What’s the advantage an unlocked over a locked tablet?
A locked tablet has to be used with whichever carrier you purchased the tablet from. In the case of the tablets here, they were originally locked to AT&T so before they were unlocked you could only use them with an AT&T mobile plan (they still work on wifi without a plan).
An unlocked tablet can be used on any GSM carrier. So instead of only being able to use AT&T, you can use any of the carriers below. Many of these likely have better service and/or pricing in your area. In addition, if you travel overseas, you can buy a cheap SIM card and have inexpensive data there instead of the insane roaming charges that a US carrier would charge.
[list]
[]Airfire Mobile
[]ASTAC
[]Asset/Vada Wireless (uses AT&T/ TMobile)
[]AT&T (Includes GoPhone Prepaid, Dobson Cellular, Edge Wireless and Centennial Wireless)
[]Broadpoint
[]Calhan Wireless
[]call4care
[]Cellular One of East Central Illinois
[]Cellular One of East Arizona
[]Cellular One Nation
[]Cellular One TXOK
[]Chariton Valley Wireless
[]Cincinnati Bell Wireless
[]Commnet Wireless (also uses CDMA)
[]Consumer Cellular (uses AT&T towers)
[]Cordova Wireless
[]Corr Wireless
[]Cross Communications
[]DTC Wireless
[]Earthtones
[]Epic PCS
[]Fuzion Mobile
[]GCI Wireless (also uses CDMA)
[]GTC Wireless (uses AT&T towers)
[]i wireless
[]Immix
[]Indigo Wireless
[]Jolt Wireless (uses AT&T towers)
[]KTC PACE
[]Locus Mobile (uses CDMA, Verizon & AT&T towers)
[]Long Lines Wireless
[]Mobal Freedom (uses AT&T towers)
[]NEP Wireless
[]Pine Cellular
[]Plateau Wireless
[]Pure Prepaid (uses AT&T towers)
[]Pure Talk USA (uses AT&T towers)
[]Simple Mobile (uses T-Mobile towers)
[]Shaka Mobile (also uses CDMA, Verizon & Sprint towers)
[]Telecom North America Mobile Inc
[]TerreStar
[]T-Mobile USA
[]TracFone Wireless (also uses CDMA, AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, US Cellular and T-Mobile towers)
[]Tru (uses T-Mobile towers)
[]Union Wireless
[]Viaero Wireless
[]Wal-Mart Family Mobile (uses T-Mobile towers)
[]West Central Wireless
[]Westlink
[]XIT Communications
[/list]
Can you make calls with this model if you use a sim card?
Also can you get updates on WiFi only if you do not buy a sim card?
Has anyone bought this model from a recent woot? Any feedback?
You would need an application like Skype to make calls. It is not a telephone.
You can get updates over Wi-Fi with no problems.
Ditto to BigD. Bought the Samsung Tab 2 for traveling. A friend incurred $600 in roaming. I got a phone number from Google Voice which I think can be used to buy minutes in various areas (with sim card) so you know that can’t happen. The unlocked are a bit cheaper on Amazon if you don’t need this.