Rating: 
Summary: Outstanding
Review: As a light to moderate cell phone user, I found this phone (the 8610) and Virgin Mobile perfect for my needs.Adding $20 once every three months to keep the phone active is great, especially since the purchased minutes essentially roll over if unused. Being in a major SoCal city, my reception is consistently outstanding and better than my previous contract service, though it should be noted one can't use the phone (beyond 911) in "roaming" areas on the Sprint network -- one is limited to the formal Sprint PCS network which generally covers major cities and roads in all 50 states. Minutes are currently 25 cents per minute for the first ten minutes each day, then 10 cents thereafter. No peak/off-peak stuff, no long-distance, etc. Perfect for what I need periodically. I know I'm sounding like a VM marketing person, but I'm not one. :) Biggest downside to the 8610 is that it's a VM-specific phone. One is more-or-less pretty much stuck with their ringtones / wallpapers / games, though they have pretty nice additional ringtone offerings at the least at the VM website (for $2-$2.50). I suppose one might also have to deal with the VM brand being geared towards the youth / MTV crowd in general, but I personally couldn't care less. Anyway, all-in-all, an outstanding phone and service for those who don't want monthly bills / sometimes don't use their phone enough to justify normal contracts. If I were to use a phone with family enough long-distance (or wanted WAP access), I might find a "family plan" elsewhere, but I absolutely couldn't be happier for now. I was waiting for this kind of phone and very affordable prepaid "plan" that Virgin Mobile offers for years, and continue to be ecstatic with the phone and service for my own relatively mild needs. All I might suggest is that one also consider the "slider" phone also presently offered, as some seem to occasionally prefer it as an option.
Rating: 
Summary: Good phone, great plan.
Review: Having had experiance with various phones, this one is pretty good. This is my second Virgin Mobile phone, and overall I have pretty satisfied with the service. I only use the phone part time and keep it for emergancies or traveling, so the "plan" (or lack there of) works great and is more cost effective then most for my usage. I have usually been able to get reception (at least as well as any other phone service I have heard of or used) and the 8610 is better than my old one at that. I did have a few problems at first and have some difficulty downloading ringtones and the like on occasion, but nothing major.
Rating: 
Summary: I got a lemon
Review: I bought an Audiovox 8610 cell phone last week and it broke after just two days. I had never had such a letdown experience with electronics before.
While it worked I thought it was an okay cell phone. The ringtones on the phone are really dumb and there are only 3 or 4 music tones, all of which sound stupid. The ringtones are also too soft to hear if you carry the phone on the street. One look and you'll see this is _NOT_ a durable phone at all. The all-plastic body feels it'll break anyday now. Well in my case I didn't drop it or anything, it just wouldn't turn on after 2 days. By the way folks, the battery is _IMPOSSIBLE_ to remove, without damaging the phone body.
This is an expensive product with poor quality.
Rating:
Summary: Virgin mobile
Review: I bought this phone about 2 weeks ago. I loved it since i got it. Virgin mobile has a great "Pay_as_you_go" service. They have great customer support and its the cheapest Prepaid ever!
its .25 a min for the first 10 mins of the day, and after that its only .10 a min! thats very cheap compaired to T-Mobile's Easyspeak,That was .30 a min everyday!
Virgin mobile:.10x120 (2hrs)= 12.00
T-Mobile: .30x120 (2hrs)=36.00! thats crazy
I love the good veatures that The Phone and Virgin mobile offer. on the phone it comes with:
2 games: Magic hexa, BlackJack
5 Poly. Ringtones
Downloadable Digi-Tones
easy to use Browser
Easy to use phonebook
Comes with VirginXL
External CallerID
Cons:
Has very dumb wallpaper
Has only 1 Screen saver
Cant download diffrent Screen savers,Wallpaper
Digi-Tones are 2.00-2.50
Cant really see LCD light in sun.
Rating: 
Summary: Get this if you rarely use a phone
Review: I bought this phone about 4 months ago. So far i've had to spend around $120. I figure with a $30 plan you get like 300 minutes plus maybe nights and weekends for free. So a plan would be more cost efficient.
The phone itself is pretty well made. It has decent call quality and no one ever needs me to repeat something. The Virgin extras it comes with are a joke. You have to pay to use it each time. So its like not having them at all if you dont want to pay. Ringtones are way to expensive. I mean come on who would pay $2.50 for a 15 second ringtone with poor quality. Plus with this phone you cant download wallpaper or games.It uses the Sprint PCS network and I have never been without service. If I decide to switch to a plan I would highly consider Sprint because of coverage.
Customer service is very poor. I had a problem because I couldnt get voicemail or send text messages. I spoke with six different people who all said different things and said that there was nothing wrong. Plus it took almost a half an hour to get a representative.
Pricing is very expensive. Its 25 cents for the first ten minutes then 10 cents afterwards. So you have to first pay $2.50 each day to get a lower rate. So if you plan using a phone occasionally then consider this phone. If your a person who loves to talk on their cell phone, then get a plan because this will burn a hole in your wallet very quickly.
Rating:
Summary: MUCH better than Sony w/ AT&T
Review: I bought two of these phones with Virgin Mobile's prepaid service for myself and my husband. We've had them about 2-3 weeks, and are amazed at the clarity of reception and the strength of the connections. AT&T's were never this clear, and we had the 'premium' GSM digital service. When we decide the kids can have a cell phone, we're planning on going with these. They'll have to earn the $$ to keep their phone(s) charged by helping out around the house. I thought it was VERY cool that the user calls Virgin, and activates their new cell phone over their home phone. I was astounded that what took approximately 5-10 minutes per phone was what the 'contract' services charge $35 or more for. It really was easy; the support person was very friendly and helpful, too.
Rating:
Summary: Great Phone, but Not Much "Xtras"
Review: I got this new phone very recently....it's really a nice phone. I upgraded from a really simple boring phone, so I was really excited to get it. It sounds great; it has all the usual bells and whistles of most cell phones. However, I was very disappointed when I logged onto the Virgin Mobile website. I can download ringtones to it, but that's all. They don't allow you to download wallpapers and screensavers for this model phone. It's not a very user friendly site, either...when you click on screensaver or wallpaper, it just goes back to the Virgin Xtras home page...it doesn't actually say you can't download them. Very annoying! However, when you click on ringtones, it goes right to a ringtone page where you can select them. I thought it was a glitch on the website for a while! When I finally inquired about that to VirginMobile, they said it was a limitation of this particular phone....it can't download wallpapers or screensavers. Considering what I paid for this phone, that is very disappointing to me. So, if downloading screensavers and wallpapers is important to you, make sure you get an upgraded phone...the next model up is about $50 more. Other than that, this phone is great. The polyphonic ringtones sound good. You can get some dorky animated ringtones which might satisfy your need for a screensaver, but that's about it.
Rating:
Summary: Great Phone!
Review: I got this phone so I could give my mom my 'Party Animal' Virgin phone which was fine for keeping in the car, but this 8610 is so much more portable I find myself taking it with me wherever I go (which is saying a lot since I don't like things cluttering up my pockets or belt). I recommend the Virgin brand 'hydro-formed' case for it at Best Buy. It fits perfectly and clips onto your belt nicely. You hardly know it's there since the phone is lightweight and handy. Even though the 8610 is lightweight, I find battery life to be terrific and lives up to its advertised capacity. The color screen is very nice. It's easy to read and has good brightness and contrast, except of course, outdoors, where all lcd screens are hard (and sometimes impossible) to read. The mini-screen on the outside of the phone is cool since it shows you the date, time, signal strength, ring mode (vibrate or ringtone), voice mail message indicator (if any) and battery strength. Also, when you get a call, if that person is in your phone's address book, their name also shows up on the screen (which is backlit if you hit a button on the outside of the phone.) The address book is the best part for me. You store numbers by person, and each person can have a cell number, a home number, an office number, and an email address. Selecting which number to dial is easy since the numbers are all grouped under the person's name and you just click through that small list. (Unlike the Party Animal and my wife's 'Slider' where each different number has to be a seperate list entry which creates one long list you have to scroll through.) Audio quality is fine. (It's a cell phone.) It has a microphone volume adjustment, but you'll have to ask your caller how effective it is. The rocker button that operates it isn't even labeled which way to make it louder or softer. There are 5 polyphonic ringtones, 4 of which will appeal to Virgin's target demographic of teens and 20-somethings. For us older folks who like Virgin for the great deal it is, there's one very nice simple ring called "Jingle" (the one I use). However, all 8 of the color screen backgrounds are very youth oriented: a batmobile, a fist, a pineapple, a pattern of hearts, and 4 abstract graphic screens. The abstract ones are fine, but they should have included at least one plain, solid colored background. I decided on the batmobile. You can modify the top of the background with your own message. Since I can never remember my own number, I set mine to be my cell number. Coming from the Party Animal phone, I didn't realize my favorite feature about a flip phone would be how you answer and hang up: you just open and close the phone! Very cool. This can be turned off in the menu system, though, if you prefer to press a button to answer/hang up. The phone's buttons are easy to press and not too small. The included tools are 3 separate alarms (each can be one-time or daily) using any ringtone; Scheduler- same thing but using a calendar (great for top-up reminders); Calculator; Stopwatch; and lastly World Clock. Unfortunately, there's no convenient tip calculator. :-( There are two games: BlackJack and Magic Hexa. Hopefully another reviewer can tell you about them. I don't use them. In summary, it's a great phone with lots of good features, it's lightweight so it's very easy to carry with you, and add to that the great Virgin pricing for us infrequent talkers, and you've got a great deal. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Overall great phone
Review: I have had virgin for about 2 year now (including this one) I just recently bought this phone less a week ago. Upgrading from Kryocera 2255. Which is no colors expect black font and blue backaround. Basic features phone book,recent call list,voice dailing and i think 3 or 4 games. I think Audiovox 8610 is perfect for almost anyone. The price is okay but right now i just send in rebate for $50 back from Sam Goodie. Up front cost with tax is about 130.00/119.00 without. So I figure it perfect deal. Plus I actually got this phone cuz I thought lost old one. It turn out i just had hiden with under my bed. I love the color screen it has 65k which look great. The ringtones are cool to. I prefer techno since im in my 20's. Phone book is also a plus, speaker phone also great feature if dont want to listen directly into from the phone. Speed dial is good incase you drive you just press the pre-set number you program press send it dials that person #. It also has to games blackjack. It pretty easy for me. I always like playing it. The other game magic hexa have not spend much time. I wish put more game than 2. The wallpapers are okay. But they should include more. ---------------------------------
Service cost 25 cent per minute after 10 minutes you pay 10 from than forth in 24 hour period. 10 cent for text message/free to recieve. 2.50 per ringtone. Xtra I think are 10 per day. 20 /30/50/100 top cards for when you run out minutes. They also have auto top if count goes below certain it automatically up more minutes or you can purchase from retailer like best buys or 7-Eleven. I suggest using for emergercies or calling your parents to tell where your at and when going to be home. Because you can use up your minutes fast with 20 or 30 card. If you want to talk a bf or gf have them call but tell you call them from home phone so you dont have buy a new top card the next day. If long distance call you better off using the cell. Remember it same rate 25 per minute. One last thing you have to top up once every 3 months.
Rating:
Summary: great phone!
Review: I love this phone. I am not the type call alot of people, so this cell phone and the Virgin Mobile plan are great for someone like me. I get service everywhere, even where my old tracfone wouldn't get service.
there are no roaming charges, no long distance charges, and you get free voicemail, free caller id, free call waiting...
it's awesome. i definately recomend!
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