Buying and iPhone from Dubai

Lashie130

Lashie130

Well-Known Member
Joined
Aug 25, 2015
Messages
148
Reaction score
43
Location
Greenstone
So I will be traveling to Dubai in December. I am contemplating upgrading my iPhone XS 64GB (Bought in the US in 2019.

I know we haven’t received the local pricing for the iPhone 13 Pro yet but currently with the current exchange rate it works out to around R17 500.00 if I am to buy it from the Dubai Apple Store as per my research.

Now the few issues that I can’t find answers to in regards to the future purchase is:
1) Will FaceTime work outside of the UAE (When I bring it back to SA). As I understand FaceTime is disabled on all Apple Products sold there
2) Will 5G work in SA. As I understand each country has certain 5G bands and I cannot find a list of Bands in each country

If anyone has made a similar purchase any input would be greatly appreciated.
 
Last edited:
Lashie130 said:
1) Will FaceTime work outside of the UAE (When I bring it back to SA). As I understand FaceTime is disabled on all Apple Products sold there
Click to expand...

Facetime is disabled no matter where AFAIK (at least it was last time I checked).

Lashie130 said:
2) Will 5G work in SA. As I understand each country has certain 5G bands and I cannot find a list of Bands in each country
Click to expand...

UAE gets the same model as SA.

www.apple.com

iPhone - Supported 5G and LTE networks

See the countries and regions that have certified 5G and LTE networks on iPhone including the US, Canada, Japan, Germany, China mainland and more.
www.apple.com
 
Don’t worry if 5G will work in SA. It will not, no matter what phone you get. Well, maybe there’s a slight chance if you are not on Vodacom. But if you are, it will definitely not work. In fact, 4G still doesn’t work.
 
bluepoole said:
Don’t worry if 5G will work in SA. It will not, no matter what phone you get. Well, maybe there’s a slight chance if you are not on Vodacom. But if you are, it will definitely not work. In fact, 4G still doesn’t work.
Click to expand...
Lol I am with Vodacom. 5G is needed so that I can see my data leave me all that much faster especially with Vodacom :ROFL:
 
Dave said:
Not quite, the US versions actually have more frequencies than the model sold in most of the world.

Check the link I posted if you want to verify it.
Click to expand...

That fell away some years ago didn’t it?

****

I see they do designate it as different models but I was always under the impression the bands are available on all phones just that they are specifically used in those countries and the hardware is the same.

Interesting none the less.

Maybe it’s simply that the firmware is now universal and it adjusts based on model variance for the minor difference in chipset.
 
SauRoNZA said:
Yeah sorry I was slow to type there. Updated above.
Click to expand...

It’s not a real issue, by buying the USA model you get a few extra bands (mostly mmWave iirc), the global version still has all the standard bands in use.

UAE and SA are the same version in any case.

I haven’t sat and compared the Russian version or the other North America version.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X