iPhone 5s

[yuejihua]

Hello, every one, it has been long time since my last post here, I am not sure if this is the right forum to ask the question, I am planing to go back china next month, I am wondering if the unlocked ATT iPhone 5s work with chinese SIM card , if not, how can you do to make it work? Thanks :-)

[seafood10]

yes as long the chinese carrier that you used has a gsm network, it should work.

[Randy W]

yes as long the chinese carrier that you used has a gsm network, it should work.

 

 

China Unicom has CDMA, I believe the others are GSM - so choose other than China Unicom. China Mobile seems to be a good one.

 

My wife even changed her phone from CDMA to GSM (it's a Coolpad, with dual SIM capability).

[DocMartin817]

I use my unlocked ATT 5s for every trip to China -- I like China Mobile -- never a problem

[dnoblett]

An unlocked ATT iPhone will work in China ATT is GSM, last trip over there my wife took her iPhone and used a Chinese SIM card while over there.

[yuejihua]

Thanks for all the replies, I appreciate it.

[yuejihua]

An unlocked ATT iPhone will work in China ATT is GSM, last trip over there my wife took her iPhone and used a Chinese SIM card while over there.

Hi, dnoblett, thank you for the reply, did you wife use China Mobil or China Unicom SIM card ?

[yuejihua]

Hi, dnoblett, I am not good on replying post here, anyway, Did your wife use a ATT unlocked iphone 5 when she was there in china?

Edited November 13, 2014 by yuejihua (see edit history)

[dnoblett]

Hi, dnoblett, I am not good on replying post here, anyway, Did your wife use a ATT unlocked iphone 5 when she was there in china?

She used China Unicom, iPhone 4 at the time ATT UNLOCKED. iPhone 5 uses a smaller nano sim the 4 uses a micro sim. Anyway either phone will work in China, the cell company will know what type of sim is needed.

 

Have her put US sim in a safe place, if using a protective case like an otter box, safe to keep the spare SIM card in the case behind phone.

 

Since last trip I replaced our iPhone 4 with iphone 5 and one of the iphone 4 is heading to China as a gift for sister in law.

[Greg.D.]

We are going to buy an iPhone 6 today (full cost, from Apple Store) to bring to China. We will get the Sprint version, which is nominally CDMA. So, it will work directly on Unicom. We choose sprint because it is Chinese LTE-ready (this is called TDD; both China Mobile and China Unicom use 2500 MHz, Band 41 for LTE - the Sprint version supports this). Note: subscribers must elect and pay more for 4G/LTE in China, it's not automatic and no extra charge like here.

 

Interestingly, her China iPhone 4 (Unicom, cdma) works fine on a T-Mobile SIM which tells you both radios can work in her iPhone 4; I suspect the same will happen with iPhone 5 and 6. In fact, after the iPhone 6 is in China it will be used on both Unicom and then later Mobile, which are CDMA and GSM respectively. I will report back here with results as they come in.

 

If anyone has any direct experience with bringing an iPhone 6 to China and can share it, I would appreciate the info. Or, if you have any questions, ask away.

Greg