Hello friends,
I’m in the need of a new phone soon, and because I’m a trendy young boy, I’m gonna stick with an iPhone (sorry android fans). I’ll be in America in august for a wedding, so I have the choice to get my phone here or there.
Looking off the apple website, a new iPhone 13 with the same specs is $850 to 117,000¥, so it’s nearly the same price.
My question is if you’ve had any experience buying iPhones in both countries and if there’s the chance to get discounts in Japan. I’ve heard around the mill people getting phones cheaper in Japan, and I’m not opposed to buying a second hand one from somewhere like Yodabashi.
Realistically, do you have good experiences with second hand phones in japan? Is there really a steep decrease in price out here? What else would I have to consider with getting a phone in Japan (for example, that stupid camera shutter sound)? Any advice and input would be great. Thanks.
7 comments
I’d personally never buy a phone in Japan for the shutter sound alone, but if you don’t take a lot of pictures it might not be a concern for you
The phones are identical. Software will make it play a shutter sound when you use the camera when the phone is being used with a Japanese carrier.
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Other than the “free” phone you get for being locked to a US carrier, the prices will be the same.
iPhone 13 has been out for about 10 months. Some major mobile providers will have discounted models, they may not be the exact specs that you want though.
Just go walk pass through their shops or booths at Bic or Yodobashi.
If you get a Japanese iPhone you will be forced to use the shutter sound when taking pics.
I’m using a Hong Kong model iPhone 12 (two physical SIM, no eSIM option), and the silent function fully works. An American model will do just as well.
> Realistically, do you have good experiences with second hand phones in japan?
I bought a used SE2 from Mercari. it was one of the very few listed that had the battery at >95%. Most others were at 80% or so. It had zero scratches on screen or on body and even came with a free docomo case. about half price of the new one.
Yes there are probably decent used deals but I’ve spent about an hour sorting through all the listings until i found something useful.
Iphones in the US have (or at least had) a chip to support stuff in the US (GSM IIRC), and did not use some of the same bands as the foreign ones without GSM. I bought a UK iPhone before moving to Japan because of this.
Will the iPhone work without the other few bands? Sure, but there may be more signal issues in certain areas/situations.
Be aware that the price on Apple USA probably does not include sales tax where the Japanese one does!
In addition, the 5G/LTE bands are slightly different between models, most of the time it’s not an issue but sometimes not having the Japanese-exclusive bands can cause problems.