Buying a phone from Argos

Bob Rooney

Hi all,

This has probably been asked 1000 times before but a search didn't throw any results up (perhaps I'm using the wrong terms) and I didn't see anything in the stickys. I'm a noob to all this so please excuse my ignorance.

I looking into android mobiles that are €100 or less and I see that the Moto E gets some really good reviews. I was planning on taking a trip to Argos but I want to stay with my current network, Meteor. Can I simply place the sim from my current phone, an Ascend y300, which was bought from Meteor, into the new phone? Or is it more complicated than this? I have a feeling that the mobile companies will want to protect their turf and thus will make it as difficult as possible to do so. I'm assuming that I would have to go about getting it unlocked which I'll have to research first.

Is this true? And is it legal?

Fresh Pots

The phone from Argos will come unlocked (sim-free). The moto e takes a smaller sim (micro sim) than the Ascend y300 (mini-sim) so you can either cut it down to size or go into any meteor shop/carphone warehouse and ask them for a replacement micro sim, they will either cut your current one down to size with a special cutter or give you a new one and transfer all your contacts over to it.

All perfectly legal!

Zilog

To echo Fresh Pots, I bought a Motorola E as a gift before Christmas, but from Tesco. Even though there was a Tesco SIM, it only locks to first SIM inserted on power up (3 network for me).

Removed Tesco SIM, cut down with scissors old SIM, using Tesco one supplied with phone as a guide, all good!

Before Christmas this phone from Tesco was €80. BTW unlock code from eBay was only €2, didn't need it but bought one to check anyway.

Bob Rooney

Fantastic! Thanks for the responses.

One further question. Assuming all goes well with this phone and down the line I decided to do the same thing does the above advice apply to any "sim free" phone from any retailer? I'm a little confused how to determine if a phone will work out of the box or if it first requires an unlock code.

Sam Mac

Bob Rooney wrote: »

Fantastic! Thanks for the responses.

One further question. Assuming all goes well with this phone and down the line I decided to do the same thing does the above advice apply to any "sim free" phone from any retailer? I'm a little confused how to determine if a phone will work out of the box or if it first requires an unlock code.

If it says Sim Free or Unlocked you will be fine. If you are buying phones direct from networks, they are usually locked to that network.

Bob Rooney

OK, cool. Thanks for that.