If you have an old phone hanging around you can buy the phone in the orange shop for £149.99....

and yes, they can be unlocked.

i got mine second hand on o2, its been unlocked since im on orange. it works just fine. if you get it un locked the call your service provider they will set it up for you to work wap etc, orange did for me

If I buy it from Orange, and say take in my old Motorola C115, will I get it for £149.99?
Also, If I get it on orange and then unlock it, will it have their own software (branded) on it?

Thanks!

Yes, it possible to unlock the phone, but not remotely for free - so a market stall is probably your best bet.

If you just get it unlocked, then it will still have the same software, so it will still have the same branding.

The only way to get rid of the branding is to get the phone flashed with non-branded software.

Is there any networks that dont brand it heavily? do orange?

I've just bought myself a K750i a couple of fridays ago. It is the best phone ive ever had to date. It is so good my mate went out and bought one also!

To thoes who say the phone cannot be silenced for taking photos, it can. Whilst in stand- by hold down the # button for a few seconds. The phone will go into silent mode and when taking a picture the phone will not make ANY sound.

If you find you that after doing this the camera still makes a sound, then most likely you dont have uptodate firmware. Mine is as upto date as can be and it does NOT make any sound. You can actually update the K750i via the SE website using a data cable.

Battery life is fantastic ive found. SE phones are good solid and reliable, best on the market by a long shot and FAR better than Nokia ever was!

To anyone who wants a debranded phone by it unconnected. It will cost probably a fair bit more but it wont have ANY branding within in i.e nothing to do with o2/Orange/vodafone etc.

and did you know ... there are currently 4 phones on the market by SE that are essentially all the same except for the design of the handset and part of the software the handset uses.

SE have gotta be loving their design and marketing people

O2 are probably the network that brand the software the least - just the wallpaper & screensaver I think, both of which you can change.

Also O2 don't stick their name on the case like vodafone/virgin/orange/t-mobile do.

However, if you want it totally unbranded, buy it sim free like EDN1 suggests - amazon sell them sim free in either silver or black

I might get it on O2 then, and unlock it and use my Virgin sim card in it
Virgin charge £229.99 for it !
My 6230i is up for sale on eBay with tonnes of accessories and Data Cable. I hope to get at least £80-£90 for it.

Really cant wait to get the SE (If my nokia sells!)
Thanks EDN1 for the review and everyone else for their replies!

By the way EDN1, how much battery life do you get? (Standby time) The longest you've got?

Thanks!

Dunger

Thanks for the tip about the silent mode it also works on the W800i cheers

K750i from O2 are not normally locked, O2 don't often lock their handsets.

I have a K750i (best phone I've ever owned) on O2 and it came unlocked.

As for the camera, yes you can use it in silent mode to stop the noise, but you can also search on google for a method to replace the sound the phone makes when you take a photo. I've seen this mentioned before, you can replace it with a file that doesn't make a sound and that will work.

I bought one a couple of weeks ago on T-Mobile contract with a free 1gig memory card. The audio playback is excellent although you can't plug your own headphones in unless you buy an adapter (cheap enough to buy from ebay). The battery life is excellent, the camera is brilliant and.. well I've got no complaints at all!
I was weary about buying a Sony Ericsson handset because I work in the industry and they've released some utter crap over the years. .
I would definitely recommend the K750i/D750 though!

I think im gonna go for a K750i then!
How many days do you normally get out of the battery?

Thanks

I found my o2 PAYG IS locked. I have never come across an o2 PAYG handset that wasnt locked. I used to sell mobile phones for two different companys so have had fair experience with them.

The only way it wouldnt be locked is if it is an unconnected handset. Now i know because in the past ive done this myself you can buy a handset unconnected from say the o2 store itself and it is definetely not connected to o2 but if i remember rightly it did have some o2 stuff on it.

IMHO the K750i is one of the finest phones on the market just now.

I really like the style of it. Most of the features look amazing.

Waiting for my 6230i to (hopefully) sell on eBay. 2-3 Days left and 3 people watching it.
Just hope it sells for around £80-£90, as I have around £50 already

Thanks everyone!

I know i'm bringing up an old thread, but I figured it was better than starting a new one.

I've just bought a K750i on ebay which i'm pretty sure will be locked to Orange - my question is this - can I use the USB cable that comes with the phone to unlock it, debrand it and upgrade the firmware? How would I go about this?

You can use it to upgrade the firmware, but not debrand or unlock it. To upgrade the firware, see SE's website, download the Sony Ericsson Update Service.

Salt

because its part of the english law now that the shutter sound has to be on, could i update the firmware from another country that supports english language

yes you can ! update the firmware using the supplied cable
go to davinci.com pay about £7 and you can choose which firmware to install,which also debrands the phone..
I bought mine from the 02 shop but it had the annoying clicking noise in the earpeice which is quite common..i exchanged the phone under the 14 day returns,but the replacement was the same...click,click in earpeice so i took the chance and upgraded it with davinci which has completely transformed the phone

That's really annoying - there are times when you want to take a quiet picture!!

Nothing to do with pedos though!

i got a w800i on t mobile, and the only branding it has is, in place of the se internet links are the t zones links in menu.

no handset branding at all

Put the phone in silent mode...quiet camera

I've had this phone for about 6 months now.
It's sad, because so many features make this a great phone, but the problems with the joystick would stop me from recommending it.

The Camera is great, Battery life - great, Radio - also great, but within about 2 months the joystick started playing up, and it's just getting worse.
This is not the first time I've had a sony Erricsson, and I now remember having joystick problems with that phone too. Wont buy a SE again. Trouble is I'm on an 18 month Vodafone contract... doh!!

I think my joystick is starting to play up, sometimes i want to go down and nothing happens!

I had (and still have) a T630 which developed joystick problems after about 12 months. I descovered that the problem was with dust and dirt getting into the case around the opening for the joystick. I probably should have used a case to protect it, but I didn't.

I upgraded the T630 with the K750i. This also developed a problem with the joystick after 1 month - the up and right direction failed to do anything although the phone beeped. It went back and has been sorted under guarantee.

I know it seems to be a problem that would normally put people off a phone, but in my opinion the 750's looks, features, useability, memory, connectivity, contact management, sound quality, etc etc etc, STILL makes this the best phone I've ever had. Even with the problem (which is not found on every model) I will continue to use SE and recommend the K750i. Its just a shame that the joystick can't be made more reliable!

It's interesting to read that other pople have also been suffering from this issue with teh dodgy joystick. Both myself and my mate own the k750i and we are suffering from the joystick not working correctly. I cannot get mine to go upwards without a firm press and he cannot get his to move downwards.

I pretty much knew it was due to dust but don't fancy opening the phone up especially as its still under warranty, however i cannot do without my phone and cant hand it in to be sent off for " repair " ... If i can get hold of a can of compressed air that would probably do the trick and it shouldnt do any damage to the phone.

My mates phone isnt under warranty so he's just taking it as it is.

What else is their other than compressed air we could use to get inside such a small space and clean away all that dust and dirt etc ?