Samsung is now locking all new devices to a region, making life hard

Samsung is implementing a new policy from the end of July 2013, which basically dictates that all Samsung-branded devices from that date on will come locked to a respective region. Samsung's Germany arm has already commented on the new policy, confirming that this is indeed the case and that, at this point, the new rules cover all new Galaxy SII, Galaxy SIII, Galaxy S4, Galaxy S4 Mini and Note 3 devices produced after the end of July. Moreover, while the geographic regions themselves are pretty big (e.g. the American model includes the North, South and Central Americas, along with the Caribbean), Samsung won't provide any sensible workaround for those of us who have/like to travel. The only “option”, right now, is to never activate the phone with a SIM from the region the device was intended for and go to an authorized Samsung service partner that will be able to unlock it for use in a different region. For details…