Audiovox 8915 Snapper Prepaid Phone (Virgin Mobile)

by Audiovox

Product Details

Product Manual [1.92mb PDF]

• Product Dimensions: 3.3 x 1.6 x 0.8 inches ; 3.2 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B000BNOCXC
• Item model number: 8915
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (44 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #229,922 in Cell Phones & Accessories (See Top 100 in Cell Phones & Accessories)

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

With support for Virgin Mobile's "VirginXL" wireless content services, a VGA camera with flash, dual displays and a speakerphone, the 8915 "Snapper" is a great mobile companion. Get the most out of your Virgin Mobile service with this powerful phone.

Design
The phone features a traditional clamshell design with a 65,000-color display. Meanwhile, the rear of the flip-up cover houses a camera that can snap shots at 640 x 480 resolution, also known as VGA resolution. There's also a small secondary black and white LCD display on the back of the cover that displays incoming call information, network signal strength and more. Most camera features and on-screen menus are controlled by a five-way center button on the handset's control pad. Meanwhile, the top right side of the unit houses an extendable antenna while data and charging ports are housed on the unit's bottom edge.

Calling Features
The Snapper has all the latest calling features folks have come to expect. The phone comes with built-in Virgin Mobile "superphonic" ringtones plus a vibrating alert. Superphonic ringtones feature real music tracks and more are available via Virgin Mobile's VirginXL service. Ringtones and pictures can be assigned to specific callers so you don't have to look at the phone to know who's calling. The built-in speakerphone makes it easy to talk without having the phone to your ear and voice activated dialing makes calling your friends, family and associates as easy as saying their names. There's also a built-in address book that can store up to 300 contacts for quick and easy management of phone numbers and email addresses.

Messaging, Internet, and Tools
The Snapper covers the messaging basics with support for sending and receiving MMS-based text, picture, and sound messages. AOL instant messaging is also supported. T9 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 email and text messaging users.

The phone fully supports Virgin Mobile's enhanced wireless content service, VirginXL. With this pay-per-use service you can surf the wireless web or download superphonic ringtones, animations and voices from MTV, Comedy Central and the hottest recording artists. Get content and vote in TV-based polls via the MTV area of your phone, or get jokes and updates from Comedy Central. With the Virgin Mobile Gopher service you'll be connected to real live operators who are ready to help you 24/7. Get driving directions, cross street info, movie times, concert info, sport scores and more. Need to jog your memory? Use Virgin's wacky song ID service. Press the Song ID command, point your Snapper towards 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 Snapper ships with a number of handy tools including a calendar, a calculator and an alarm clock. A voice memo feature lets you record clips up to 60 seconds in length.

Imaging and Entertainment
The Snapper's VGA camera makes it easier than ever to snap good pictures and share them with friends via picture messaging. The camera features a built-in flash for getting great shots in low-light situations. The phone boasts custom Virgin Mobile graphics-- screen savers, wallpaper and menu icons-- that let you dress up your phone to suit your personality. More graphics, wallpapers and screensavers are available from the VirginXL service. Demo versions of Bejeweled and Tony Hawk's Underground are included with the phone, and a big selection of additional games can be downloaded from the VirginXL service.

Vital Statistics
The Audiovox 8915 Snapper weighs 3.5 ounces and measures 3.5 x 1.9 x 0.9 inches. Its lithium-ion battery is rated at up to 3 hours of digital talk time, and up to 190 hours of digital standby time. It runs on the CDMA 850/1900 frequencies. The phone comes with a one year limited warranty.

What's in the Box
Audiovox 8915 Snapper handset, AC charger, lithium-ion battery, user's manual.

Product Description

This phone will make you extra mobile with Instant Messenger and Web Browsing. Plus Superphonic Ringtones, picture messaging, and VirginXL downloads.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

64 of 65 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "lookout guy" giving out incorrect information, May 7, 2006

By 

Music Fan Jeff (San Francisco, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Audiovox 8915 Snapper Prepaid Phone (Virgin Mobile) (Wireless Phone)

For anyone considering the purchase of this (or another) Virgin Mobile phone, do not be influenced by the identical negative reviews posted for several Virgin Mobile phones by someone calling himself "lookout guy." I cannot comment on the month to month plans, having only been a pay-as-you-go by-the-minute guy since I got my Virgin Mobile phone over two years ago. I can tell you that lookout guy is totally WRONG in terms of any "hidden fee" in terms of the by-the-minute service offered by Virgin Mobile. There is NO $1.50/day fee; if there was, no one would choose this option because it would end up costing more than a monthly plan. (Duh.) I can confirm that you only pay for the minutes you use. If you don't use your phone for days (even weeks) at a time, you pay nothing. The ONLY charge for having access to a Virgin Mobile phone on the by-the-minute plan is the minimum top-up charge (supposedly $20 every three months but after you become a customer you can get it down to $15 every three months if you choose auto top-up with a credit card). So if you NEVER use your phone, that's what it costs. Of course, you would simply end up accruing money in your account to be debited when you do finally use your phone. As long as you use your phone minimally (for emergencies and for very brief, occasional conversations only), you'll pay only $5-$6.66/month. I oughta know -- my balance keeps growing and growing because I rarely use my phone; if I were being charged a $1.50/day "access charge" I would know it.

Only you can decide if a pay-as-you-go plan such as this is suitable for you, but here's the quick math: if you know you will use your phone at least five minutes per day almost every day, then this plan isn't for you as it would cost you $37.50/month for only 150 minutes of use based on 25 cents/minute. If, like me, you are likely to have many days where you don't use the phone at all and other days where you use only a few minutes (with rare days that you use over 10 minutes), then this plan will be a bargain. (I used to be a Sprint PCS customer and ended up paying, on average, $1/minute for my calls because of my minimal phone use -- in other words, over four times as much as my Virgin Mobile minutes cost at their highest rate.)

Edit on 5/12/06:

Now on to this phone, which I just purchased earlier this week: I definitely like this upgrade to my K7 Rave phone. The color screen is nice and the entire phone looks sharp. Swapping phones was easy, though I didn't get the text message from Virgin indicating that my new phone was active as the customer service rep indicated. Instead I just tried the phone out after a few hours and discovered that it had, in fact, been activated.

Reception seems pretty much the same as my other Virgin Mobile phone (good but not excellent).

I'm enjoying the Virgin Mobile X-Tras and have downloaded a few files for wallpapers/screensavers as well as some ringtones from my favorite Comedy Central shows. These downloads aren't cheap (10 cents per day just to access Virgin X-Tras and then typically $2-$3 per item downloaded), but I had so much money built up in my account that I figured I could splurge for a little while.

62 of 64 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Phone, Great Sound & Decent Camera!, January 30, 2006

By 

Jersey Girl (NJ, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Audiovox 8915 Snapper Prepaid Phone (Virgin Mobile) (Wireless Phone)

I just got the Audiovox 8915 Snapper phone after reading the reviews here and I was NOT disappointed. It's a great phone with many nice features. Coverage is number one for me, I live in south NJ and I got 5 bars in most places. I only get 1 bar or less at home but I live off of a main road. I still get consistant digital coverage and it never goes into search mode because it's lost the signal for a second like Nextel would! Nextel's signal was never consistant and would keep changing! The sound is crystal clear and when using the speaker it sounds terrific. The Battery life is very good! 3 days after charging the battery I have 2 bars still left on the battery indicator. I made calls, downloaded and took pictures. I used to have cell phones where I had to recharge every single day even though they were new batteries. The Audiovox 8915's battery is indeed long lasting.

The camera it's pretty decent. No it's not going to take stellar pics but for what it is it's ok. I bought this camera phone because I know it will come in handy for emergencies and to simply take pictures of my gorgeous baby niece. You CAN Zoom with the camera which is not a feature widely advertised in reviews online or even on the virgin mobile site itself. The Zoom does not work in 640x480 setting but zooms up to 2x in the 320x240 setting and up to 4x in the 160x120 setting. You have your choice of 3 resolutions to change the picture size, 160x120 the smallest picture size (perfect for wallpaper), 320x240 medium picture size (perfect for websites or email) and the large picture size VGA 640x480. Other welcome options allow you to change the brightness and contrast. You can add special effects like b&w & sepia plus you can frame your pic with special fun graphics. *A tip* for picture taking is do NOT use the 640x480 size if you want your pictures to be clear and sharp. The large size will make your pictures grainy and blurry. Instead use the medium size 320x240 which gave me pretty good looking pictures! I noticed the difference right away when I switched. Also the camera has a flash! sadly it's not strong at all so be sure there is enough light if you are inside. I took inside pictures just fine with light coming from a bright lamp etc.

The LCD screen is bright and you can adjust the brightness/contrast. It's a nice looking screen. The only disappointing thing about this phone is it's lack of a TFT screen instead they have a STN screen. This means the screen is rather dull instead of being bright and beautiful. It's still a nice looking screen but because it's a camera phone you won't get a beautiful screen to look at your pics. A minor annoyance but not a huge deal. If you are a stickler for a large TFT screen I suggest you look at the more expensive slider sonic camera phone.

The sound when you play ringtones or get an incoming call are loud. Ringtones sound terrific on this phone because of the great speaker on it. The speaker is located on the TOP of the phone instead of on the back of the phone so you can hear your phone ringing very clearly. No tiny sounding ringtones here!

Other features on the phone include a world clock, Alarm setting with 3 different alarms instead of the usual one alarm so you don't have to keep resetting the one alarm. Very convienant! You also get a caculator and a calender scheduler. I found using the phone so far to be easy and not complicated at all.

About the VM service,
I chose the month2month plan because I am a heavy minutes user. Virgin Mobile's month2month as opposed to day2day and minute2minute is sort of like Sprint's (the network it runs on) "Fair and flexible plan" for it's prepaid users. Either way they are good plans for each individual user according to your different needs.

*EDIT* (2-1-06) I wanted to add to my review below because I have some
some very important info on new plans & features that are coming to Virgin Mobile that are pretty cool. Here they are:

3 monthly plans available for text messaging ranging from .04 cents per message to .01!!

More subscription based texting services offering more news, weather, sports, etc. Including Messaging groups where you can join a large group of people interested in a particular topic and can text message to the group.

Picture messaging will be functional with all major carriers and there will be a new lower price.

As of 2-1-06 Virgin Mobile has made changes to their website. My Virgin Mobile account info is more detailed also The Inner Circle feature has already begun. "The Inner Circle" which allows you to add up to 3 phone numbers from ANY carrier and you can make UNLIMITED night & weekend calls to them. You can only change numbers a few times within a month and after that it will cost $3 to change numbers. If you subscribe to The Inner circle plan you will be charged .70 per day INSTEAD of the .35 daily charge whether you call one of your friends that day or not. You MUST sign up for this plan by April 30th 2006 the VM website says because the plan will be gone after that!

Also month2month folks will want to know that it will get better and more competitive. As of 2-1-06 More minutes have been been added. Level 2's night & weekend minutes have been increased to an additional 850 minutes. Instead of having 500 N&W minutes you will get 1000 minutes which is double. Level 3's N&W have been increased to FREE night & weekends. Anytime day minutes remain the same.

Dialing *86 (*VM) from your phone is now FREE to check your balance and get info. It used to take up your regular airtime minutes but no more! Not sure why it's not mentioned on their website or booklets but Dialing 611 from your cell phone was always free and you can also use it to get balance plus more info.

Just a heads up to future and current Virgin Mobile customers.

Anyway back to the review! I recommend the Audiovox 8915 Snapper phone to anyone considering Virgin Mobile service. Customer service has been excellent which really surprised me! Great phone, great coverage and a nifty camera!

29 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Snapper Camera Phone Review, February 24, 2006

By 

deadtoaster2 (CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Audiovox 8915 Snapper Prepaid Phone (Virgin Mobile) (Wireless Phone)

I purchased this phone about a week ago. First let me say that I am not a new user of Virgin Mobile. I have had service with them for about 2 years now. They have the best customer service of ANY company that I have ever dealt with. I never have trouble understanding what they are saying, and you are always talking to another human in less than 2 minutes when you call for help.

Now a little more about the phone. This is my second phone, an upgrade from my old K7 Rave which still worked great but I wanted more advanced features. The Snapper delivered the features very well overall. Battery power is about what I expected. If you are actually calling people, playing games, browsing the net, etc. it will not last for 7 days. This is understandable. Reception is a little better than what I got with my K7 Rave, but the call quality is 100 times better! The camera is pretty good, its definitely not "high quality" even on the high setting but it does take fairly good pictures. The flash doesn't really help very much unless you are about 5 inches away from whatever you are taking a picture of. You can take about 70 pictures on the high quality, 130 on the medium quality and a whole bunch on low quality. Pictures are .25 cents to receive and .25 cents to send. VirginXL has quite a few features including downloadable games, ring tones, wallpaper, screen savers, Etc... However, they can be costly, especially the games which are about 6 bucks each. You can also browse the web on the phone. I have not tried that however so I can't comment on how well it works.

The Good:
- Fantastic Customer Service
- Fairly good camera.
- Good battery life for the average user.
- Lots of downloadable stuff on VirginXL.
- Vibrate and Ring mode (K7 Rave did not have that, it was either ring or vibrate, not both at the same time)
- Great call quality / reception.

The Bad:
- The high gloss black paint gets fingerprints VERY easily (that may not be a big deal to some, but it annoys me)
- AOL Instant Messenger is unbelievably slow and can sometimes take upwards of 5 minutes to send one message
- While on AIM or VirginXL your phone line is in use and you can not receive any calls.
- MIDI files that you send to your phone can not be used as ringtones, they can only be played on the phone.
- If you don't have signal in a particular area SEARCHING... takes up the entire screen covering the clock. If you don't have signal, you can't tell what time it is.
- Call logs do not record how long each call was.

All in all, I think it was money well spent. While there are negatives with the phone, the good features make up for the bad. I recommend this phone.