Customer Reviews

Starcom Arc Prepaid Phone (Virgin Mobile)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

EDIT - After owning this phone for close to a year, I figured I would update my review. Just a few cons I've discovered -- the speakerphone is way too quiet to be useful, especially in the car (which is where I want it in the first place). And I have noticed the battery cover tends to pop off once in a while if the phone is in my jeans pocket. Other than that, I still love it. It's nice and thin, features are great for the price, and battery life is very good. Probably the best inexpensive phone that Virgin offers, go for it!

My original review:

Just picked up two of these, one for me and one for my wife. There's really nothing bad to say about this phone.

It's THIN, has a camera and bluetooth and speakerphone! Pretty much has and does anything you need a phone to do. Plus it's Virgin, so if you don't use your phone too much, it's very economical!!!

I guess if I had to give any cons about it, it would be the camera is only VGA (were you expecting any better for a $50 phone?) and the buttons are a little small (same with about 90% of other phones on the market).

I love it!

This is my second virgin mobile phone after using my old Rave phone for about the past 4 years. I was looking for a flip phone that had a camera for quick snapshots. So far, the voice quality seems pretty good, and the battery life is great. After charging the battery for the first time it stayed on continuously for 10 days before giving me a low battery warning. Like another reviewer I am a little disappointed by the small number of non-obnoxious ringtones. But overall I have no problems with the phone's calling functionality, voice quality, or with sending text messages. My biggest problems are with accessing the internet and sending picture messages. Supposedly this phone is capable of sending e-mails and uploading pictures. However whenever I try anything requiring internet access (including requesting my account balance) I keep getting the message "Error: Network down". Is anyone else able to connect to the internet using this phone? How about sending pictures? Does this work for anyone else?

UPDATE: I contact Virgin Mobile service to report the problem mentioned above. At first they had me re-activate the phone and try accessing network after at least 4 hours. After that didn't resolve the problem, I called back and they had me try removing the battery and restarting the phone. When that didn't fix the problem, the service adviser opened an investigation. The next day Tech Support contacted me and did something at their end to reset my phone. After that I was able to get the account balance and send picture messages. Things are all working fine now. Virgin Mobile service has been friendly and responsive. I'm glad that my phone is now able to do all that it is supposed to.

We have been Virgin Mobile owners for about 10 years now. This is my 3rd VM phone, my first one wasn't that great and I had to return it 2x but they quickly had a new one to me. My 2nd one the battery charger started acting strange and they replaced it and it started failing after 5 years... We just bought 2 more phones because the pricing and the service is pretty good. $35.00 at Best Buy! It includes a lot of features that are important to us!
Pros: Speakerphone, Bluetooth, Camera, Voice activated dialing, Standby and Talk time and ease of use out of the box.
Cons: The contact list set up could be more user friendly or intuitive. It would be nice to have some more FREE ring tones that are not "rap" or perhaps ones that are event oriented or 70's, 80's, 90's. I always have to buy a handful of ring tones to get ones that are not obnoxious. Also the camera is nice but not very high quality.
EDITED 04/10 - Even though I do top-up through my credit card automatically... from time to time it "forgets" and then I have to manually call in and top up through my card on record or give them another card. It came at a most inopportune time about 10 days ago. I don't know why it did it but this is the 2nd time in 3 years.

The Arc is awesome, spend the extra dough for this one. I have been a virginmobile customer for 3 years and this one is the best. Also they don't tell you this but the battery lasts forever on this, literally up to 2 weeks on standby!

I got this phone for my husband a year ago and it has worked great. It takes great pics and has never had a problem with the battery. We were paying for the unlimited internet and never got it to work. Took my sons birthday and first day of kindergarten pics on it when our camera died and they came out great.And that is the problem with this phone. The only way to get pics off the phone is to send a picture message that costs you.We have tried to contact them about a usb cable and get told that there isn't one.We also checked on this site and at best buy and other places for one. If that is true then why is there a port on the bottom of the phone for a cable. We have since switched cell providers and now can't get the pics off at all. So if you are just getting this one for the phone then it is a great choice. If you want to take pics with it be ready to spend fifty cents a photo to get them off the phone.

I use the Arc prepaid cell phone as part of Virgin Mobile's pay as you go program. It is a flip phone and offers up to 3.5 hours of talk time before the battery needs to be charged. Besides the standard features on a cell phone it also offers things like: speaker phone; an option to send email messages and instant messages; caller ID; call waiting; speed dialing; voice mail; voice command; the ability to send audio messages; a camera; internet access; Bluetooth Capability; a calendar; alarm clock; calculator; tip calculator; stop watch; and world clock; among others.

What I like about the Arc prepaid cell phone:

The first thing I like is the whole concept of the pay as you go program. I like having a cell phone in case of an emergency, but I rarely use it and you can't beat having to pay as little as $20.00 every three months. Also the phone is very easy to set up and if you want to upgrade, you can transfer your phone number and balance to the new phone as long as it is a Virgin Mobile phone. You do have to reload your contact information and other features such as ring tones. When it is time to top off it is very easy to do so and you have several options: do it directly from the phone itself; do it over the Internet; buy a top up card. It is very easy to make and receive phone calls and with the key press feature you can answer the phone with any key except "End", "Back" and "Ignore". The sound is very clear and I've had no dropped calls. Although you can't shoot video with the camera, you can take pictures and there are several photo options: self-portrait; self timer; fun frames; image control and white balance; contrast; color effect. You can send text messages and if you often use the same words or phrases in your text messages you can save them as a template. The tip calculator is one of my favorite features - it is very easy to use. Finally, you have two choices in what language you want to use: English or Spanish.

What I don't like about the Arc prepaid cell phone:

Maybe it's just my phone or the battery in my phone, but the bar indicating when the battery needs to be charged doesn't work properly so I never know when it is time for me to charge it (to be safe I charge it once a week). Also, the protective cover for the battery charger is hard to close. There are keys on the sides of the phone to activate the camera and volume control and I am always hitting those accidentally, especially the volume buttons. The Vibrate Mode key on the key pad is hard to press. I found it hard to send text messages, especially since there is no space bar option. No matter how many times I tried to access the email option I got the message "Network Gremlins" and couldn't go any further. Finally, while there are several nice options like games, surfing the web, and the email function, none of these are included in the plan I use - all cost extra money.

While there are a few things I don't like about the Arc prepaid cell phone, in the end there are more things I like than I don't like and I'd recommend it for people who want an inexpensive yet reliable cell phone.

I don't use the cell as much as most people so I got a prepaid phone instead. I used to have a Blackberry Pearl, and I think this phone has better talk quality then the Pearl. Also, the voice dialing works great on this phone, on my blackberry pearl it was so bad it wasn't usable. I have only one complaint is that I wish the Speaker and non speaker volume was a little louder without distortion. But, with all the good qualities of this phone I have no regrets. This phone has a ton of features with excellent talk quality(better than my Blackberry) and for $[...]bucks it's a steal.

we orginally bought the arc as an ermergency phone when i was 7 mos pregnant to keep on me for just in case. I and my husband found it easy to use and since we didnt use it much the packages for prepay were our way to go. they were cheap and you can roll over your unused minutes when you add more time. we liked the price 9.99 at radio shack in midland mi. that is cheap for a prepay flip.fits in your pocket great its slim andcompact. it has voice command,camera,and internet av (at extra cost for internet). camera takes nice pics just wish i could find a way to be able to upload pics to my computer and i have checked everywhere to find a usb cable and no such luck. they told me either to look online or they didnt make one for this model.OVERALL...... cheap flip with good service and cheap minute packages. if you dont use it alot this is the phone for you. battery life is good stays charged for a long time. durable i have dropped it a few times no breakage and works fine.

This has been the best VM phone I have purchased. It has a decent camera and email abilites along with other features that you usually dont get with these cheaper phones. It allows you to tap into IM and send and receive email through various accounts. I dont surf the web on it but it does allow you to do so. The plans that are available through VM are very affordable. Overall the phone packs alot of bang for the buck!

This little phone is very well made. It is small, but sturdy. Its keys respond fast, they are light and easy. You can use the voice command feature this phone has through a bluetooth able device. It is very convenient to be able to call anyone from your address book without having to pull out the phone to dial the number.

Web surfing of the mobile internet with this phone is very capable when using the Opera Mini mobile browser. It is easy to see the pictures and read the content of websites on the internal screen. It is not a large screen, but does the job nicely.

It also provides direct dialing for international calls. All you need to qualify for this feature is to have cash available in your phone account. The rates for international calling are very, very affordable.

It also brings 3 alarms, a stopwatch, a calendar, a voice recorder (1 minute per memo), a VGA camera (takes great pictures with good light, but blurry under low light conditions), tip calculator, a calculator and a world clock.

You can buy games at the VXL site. I have Scrabble and Family Feud on mine.

You can print the pictures you take with this phone by uploading them to My Pix at the Virgin Mobile website. You do it directly from the Options menu on the phone. Then you go to the Virgin Mobile website and access them once you open a free account for your phone. You can also use the text messaging format to send each picture to an email account and download them to your computer from there.

All in all, a great phone. It is very reliable. I've had this phone for almost two years now and it still works like new.

The only CON for this phone is that I type faster with a Qwerty keyboard and it does not have one.