Virgin Mobile Shorty Phone- Blue

by Nokia

Product Details

Product Manual [1.18mb PDF]

• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• ASIN: B0009EP76Y
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (59 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #72,106 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: October 31, 2005

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

With a sleek design that is sure to turn heads, plus a built-in flashlight, polyphonic ringtones, a speakerphone, and more, the Nokia Shorty is one cool companion. Plus, you'll get the most out of your Virgin Mobile service--including cool stuff like VirginXtras content--with this handset.

Take a closer look at the Nokia Shorty's functions.

Design
The phone features a candy bar design with a 96 x 65 monochrome display and an internal antenna. Most of the phone's features and on-screen menus are controlled by a center toggle on the control pad. You can also choose from optional, interchangeable faceplates to dress up the Shorty to match your style or mood.

Calling Features
The Shorty's built-in address book can store up to 250 entries for quick and easy management of your contacts. The phone comes with built-in polyphonic ringtones plus a vibrating alert, while a built-in speakerphone lets you talk hands-free while you're on the go. There's even a voice dialing feature that lets you call up to 25 people by simply speaking their names.

Messaging, Internet, and Tools
The Shorty covers the messaging basics with support for sending and receiving text messages easily and quickly (Virgin Mobile text messaging charges apply). 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 e-mail and text messaging users.

The phone fully supports Virgin Mobile's wireless content service, VirginXtras. Use the pay-per-use service to download ringtones, vote in TV-based polls through 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 Shorty toward a song that's playing in the room, and within minutes a text message appears identifying the song's title.

The Shorty ships with a number of handy tools, including a calendar, a calculator, and an alarm clock. There's also a voice memo application for recording short notes (up to 60 seconds per note).

Entertainment
Three preloaded games come with the Shorty, and more are available from the VirginXtras service. You'll also get a kick out of the phone's built-in flashlight--great for getting in the door after nights on the town.

Vital Statistics
The Nokia Shorty weighs 3.1 ounces and measures 4.03 x 1.66 x .85 inches. Its lithium-ion battery is rated at up to 4.6 hours of digital talk time and up to 211 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
Nokia Shorty handset, AC charger, lithium-ion battery, user's manual.

Product Description

An entry level handset with a clean, stylish design and interchangeable faceplates gives this Virgin Mobile Shorty attitude. Access VirginXL to customize your Shorty with MTV and Comedy Central content, Rescue Rings, Song ID, Voicemania voicemail greetings, and more. With a fully functional built-in flashlight, you can shed some light on all of your activities, in addition, the two-way speakerphone, 3 pre-loaded games and are just some of the additional features that can be found on the stylish Shorty. Up to 4.6 hours of talk time and 8.8 days of standby time Weighs only 3.0 ounces; measures 4.99 by 1.66 by 0.85 inches. Charger included.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

41 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very nice basic phone, July 11, 2005

By 

Alan Weiss (Brookline, MA, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Virgin Mobile Shorty Phone- Blue (Electronics)

This phone is marketed towards youngsters. But it is perfect for older people, such as myself, who don't use a cell phone much, yet want to have one "just in case" or for occasional use. Over the past few weeks I have found it to be reliable, it holds a charge a long time, and has pretty good voice quality. It is quite tiny--no need for a folding ("flip") phone. Virgin has increased the number of services it offers: either 25c/minute, and only spend $15/90 days to keep the service active, or else 35c/day for 10c minutes. No roaming or domestic long distance charges. Very few taxes and no extra fees. The service is not cost-effective if you plan to use the phone heavily, but for light use you will not find a less expensive service.

I found a few deficiencies in the phone that keep me from giving it 5 stars. As others have noted, the screen is hard to see when not backlit. Some features are hidden in menus--for example, there is a speakerphone, but just go try to find out how to use it! It isn't described in the manual. (It turns out it is a menu option when you receive or make a call, but if you just look through the menus you won't find it.) The provided ring tones are too funky for me. So I surprised myself by paying for a old-fashioned ring, $2, which actually sounds pretty good.

So if you want a small reliable phone that holds a charge well and has good clear sound, the Shorty is worth a look. Just be sure that the Sprint network (which Virgin uses) is available in your area before buying any Virgin phone, as they have no capability of roaming onto other networks.

*****Added after several months with the phone*******
My phone does indeed have the "auto shut-off" bug. It didn't bite me for several weeks, but it has happened to me several times over the past few months. The phone shuts itself off despite having plenty of power left in the battery. The remedy, as others have reported, is to take the battery out for a second. When reinserted, the phone acts fine again. It doesn't happen to me very often, but it does happen. Since it happens so rarely, perhaps once every few weeks, it doesn't bother me much, but I can see it would be infuriating to some people. It is rather amazing to me that Nokia claims not to be aware of this bug.

43 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great utilitarian cellphone, August 5, 2005

By 

The Amazon Shopper (New York) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Virgin Mobile Shorty Phone- Blue (Electronics)

I never bought into the hype of colour screens and attached cameras in a cellphone. I just want a cellphone that has long battery power, easy to carry, and does the talking well.

One of the nicest thing with this phone is the signal strength indicator: it has seven bars in total, giving a very clear indication of how the signal is, and whether you feel confident having a conversation at the spot you are at.

The battery lasts about a week on standby and light talking and turned off at night. It is lithium-ion battery so is very convenient in terms of charging. Charging time is about five hours to full.

The display is very large. It has the usual usability of a Nokia phone. It does not have an antenna, and the mic is quite far from the mouth, but I have never needed to repeat myself even in quite noisy environments. The sound is clear, and it includes an integrated loudspeaker.

Now, a few issues. The included ringtones are few and fewer still are the "professional/discrete" type. Auto-key-lock failed once so I had to restart the phone. The keys are a bit small and hard so they require some getting used to.

Also, on several occasions it refused to be turned off. I had to take the battery out to force it to power down. Not sure why, but it really shouldn't happen.

Overall, a very economic functional phone without bells and whistles (except for the integrated flashlight). It works like a telephone.

27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great tiny phone; just one problem., June 6, 2005

By 

e (Western Washington) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Virgin Mobile Shorty Phone- Blue (Electronics)

This is a tiny phone; it fits in a pocket very well. The sound quality is great, and people can hear me well. The "Shorty" is a great little phone (with the exception of the screen--it's difficult to read the time of day display). I particularly like the loudspeaker feature, which enables me to put the phone down next to me while driving and hear and be heard well. It's easy to navigate through all the features, although it might be more difficult for someone with bigger fingers; I use my thumbnail to push the buttons. Easy to find out my balance, too. I just use the phone for making and receiving calls and not for the downloadable features and games, so I haven't tried all those. The existing ringtones are I suspect aimed at a younger crowd--they sound kind of hip hop. They also sound kind of tinny. But, as I said, I'm using it mainly for a low-use phone; so this didn't discourage me.

What did discourage me was the one little problem: My particular phone has a little problem of powering off on its own without warning every few days--even with a full battery charge. So I'm walking around with a phone that is not on thinking I can receive emergency calls when actually I can't, because it has spontaneously turned itself off. Nothing I do gets it to turn back on. It is just dead. I figured out I just remove the battery and put it back in (which the trouble shooting page on the nokiausa website confirmed), and this enables me to turn it back on. I find this unacceptable in a phone and am returning it. Virgin Mobile customer service was kind and polite and offered to give me a new "Shorty," but I declined, because I found the minutes disappearing too fast with the Virgin Mobile prepaid plan. I believe, because they start counting off your time the second you push send when you make a call. So, you are paying for the 15 or 20 seconds it takes your party's voice mail to connect AND the message you leave on his or her voicemail. This adds up. Had I not been unimpressed with the Virgin Mobile plan, I probably would have taken them up on the replacement offer, because I really like the phone.