[Galaxy Note 3 General] bubblesmoney:
Decided to buy a phone, couldnt make up my mind between the note 3 and the nexus 5 soon to be released this week. Wanted the higher ram and screen size and s-pen and microsd features if could get the region lock removed permanently.

Saw a good deal for the note 3 with 1y contract on vodafone with unlimited minutes and texts and 1gb data (3m unlimited data) on 3g and made up my mind to buy the note 3 as wanted the features.

Cost £47 per month 12m contract plus £99 one off fee for the phone and 1y contract. Total cost = £663 for network locked phone.

Network unlocking charge for the phone by vodafone £20 in vodafone shop. They refused to waive this charge. There is NO REGION LOCK STICKERS ON THE BOX or vodafone advertising. But the phone is network locked for which i have paid and got the network unlock key, which they generated from the IMEI in a minute or so from their computers. Thought since i have paid vodafone directly for unlocking at the time of purchase with bill for the unlocking by vodaone, they wouldnt have a leg to stand on as a seller if later my phone didnt work with foreign sims as I would then ask for full refund in those circumstances.

Total cost £550.20 for the phone inclusive of 1y contract as mentioned above (with the 20% discount by vodafone for employee of approved companies discount for monthly fee). Didnt need the 1y contract but it was cheaper getting it this way, couple of vodafone apps extra but not bothered. Only downside I guess is that will get software updates slower from vodafone than stock version.

My total cost for phone + 1y contract + unlocking = £550.2 + 0 + £20 = £570.2 So this swung it towards the note 3 instead of the nexus 5 for me. Nexus would have been cheaper but wanted the note features. If there was another company offering similar wacom digitiser features then wouldnt have bought from samsung after their region locking. But in the lack of a decent alternative decided to go fro the features as this is what would be useful for me in teaching and presentations etc for my use case scenario.

Dont think I could have got this cheaper with unlocking even for just sim free and this was with 1y contract (3m unlimited data and later 1gb per month data). Not planning on using the vodafone sim as my main sim as have my three sim with unlimited data that i have been using for a while now. But will use the vodafone sim in areas where three signal is poor and vice versa. Any idea if those dual sim adapters that are available on ebay for regular sized sims are also available for micro sims. would be nice to use such an adapter and not have to swap out sims.

i dont have any foreign sims at hand to check if they work but will check at later date if i get foreign sims from others.

Hope the deal that i got will be useful for others in the UK wanting this phone (unlocked) with 1y contract for cheaper than sim free price.

For those not in approved employer list then quidco is offering £100 cashback for a few days on vodafone online contracts or about 3% for in store purchases. You cant club cash back and employer discount scheme unfortunately or it would have been even cheaper!