Customer Reviews

Virgin Mobile Shorty Phone- Blue

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

This is a nice, sleek looking phone from a simple pay as you go wireless provider. Virgin Mobile uses the SPRINT PCS network and charges you as follows...$.025 a minute for the first 10 minutes of the day, then $0.10 a minute after that. Or, $0.10 a minute plus $0.35 a day. You pay $0.10 per text message you send and it is free to receive them. You must top off your account at least $20 every 90 days to keep your account active, but you keep the minutes you have already purchased. If you don't use your phone a lot your looking at $6.66 a month for a cell phone. How simple is that? No other hidden fees involved.

The Nokia 2115i is the smallest Nokia I have ever seen. It stands less than 4" tall, less than 1.5" from side to side and less than 3/4" thick. There are limited accessories for it at this time because it is new to the market. You can send and receive text from other phones or email addresses. There are tons of downloadable stuff from the web site as well. Other features include a speaker phone, built in flashlight, voice dialing, voice memo recording, games and more. Anytime your curious about how much money you have left in your account, you can check your balance right on the phone. It takes about 5 seconds for the account information to be zapped back to you in a text message. You can also access your account on the web site.

If your like me who got tired of spending over $50 a month for cell phone minutes I never used, this is for you. I like the convenience of having a phone, but do not have a need to have it glued to my ear all day. Virgin Mobile pay as you go is simple and in my case money saving. Not to mention this particular phone is about the most stylish Nokia they make.

UPDATE: VM has struck out!

24 Oct 05 - VM is now sending me a THIRD replacement. They simply refuse to send me a similar (ie ....inexpensive) Kyocero (sp?) phone. They likely spent more money FEDEXing me replacement Shortys, then I have paid for my VM service.

Who knows, maybe the fourth Shorty will work. I suspect bad software loaded.
But even if it does, I doubt I would ever recommend VM. They have the worst customer service, I have ever experiened. How many times do they expect their customers to beat their heads against a brick wall?

My experience with Virgin Mobile REMAINS most unsatisfactory. I do not recommend their service or the Nokia Shorty. If VM does remedy this issue, I will edit this review.

My original Nokia Shorty phone also turned itself off. Virgin Mobile sent a replacement with same problem.

Today I called VM customer service and requested a different model phone to replace this second defective phone. The representative said she could only send me the same model. I asked to speak to her supervisor. The supervisor was unresponsive and condescending, implying the phone was turning off because it was in my pocket and "operator error." This in spite that the phone turned off once during the night on my dresser; and this was a known issue with the Nokia Shorty. Also, she could not explain why it was necessary to re-insert the battery to power the phone back on.

She repeated VM would only send the same phone in exchange. She said her supervisor does not take calls, and there was no one in Virgin Mobile she would refer me to.

As it stands now, VM is sending me a third Nokia Shorty. If this second replacement has the same problem, what are my options? The customer service representatives gave me no options except to send me another and another replacement and so on.

Apparently VM does not give its customer representatives the freedom to make decisions on their own in order to satisfy VM customers.

I have been a Virgin Mobile user for about 2 years and this is my third phone and the best so far. This is a very small basic phone. I was a bit apprehensive about the small size but there really does not seem to be any problems due to the size. The screen is a bit difficult to read w/o the backlighting and I think the speakerphone volume is weak. But the ring is loud and the voice quality is good. Reception is very good. The vibrating alert is also on the weak side. The keypad is small but I have no problems with it.

This super compact phone is great!, It is not a sophisticated model, great for people who needs just a phone. Although it's quality is great, and has many features I didn't expect it to have such as the loudspeaker (and more things), which works great! I love the phone, it's compact I can carry it on my pockets, lightweight and doesn't look cheap; also the service at virgin is much better than tracfone, I am glad I switched, cause their phones are crap too.

Unless you're one of those people who has to have a cell phone in their ear 24/7, the Nokia Shorty with Virgin Mobile's Minute-to-Minute, Pay-as-You-Go plan should work for you as well as it does for me. I only make and receive an occasional call, and I don't need a handheld video game/internet browser/digital camera. The battery life is impressive and the loudspeaker function works exceptionally well. I didn't care for the ringtones that came preloaded, but there are plenty that can be downloaded off Virgin Mobile's website.

Good points: It just plain works. Nothing more, nothing less. I've yet to drop all call in my area, but your mileage may vary since it depends on the Sprint network. Activation was rather quick and painless. It was on within 5 minutes of my call to VM.

Medium points: I'm a light user who already has a home phone, so I don't really mind the rates. I barely even spent five dollars on minutes this month. I usually end up making a few extra calls I wouldn't do otherwise just to burn up some minutes before top-up time. However, if you don't already have a home phone, you'd be better off with a regular monthly plan from another carrier. No stars added or taken away because of this point, since your mileage may vary.

The flashlight is a nice added bonus, which comes in handy since I work nights and it gives enough light to unlock my door, but not much more. This point is kinda trivial, so it doesn't add or cost any stars from me.

Bad points: Several reviewers have mentioned the spontaneous shutoff, which I find trivial, but enough to cost a star. Pop the battery out and put it back, it's just fine for a couple of weeks or so.

Also, the regular speaker is not as loud as I would like, so every time I make or get a call, I have to press the loudspeaker button. Maybe this should not have any bearing on the review since my hearing has been damaged by years of loud rock'n'roll, but there goes another star anyway.

Overview: It just works. If you're a tightwad like me, get it, but if you're willing to spend a bit more because of the bad points I mentioned, do it.

I just bought this phone for my teenage daughter. It is quite small (she says it's "cute") and extremely light. I was suprised at how light it was. My favorite feature about the phone actually is its price. Amazon lists it for $29.99 here (claiming 50%) off, but I bought my daughter's at Wal-Mart for $20.00.

I think the pay-as-you-go phone is a great invention for teenagers. We were able to get her hooked up with service within an hour of buying the phone.

All in all, not a bad deal at all.