What is the best Mobile phone shop

marukai47 Active member

61POSTS

9 years ago

My hotel is near a mobile phone ship called Nika, but there's also Hakse, Sokly, and Nojima in Aeon mall. I'm looking at purchasing a new device, not second hand. Is haggling possible on the purchase price, or is haggling primarily reserved for Tuk Tuks and apartment rentals? Many Asian eCommerce Vendors are doing an 11/11 sale. I know Alibaba vendors have already listed certain items that go down on price on 11/11/16; what's the likely hood of a physical in person 11/11 sale. I've already been advised not to do the Alibaba ship to Cambodia because of the VAT tax and the high probability that it could be stolen. The actual cellular phone stores don't look like a good place to purchase. I'm looking at Cellcard for the Aeon movie benefits and it's a bit cheaper than Smart. Metphone AKA Viettel is a no.

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JoeKhmer Cambodia Expert

2177POSTS

9 years ago

The providers have offers too. I get regularly sms from Smart (my provider) about purchasing a iPhone and one year use, for a very nice price. I don't want an iPhone so it's not interesting for me, but I would suggest get to the provider shops and ask.
No haggling of course, but you want a new phone, reliable, not stolen or "fallen from the truck"?
If you want to haggle, use a Khmer friend, foreigners and certainly foreign women are taken out, I have a Khmer friend who buys everything expensive that I need, and she always gets discount. The easiest way to do it.

1 member reacted to this post

marukai47 Active member

61POSTS

9 years ago

JoeKhmer wrote:
The providers have offers too. I get regularly sms from Smart (my provider) about purchasing a iPhone and one year use, for a very nice price. I don't want an iPhone so it's not interesting for me, but I would suggest get to the provider shops and ask.
No haggling of course, but you want a new phone, reliable, not stolen or "fallen from the truck"?
If you want to haggle, use a Khmer friend, foreigners and certainly foreign women are taken out, I have a Khmer friend who buys everything expensive that I need, and she always gets discount. The easiest way to do it.

Regarding the SMS you received from Smart about the iPhone... How are you able to get the iPhone offer you mentioned. I thought you had to be a naturalized citizen to get the installment deals. The US carriers do the same thing. I have an iPhone 6S+ through AT&T, but I was in such a rush to pack and get to NYC, that I didn't turn in the iPhone. It still has a balance of $581 left before it's paid off "$26 per month added to my AT&T bill" It is carrier locked to AT&T, so I'd have to invest in unlocking it, but I'm uncertain if AT&T could mark the IMIE number as bad since the device wasn't fully paid off, and I have no idea if it'll work on the GSM frequency of Smart or Cellcard. I had AT&T unlock a paid off Samsung Note Edge, but I can only make calls... No data.

JoeKhmer Cambodia Expert

2177POSTS

9 years ago

I cannot say anything about unlocking by At&T and the results of it. But I guess you need to pay off first.

If you find a savvy guy in PP he might be able to unlock it, this is just a theory, but I know guys here can do a lot.

As for using a Smart offer, I would use again my Khmer friend to officially get into it, after a year the phone is free so no problem. If you have a reliable friend as I have

1 member reacted to this post

marukai47 Active member

61POSTS

9 years ago

I'm already familiar with the iPhone unlock process. I need to dial *#06# to get my IMEI. This is the same for Android also. I can do it through a US unlock service online with my US Bank account Visa debit card to pay the fee for it. But it isn't exactly cheap. I have found services in PP also it's roughly $80 to $100, but then there's the thought always in the back of my mind... Will AT&T pull the plug on the device totally, thus turning it into a mini iPad that can only be utilized fully with WiFi. I still need to figure put which model number my phone is, because not all iPhones are created equally. I have a friend in the US that has the same device, but on Sprint, so his phone runs on CDMA AKA PCS network, while AT&T and T-Mobile use sim cards because they're GSM. The Sprint and Verizon iPhone devices have CDMA guts plus the ability to use GSM via the SIM tray. I'm pretty well versed on mobile phones, it's just that I am in a new land and am weighing costs and how things are done in Cambodia from a cellular perspective.

marukai47 Active member

61POSTS

9 years ago

The iPhone SIM unlock process is done through iTunes, but I have been unsuccessful on finding out how to do it myself. I use to do rooting on my previous Android devices, which allowed me to customize my Android devices and under clock the CPUfor increased battery life or slightly overclock for better gaming. I left Android because of Lollipop OS, but based on what I've read; Marshmallow is a far better OS that corrects a lot of the issues found in Lollipop, plus I like the new stats on the newest Snapdragon processors. I may jump teams again :-)

JoeKhmer Cambodia Expert

2177POSTS

9 years ago

Xiaomi newest Mi Note 2 has Marshmallow 6.0 and Snapdragon 821. Very interesting and excellent reviews.... Less than $500.

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marukai47 Active member

61POSTS

9 years ago

JoeKhmer wrote:
Xiaomi newest Mi Note 2 has Marshmallow 6.0 and Snapdragon 821. Very interesting and excellent reviews.... Less than $500.

I'm interested in the Huawei devices because their chipset is not based on Qualcomm, but it's own dubbed at Kirin processors. Just like Samsung and its in house built Exynos that is only found in certain models.

JoeKhmer Cambodia Expert

2177POSTS

9 years ago

Huawei is on my list too, same level as Xiaomi.

I was not too convinced of the Mate 8, but the new Mate 9 has a lot to offer, Nougat OS, 20Mp camera based on Leica. I just don't understand why they stick to the 4000 mAh battery, where Xiaomi has a 4850 mAh for some time now.