Kyocera X-tc Prepaid Phone (Virgin Mobile)

I got this phone because I wanted a phone that would do text and instant messaging. It does that pretty well.Pros:-Large, bright screen is easy to read.-Handset feels nice in the hand, slider mechanism is smooth and easy to operate with one hand.-Sound quality is pretty good when you can get it to play.-Ringtones are high quality and loud.-Virgin offers a "Texter's Delight" plan for people like me who text more than they talk - $20 a month for unlimited text, pix, instant messages and email then 10 cents a minute extra for each minute of talk time.Cons:-Pictures are exceptionally poor quality, even at the highest resolution.-Camera has no flash.-They charge you to access their store from the phone then they charge you for the stuff you download, so you're double-charged for every download.-The keyboard is difficult to operate without using your fingernails. Nail biters, avoid this phone.-Can't set the phone to Vibrate without playing the ringtone.-No 3G coverage in Cupertino California? What the f***?-You're going to spend a lot of time looking at the "Error Code : CCS_E1090" page on the Virgin Mobile website.-No Twitter.-Can't post Pix to Livejournal because any email address with a + sign in it is an "invalid email address."-Email does not support attachments.-Can't use your own email address -- you have to use one from: -Yahoo -AOL -AIM -Comcast -Earthlink -NetZero -Juno -[...]-Every time you get an email, instead of just telling you that you have an email, the phone says "Mobile Email wants to start" and makes you load the Java email applet before you can see who the message is from.-The "Erase Messages - All" menu option does not delete messages from the Virgin Alerts folder. In fact you can't delete the Virgin Alerts at all, so it's possible that all of your phone's memory could be taken up by Virgin Alerts if you have your phone for a few years.-You can't just send a text message-- You have to go to Menu -> Messaging -> Send Text Message to send it, then when you're done you have to hit Back twice or End to go back to the main screen.Instant Messaging:-Uses Java for instant messaging.-Takes about 15 seconds to load.-Only supports AIM and Yahoo.-The interface is different from everything else on the phone.-You can exit the Instant Messaging app and do other things but every time you get an IM you have to wait another 15 seconds for the application to load.-You can't get phone calls while you're in the Instant Messaging app. It won't even tell you a call is coming in.Pix:-It says on the box that there is Facebook integration, but what it means is you can "Pix Mail" pictures to Facebook.-No Livejournal support.Media Player:This is not a music phone. If you're looking for an all-in-one device that will replace your iPod, look elsewhere.-MP3 player struggles with MP3s encoded at higher than 128kbps. Stops and starts a few times, then gives up and skips to the next song.-Can't handle folders on the MicroSD card. All your MP3s have to be in the same folder, My Music, or it won't find them.-The phone takes a long time between when you insert the card and when it finds songs on it.-You need one of those proprietary 2.5mm to 3.5mm connectors to use headphones on a phone that touts playing music as one of its primary features.-Media Player is, in general, clunky and difficult to use.-Media player auto-starts and begins playing music over the speakerphone anytime you insert a MicroSD card with music on it.-You're supposed to be able to play a playlist by holding the Call key and then saying "Play [playlist]" but you actually have to say "play" and then wait for it to ask you for the playlist name, then say the playlist name, then confirm it by saying "yes." Otherwise it takes you to "shortcuts." This actually takes longer than using the buttons on the phone.-You can't just add all of your songs to a playlist, you have to check them off one at a time and then confirm.-The phone couldn't read about half of the song titles in my test MP3 album even though they had no special characters.-The voice recognition gives prompts using the phone speaker so you have to hold it to your ear to hear the prompts, but the music plays over the speakerphone, so you have to quickly confirm the command and then remove the phone from your ear to keep from having music blasted in your ear.The Virgin Mobile website:-Virgin's website is a thrown together mess of third-party services with Virgin logos slapped on.-You have to type your phone number and vkey every time you navigate to a new area of the website.-Many features (such as Contact Vault for backing up contacts on your phone) error out and don't work at all.-On some sections of the website it tells you that your login was incorrect several times before letting you log in, even when it wasn't incorrect.-The ringtones website is garbage and has misplaced text everywhere.

I bought this phone about 2 weeks ago. I absolutely LOVE this phone. Finally, a VM phone, that doesn't LOOK like a vm phone. You can even buy snap on cases for it which I did and they work great, and then the phone can be any color you want. I was debating on this or the shuttle...my last phone was a slider sonic, which I LOVED, but it finally died on me (after 2 yrs). I wanted the shuttle bc of how much I loved the slider sonic...but chose the xtc bc of the keyboard...I do not text much but am tired of having to be annoyed by texts people send me...they would write a long text and I would answer in 2-3 words. Now I dont mind texting back at all. To me, the keyboard is easy to use. The one thing I miss is the video recording option...the shuttle does have this...I liked being able to take a short video of my kids, and put it on my computer w/o having to either email it to myseldf or "upload" to VM. I do carry around my camera all the time, and so just use that more, so it wasn't REALLY a big issue for me, and it having the keyboard makes up for it. I don't think I could go back to a phone w/o a keyboard, and I am 40 yrs old not a teenager, and its only been 2 weeks. But, I do, kinda miss not being able to record video, but not enough to get the shuttle over this. I am NOT a heavy texter by any means, but its hreat to have when I want it. I love being able to put MY music on it...thats why I kept my slider sonic for so long, it used to be the ONLY vm music phone. Buy a cord and listen to it over your car stereo, and if it rings the music will stop and the phone rings. I have never used bluetooth, but my regular headphones (had to buy an adaptor at radio shack 3.5mm to 2.5 mm I think, but I had it 2 yrs you need it to use regular headphones on ANY phone) work just fine too, to listen to music. A great phone, overall, if you are used to pay-as-you-go phones, it is THE BEST!!! If you are switching from a major contract carrier, there are better phones out there for the same price...but for vm it is the best and you wont feel like your talking on your kids phone, it really is nice.

This phone is great for anyone using Assurance Wireless, the free text & minutes plan for low income people from the ggovernment. With the $30.00 unlimited plan you get web access as well & that is where this shines. It loses a star only because of the seemingly impossible way of entering numbers & symbols when using the free Opera Mini browser which disables the cap & sym buttons on the keypad, at least that is my experience so far and I am still looking for a workaround for that. If I find it I will restore the star and include the workaround as soon as I find it, if anyone knows what that info is I implore you to post it here and help out the rest of us. This is a sweet little phone otherwise but needs the Opera to use Javascript and bring it the 5 stars I would have given it otherwise. I hope this was helpfull.