Amhaz (Stars Communications) shop

If you keep buying tehrib, you will never get official device at a cheap price.
This is the same as Software Piracy. If the country and its people only use pirated material (software or hardware) all the manufacturers will drop the support and actually this is why we are such a third world country (no real laws applied).
You are searching for a good and cheap product and the laws do not protect the rights of the providers so you take advantage of that.

In a more specific way, let's say you have a friend in the US who got you the latest phone at 530$ and it is priced here at 1000$ and at Amhaz @ 560$. If you go and buy it at 530$ from the US, it is the same as buying it at 1000$ from here, you are paying the company the right to sell in the US or in Lebanon. If you buy it from Amhaz or whatever at 560$ you are making sure that Company X that manufacturers this device will never open in Lebanon and you will never get this phone at 530$ some day in the future.

I know it is not our job to make sure all this happen, but we can have a little bit of social awareness and not be so public about advertising such Companies that are in my opinion ruining our economy.

Again Zeraw we are with you in your logic BUT the problem is mainly the Lebanese mafias who claim themself as businessman and want to win at least 150$ on every single phone they sell.
If they didn't steal from us on the first place a shop like amhaz wouldn't even exist, how can you explain that a 500$ phone is sold 1000$ here (iphone4)??
So we need HTC,SE and Motorola themself to open their own showroom with the real international prices in Lebanon if we don't want to be stealed.
I don't see any difference between some Lebanese businessman and the guy who steal a bank

since there is no law in lebanon that make piracy or hacking illegal you can't stop softwares piracy and due to unreasonable high prices of official distributors in comparison of "tehrib" phone and the "falaten at gamerik" so all the illegal phone can enter lebanon so easy. the only solution is that Alfa and MTC provide legal locked phones for cheap prices. i have an Alfa line and i am not planning to change it so i don't care if my phone is locked and maybe they can offer 2 or 1 years plan so you can get your phone free or almost free. it's the only solution if official distributors don't afford lower prices and if "tehrib" stays .

since there is no law in lebanon that make piracy or hacking illegal

Of course there is.
Lebanon signed both the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works and the Universal Copyright Convention according to this. You need to do some research before posting something that you present as a fact.

Even though wikipedia is 95% correct in most cases, the first rule you learn at university is to never refer to it.

We're well accustomed to the Lebanese way of signing on something and doing technically nothing when it comes to the implementation anyway.

WizaRd wroteEven though wikipedia is 95% correct in most cases, the first rule you learn at university is to never refer to it.

I used wikipedia merely to locate the information. The actual sources are Unesco and the WIPO.

m.sabra wrote@Samer sorry for the incorrect info that i have posted, but i don't remember (maybe there is some case that i don't know about it for accuracy) any time that someone was accused for hacking or piracy and you can see that the market is fulled with pirated softwares and movies
and my idea was why we don't have sim locked phones from MTC and Alfa for cheap prices ?

Because the cellphone dealers need direct access to the providers and in our case the providers need authorization from the government for every single move.

ZeRaW wrote

m.sabra wrote@Samer sorry for the incorrect info that i have posted, but i don't remember (maybe there is some case that i don't know about it for accuracy) any time that someone was accused for hacking or piracy and you can see that the market is fulled with pirated softwares and movies
and my idea was why we don't have sim locked phones from MTC and Alfa for cheap prices ?

Because the cellphone dealers need direct access to the providers and in our case the providers need authorization from the government for every single move.

Plus these 2 providers have only a 1 year contract that they renew every year so :/

Exemple: I talked to a Samsung salesman yesterday and asked about the SGS2...he said not before September!!!
Amhaz should get it this week ;)

yes an i don't have a problem with that

Actual defaut of fabrication are obvious the first minutes you use the phone, so just try it in the shop before paying.
Software problems are not a problem anymore because with Android you can just flah the rom again and again (old nokia and SE proprietary phones are history now)
Just check screen,speaker,camera and try calling...if everything is good then mabrouk

It was true on the first devices using those technologies, now it's extremely rare

in some samsung devices if you typed *#0*# you will get a screen to test your phone it includes scree,touch,speaker,camera,sensor,vibrator,camera flash ...

m.sabra wrotein some samsung devices if you typed *#0*# you will get a screen to test your phone it includes scree,touch,speaker,camera,sensor,vibrator,camera flash ...

So for what reason there is 1 year warranty for phones, and up to 4 years warranty for Laptop if we can test our electronic devices from the first minutes ?

in my opinion it's just madness to pay this much money just for warranty Samsung Lebanon claims that the GSII will be available for below 1000$ so maybe 900$ and it's available now for 675$ and i am certain that it will be cheaper in the next few weeks and as Vegetaleb said software and OS are not considered problems anymore and manufacturing problems are extremely rare so just don't be so pessimist.

Thank you m.sabra for your previous reply. But is 675$ the final SGSII price? And does anyone know the current price of the predecessor the S one at the shop?

correction the SGSII2 price at the last time i checked was 665$ and as i know yes the prices are final. but you should call or ask them at facebook for the latest prices because prices usually drop every week.