This is more a call for help from the French readers than anything else.
It seems to me that my French neighbors can pick up an SFR-branded Compal MID with 3G for 349 Euros without a contract commitment. The only thing I’m not sure about is the 3G. Is it locked to SFR?
I’d appreciate any help on this so if you can read French or have already investigated this, let us know because it looks like it’s setting a new low-price for a slider MID.
no it´s with a contract commitment. Without you have to pay 529,-
https://www.espacesfr.com/v5/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/OrderItemDisplay?catalogId=10001&langId=-2&storeId=10001&krypto=PFqadwEKMhmf8FC6xghi5luw7o4oWTDtDKdepEVHo0ASzbCbvotJRbzmdVN7AVSuihMhCPN10q9jtvxr4AjrbaLDl0H3cSfj%2Fl6go4a7NIB0x8Qr2vy%2FgvyYaL8k%2BBMRCP%2FTD%2Bc97atKwQKIyGTlnuo3q2q%2FFinJPIiEF04HXSm09k0BHPobC1aptsa6pQtCUEZMBoY%2B9AWP0yP26wHXsqNl3Z4bEBovfTLpFApUdMcL%2FjMnviJQlg%3D%3D
Well, your link does not seem to work…
From what I see, the MID certainly is locked to SFR, however it’s still without contract — you pay as you need, not on a monthly basis.
It’s still unclear, though.
It reminds me of all those contracts “Ã carte”, where basically you don’t have any monthly fee but instead you must buy cards to add “credits” to your account, to be spent on calls and SMS. I guess this kind of things exists in other countries too, I just don’t know the name of this kind of contracts in english.
From my perspective, it is exactly the same thing here but instead of a phone you have a MID and instead of buying credits for calls and SMS you buy credits to access Internet. And then, these phones are locked and sold at a lower price than unlocked phones. So my guess is that it’s the same here for the MID, they are locked but still sold at a lower price than the unlocked ones.
So from what I see, it might be a good deal to buy one and then pay an extra fee for unlocking it (or pay somebody to do it the unofficial way), otherwise you can simply wait 6 months and the french law enforces the operator to unlock it for free. Just call the customer support and they’ll do it if your device is six months old.
In the end I’d say that waiting 6 months could definitely be a good idea in France because, from what I see, there is no french operator that provides affordable data plans yet. So there would be no point in having it unlocked yet, but who knows in six months?
I believe this is the link that “tarik” posted(?):
http://tinyurl.com/byl64p
P.S. Sometimes it comes in handy to run 3840 pixels horizontally :) (2×24″ monitors)
I believe this is the link that “tarik†posted(?) (see next post)
P.S. Sometimes it comes in handy to run 3840 pixels horizontally (2×24″ monitors)
http://tinyurl.com/byl64p
Yes, we can buy it for 349€ without a contract, the SFR M! Pocket is locked on SFR and sold with a prepaid card. So if you need to connect with 3G, you can buy one of the “Pass Internet 3G+” which starts with 20mins for 3€ !!!
After 6 months, SFR should provide you the unlock code
You can also buy an unlocked version for 529€.
Jeff
I spent so much time writing and reviewing my own comment that you posted yours before me :-D
Thanks everyone for the info.
Thats quite a premium for an unlocked version but if you’re in France and happy with SFR, a superb deal.
I’d be quite happy if Vodafone or T-Mobile released it here in Germany for 349. No need to unlock it with those providers as their internet offerings are high quality.
Steve
I would add that it seems that if you are already an SFR customer, the monthly fee is reduced by 5€, thus 25€/20€ per month instead of 30€/25€ per month with a contract of 12/24 months. Plus in this case you get an additional 100€ mail in rebate, putting the price of the MID at 249€.
However as a non-professionnal user I still find these prices too high. I wouldn’t pay 20€ per month for a mobile data plan. I mean, I barely pay 20€ per month for my mobile phone contract! :-)
so the cheapest “compal” device available is still the ALICE MID IDOL in italy, unfortunately only in italy, but at EUR 449.- unlocked and including a tim sim card with 5 euros :-)
I see someone from UMPC fever ran Ubuntu on a Aigo mid. JKK could not make it work. Is there anyone here that knows how to do this in english?
Thanks
Ron,
As I’m not really interested in Linux on my Aigo I wouldn’t know but try here:
http://www.midwiki.com/index.php?option=com_fireboard&Itemid=53&func=showcat&catid=4
OT : admin = chippy?
Yes,
admin = chippy = steve
Sorry, I keep logging in as admin. Dangerous!
S.
It would appear it’s with a MAIL IN REBATE I didn’t know Europe did those :)
“100€ remboursés” with “de 12 mois minimum.”:
http://www.sfr.fr/media/pdf/ODR/att00028014/ODR_MPCPOCKET_100e.pdf
By the way the SFR-branded model has a French (AZERTY) keyboard.
Yeah…That and the SIM lock are preventing me from buying it but it’s interesting to see how low SFR can go with pricing.
S.
With a contract, now price has dropped from 249€ to 149€ !
à la carte= pay-as-you-go
forfait= pay per month