This person is the answer to the world's problems.

No but Iphone 7 is the latest release. I personally would not like to be seen with an old iphone and be the laughing stock of the whole community. By investing in an iphone 7 I have won the respect of my peers and upgraded by smartphone experience simultaneously

spend another 3-400 quid and you can get the iphone 7

I found nothing special for any iphone (6, 7 or future iphone :sunglasses:. Not worth spending over £300.
Consider this XiaoMi Mi5 @ £224 iphone killer or if your are in a budget consider XIAOMI Redmi Note 3 @129.

Heat added

spend another 3-400 quid and you can get the iphone 7

+£10 minimum for a goodybag !

your loss

iPhone SE review: today’s tech, yesterday’s design
http://www.theverge.com/2016/3/25/11302968/apple-iphone-se-review

Do you need to purchase a SIM to buy the handset?

No but Iphone 7 is the latest release. I personally would not like to be seen with an old iphone and be the laughing stock of the whole community. By investing in an iphone 7 I have won the respect of my peers and upgraded by smartphone experience simultaneously

This person is the answer to the world's problems.

Would this lock to the 1st network's sim inserted into it or would it be truly unlocked so that I could swap and change the sim card across networks?

£300 plus for this is a joke. So glad I'm not into apple products

Good price IMO. The A9 processor in the SE outperforms Snapdragon 820 devices in single core tasks and isn't a mile behind in multi core. Long-term updates. Great camera. Excellent battery. It's a good mid-range phone and the only powerful truly small phone available.

I found nothing special for any iphone (6, 7 or future iphone :sunglasses:. Not worth spending over £300.
Consider this XiaoMi Mi5 @ £224 iphone killer or if your are in a budget consider XIAOMI Redmi Note 3 @129.

​Thanks, I'm an Android user for as long as I've had a smartphone. Hard about all this tricky iPhone locking and wasn't sure how it worked!

No. Four vendors sell truly sim-free iPhones in the UK: Giffgaff, Three, John Lewis and Apple. These will accept any sim here and abroad.

'Sim-free' iPhones from every other retailer will lock to the first sim inserted. That includes CPW, Argos, O2, Tesco, EE, etc. These remain locked to UK networks, too, so while Vodafone UK may work if the first sim inserted, Vodafone Germany or Australia won't.

This is at least partially outdated.....Authorised Apple Retailers around the country - like "Western Computers" in Oxford - can and do now also sell fully SIM-free iPhones (previously they did not!). I do not know about the likes of Argos etc. - but some may well have come to a "John Lewis style" agreement with Apple by now as well. I believe Curry's, for example, (themselves not the in-store CPW franchises) also advertise their iPhones as "SIM free"

Vodafone, O2 and EE (excepting, of course, 3 who make a point of selling unlocked handsets) sell iPhone stock which is pre-locked only to that network! People have tried other-network SIMs in handsets from sealed boxes supplied by them and they do not work. Only CPW (to avoid having to stock multiple handsets from different networks) are known to have arranged with Apple to make their handsets' auto-lock to the first SIM.

It is not quite that straightforward. Argos phones also lock to the first sim network as per the Q&A on the Argos website and as anecdotal evidence suggests. In naming the four vendors, I restricted myself to major sellers. Smaller authorised Apple hardware retailers like Stormfront or KCRS also have unlocked phones but basically they try to replicate Apple stores where Apple does not yet have a presence.

There are some guides on the net that list the current locking status of iPhones as best they can. The data may already be out of date but they provide a starting point.

http://kenstechtips.com/index.php/apple-iphone-when-sim-free-doesnt-mean-unlocked

You can also find small dealers on eBay, who sell both unlocked and auto-locking iPhones, so stock gets shifted around. Why Apple has this mess of a system, god only knows but it is probably due to the locking happening on Apple's activation database rather than on the device itself.

You are almost certainly correct about Argos - but Apple has started letting a few more retailers sell unlocked iPhones (my local "Authorised Reseller" used not to sell them at all!)

It is only "a mess" from some viewpoints. From Apple's POV it is really clever as no locking at all needs to be done on any iPhone at the time of manufacture - as each handset gets its assigned "lock status" from the Apple database at first activation.

Just for my own interest I once paid a trivial sum ($0.60) for an Apple database readout on my GiffGaff iPhone 6 from a net-retailer

This gave:

MEI: 35.........
S/N: C6K,,,,,,,,
Model: IPHONE 6 GOLD 16GB-GBR
ICCID: 89442.......
Activated: Yes
iOS: 8.3
First Activation Date: 2015-04-22
Last Activation Date: 2015-04-27
Warranty Ends on: 2016-04-20
Purchase Date: 2015-04-21
Bluetooth Mac Address: 10417FDC52E9
WiFi Mac Address: 10417FDC52E8
Find my iPhone: ON
ZIP/SSN Required: N/A
Initial Activation Policy Description: 269 - UK O2 Tesco
Next Tether Policy Details: 10 - Unlock
Lock Status: Unlocked

An interesting thing was the "first activation starus". GiffGaff are selling pre-unlocked O2 stock! Also Tesco-Mobile seem also to be selling O2 stock

Interesting. It would appear that Giffgaff is requesting O2 send Apple an unlock request on the stock it procures, presumably from O2 rather than Apple directly. Tesco also sells sim-free phones at full price alongside contract/PAYG phones but I think those still auto-lock.

My current one is from J Lewis. Wonder if I could get that database info from digging into iTunes.

While iTunes might get some data from Apple's database using web-service calls I don't think it can print out the full contents! I used http://www.gsmunlock4.me some time ago - and sent them $0.60 using PayPal. Nothing I can currently see seems quite as inexpensive at present!

GiffGaff are owned by O2 - so it seems to make some sense that they would purchase stock from them - and Tesco use O2 as a carrier as well. My iPhone 6 was in a factory sealed box and unlocked at first activation - so any change to Apple's database had already been made.before dispatch.

£5 cashback on quidco as well

Doesn't support bands for some networks unfortunately

​plus VAT and I'm not sure I'd be happy typing my bank details and other passwords into a Chinese phone with apps installed that I know nothing about and what warranty ???

Heat. Great and fast phone, and battery easily lasts well over a day of usage.

Amazon are doing these sim-free at £359, so this has to be a steal. The only possible issue as IOS10 going into a 16GB phone, not leaving much room for apps, photos or videos (unless you're using iCloud for all your storage...)

​where is it sold for £224?

16gb non upgradable memory. 2012 called and it wants it's phone back.

nobody will respect you for a phone. respect cannot be bought and if your friends laugh at you for having an old phone then they aren't your friends. you should buy whatever you like best and your friends shouldn't give a toss.

MY GOD - WTF SORT OF **** ANSWER IS THAT - HAVE YOU HAD SOME FORM OF PERSONALITY REMOVAL PROCEDURE?? WHAT A TOTAL PLANK - time for me to move on and return to normal life.

This or a one plus 3!

​lol

I don't do iPhones, despite being a fan of Apples other products, but to be totally fair I think the SE makes a lot of sense. Heat added

I'm no fan of Apple but my daughter has this phone and it is very good. The camera is extremely quick. If you're after a small form factor phone this is a great deal. I'm almost spitting at the fact I gave the deal heat when I first saw it :laughing:

​Cheers. It was more of a joke pointing at the vast difference between the. 2phones really. I've had a opo for 2 years now. Loving it

An introduction to Donald Trump is in order

Good deal for the 16GB but the 64GB SE can be had for £386.10 (unlocked) from the deal at very (which for some reason has been expired on HUKD but is still a live offer).
http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/iphone-7-128-gb-633-99-32gb-533-99-new-customers-old-with-very-10-credit-back-off-2524190?page=2#comments

​I'm think the op might have been having a bit of a laugh

Good price, great phone, but a bit of a shame that the case is the old one. My 5s is 3 years old now. I'd like to replace it but the 7 is like the 6, the 6 isn't particularly exciting, and the SE looks the same as mine! So I'm torn between a nearly new 6 and an SE to tie me till the 8 comes out. It's crazy that they're using the same case designs for 3-4 years now.

Good spot and awesome phone. I purchased one last week to replace my ridiculous iPhone 6s+. iPhone 7 did not impress especially the price. Happy to be back to a small, light phone.

Doesn't include any tariff so you're paying £14.59 + monthly data plan cost. Seems obvious but some might think this includes data.

Giffgaff are not owned by o2 they are owned by telefonica who also own o2 if o2 is sold or floated then giffgaff will remail with telefonica

is 64gb version at 399 worth the money?

​telefonica did include giffgaff as part of the deal to three that fell through earlier in the year.

The SE 16GB is £264 on O2 refresh, which is a steal in Apple terms!