Although if I do find myself at a pinch when it comes to ordering I might seriously reconsider the San Fransico, and its nice to know there some really very decent cheaper phones out there

Thanks for your help and clearing that up for me