US iPhone 5S

[R4z0r]

I'm thinking of picking up a 5S in the states when I visit in a few weeks time. Looking at the supported LTE bands on the US model, it seems to support all UK bands with the exception of 7.

http://www.apple.com/iphone/LTE/

The following article shows only vodaphone and EE are using this band in the UK and both are actually using others as well. I'm planning on using Three as my carrier so guessing this shouldn't affect me too much.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_LTE_networks

I guess if it breaks I can't take it to a UK store?
/edit Just googled and seems Apple will replace US phones but you have to wait a bit as they ship replacement from USA.

Have I missed anything? Any other drawbacks to using a US phone?

It's a saving of around £100 so not insignificant ...

 

[deaglecat]

Have I missed anything? Any other drawbacks to using a US phone?

It's a saving of around £100 so not insignificant ...

US charger
LTE Data network incompatibiliy
Worse resale values (in UK)
Lack of UK consumer protection e.g SOGA
Risk of paying import tax/duty.

Still £100 is a good saving on an iphone.

 

[VaderDSL]

You won't be able to get it swapped in the UK sadly.

It's because since the iPhone 5 and LTE bands, there are differing models, we won't stock the same models as in the US, hence you won't have any luck getting it replaced.