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I was reading about the business motives behind network locking - phone manufacturers would like to loosen or ease the unlocking of some phones to improve their popularity, but the service providers would want to tighten the the security to the highest possible method so that unlocking is made almost impossible. So in the newer handsets, there are some models which can be easily unlocked and some cannot be unlocked that easily. X8 falls into the second category where the unlocking is made very very difficult.

Having said that, network unlocking of any phone is Legal in countries like UK. So the service provider themselves offer network unlock if customers pay a fee. For the network I wanted to unlock from (Three) they were not providing such service for X8 at the moment. People who figured out the hashing algorithm which the provider used to lock, can run their paid services over internet to anyone who wants to unlock their phone. I just used such a service. Since network unlocking itself is not illegal, they can publicly run their site. Breaking a contract is illegal through.

Coming to the firmware part, there can be differences in where the network lock is kept. But keeping that along with the Android firmware is the easiest way to unlock and if anyone is doing that, it is with the sole intention of making the unlock procedure easy. In X8, or in most of the new SE droids however, it is not part of the Android firmware and you can't unlock by flashing a new ROM. The unlock tool which I used flashed a new bootloader as part of the whole procedure, but I do not think that was all.

Which network was the phone locked to?

could you guys please suggest a phone for my wife. My requirements are:
1. Need to look good and should have a good VFM
2. Good battery backup
3. Budget 10k to 20k
4. Features - GPS (to be used for trips within India) and Camera (basic but should take crisp pictures)
5. I considered a variety of phones including Motorola Defy, SE Experia Neo V, Dell XCD35, Nokia E5/E6 and Apple iphone 3GS - but ultimately got confused
6. Future upgrade-ability is a plus - but not a must
7. Phone would be used for 2 to 3 years
8. Current phone is ASUS P320 windows phone and the new phone must look like an upgrade from the current phone

I look forward to your suggestions.

If its for your wife i recommend the SE Experia Neo V, it looks elegant.has a good camera and will be getting an official 4.0 update (a beta is already out)

the rest of the phones look too,umm...male

It was locked to Three network in UK.

Isn't there something like flashtool for the x8?

Did you try contacting three?

From what I've learned these "unlock sites" pull the codes out of the carriers server. and make good money out of it.

I had a motorola atrix locked down to AT&T,i did not have an AT&T account and all the sites Google threw up were paid unlock websites.As the phone was over a month old i went to AT&T online support and told them the phone was a gift and that i needed the unlock code to use it in India, and i had it within a few minutes.it would have cost me 40$ if someone hadn't suggested that i first try contacting AT&T

I think most carriers will give you an unlock code without a fuss.Try contacting them first when you import locked phones

Thanks, the only problem I see with SE Experia Neo V is the very average battery backup - from whatever I read in the internet.

Do I have any other option to look at?

There is SETool, one of its support guys himself told that I shouldn't be buying their tool if I just have one phone to unlock. There may be other flashtools available but didn't want to take that much risk because the phone doesn't belong to me. Read that once you have a damaged trim area (need to figure out what exactly it is) it may require a specialized hardware to unlock.

What if the phone was brought to India breaking a contract? It is unlikely that they will simply unlock it for anyone who has broken a contract and gifted it to someone in India. In X8's case, it was a contract broken by someone... I don't think they are that broadminded to have helped me with the unlocking for free.

Yeah i guess :D

Must have been super cheap in that case,how much did you get it for?

Android phones don't have excellent backup anyway,The ICS update might improve battery life
The xperia ray costs around the same but it doesn't look as appealing to me,it has a better camera though.

Don't know the exact amount, but as you said, yeah super cheap (unlocking charge included) :D

Samsung Galaxy S LCD. Its an excellent phone for around 17-18k.

Finally, went ahead and placed the order for Galaxy R at letsbuy.com for Rs.19990 - I hope this is a sensible purchase and the 4.5k premium over the SE Xperia Neo V is worthy...

Please share your thoughts.

I guess, this problem must be limited to those with GT-i9000, like myself. Thank you for the revert.

Samsung told me that using a Vodafone Android or 3g SIM from Vodafone, made up words. Vodafone proposed that I select Vodafone IN under the SIM settings, in vain unfortunately.

I would be grateful, if you could provide any information pertaining to this; I would hate to switch operators especially because I'm happy with Vodafone.

In performance, i think galaxy R will get the satisfaction.
the only concern i have is that Neo V will be getting ICS 4.0 while samsung has still not announced any plans for Galaxy R for ICS 4.0

I think you will enjoy every bit of it if you r not bothered with this update.

congrats.