Buying used phones can be quite a risky business, even though it offers a tastier price range for all of us here. You need to make sure the status before actually shelling out the cash. But how can you make sure that the phone you have isn’t stolen? With the innovative IMEI checker app!
Note: This app is only available on the App Sore for iOS Devices.
Installation
Before jumping to the review, you first need to install the app itself. As noted above, it’s available in the app store, just type in “IMEI Checker Pro” and this particular app is made by Marc Cavallo, and has a blue to purple gradient with and phone as its icon. Once installed, let’s look at what this app can offer.
Phone information you’ll get
As the name suggest, of course you’ll get the IMEI Number of your phone, this number is important because this is the one that is often blacklisted. Of course there are also other valuable information the app offers you, like the whether the phone is locked or unlocked, model, serial number, warranty status, purchase date, sold by or even the person who initially bought the phone. For iPhone checking, the iCloud status is also checked, to know if whether it was reported as stolen. This app claims to check Apple or iPhone devices, Samsung, LG phones, HTC phones and Alcatel phones.
Okay, maybe I’m confusing you right now, IMEI sounds important, but I still haven’t discussed it to you.
What is IMEI and why is it important?
IMEI is a unique 15 digit code given to all mobile phones. This code is used a form of Electronic Serial Number (ESN) which is used to identify mobile devices. With this, all the necessary information about a phone’s production will be store in its IMEI. With that buying a blacklisted device can actually land you some jail time, and right now, it’s better to be safe than sorry.
The advantages and disadvantages of the app
As I’ve said earlier, this app has a great number of pros, with the knowledge that your phone isn’t blacklisted. It would save you a lot of trouble and hassle in the near future, also the fact that it checks the IMEI of common handset brands like Samsung, HTC, Alcatel and LG, is major bonus. However there are two cons to this app, first one is it is only available to the app store, thus in turn only to apple products, and second, it only works online. If only
the app works offline, it would be a fly. But I guess that would be too much to ask for since the blacklisted phones are updated almost every day, the offline list updates would be quite bothersome to anybody wanting to use this easy tool.
Conclusion
App like this makes you feel more secure for the money you’re about to spend. Also, it avoids unnecessary hassles that might occur in the future- not to mention the possibility of jail time. It is always important to make wise and informed decisions especially when it comes to potentially illegal transactions. So as I suggested earlier, ask your dealer to let you use the phone for a bit, download the app, and check whether it’s a green or a red.
