[Sotty49]

Has any one seen any price drops for the Priv in Australia?

[DrCroubie]

Well, it started at $1400 pre-order from bbstore.com.au then settled at $1250 or so, now it's gone to $1000 in the last few weeks.
I went into to local Optus shop on Sunday and the guy looked it up, it is Finally available for direct outright purchase (I saw the screen where it appeared as a separate line-item called 'outright'). But still $1080.
Would have bought it then and there, were my credit card not maxed-out. That got cleared-out this morning so went straight to bbstore and should have it in the next few days.

[Sotty49]

Its taken a while for the price to drop. Still quite expensive though

[anon(3641385)]

Hey what do you think about this offer that was posted in the "New lowest price on prive" thread: http://forums.crackberry.com/blackbe...-priv-1077344/
Blackberry Priv STV100 1 32GB 4G LTE GSM at T Black Unlocked Smartphone New 802975061877 | eBay

Do you reckon that the bands indicated: Cellular Band: 4G-LTE Bands: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 12, 20, 29, and 30
are suitable for Aus? In particular I'm on Optus in Sydney.

I'm hoping that it's not branded.

I haven't been able to get the BB Store people to respond to me either via phone or email, and I was going to buy the Classic, but looking at the EBay price for the Priv I'm now thinking of getting that.

[Hilton_K]

I gave up with trying to find local stock so bought from overseas online STV100-3.

Posted via the CrackBerry App for Android

[anon(3641385)]

I gave up with trying to find local stock so bought from overseas online STV100-3.

Posted via the CrackBerry App for Android

Hilton, was it a branded phone? Who did you get it through?

Is the splash-screen branded and the base OS a foreign telco?

[Hilton_K]

No branding at all, bought through Expansys. Believe it is Hong Kong stock, I receive the software and security updates close to release. I.e don't wait until carrier releases them.

Yeah the warranty is a pain but money saved was worth it. New with flip case delivered for $800. I bit the bullet and bought without seeing as Passport apps for work just didn't work well (OneDrive etc).

I was intending to buy from Gumtree but for what people want for their devices at the time I bought new.

[Hilton_K]

Correction, when phone starts I get Telstra splash screen.

[anon(3641385)]

Hilton, so your phone seems to be an unlocked Telstra edition? So do you know if it's got the Telstra firmware? Is Telstra your telco?

At any rate, you're saying that you download the updates as you hear of them? Through Crackberry's update pages or ....

[DrCroubie]

I was also looking at T-Dimension for $800, and then at Expansys.
T-Dimension put me off a bit because the bands that they listed didn't seem to agree with any of the real models, spec sheets, wikipedia nor freq-check. Then a few weeks ago (at the time that they ran out of stock) they updated the page and said explicitly that it's STV 100-1.

(FYI, 100-1 is the USA model, it includes wireless charging but doesn't have LTE band 28 which is a 'long term standard' for Aus, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LTE_fr...ents_by_region)

Then I looked at Expansys, seemed nice and cheap but again STV 100-1. Did a bit of googling about them to see if they were reliable, everyone here seems to have gotten their stuff fine but there are a lot (a lot) of negative reviews about them. I wouldn't mind for $50, but for $800 I'd rather pay the extra 25% for a bit of peace of mind.

And not that I have anything against STV 100-1, but the -3 model is meant for APAC, it has band 28 which Optus uses, it's more futureproof, etc etc. This is my 3rd phone in 15 years (8310, 2500-something, then Priv) and I intend to use this until at least 2024. So an extra hundred spread out over 8 years is really nothing.

Meanwhile, bought it yesterday from BBstore with a syncpod and leather case, didn't choose the $15 'overnight express' option and got the free "1-4 day" delivery, just got it 24 hours later in an express-post bag.

I switched it on (no SIM nor SD), skipped all the "give google all your data" questions (not putting a sim nor sd in until the security is all locked down), setup wifi then next thing was it came up with an 'update available'. Took an hour or so to download and verify, battery went from 39% down to 24% WITH the charging plug connected. Nice and toasty-warm too. Now it's rebooted and installing.

So far very happy with it.

[anon(3641385)]

Thank you Dr Croubie for your info re 100-3.

You mentioned that you purchased your phone through the local BB Store here in Sydney, I've emailed them and left phone messages and I can't get a response from them. Did you speak with them at all?

I've been wondering whether I should trust using their web page to purchase at this point, because I thought they may have been hijacked ....

[DrCroubie]

Yep, just hit the 'add to cart' and 'order' and that was about it.
The receipts came from ' marilyn at smartphoneprotection (comau) ', if bbstore aren't giving an answer maybe try her directly there.

ps, reading some other threads around here about pricedrops, a very probable rumour is that the STV 100-1 (which was the USA version) didn't sell very well and that's why it's getting dumped for half-price in a lot of places, especially online retailers like expansys have bought up a lot of stock cheap. So that's why they're all cheap and the 100-3 is still up there.
Totally up to you whether you think it's worth buying one of these for a helluva lot less than the -3, but for me the -3 was worth the extra for peace of mind, aussie retailer, etc etc.

(and I gotta buy aussie occasionally, most of my photo and audio gear comes from B+H / Adorama / Macodirect and the occasional PC bits from Newegg)

[anon(3641385)]

Yep, just hit the 'add to cart' and 'order' and that was about it.
The receipts came from ' marilyn at smartphoneprotection (comau) ', if bbstore aren't giving an answer maybe try her directly there.

ps, reading some other threads around here about pricedrops, a very probable rumour is that the STV 100-1 (which was the USA version) didn't sell very well and that's why it's getting dumped for half-price in a lot of places, especially online retailers like expansys have bought up a lot of stock cheap. So that's why they're all cheap and the 100-3 is still up there.
Totally up to you whether you think it's worth buying one of these for a helluva lot less than the -3, but for me the -3 was worth the extra for peace of mind, aussie retailer, etc etc.

(and I gotta buy aussie occasionally, most of my photo and audio gear comes from B+H / Adorama / Macodirect and the occasional PC bits from Newegg)

Where does one find the STV info? I just usually only find the band info when I look at the specs ....

[DrCroubie]

Where does one find the STV info? I just usually only find the band info when I look at the specs ....

Well for me, it's got STV 100-3 written on the box sitting in front of me

I had a whole spreadsheet made up (yes, I'm an engineer) of what website said what, in short:
Optus said "what they offered" supported 1/2/3/4/5/7/8/12/17/20/28.
BB said their "Canada/Latin America/Asia Pacific" supported 1/2/3/4/5/7/8/12/13/17/20/25/28/29/30/38/40/41
BB said their "Europe/Middle East/Africa" version supported 1/2/3/4/7/8/13/17/20
FrequencyCheck.com said the "100-3" supports 2/4/5/7/12/13/17/25/28/29/30/41
FrequencyCheck.com said the "100-4" supports 1/2/3/4/7/8/13/17/20/28/38/39/40/41
FrequencyCheck.com said optus uses 1/3/7/28/40
Wikipedia says optus uses 1/3/7/28/40/42 (plus Vodaphone uses 5 and Telstra uses 8)
T-dimension used to explicitly say they offered the "100-3" supporting 1/2/3/4/5/7/8/12/13/17/20/25/28/29/30/38/40/41 (ie same as bb's canada etc version).
Now T-dimension explicitly say they offer the "100-1" version, but the only list frequencies and not LTE bands so it's impossible to know which bands it uses (read the wikipedia page, multiple LTE bands are on the same nominal frequency)

In short, rather than trying to figure out all of this mess, paying $200 to get peace of mind from bbstore.com.au starts to very quickly look like a cheap deal.

But at the end of the day, if you're not in range of an LTE band that your phone supports, you'll just drop down to 3G and get slower internet, calls will still work...

Right now the blackberry.com specs page is coming up with a 404 for me atm, not sure what's wrong there.

[anon(3641385)]

Dr Croubie, thankfully I just got the BBShop person on the phone, and so I've ended up buying the Classic + accessories from her.

The reason I've gone with the Classic is because of the sort of reasoning you've offered - I just don't trust that the AT&T model is going to be the exact fit for Optus LTE+, although it may fit somewhat. Also, my concern is how to download the device updates. It's easy with the Classic to just download them via the links supplied through Crackberry or OTA.

Btw, how are you going to download the updates?

Edit
Oh and I also tried to buy directly from Blackberry, get the same 404 screen as you, have tried using the US and CA sites to purchase, but country is restricted to either US or CA (same for UK), and I couldn't find an email address for Customer Service.

So Blackberry isn't interested in selling to Australians anymore it would seem!

[DrCroubie]

Dr Croubie, thankfully I just got the BBShop person on the phone, and so I've ended up buying the Classic + accessories from her.

The reason I've gone with the Classic is because of the sort of reasoning you've offered - I just don't trust that the AT&T model is going to be the exact fit for Optus LTE+, although it may fit somewhat. Also, my concern is how to download the device updates. It's easy with the Classic to just download them via the links supplied through Crackberry or OTA.

Btw, how are you going to download the updates?

Yeah, for $1000 a whole lot of other phones start looking attractive, hope the classic is good.
I literally just turned on the deivce without a simcard, skipped all the initial data-gathering questions, as soon as I connected to the local wifi network it came up with a screen to download Marshmallow. Clicked install and that was it. That was two hours ago, now I have marshmallow. (and 14% battery life, it's charging from my PC monitor which isn't delivering much current by the looks). On my lunch-break in half an hour I'm going to start going through and remove all the bloatware / datamining stuff like Chrome as much as I can (and install more secure stuff like Orbot), when I get home I'll start thinking about activating my new simcard and putting that in it.

[anon(3641385)]

So, that's good to know that the updates aren't reliant on your telco. Who is your telco out of curiosity?

[escape525]

Hi gents, I was in contact with BlackBerry back in Dec 15 and they told me all updates in Australia are not carrier dependant. So far that has been true

Edit: that was for the PRIV

Posted via the CrackBerry App for Android

[anon(3641385)]

Thanks for that! So we just rely on OTA updates as put out by Blackberry?

[escape525]

That is correct

Posted via the CrackBerry App for Android

[DrCroubie]

So, that's good to know that the updates aren't reliant on your telco. Who is your telco out of curiosity?

well I can indeed confirm that updates are not reliant on even having ever put a simcard in the thing
I'm with Optus, but I've got a really old $9 plan and didn't want to move up from paying $9-15 a month to a minimum of $67 a month for 500MB data, when I can pay $9 + $10 for 1GB. Hence why I was only ever looking at buying outright.

[anon(3641385)]

Dr Croubie I only buy outright as well. I was on a plan similar to yours, but it included 500mb BIS data.

Anyway the post paid plan that Optus forced me to migrate to about this time last year suits me very well indeed, and I'll mention it to you for what it's worth, 'My Plan plus sim only', and it costs $30 per month and includes:
Unlimited free phone calls within Aus
Unlimited free voicemail within Aus
Unlimited free text within Aus
1 GB data

and because the BB9700 is only on OS7 it means that I still have BIS. That is going to change when I start using the Classic tomorrow. But still 1GB data is more than sufficient for my needs.

[anon(3641385)]

Hi gents, I was in contact with BlackBerry back in Dec 15 and they told me all updates in Australia are not carrier dependant. So far that has been true

escape525, how did you contact Blackberry in December? From what I can see of their website* they won't sell to the individual in Au. Is that right do you know?

*Cell Phones, Smartphones & Mobile Phones from BlackBerry.com

[anon(3641385)]

For information I am attaching a response from Toni Cipriani to a question I asked (in another thread) re purchase of a US unlocked AT&T phone because it contains valuable info all of us in Aus. http://forums.crackberry.com/blackbe...l#post12478402

[ams083]

Telstra doesn't offer the Priv. At some stage along the line a Telstra sim card must have been inserted. I am currently using the STV100-1 on Telstra's network and it works absolutely fine. I won my Priv through the monthly comps on here - and was a bit concerned it wouldn't work to we'll here, but it has been faultless.

I can also confirm updates are not carrier dependant. I have received all updates as soon as they've been announced here in the forums. Although my device was direct from BlackBerry

BlackBerry PRIV STV100-1 6.0.1
Classic SQC100-1/10.3.2.2876