Virgin K10 Royale Pay As You Go Phone Review

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(More customer reviews)I've been using a Sony Ericsson T60 for a couple of years, which was an upgrade from my previous very OLD phone. I have a $29.99 plan with Cingular which is no longer being offered. In order to upgrade my phone, I'd have to switch to the new GSM phones and new network and thus get a new plan at a minimum of $39.99 which would really be over $50 a month if I DON'T go over the included "anytime" minutes. Right now my battery is so old it won't hold a charge and the cost of replacing the battery is prohibitive.
What to do?
Well the other day I finally signed up for Virgin mobile. I bought this phone from their website since they currently have a promotion that credits you $20 in air time if you buy and activate by a certain date - check virginmobileusa.com for details. So basically I got the phone for $30. They have another non-color version of this phone (actually two more - the Kyocera K7 and K9) that goes for $25. I was thinking about going the prepaid route for a while, but the 25 cents a minute for the first ten minutes of every day really put me off. I tend to use my phone almost daily, if not for marathon calls (thought I do like making use of my night and weekend minutes with Cingular). Currently, Virgin Mobile is offering a new plan in which you pay 35 cents a day for 10 cents a minute access at all times. $10.50 a month for 10 cents a minute. Not bad. Definitely the way to go if you use your cell phone for 100-200 minutes a month. With Cingular, I had 250 "anytime" minutes, and I would frequently go over that limit and end up paying 45 cents a minute. This happened more than I care to mention. In fact I just checked on my Cingular account via their website and I found that I spent approximately $1,200 on cellular service in the past year. $100 a month average? That's crazy. At least with Virgin Mobile you know EXACTLY how much money is in your account and your money/minutes doesn't expire (you just have to remember to "top up" with at least $20 every 90 days. So even if you almost never make any calls (because it's free to check your voice mail from a landline phone and also free to receive text messages), you'd spend what? $80 a year for cellular service. Definitely beats $1,200. However if you read the fine print on Virgin's website you will discover that Virgin Mobile will disconnect your service if they find that you are using it as a "message/voice mail" service only.
So back to the phone and my experience with Virgin Mobile so far: I ordered my phone late one night and received it two days later by FedEx (free). It came with a standard charger and I chose to buy the car charger. Activation was a snap, and less than 24 hours later, I had a $20 air time credit in my account. I immediately called my brother and he said that it was an improvement in clarity over my old phone. However I tend to get no "bars" in my home, though people can still hear me when I call. Elsewhere, I easily get 5 bars. This doesn't bother me really because with Cingular my signal was constantly dropped in the middle of a call and I had many irritated people always shouting "Hello!... Hello?!?!" while on the phone with me. Here's to hoping that there's no more of that...
The phone itself is okay. It lacks a proper internet browser from what I can tell. The Virgin Xtras thing is well... to each his or her own. The first day I got this phone I downloaded several superphonic song clip ringtones, wallpapers, and a voice mail greeting from the website. Even after paying $2.50 for each song and $1.00 - $2.00 for each graphic I had to pay AGAIN to download it from Virgin XL via my phone. And in the end I wasn't very impressed with the graphics or sound clips as they lacked color and clarity and I prefer to stick with the standard included graphics and ringtones although they are not extensive.
The keypad on this phone feels a little stiff and cheap compared to my old phone but the phone itself is a bit lighter. I haven't finished reading the manual yet so I'm hoping I can change some things that are important to me, like the alarm clock function. On my old phone, you could choose the ringtone for the alarm and it would sound repeatedly every 20 minutes for at least 20 full seconds. This phone just has a ten second "beep beep beep" that would NEVER wake me up. I really hope there's a way to tweak it. I hate having a separate bedside clock when such things shouldn't be necessary when one has a cell phone.
This phone has a somewhat small display and not nearly as many features as my old phone but I do have to say that the flashlight is a NICE feature and the voice activated dialing works very well.
I still haven't canceled my Cingular service as I'm in the middle of a billing cycle and I don't want to waste the opportunity to rack up the night and weekend minutes. I'm also trying to convince myself that prepaid is, in fact, the way to go. And face it, this is a good phone with decent features and if it gets lost, etc... So? You're not under contract with Virgin and you won't have to pay an outrageous fee to replace a "free with service contract" phone. Virgin will suspend your service if your phone gets lost or stolen and then apply whatever unused prepaid minutes you have in your account to any new Virgin Mobile phone you purchase (or are gifted).
All in all, I think this is a good phone and Virgin Mobile is offering a very good deal for those of us who want to have a cell phone for emergency and light-to-medium use but don't want to be shafted by contracts and added fees.

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Hot on the heels of the popular Kyocera K9 Rave phone comes the new K10 Royale, now with a brilliant color screen and support for Virgin Mobile's enhanced wireless Internet services, known as VirginXL. The sporty K10 also features Superphonic ringtones, two-way text messaging support, voice dialing, and a flashlight. There's no better way to take advantage of your Virgin Mobile service.
Design The K10 features a 104 x 80, 4,000-color color screen that displays call information, games, wireless content, and more. A stub antenna extends from the top right side of the phone while a charging port is positioned on the bottom of the unit. A 2.5mm headset jack is also provided. Most phone features and on-screen menus are controlled by a five-way center button on the handset's control pad. Detachable faceplates are available, so you can dress up the phone's case to suit your style.
Calling Features The K10's built-in address book can store up to 200 entries for quick and easy management of your contacts. The phone comes with built-in Virgin Mobile Superphonic ringtones plus a vibrating alert. Superphonic ringtones feature real music tracks; even more are available via Virgin Mobile's VirginXtras service. Voice dialing of up to 10 contacts is supported, as are voice commands, so you can dial numbers and control certain functions of the phone without ever touching it.
Messaging and Internet The K10 covers the messaging basics with support for sending and receiving text messages easily and quickly (Virgin Mobile text messaging charges apply). eZitext text entry, which is a technology that makes it easier for people to enter words and text on handsets, is built into the unit--a plus for mobile e-mail and text messaging users.
The phone fully supports Virgin Mobile's enhanced wireless content service, VirginXL. Use the pay-per-use service to download Superphonic ringtones, animations, and voices of the hottest recording artists. Get content and vote in TV-based polls with the MTV area of your phone, or get jokes and updates from Comedy Central. Pick a celebrity voice to answer your voice mail, or get a SpongeBob thought of the day. Need to jog your memory? Use Virgin's song ID service. Press the Song ID command, point your K10 toward a song that's playing in the room, and within minutes a text message appears identifying the song's title. There's even a "Rescue Rings" service to help get you out of sticky dating or other personal situations. The list of cool content features goes on and on.
The K10 ships with a number of handy tools, including a calendar, a calculator with a tip calculator, and an alarm clock.
Imaging and Entertainment The phone features custom Virgin Mobile graphics--screen savers, wallpaper, and menu icons--that let you dress up your phone to suit your personality. There's even a built-in flashlight for when you're fumbling with your keys in the dark. For gamers, the K10 comes preloaded with two games, and more are available via the VirginXL service.
Vital Statistics The Kyocera K10 Royale weighs 3.52 ounces and measures 4.42 x 1.92 x 0.92 inches. Its lithium-ion battery is rated at up to 3.5 hours of digital talk time and up to 180 hours of digital standby time. It runs on the CDMA 1900 frequency. The phone comes with a one-year limited warranty.
What's in the Box K10 Royale handset, lithium-ion battery, AC charger, user's manual.

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