Thursday 2 February 2012

Gevey Ultra In Japan

It's quite sad when a phone company locks their own customers out from using a phone they provide, just so they can force you to go on a more expensive plan. Shame shame shame.

Since I changed to a prepaid I quickly learnt that it would not work on the company's locked handset. For Christ sakes, it's the same company! Fortunately I did manage to unlock my iPhone 3G and it worked great. BUT, it was slow and clunky and well, I had the later one so what's the reason to let it go to waste sitting in a drawer?

I waited a long, long time for the software unlock but it never eventuated. Gevey offer a SIM unlock solution which is a chip that goes under your SIM card which allows it to be used with other providers (or breaking the unfair locking scenario).

I decided to bite the bullet and get me one. Be careful going around Akihabara. From what I saw, there looks to be a lot of fakes, and there is no guarantee of their success rate.

It arrived yesterday around noon, but I waited till after work to do it. I had to do an extra cut on my SIM card for the chip. I used my swiss army knife, and with one slip I lightly cut the top of my finger. I didn't feel any pain but it didn't stop bleeding, hindering my efforts to do the most minimal cutting in case it wasn't going to work, I could put it back in my old phone. Tip: Just use scissors (or nippers)! It's much quicker and safer.

There are two models of the Gevey - Pro and Ultra. Any other name is definitely a fake. While the Pro is cheaper, get the Ultra. The advantage is by using the FuriousMod application, the whole unlock process is completely automated. (If the app doesn't work you most likely have a fake chip.)

Thankfully it went well without a hitch (except a cut finger). Everything is working as expected!

6 comments:

Shandy said...

In akihabara,does softmap (shop's name) sell this gevey??

Jimmy In Japan said...

Hi Shandy,

You mean Sofmap. No, none of the big electronics stores sell them. There are some smaller shops around there that seem to be fake. I got a real one from Amazon Japan. Make sure that whatever you buy will unlock the baseband that you have on your iPhone!

If you don't have the phone yet, go for an UNLOCKED Android (or iPhone). MUCH less hassle.

Unknown said...

Could you direct us to the seller on which you bought your gevey sim? And one more thing, if i try to unlock the phone here in Japan using a roaming sim card from another country, will it work? Thanks

Jimmy In Japan said...

Hi Joan, I bought the Gevey from Amazon Japan WAY back in 2012.

http://www.amazon.co.jp/gp/product/B00512M7V2?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00

If you have a new iPhone, I don't think the Gevey will work anyway, because it will have a different firmware and baseband. Like I suggested to Shandy, you are much better off with an Android (or any other unlocked handset). Roaming should work. If you allowed roaming from your home telephone company it's a good workaround (for SMS). (Softbank and docomo use a 3G compatible network). There are heaps of free wifi hotspots at train stations now.
Hope this helps. Happy New Year!

Unknown said...

Oh really? I thought i could unlock this phone(4s) so i can use it when i come back to my country or thinking about giving it as a gift.. Is there any other way that i can unlock this phone?

Happy New year too.. It's really different the way we celebrate new year in my country ;/

Jimmy In Japan said...

The same Amazon seller sells Gevey for iPhone 4S depending whether it's IOS 7.1 (632 yen), 5.1.1 or 6.0 (653 yen), or iOS 5.1,5.0, 5.0.1, 6.0.1
Baseband 2.0.xx,1.0.11, 1.013, 1.0.14 (653 yen).

Now, even IF this works for telephony, you'll will have to probably do APN settings to use data. Wifi will be no problem. The Gevey is pretty cheap, so you won't have wasted much money if it doesn't work.

Good luck :)