[Ben]

I knew CPW existed for a reason...

...a friend upgraded to the E65 the other day, for free, at CPW. Beautiful phone, sourced by CPW themselves. I'm sure I heard the salesman say all their handsets were sourced themselves, but I'm sure he would have meant most - if that.

Anyway, the long and short of it is that you can indeed get a fully unbranded, unlocked handset on contract on the highstreet. Could this even be a great way to get an N95 that hasn't had its VoIP cripped and doesn't have Orange Homeshite? I take it they still insist on installing their own active standby screen? :)

The phone was literally as if bought SIM-Free from Nokia directly, with an Orange 3G SIM scanned at the till and included separately.

[miffed]

Excellent !
I have found locking / branding to be an absolute lottery ! Sometimes I am expecting a locked , branded handset and heve Ended up with an unlocked generic - I have even had this when buying direct from orange and vodafone !
I wonder if the retailers realise what a Huge plus it would be to advertise the fact they are selling unspoiled merchandise ? I would certainly be prepared to pay a little extra !

[3g-g]

I wonder if the handset boys have developed a bit of a backbone with the operators, do I remember correctly that the recent Orange n80 and n73 could have the Orange home screen turned off? It's the case with the Sony Ericsson I have too, once the Orange HS is turned off and theme changed I'm not sure what distinguishes it from a SIM free apart from the Walkman folder being named Orange music (and the SIM lock obviously).

[Ben]

The salesperson was certainly 'in the know' and proud that their stock was unbranded, SIM-Free and CPW-sourced. So, perhaps there is consumer demand. I hope so :)

I'll consider giving CPW a look next time I need a handset - at least to find out what prices they'll sell at. I'd imagine actually buying SIM-Free only (no contract) is cheaper online, but with upgrade/new contract commission there are bargains to be had.