Posts from Best Buy's community forums - http://forums.bestbuy.com/t5/Mobile-Phones-Mobile-Broadband/... - suggest that buying phones online subject them to an "Equipment Discount Provision" - http://wireless.bestbuy.com/template/simplecontent.aspx?page... - which enables Best Buy to recover the difference between the discounted price and the full purchased price if you cancel your phone contract within 180 days. If this is the case, you would end up paying both T-Mobile's ETF and Best Buy's fee, making your contract-liberated Nexus S $200 more expensive than just buying it without a contract.

Yes. I'm sure there are some taxes and other fees that make it not such a huge win. IIRC there was a $35 activation fee that probably isn't refundable.

Personally, I would feel a little gross about doing that kind of thing, mostly from the "this is why we can't have nice things" angle.

So as much as I've regretted cell phone contracts in the past, I'm going to give T-Mobile a fair try. After all, I do need some provider even if I hardly ever use the voice (my previous phone was a prepaid thing I kept in the trunk of the car with the battery out mostly for emergencies).

I know I don't count as "someone else" but see http://www.bestbuymobile.com/article/google-nexus-s-faqs/ Are there two different versions of the Nexus S, locked and unlocked? No, the Nexus S is always unlocked, regardless of whether it is sold with a T-Mobile contract or not.

I'll confirm this as soon as I get my phone of course.

Consider it confirmed. The device I received (admittedly, over two months ago) was plain jane Gingerbread.

My previous device was a G1, so I can't really compare it to anything more recent, but it was most definitely vanilla, to the extent that I chucked when I found myself installing the 'T-Mobile My Account' app.

Yep, the $199 Nexus S (with contract) works great. Not locked. Not even any lame carrier apps pre-installed.