Buying a Galaxy Z fold 4 SM-F936B "European/Australian Variant" from Ebay, Will I be able to use it in Africa?

[m4str0k]

Hi Guys, I am interested in getting a F936B/DS  Fold 4 Variant. of eBay, Sealed, And be able to use it in Africa "Egypt/Kenya/South Africa" , The seller says it's unlocked.

I heard about region locking issues, and that I should activate the phone first with an EU sim, to be able to unlock it. is this true?

Please note that I will not be able to do that, As I clearly don't live in EU, and I will ship the phone using a shipping company to Africa.

Is there a workaround for this? I just want my phone to be globally unlocked, and I could use it no matter where I travel.

[Mitzzz999]

Yeah, a lot of these modern Samsungs are region locked so there's a risk of the phone just barred for calling, texting and data.

I've seen people in the forum contact Samsung to get the region lock lifted but you're better off trying to get a local unlocked one... Saves the hassle... As I think it can be a lot of hassle contacting different departments in Samsung to get this region lock lifted. Probably isn't even a guarantee it will be lifted.

Buying it from eBay is another potential issue as it's a 3rd party seller too. My advice is to skip it.

Also you have to think of your warranty situation too.

[JAMES4578]

Hi @m4str0k  yes I agree with @Mitzzz999  that the phone will likely be region locked and if so sorting this will be problematic. There are also pitfalls in Buying from ebay ,personally would not use them for electronic devices. See some information here https://second-handphones.com/knowledge-centre/post/safe-buy-phone-ebay 

[m4str0k]

Hi Guys @JAMES4578 @Mitzzz999  Thanks for your valuable information, The reason why I thought this way, is that prices in Kenya and Egypt for example are so inflated, they are around 2000-2300$ for the 256GB version. but from what I understood is that I have to eat those prices and just buy it very expensive. to avoid the region lock issues..

[JAMES4578]

@m4str0k No problem,  yes I understand the dilemma  but then there is such a thing as a false economy and can e difficult  to remove the region lock.

[m4str0k]

@JAMES4578 you are totally correct, some of the sellers might buy the phone and have due money that they refuse to pay after selling the phone to you, and you end up with a bad IEMI device "bad finance" !

I will just have to wait a bit, and get it officially from samsung.

One last thing? If I got it from Samsung Europe. because Samsung doesn't sell it officially here.. and shipped it also to Africa will it work? or still have to face the same region lock issues?

[JAMES4578]

@m4str0k Yes unfortunately would still be issue with Region lock.

[Anonymous User]

Don't bother with that varient which is the one I use. Software updates are slow and by the looks the global varient is the last to receive updates. Still stuck on July security patch