Unlocked Smartphones... i'm so confused!

Hi all - I could really use some guidance here... [EDIT: Returning to this thread a bit later with some new knowledge and lingering questions... edits in yellow]

Background: My wife and I, who live in the USA and may be moving within the next few years cross-country or internationally, are wrapping up our current 2-year contract with Verizon (formerly Alltell). We've currently got "dumb" phones with simple voice-only service. No SMS/Texting, No Data.

My career situation, and her techie-gushing girlfriends' peer-pressure [okay... I'm psyched about a more functional phone now too ], have convinced us collectively that we should make the leap to e-mail/web capable smartphones. I've also recently read up on all the theoretical financial and carrier-flexibility advantages to unlocked phones, so I'm interested in going that route instead of locking into another 2-year contract for a subsidized pair of phones.

Confusion: I feel totally lost... Guess I'll bullet this out by topic:

• It seems the "unlocked" phone concept [that is, when you want the flexibility to change carriers] only applies to GSM phones with SIM cards. That means the only two major [USA] carriers we can consider are AT+T and T-Mobile [Sprint and Verizon are CDMA] - in and of itself not a major deal, but it leads to phone-selection issues
• The Nexus One is a cool phone, inherently "unlocked," but only 3G-effective on either T-Mobile or AT+T (not both), as you can order with one or the other's 3G support. [This stands as my current phone of choice as T-Mobile appears the best carrier considering both unlocked price and coverage in our area, and this is the coolest Android phone currently out there, as best I can tell. Yeah, I think Android is a loose priority - it seems to my inexperienced eye that the iPhone OS rules the "useful app choice/availability" roost, with Android close behind. iPhones however are out of the running for the following reason...]
• The iPhone 3GS is a cool phone, and unlocking seems possible but Apple appears to very much discourage/screw over users who attempt it. That said, it also appears to be effectively pointless as switching carriers (to T-Mobile) reportedly also cuts 3G performance.
• The latest Motorola Droids are cool phones, but they're through Verizon, which means they're CDMA. CDMA means no unlocking and we would run into trouble if we move to Europe or elsewhere and should need to change carriers.
• Europe and Canada appear to have different versions of the Motorola Milestone, which is an evolved Droid, but similar to the iPhone it only works on AT+T in the USA, so the unlocked feature is again pointless.
• Basically, is there such a thing as a GSM "smart phone" which is also effectively unlocked, in the sense that a user could realistically switch providers without any major hit to functionality? [Looks like the current answer in the USA is no, and nobody (including Google, who's closing their Nexus One webstore, requiring purchase through carriers) seems to have an interest in changing the status quo.]

Okay, I feel like I've got a good basic understanding of what's currently out there in the USA. Does anyone have experience with importing cool phones we don't have yet and/or cheap clones from China / Korea / Japan / elsewhere? Is this a realistic venture: to use a foreign phone with USA carriers' 3G/4G technology? Any specific reccomendations / links would be highly appreciated!

Well I guess that any news for you is going to be good news. I hate to say it but as far as I know you are going to be limited either by phone selection or carrier selection. I am pretty sure that is where you are going to end up biting the bullet. I would suggest looking at carrier selection to narrow your choice first unless there is just a phone that you have to have. In that case the phone will have made the decision.

Yeah I think the best thing to do is to look at the carrier. Who is the best in your area? Then look at phones. You could have the best phone ever, but if there is no cell tower, then you have a paper weight.

Now personally, I have been on nextel -> sprint for years. Love their service, love the phones. I just got the HTC Hero ~2 months ago, great phone, love everything about it (I should note I have it rooted and running and 2.1 rom. I wouldn't love the phone without it). If you decide on sprint I would wait until June 4th. The HTC Evo is launching. It'll be $200 with rebate. It's a beast of a phone, but if you don't want to spend that much, then you still should wait. The Hero should drop to cheap after thats released and becomes the new flag ship phone.


Also as you noted unlocked phones only apply to GSM, for cdma most networks (ala sprint and verizion) will only activate a phone that's serial number is registered to them, aka was designed for their network.

Significant edits to original post made above in yellow