Kyocera K-7 Rave Phone (VirginMobile)

Rating:
Summary: Great Features, Affordable BUT DUST GETS INTO DISPLAY
Review: Got the Virgin Mobile Kyocera Rave phone 3 weeks ago & I'm very pleased with it. Activated it online & it was a breeze. The 800 - Customer Service (Central Intelligence) was very helpful when I had questions. The Rave phone has cool features & very easy to use. The blue backlight makes it stand out among the low priced handsets. Battery life is exceptional. The compact size makes it easy to carry around. The airtime rates are very reasonable at 25 cents per min for the first 10 minutes and 10 cents per min after that each day (starts @ 5AM, not sure). Text messaging cost 10 cents to send and FREE to receive. You can send text messages to any text-capable mobile phone in the US & to email addresses as well. MY ONLY COMPLAINT IS THAT YOU CAN'T SEND TEXT MESSAGES TO OTHER COUNTRIES. I get clear reception all the time although I have yet to take the phone outside Southern CA. There's a great feature that adjusts the earpiece volume automatically depending on where you are, like at a party or on the road. The downloadable polyphonic ringtones are just awesome. You can assign ring tones for personal or business calls. This is the perfect phone if you don't talk a lot on your cell. You only need to put $20 every 90 days! Just add more airtime if you use it more often. You can replenish airtime online or buy prepaid cards in a lot of stores like BestBuy, Target, even 7-11! No monthly plans and no wasted unused minutes!
AFTER 3 MONTHS: Kyocera needs to do something about the dust that goes inside the glass display. The display sometimes freezes & you would need to turn if off/on or take out/re-insert battery to reset. I called Vigrin Mobl Cust. Serv. and was told that it's "normal for cell phone screens to freeze up." YIKES! BAD FEEDBACK FROM VM CUST. SERVICE! For that I would downgrade the rating from 5 to 3 stars. And NO, I will not buy a Kyocera brand phone ever again!

Rating:
Summary: Great Phone , Excellent Price , CRUMMY Customer Service!
Review: I bought this phone at my local Sprint PCS store and activated it the next day! The activation took less then five minutes and got my welcome message a few minutes later. The phone came with ten dollars already on it! I haven't had too many problems yet , and the reception is great! The big problem I had was downloading ring tones , it said 403 forbidden EVERYTIME , and would charge me the money , but would never download. I called virgin mobile and asked them what the problem was , and after being put on hold for a half hour , they said they'd give me my 2 dollars back and launch an investigation. Other than that Virgin Mobile rules! It's perfect for teens , because it has AWESOME Virgin Xtras from MTV and VH1!

Rating:
Summary: from a skeptic: excellent phone....so far.
Review: I wanted to get a cell phone for the longest time, but mainly for emergencies and short calls, so a pay-as-you-go phone seemed to be the more economical choice. I was skeptical about these pay-as-you-go services because in many of the reviews(good or bad) they alway complain about the customer service. But if you read the reviews of other pay-as-you-go phones(or even monthly-plan phones), it seems live-customer service is the number one complaint anyway. So take that criticism of the Virgin Mobile live customer help-line with a grain of salt. As for the phone itself:

* activation: after hearing the horror stories, it was shockingly easy online, 5-step process that takes only a few minutes(mostly inputting stuff). obviously people in different areas will have varied experiences(i'm in a small city in TX btw) but my online activation experience was hassle-free.

* features: lots(built-in: blue backlight, text messaging, voicemail, games, calculator, watch, mini-flashlight, store tons of contacts, etc; optional: download extra stuff on the phone itself or via the virgin xtras website at a cost; customization: pick your polyphonic ringtones, edit your banner, choose your screensaver, etc). features are on the box when you buy it or listed on websites. i was worried it might not have caller id, but it does:)

* use: starts you off with $10 worth of minutes, easy to use and navigate, buttons are responsive and decently spaced, screen is easy to see, audio is pretty clear, you can get updates to how you are doing on your minutes so you'll know when to 'top-up'(add minutes via website or card...remember, 25 cents a minute for first 10 minutes, 10 cents after that for any calls, and you only have to 'top-up' a minimum of $20 every 3 months to keep your phone activated), comes with battery/charger, etc.

Overall, it seems durable so far(only had it for a month) and is really a great little phone. Problem is, it has so many features and is so cool, that one may want to overuse it too much(which is not the point of this phone). So if you have good self-control or just plan on using your phone mainly for emergencies, then get this phone(otherwise, invest in those monthly plan phones if you plan on talking alot). After giving this phone a rave review, i must add that i have not yet had any problems that needed to be adressed by their live-customer service department(still dreading the day). Who knows, by the time i do, maybe they will have improved it by then. Final thoughts: for this price, with these many features, and ease of use, i can highly recommend this pay-as-you-go phone...and this is coming from a former skeptic.

Rating:
Summary: The best little cellphone ever!
Review: No, it doesn't take pictures or video or any of those battery-sapping things, but it's easy to navigate, I've never not gotten a signal (thanks to Sprint's network), it has a FLASHLIGHT, not to mention tip calculator, calculator, timer, stopwatch and a whole passel of other neat features!

FANTASTIC little phone!

Rating:
Summary: Best phone I have seen
Review: Since I am fourteen, I have some use for a cell phone, but don't use phones for 500 minutes on weekdays nor can I pay for the bill, so the Kyocera K-7 Rave + Virgin Mobile = The best plan for people who don't want to worry about the bill at the end of the month.
Holding this phone right in front of me, I can easilly say that this is one of the best cell phones that I have ever seen. Unlike the pale lime green backlights that other cell phones have, this has an easy readible serene blue backlight. This is an easy phone to go use, excellent user interface on the menu you can check your balance, top up your phone balance, text message people, explore the virgin extras (EG *MTV, Download Ringtones), games (Tetris, Block Breaker, Doodler), Contacts, recent calls, Settings, Tools (Scheduler, Alarm Clock, Tip Calculator, Calculator, Timer, Stopwatch, and a build in flashlight), and Phone info. With ten built in ringtones, you will never get bored. You can download more ringtones from the web. If you are a constant car user, or you do not want to use your hands, you can set up the voice dialing, where you say a name, and the phone dials it for you.
You get 16 times your money's worth with this phone.

Rating:
Summary: Great Phone for a Teen
Review: This phone is awesome!! I love it. My parents would not let me purchase a cell phone because they thought i would not be responsable enough to take care of it. The care of this phone and service is so easy! Just charge it every few days and Top-Up $20 every 90 days. Text messaging is $.10 to send and FREE to recieve. Minutes are $.25 a miniute. Ringtones are polyphonic which means they sound like the real song.. This phone is great