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"Though flawed, Shuttle is VM's best so far." on by TheDevilsPromDate
Pros: Resolution is high. 3G speeds are a welcome addition. Form factor is handsome. Micro SD card support. Good camera. Video recording capability. Solid price point and feature set for a no-contract phone.
Cons: Force feedback keys are sensitive, and overly exposed. T9 dictionary has 9th grade vocab & can't learn words. Text entry for WAP browser apps, AIM, and text messages are governed by 3 different, frustratingly fussy modes. Tends to self-reboot.
Summary: I, like presumably many other VM users, bought the Shuttle as an upgrade: hoping it would bridge the gap between the handset features I wanted and those for which I previously had to settle. While the Shuttle comes very close to spanning that divide, it still manages to keep one foot firmly entrenched in VM's legacy: their inability to get one phone EXACTLY right. I'm not sure if this phone was rushed to market or if VM's manufacturers don't hold themselves to high standards of product testing or design. Whichever the case, this COULD'VE been a killer handset had there been more attention paid to details. While the form factor in aesthetically pleasing, its force feedback keys are far too exposed and sensitive, leading to unintentional triggers. The dedicated keys along either side of the spine are too flush. 3G on a phone that surfs with a WAP browser is like a NO booster on a Dodge Dart; a fast, desperately lackluster experience. Also, and here's the deal-breaker for me, whereas phones generally have ONE module providing T9 and ABC for entering text, the Shuttle has three (so far): one for your phone's general use and text messaging, another for AIM, and a third for the web. Each of these are different, having different menus, predictive vocabularies, and even rules for syntax (e.g. the web T9 insists upon capitalizing the first letter of EVERY WORD) As someone who does rather alot of surfing and messaging, this flaw is frustrating to the point where I must wonder if it's somehow intentional. To conclude, the Shuttle is not (as many VM customers hoped, myself included) the next generation of VM phones, but rather that generation's harbinger. It is a great phone for beginners who want a solid feature set, and a decent interim phone for someone who is waiting for VM to drop a real ace on us.
@ Aaroniuskgravies
Updated on Mar 18, 2009
I'm sorry if you found my review to be so terribly long. I assure you, it was so only in an effort to be comprehensive. Regarding the touch key portion of the review, I concede there is no mention of the owner's ability to turn down the Shuttle's sensitivity. Simply put, it's my experience that even on it's lowest setting it is still far too sensitive. Perhaps my handset is in some way defective. Perhaps your handset is somehow "magically better". Most likely, I imagine you're some nit-picky guy who would rather flame my review than provide a reasoned addendum.
And, on a more personal note, I would remind you: I'm a civilian. I don't work for VM or CNET. I'm a just VM customer who took the time to write a thorough reiview because he wanted other/prospective customers to have the benefit of an un-biased fairly knowledgeable opinion. If that means using all 1,000 characters of provided space, I guess you can either deal with it, or read a shorter review.
TDPD -
"Excellent phone, but it has its up and downs." on by joshy16
Pros: Great color screen, mp3 player, records videos, 3g, change your theme, and other customizing options,different resolutions on camera,and extra memory room with a mico SD card capability's,loud speaker,nice design,touch sensitive buttons are very nice
Cons: no flash on camera, dosent receive or send videos like it says, phone rarely reboots but occasionally does, problems when setting a low resolution picture as wallpaper (more detail in summery),have to buy a bunch of extras for music but its worth it.
Summary: I was really excited when i heard about a 3g phone from a pre-paid carrier like virgin mobile. When i got the phone everything worked great, it felt great and didnt scream virgin mobile. i love how the phone had a mp3 player and couldnt wait to get my music going on the phone, but i had to go buy a micro sd card, and i had to buy a usb adapter that would hold my sd card and plug into my usb port, i also had to buy headphones. i spent about 30 or 40 exta dollars to get everything going on the phone but its worth it in the long run. once music is on the phone their is no way to organizing the files, but you can add many playlist that hold your favorite tunes. I didnt really have to many complaints about the camera except that there was no flash, it would have been nice to have a flash on the phone to complement the other great features it carries. The 3g is great it downloads ringtones in mere seconds and browses the internet pretty quickly. Now comes my biggest complaint, i had taken a low resolution picture on my phone and attempted to apply it as my wallpaper. when i did this the phone shut off and began to reboot. it would come on and as soon as it came on it would reboot again. i thought that this was just a problem with the phone i had, but i sent it back and got a replacement, i had the first phone for two months before it happened. i had the replacement phone for about four months and the same thing happened again. i sent it back and i now have my third shuttle phone...so far no problems. I hope that this problem dosent happen again because the phone is really great and has excellent features. The camcorder only records 30 seconds of video but its a nice feature to have. when uploading photos onto a computer the transfer is very fast and is reliable, however when uploading video it takes forever, and unless you have a program that play cell phone video formats, then you are not able to watch your videos. when i tried to send a video or receive a video it would not work, im unsure of why but i am trying to figure out what is causing the problem. when watching videos on the phone you can make them full screen which is nice and the video are clear, the videos are also clear when you watch them on the phones browser. the ringtones are loud and soud great. some ringtones through virgin mobile are only 15 seconds, but once downloaded the phone makes them 25 seconds which really surprises you because you get more of the song as your ringtone. The touch sensitive keys are somewhat annoying at first. when on low sensitivity you have to hold your finger on the button for a second before it actually works. once you get accustomed to using the touch keys however, you find that they are really convenient and i set mine up on high sensitivity. i like the buttons because it makes accessing things on the phone a lot faster, and if you're lazy at pushing buttons them you will love them to. on the speaker phone touch key you have to hold your finger on it for a second no matter what your sensitivity level of the buttons is. Call quality was excellent with few dropped calls, everything was clear and the speaker phone worked fine also. Overall this is an excellent phone and i would recommended it to anyone, but beware of the few bugs it has after some use.
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"The best of what's around!" on by bennyfitz
Pros: The screen is beautiful. The form factor is smooth, and it feels well-put together. The slider mechanism works well. It supports up to 4GB of external memory, which is great. The 3G works well for supported pages. It's plenty loud enough.
Cons: The web browsing on unsupported pages is buggy and frequently causes reboots, or freezes. The messaging is also occasionally unreliable. The camera works well if you take exactly the picture you want, but there are no editing features afterward.
Summary: I love the idea of this phone, and I wish it worked as well as it could. The text entry on the web is NOT easy, and doesn't learn words, and capitalizes every word, so all your friends will know if you send a Myspace message from your phone. The bugs causing reboots and freezing are scary, because you never know when that freeze will be your last. I definitely recommend making sure you put all your videos and pictures on your external memory, just in case, but you can't send videos saved on the card. They keypad locking during calls is an inconvenience, as is the unlocking keypad in your pocket when you receive messages. The touch sensitive keys are too sensitive even on their least sensitive setting when bringing the phone out of your pocket, but then become slightly difficult to use during regular use, so you have to pick the lesser of two evils.
On the up side, regular messaging is a breeze, phone calls are simple and clear. You can access a multitude of functions with the phone closed, which is nice, though the menu system is much easier to use with the phone open. Sending picture messages and video messages is easy, as long as the video's not on your card. Playing videos and looking at pictures is great, because the screen is so big and pretty. The media player is basic and useful for personal spaces, but don't plan on entertaining friends unless they all like the same music you do, because it's not a very customizable player, and it's not all THAT loud. I would positively LOVE this phone if the resetting and freezing could stop. It goes for days and sometimes weeks just fine, but with as much as we all depend on our phones, it's just not reassuring that it continues to work again after hard resets (removing the battery with the phone still on, depending on your phone model you could lose some settings such as personalized ringtones or words added to the dictionary). I also have a hard time with the data plans offered. With the 3G speeds, which are great for checking Myspace and Facebook, you can actually burn through 20 or 50MB pretty easily if you do that a lot and hit some other, non-WAP pages. Some of those, which the browser will do it's best to load (it's best isn't good enough), are upwards of 1MB on their own, and hitting back doesn't always save you from burning through that data. This is the best phone Virgin Mobile offers, with the most features, but I'm seriously considering downgrading to the Samsung Slash just because Samsung is generally so much more reliable than UT Starcom. -
"A really great preapid phone from Virgin Mobile" on by frankazoid
Pros: no contract, 3G web, sleek, video camcorder, mp3 player, slider, decent battery life
Cons: no qwerty keyboard, 1.3 camera, touch sensitive keys(although can be turned off), cant use mp3s as ringtones
Summary: By far this is the best vm phone to date. It has all the features a contract phone has except its not a contract. The screen is a decent 2 inches, the ringtones come in loud and clear, as does mp3 songs. The camcorder is pretty decent for a prepaid phone. I just wish the camera could have been a 2.0 megapixel. There are other prepaid phone carriers that i know that do that, plus vm's wildcard phone had a 1.3. You woulda thought vm would update the camera. Oh well. The camera is pretty decent anyway. The 3G web is good. I have no big coomplaints with the web, other than the fact Virgin's biggest plan for data is 50mb, which some people would blow in just 1 day. But by far, I think this is one of the nicest looking Virgin Mobile, let alone phones, that i have owned. Like i wrote earlier it feels like i have a contract phone in my hand minus the contract...............The only overall major complaint i have other than 50 MB data plan is the fact theres no keyboard.Other than that I would recommend this phone to anyone who wants a phone and wants all the perks of a contract phone minus the contract. I just LOVE this phone.
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"Very good, long-lasting phone with lots of features." on by RockSumm
Pros: MUSiC PLAYER; good-looking layout and interface; nice keypad.
Email, IM, 3G internet, and bluetooth (although I don't use them.)
I have had it for a year and 5 months and it has lasted.Cons: If you don't lock the keypad during a call, your ear can press the "mute" button accidentally.
After a while, the battery life gets pretty short. Photo quality is not too great.
After 1 year, a corner of the screen will occasionally freeze up.Summary: This phone is overall very good, but it has way more features than I will ever use. For $100, it may not have been worth the money since I haven't taken advantage of all its features. However, I definitely recommend it. It is my 3rd virgin mobile phone. I have had the Marbl and the Super Slice before but the Shuttle is the best so far!
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