Phoenix: Buying 'pay as you go' locked 5800

[guerilla_jungle]

Hi friends,

I wish to buy a Nokia 5800 in the UK. Many networks sell them, I plan to buy the phone on some "pay as you go" offer, so the phone will have branded firmware, and be locked to the network. I see T-Mobile are selling this handset for £160 now.

With my N95 8GB I used NSS to change the product code to unbranded, and used offline phoenix to update the firmware. I am technical enough to do this again with a Nokia 5800.

Main Questions:

1) Can I just use phoenix again with the 5800 to flash the firmware, any known new issues with this method? The N95 8GB was easy once I had sourced Phoenix and the EURO firmware.

2) Unlocking 5800 - how much is a non-network solution? I got a code through ebay for my vodafone N95 8gb for £5 - bargain.

I do not wish to pay £25 to unlock a 5800, as I may as well just buy it direct from Nokia as the total cost will come near to the cost of the handset directly from Nokia!

[germcevoy]

Using NSS to change the product on my Vodafone branded 5800 and that actually unlocked it. Vodafone will also issue you a free unlock code if requested.

[guerilla_jungle]

Ignore the above poster, the only code you can get to unlock your 5800 at the current time is from your service provider, or a company that can get it from them on your behalf. Either way it's going to cost at least £15GBP if you want a code remotely.

A shop can unlock through secure postage services.

In the end I bought a brand new in the box, and it was an obviously new and not used before 5800, for £137 including postage unlocked. Can't get better than that! Warranty in EU is 2 years, so still valid too.

Great phone by the way, especially for the price. Firmware 40 seems to have either no bugs or very few that don't affect the way I use the phone, and I do use many niche applications.

[AndyM]

Originally Posted by guerilla_jungle

In the end I bought a brand new in the box, and it was an obviously new and not used before 5800, for £137 including postage unlocked. Can't get better than that! Warranty in EU is 2 years, so still valid too.

Great phone by the way, especially for the price. Firmware 40 seems to have either no bugs or very few that don't affect the way I use the phone, and I do use many niche applications.

As a matter of interest, where did you get it? I need to replace my E51, but none of the new phones look worth the money to me; the 5800 seems to do what I want, and is at a reasonable price now.

[jj71]

I plan to buy the phone on some "pay as you go" offer... ..T-Mobile are selling this handset for £160 now.

ALso worth looking at the cheap-end of the contract market. You can get the 5800 (this week) for £150 including 18 months of calls and txts (100 mins / 100 txts). See this hotukdeals.com thread for details.