Understanding Unlocked Cell Phones

The great thing about unlocked cell phones is that they work no matter which carrier you choose. All kinds of handsets are available thusly, and though people often naturally go with the most recent releases, it frequently pays to think about yesterday's offerings as well. Case in point, unlocked cell phones like the Nokia Surge make fine second handsets for folks who need to have two distinct contact numbers. It looks like a T-Mobile Sidekick but being unlocked means that you needn't only use it with AT&T in the United States. It has the same form factor as the best-selling Sidekick, only instead of swiveling it slides to uncover the keyboard below the screen-cum-cover. The inclusion of text messaging and social media capabilities makes it clear that Nokia is targeting the youth demographic with this model.

You can't do much better when it comes to unlocked cell phones to serve as second or third "lines." But just what is the Surge? What's it like? Well, it's a 3G phone offering 2.4 inches of screen space at 320x240 TFT pixels and 16 million colors. The 2 megapixel camera is inferior when compared to the 3 megapixel-plus version on the related 6760 Slide model available in the rest of the world (which phone, incidentally, isn't carrier-exclusive), but the Surge did debut earlier, after all. Video recording is made at the standard QVGA resolution.

This phone runs on the Symbian Series 60 multi-tasking platform, which goes great with the provided feature-set, making it a mid-level offering. The Surge is compatible with Bluetooth 2.0, with A2DP support, and offers microUSB connectivity as well. Audio is delivered by a standard 2.5mm jack. As is the case with most Nokia products these days, the Surge comes with an on-board stereo FM radio. MicroSD cards are supported up to a maximum of 8GB of additional storage space, with a 2GB card included. This phone can also be found in black, white, or red color schemes. Talk-time is scored for decent five hours, with standby is a healthy five hundred.

Even better, being unlocked means not having to deal with AT&T and their long two-year contract with mandatory voice and data plans that could conceivably result in about a thousand dollars a year for even a relatively casual user! And of course the Surge is obviously meant for those who are constantly texting, chatting, e-mailing, or surfing the web. Such folks could quite quickly be charged over two thousand dollars a year!


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Author Paul Wise personally uses unlocked cell phones for work and play, such as those available from Cellification.com.