Virgin Mobile - UT Starcom Arc No-Contract Cell Phone - Red

I had a cyclops before this phone, and the ARC is much better, kyocera (including the X-tc which I returned after a day of use) phones have a lot of annoying quirks, which this phone doesn't have. You have mobile web, mobile e mail and IM, text and pic messaging. Reception is clear and crisp for me. The buttons on the phone are in handy positions, and the menus are set up in a logical manner. The phone does scratch easily, which bothers me. I know phone aren't supposed to be dropped (which I did) but the soft suede skin doesn't take a lot of abuse. Oops. Lesson learned. I tried the newer x-tc, which I found to be a horrible phone, though it looks very nice. I would love to upgrade to the ut starcom SHUTTLE, but I purchased and returned two of those phones within a month from Best Buy, because apparently there were 'NETWORK' issues (according to virgin mobile, who has increasingly bad customer service) and these issues could not be fixed, which caused many of the features on the Shuttle not to work. If this phone had video capability and took a big higher res pics I would give it 5 stars all the way around, but in my opinion it's their best phone with the lease amount of bugs. Mine doesn't freeze or shut off or do anything, and I've had it for a year now.

This is the best phone that I've ever had, way better than my old Samsung and even older Nokia! Picture quality is definitely superior to the Samsung c417 that I got stuck with a two-year contract to get. I was counting days until I could cancel that service and switch to Virgin. What I love about it: -No contract, EVER, with Virgin Mobile. -Transfering my old cell number was way easier than I thought it would be when switching to a pre-paid service. -This phone is pretty, almost sexy with its curves, and fits the hand very comfortably. -Virgin has a wide variety of ringtones, screensavers, and other extras available for this phone. You can even earn free minutes! -Sound quality is very good, especially for the money. -This phone offers web surfing. -Choice of real music and polyphonic ringtones (that actually sound cool, not overly digital like most polyphonic tones!) -Virgin is saving us about 50-60% over the cost of contract plans. -Takes great pictures- -They even look good when I e-mail them to my computer! I originally set my mother up with Virgin service several years ago. Then I got my husband a Virgin phone. The service is excellent, even in most rural areas. (We often travel from Florida all the way to Chicago and have not found any areas without service!) I now have my entire family switched to Virgin Mobile. All of the phones have performed way above expectations. A phone of this quality would cost at least $150, probably a lot more, through one of the main carriers if purchased without a contract. I am not compensated in any way by Virgin Mobile, I just REALLY LOVE their service!!!

I am not usually a cell phone person and have bought them before but didn't use or couldn't program them or they were too heavy. This one is light and I was able to program the settings. As I'm visually impaired I had to call their customer service to help me and they were actually in the US! I was set up with patience and I have been learning how to use on my own. I took my husband's picture, used voice mail, etc. Things which are helping me feel capable of using a cell phone now. This is my new toy! It has all the options one needs for a reasonable price and the on line user guide as well as the written guide(included with the phone)are both good. I love the color of the phone and backlit keys too. This is not just for novices. My seasoned cell phone friends are impressed with all it has to offer.

The newest flip phone from Virgin Mobile is the Arc, sporting a vga camera, bluetooth and other standard features such as Mobile IM and Mobile Email, downloadable games and ringtones, etc. I am using this as an upgrade to my year-old Cyclops, and it is a nice phone with good voice quality and features. Not too much as far as extras on this phone, but you can't argue for the price.

I've had this phone for a bit over four months. When I first got it, I was pretty pleased with it. But then I started to pick out all the bad things about it. -The camera shutter sound does not turn off, so even if your phone is on silent, if the camera button gets pressed, your phone makes an annoying noise. -The speaker phone is very quiet. - The phone scratches very easily and does not handle being dropped very well. I drop mine once and ever since its made this horrible buzzing noise. -The main reason I am getting rid of this phone is because of the charging/charger/battery. Around the second month I had this phone, the charger broke. When I went to charge it, it would charge for a few minutes, and then stop. Now it wont charge at all. This phone is reasonably priced, but the quality is terrible.

I live in WI I took it with me to TX and had no problem using it. It is very durable. I have dropped it a lot on concrete and it has only gotten a few minor scratches. The camera isn't very good. The only reason I said that I didn't like the price is because I got it when it was $80.

wow. this phone and service is light years over my last provider, and is as advertised in all ways and more. contracts are a thing of the past and unjustly expensive, you can have control with a quality service. i can only say try it and see for yourself because im so impressed with the entire package, it truly is more than i bargained for. real person from burton mi, gladly rating a product in a throw away culture.

I love this phone!!!!! Compared to the Flare, the battery life is awesome!! I charged it 2 days ago and it's still full. Somebody said it opens too far back. Whatever. I like that is opens almost flat. The only bad thing is the quality of the photos but that's ok. I have a digital camera so the camera in this doesn't really matter.