Want to buy an iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus without a SIM card, or locked to a specific carrier? You finally have your chance: unlocked iPhones have just gone on sale through Apple’s brick-and-mortar and online stores for the very first time.
Since 2012, Apple has sold an unlocked, SIM-free version of the latest iPhone roughly two to three months after the carrier version went on sale. Yet though the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus went on sale as carrier-only versions in September, the SIM-free, fully-unlocked version hasn’t been on sale until now.
Pricing will remain the same as they usually are for unsubsidized iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus models, with 16, 64, and 128 GB versions of the iPhone 6 selling for $649, $749, and $849 respectively, while the 16, 64, and 128GB versions of the iPhone 6 Plus will be available for $749, $849, and $949. These are, of course, the same price as the T-Mobile iPhone 6 and 6 Plus prices. They are available for shipping in 3-5 business days.
The closest you could get before was the unlocked T-Mobile iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus. Functionally, this device was the same as an unlocked, SIM-free iPhone, but now, Apple is selling it as such without the carrier branding. Similarly, many of the Apple iPhone 6 models will work on any carrier, if you plug in another SIM card.
You can purchase an unlocked iPhone 6 for yourself here.
John Brownlee is a writer for Fast Company, and a contributing writer here at CoM. He has also written for Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, VentureBeat, and Gizmodo. He lives in Boston with his wife and two parakeets. You can follow him here on Twitter.
4 responses to “Unlocked, SIM-free iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus models are finally on sale”
Unless you live in the UK and you have been available to purchase it in the store from launch day.
Better solution…buy a subsidized phone and unlock with a service like Chronic Unlocks. $399 + $99 for unlock.
Only negative is that you still have to pay early termination fee if you leave your carrier. But if you just want to be able to use your phone overseas (which I did recently with no issues) this is a much more cost-effective method.
Or buy it from Verizon or T-mobile and get an unlocked phone right out of the box. Too easy
Anyone knows if the European, unlocked from the factory iPhone 6 is the same as they US unlocked iPhone 6?