AlcatelQUICKFLIP 4044C | 4G LTE | HD Voice FlipPhone | Cricket Unlocked for T-Mobile & AT&T, Grey, 4GB

Bought for my 12 year old to replace her former smart phone, which it's been decided she's not responsible enough for, but I still want her to have a way of communicating with me when need be.This is not a smart phone. First and foremost. However I needed to find a phone which would work with a Mint Mobile SIM card, and had 4g service at a minimum. Most of the flip phones out there are only 3g. So this one fit my basic requirements.Even though it is branded Cricket, the device I received IS unlocked.Con: the back cover which you need to remove to add the battery, sim, and optional SD card is VERY difficult to remove. I don't plan on swapping out any of that any time soon!Pros: not at smart phone. It does have I ternet access but you're not going to downloading apps. But you can get to sites like YouTube and many others. Downside: if you're in my boat where you're trying to limit your child's YouTube usage ... This can be a little of both. But hey, if you tell your kid to Google something that is possible.Has a built in music player and capability for up to a 32 gb SD card. Daughter was happy that she can listen to music.Kid has to learn T9 texting. That's a learning curve.Capable of talk and text.Durable. Without need to buy a protective case.Bluetooth enabled. So using it with wireless headphones is a possibility.Wifi capable so if you're trying not to use your data it's an option. Very difficult to turn off the wifi however.When it's in standby mode the battery lasts FOREVER it seems. I left it over a week without charging since kid wasn't using it for anything else at one point.Overall. If you're looking to simplify things this is a good pick.

The volume is extremely low. I have excellent hearing, but if you're in a crowded place, forget it. You'll not get the volume high enough. (But I guess if you need it that loud, maybe you should do something different anyway. Save your hearing). The volume for the alarm is too low as well. So if you want to use your phone as a morning wake-up alarm, think again. You have to type in two letters for a contact search. Other phones allowed me to just type the first letter, and all names beginning with that letter pop up. Not this one; you must type in two letters.The phone is extremely slow. If you're trying to send a text, you might need to wait 30 seconds for the phone to load or whatever it is doing, to allow you to begin typing. When you answer an incoming call, it's slow. Most phones, as soon as you flip you can talk. This one, better wait about 2 seconds after the flip, for it to get itself ready. There is no apostrophe mark on the main punctuation menu. Seriously?! Apostrophes are important.Though you can do a Google search online, there are no instructions included, nor even a basic message of an online link to find the instructions. It's nearly impossible getting the thing on vibrate. You go up and down, up and down the volume bar. It goes from 15 all the way down to mute. But usually skips vibrate. You have to keep going up and down, from 1 to mute and back until it recognizes vibrate. A horrible phone.

This is a great flip phone. It can even connect to wifi. But don't expect it to be a smart phone. There's no qwerty keyboard, so texting is inconvenient. It doesn't have a touch screen. You have to click through a couple different menus to get to your phone book (contacts list). But if what you want is to be able to pick it up and dial, or answer it when it rings just by opening it, this is the perfect phone for you. If you have a child that you want to communicate with but not have them constantly plugged in to the Internet, this is perfect for them too. They can even text, if they have the patience to do it on a keypad. Receiving text is no problem at all. There are a few useful tools--camera, alarm, calendar, radio, etc. We use it as our "home phone", as adding an extra line to our cell service (Ting) that uses few minutes and texts and no data is far cheaper than paying for a land line. Turning it on is counter intuitive though--you have to push and hold the red hang up button. I had to laugh at some of the reviews insisting that the phone was broken and couldn't even be turned on right out of the box--it's likely that they just couldn't figure out how and didn't bother to Google it. My one complaint is that the exterior screen (so you can see who's calling before you open it and answer) is too light and hard to read. Adjusting the brightness settings didn't do much. I don't know if that's just a problem with mine or if it's common to all of them. The inside screen that gets used most of the time is just fine.