Product: Simable
Supplier: 24/7 Mobile Solutions
Web: Simable
Price: £16.99 plus £2.95 delivery ($38.80)
Compatibility: Most handset brands besides Apple

FOR ANYONE who has spent hours trawling the Net for hacks that unlock GSM mobile phones, the Simable is a gift. It unlocked the INQ's Nokia N95, for example, in seconds.

The reality is that most handset vendors – particularly Nokia, Samsung and LG, have been getting much slicker at 'locking' GSM handsets into the particular network which supplied the mobile in the first place.

That can prove quite frustrating especially given that UK network operators, for example, are locking their post-paying customers into 18 month contracts. So you can't easily take your new phone to a new network.

When the INQ learned about the Simable from 24/7 Mobile Solutions, we had to give it a try. And we weren't disappointed.

Basically the Simable is a sliver of a chip that fits underneath your existing SIM card. The electronics then fool the handset into thinking that it has the correct network SIM when it doesn't. It successfully tricked a locked Orange handset into allowing a Vodafone SIM card to be used, for example.

The instructions imply that you have to punch a hole into your existing SIM card for Simable to fit. This isn't entirely necessary. Try it without using the supplied hole puncher first.

A stern word of warning. The instructions given on the Simable web site aren't 100 per cent clear. You must insert the card in the correct way. Otherwise you risk punching a hole straight through the SIM's onboard chip – thus rendering it useless. Just try explaining that to your network operator.

There's another snag which the INQ encountered. If you swap networks, you need to adjust the settings for WAP, the internet and MMS (picture messaging).

In the good old days it was possible to get the new settings sent to your phone from the Nokia web site courtesy of WDS Global. Unfortunately, the site assumes the handset has a Nokia utility called the Settings Wizard pre-loaded.

However, that's one of the programs which Orange assumes – quite reasonably – that you won't need. It should have been possible to download this utility from Nokia's web site. But, as luck would have it, that page currently has a fault.

In the end, the INQ copied the settings over manually from a genuine Vodafone handset. Still, it was worth it in the end.

The INQ decided to investigate if the 'unlocked' handset would be able to download the full suite of apps from the Nokia web site. That would mean 'banned' apps like Truphone would work. Sadly the web site correctly identified the handset as belonging to Orange, so it didn't work.

There's a full list of which handsets Simable will work with here. Models from Nokia, Samsung, Motorola, LG, Sharp and Siemens are covered. The Apple Iphone is conspicuous in its absence, however.

Given that the Simable won't damage the handset it locks in any recognisable fashion, it looks a very very neat solution to unlocking indeed. µ

The good
Fit it in seconds

The bad
Requires settings network installation

The ugly
Danger of destroying your existing SIM