Hello,
I’m French, I live permanently in Asia, mainly in Thailand where Google smartphones are not available.
I’ve been in Osaka for a few days, I’m going to Yodobashi camera to buy the Pixel 7. I still have a few questions to ask before buying it, especially since in Yodobashi there are so many things that it’s is a bit of a mess. For example, it seems that smartphones can be sold with or without a carrier contract, naturally I don’t want a carrier since I don’t live permanently in Japan. I also want to inquire about a possible discount for tourists (8% if I’m not mistaken).
First observation: the price is 6000Y higher than the price on the Google store site.
Second observation: impossible to find someone who speaks English. My interlocutor, very nice and very friendly, wants to use his smartphone to translate my questions, but this is the door open to errors of understanding and interpretation. It does not suit me, I insist on having someone who speaks English but impossible. I leave Yodobashi frustrated and go for a walk next door to Grand Front Osaka.
I find a smartphone store, but there too I have a problem finding someone who speaks English fluently. Again very kind and very friendly seller, who speaks a little better than the seller in Yodobashi. The Pixels 7 exposed are naturally in Japanese, I ask him to change the language to English: he tries and ends up telling me that it is impossible. Which seems incredible to me! But no way to be sure that it’s just impossible for show models, the level of English is not sufficient.
Anyway, has anyone ever bought a Pixel 7 in Japan? Is it possible to change the language from Japanese to English? In advance, arigato gozaimasu, any advice is welcome!
2 comments
I think it’s reasonably impossible that you can’t change the language. Even phones for Japanese local market from a couple of decades ago had an option to change to English. I wonder if the reason they refused to do so was just because they weren’t confident that they can change the language back to Japanese, or some restriction for the device for displaying purposes.
Also, it might be a case that you’ll get localized version from Japanese carriers. At least it was the case for iPhone some years ago (And probably still is). The possible difference is the benefit for the local users to have FeliCa and antennae frequency tuned for Japanese cellular bands in expense of losing some that international versions has. (And in case you don’t remember, every phone for Japanese market comes with forced shutter sound – depending on the model and manufacturer, you can turn this off with software or having non-Japanese SIM.) Either way, I’m not sure how much of bands overlaps nicely with Thai cellular bands. You might want to check that as well, and it might be beneficial to get it shipped straight away from Google if Int’l version exists and if it could guarantee the better signal reception in Thai or wherever else you’ll usually use them in.
you can change the language.
ask for “sim free” （SIM フリー）to make sure it’s not carrier locked.
you’re probably best ordering from the google store website and
having it delivered to your hotel if you are here for long enough to have it delivered. If not possible you will have to pay the 6000 yen premium.
keep in mind sometimes phones bought in Japan will have a “camera shutter sound” that does not go away even in new countries, but some DO go away when you insert a sim card from a different country. Worst case it will always make a camera sound when you take photos.
Your BIGGEST concern is to make sure it’s SIM free.