Hi all I am located in the United States, I hate having a smart phone and want a flip phone, I am ok with a flip phone with an android system. Would anyone know company carriers that sell unlocked flip phones that I can slip my sim card into? Or cute flip phones that light up, etc?
https://www.reddit.com/r/japan/comments/vuibni/looking_to_buy_a_japanese_flip_phone_unlocked/
10 comments
Why not get one on Amazon?
You can still buy flip phones in the USA.
US and japan don’t work on the same frequencies. you’d need to research and find a phone that might have both.
It would not work due to VoLTE and phasing out of 3G networks.
https://kyoex.com/ is a good place to look as they have all the info clearly listed but most likely you can get an Android powered flip phone from there to play around with
ドコモ network bands would not work in the U.S. although some international bands may exist not many of them would be added at most maybe 1 or 2
The old Japanese featurephones of yore are about to die due to older networks being shut down. If there are featurephones being sold as budget options at Japanese cell carriers, the band differences will likely make them unusable due to differences in the bands the US and Japan use. The only phones that are generally usable across borders are—you guessed it—(popular) smartphones, because those companies will pour money into making devices that are as global as possible to reduce manufacturing complexity (within regulatory limit).
There are plenty of Android smartphones that are low-powered or basic in functionality, but focusing specifically on a Japanese one is going to make your life a lot harder than it needs to be because as a quest it’s mostly futile. Just get a Nokia 2270 or something.
Correct me if I’m wrong but a flip phone with android OS is still a smart phone.
Here’s a list of models with a flipable/foldable form factor, which are 4G or 5G compatible and made in the last 10 years: [https://www.gsmarena.com/results.php3?nYearMin=2012&s4Gs=0&s5Gs=0&sFormFactors=2,3,4,6,10,11](https://www.gsmarena.com/results.php3?nYearMin=2012&s4Gs=0&s5Gs=0&sFormFactors=2,3,4,6,10,11)
I sent one of those to my friend in the US. In short, sad news but it’s totally not worth it.
* [As the top comment says](https://www.reddit.com/r/japan/comments/vuibni/comment/ifel1ra/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3), frequency sucks. Overlap of frequency is very limited and you have no chance finding good information about that, because it might work for, say Verizon in your town but it could die once you travel a few miles off to different city. This is strictly designed for Japanese market and there’s none that are designed for your purpose.
* No Google Play Store. Some people are trying to hack them but there aren’t many nerds cool blogs on how far it went. Don’t hope anything useful to come from this phone. Maybe you can use as literal phone, and email/browser usage. But not much more.
* Manufacturers stopped making those. None of them has 5G
* Android OS version is old. And do not expect them to give you any update any further. You’re buying ancient phone.
* Some service may only be provided for Japanese cellular service providers. One phone I found said you need to have Docomo (Japanese provider)’s SIM to be able to download and install app through their own version of app platform (and of course there’s no Google Play).
My friend wanted it for geeky interest and for the use in Japan – and for that, I think he can use it for some more years as long as 4G LTE lives on. And maybe he can receive call on that while he’s in the US if he’s lucky – but that’s about it. If you intend to use for daily driver then it just won’t work.
This might be the closest to what you want despite not being a flip phone.
https://www.thelightphone.com
Kyoex and eBay are the places to go. The main thing is, there haven’t been a whole lot of new models since smartphones have taken over even the Japanese market, and getting them to work is hit or miss depending on your carrier. For example, I have a Kyocera Gratina (model KYF31 since apparently there’s like 5 different phones with the same name) that I take when I go somewhere I don’t want to take a more expensive phone. T-Mobile works, but only in big cities. AT&T works, but not natively, only when you roam onto their network with another carrier’s SIM (for example, Thai SIM inserted, roams on AT&T just fine, AT&T SIM inserted, they suspend the line because it’s not on their “approved” list). Verizon won’t work at all, not native, nor roaming. These are the kinds of things you have to deal with if you choose to get a Japanese flip phone.