For people on the go a cell phone is a great convenience. Not that long ago, you could only make a phone call at places where there were land lines. Innovative designers and engineers have made cellphones that are small and capable of placing into a pocket or purse.
The first models were cumbersome and expensive, but cellular phones are now more portable and more affordable. Wise consumers will find an affordable cellular phone for one of the companies that provide this service. The competition is fierce so great deals can be found with a bit of time and patience.
The cellular phone companies offer a wide variety of cellular phones and cellular phone calling plans. The plans for an affordable cellular phone include different features so each consumer should decide on their prospective use of the phone. Then this consumer should study the various plans to see which one best meets their needs and which is the most affordable cellular phone. There are service plans from various companies such as Sprint, Nextel, Cingular, and Verizon cellular phone plans.
Consumers should be cautious before signing any agreements for these include penalties for early termination of the service. These penalties could add a hefty sum to the cost of the phone in the long run.
Shop Around for the Most Affordable Cellular Phone
The largest expense for a cellular phone is the calling plan that covers the costs for the use of the phone. There are many factors to consider when choosing a plan to make sure that this is an affordable cellular phone.
Some companies offer the actual phone or at least some models at no cost to attract customers. The phone may be a real bargain so it might seem an affordable cellular phone at a bargain price. The cost of the calling plan may negate the bargain price or free offer on the phone.
An affordable cellular phone could be a mistake if the calling plan does not work well in many areas or if the charges are exorbitant in some areas. Traveling to a destination that might be isolated with an affordable cellular phone might render the phone useless. An educated consumer will examine the coverage area for each separate company.
Separate costs that are hidden may make an affordable cellular phone into an expensive one. Each consumer should look into any added costs that may not be immediately apparent. A cellular phone is an excellent tool that as a potential to be an affordable convenience provided you make the right choices.[tags]Affordable Cellular Phone, Verizon cellular phone, Sprint, Nextel, Cingular[/tags]
Filed under Cellular Phone Tips by on Jul 29th, 2007. 1 Comment. 
Motorola KRZR K1m (Verizon Wireless) Cell Phone
Product Description
The Motorola KRZR K1m is a fully integrated music player with touch sensor controls, a 1.3 mega pixel camera and a microSD™ Removable Memory card, all encased in a a sleek thin rounded metal-and-glass design.
The KRZR K1m features:
- 1.3 Mega Pixel Camera with Camcorder
- V Cast Music and VZ Navigator Capable
- Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) capable
- AOL®, Yahoo or MSN Instant Messenger™
- Built-in speakerphone and downloadable ringtones and full-audio ringtones
- Speaker-independent / plus voice commands and voice feedback
- Photo phone book and picture Caller ID
- WAP Browser, Java and Bluetooth capable
- Video download and playback capabilities
- Personal organizer: Calendar, calculator, alarm clock, and currency converter
- Lithium ion battery
- Compact wall charger
FREE shipping on all cell phones with a service plan! Motorola KRZR – Verizon — by Joni Blecher — November 27th 2006
Full Review
Motorola’s Krzr is one slick cell phone. It’s not only smaller than its older brother, the Razr, but it is even a little more stylish. This cell phone has all the latest multi-media features including MP3 playback, a 1.3-megapixel camera and video recorder. Although, the Krzr’s display isn’t as bright or crisp as other cell phones being introduced, it’s just fine for this small cell phone. If you’re in the market for a highly pocketable and stylish cell phone that’s easy to use and has stellar call quality, consider the Motorola Krzr. You won’t be disappointed.Call Quality
- Calls and speakerphone: We found calls to be loud and clear on the Motorola Krzr. We rarely needed to use the side volume keys to adjust the sound. Using the speakerphone didn’t degrade call quality and there was only a slight echo. While you don’t need to wait to place a call in order to use the speakerphone feature, you need to manually turn it off at the end of a call. Also, the speakerphone button isn’t immediately obvious.
- Audio Quality: Playback of songs is decent through the cell phone’s speakers. If you want to listen to songs using a headset, there’s a miniUSB cable with a jack. You can buy an optional cell phone headset or wireless headset. Unfortunately, since it’s not a 2.5mm jack, you can’t plug in a traditional stereo headset that you would use with a portable music player.
Ease of Use
- Menu/Phonebook: This is one of the more straightforward menu interfaces you’ll find on a cell phone. We particularly like how easy it is to use the phonebook. You can store 1,000 contacts in the phonebook, each with five phone numbers, two e-mail addresses, picture, and a message ringer – sorry, no slots for address info. But if you want to find your phone number you’ll need to dig through the menu system. You also might notice a new icon on the screen. It’s essentially a diamond with a cross in it, which indicates that you can make e911 calls, even if you don’t have service. This is one of the first implementations we’ve seen on a cell phone of this mandatory feature.
- Camera/Video: The Motorola Krzr sports a 1.3-megapixel camera and the ability to record short videos. Picture quality is acceptable, but far from fabulous (images are a tad blurry) – especially considering it has a 1.3-megapixel lens. Video quality isn’t much better, but you can still see what’s happening on the screen. Additionally, if you really want to store a lot of photos and music you’ll need to get an optional TransFlash storage card since the cell phone only has about 18MB of internal storage, which fills up quickly.
- Music: Like the Motorola Razr V3m, the Krzr has a MP3 player that you can use to playback WMA (Windows music file format) and MP3 files (Sorry, no Apple AAC files). As noted, the audio quality is pretty good through the cell phone speakers. Though this cell phone lacks the ability to adjust audio-centric controls such as bass and treble, you can create playlists and there is a Shuffle option. We particularly like that once the MP3 player is in use (Note: You need to turn the music on from the cell phone’s Music and Tones menu first) you can use the buttons on the face of the Krzr to control the features. However, unless you’re downloading music from Verizon’s VCast service getting music onto the cell phone is an entirely different story. You can’t transfer music from a PC to the Krzr cell phone using Bluetooth. However, if you purchase an optional cable and software you’ll be able to transfer WMA (Windows music file format) and MP3 files to the cell phone using Windows Media Player. You can also use the USB cable in the kit to use the computer to charge the Krzr. You can also purchase a MiniSD TransFlash storage card and store tunes from your PC on that and then slip it into the TransFlash card slot located beneath the battery cover on the back of the Motorola cell phone.
- Connectivity/Bluetooth: We were able to pair the Motorola cell phone with a Motorola H500 Bluetooth headset. We should note using the Bluetooth feature decreases battery life. Call quality isn’t as stellar as when you’re not using a headset, but it is quite acceptable. We should note that while you still can’t use Bluetooth to transfer songs from a computer to the cell phone and vice versa, you can transfer pictures.
Design
- Look and Feel: When we first heard about the Krzr, we wondered how Motorola will improve an already slick cell phone. Well, they did a few good things actually. For starters, the back of the cell phone is slightly rubberized (think: the Pebl). Plus, the front of the cell phone, which has a gun metal coloring shares a slight resemblance to Nokia’s high-end (they cost $1,000 and up) Vertu line of cell phones. Additionally, there are touch-sensitive play/pause, fast forward and rewind buttons on the exterior, similar to the LG Chocolate. Thankfully, the buttons aren’t nearly as sensitive. Our favorite element is its actual size. It’s about the same width as the Motorola Pebl and about half as thin. It’s a tad longer, making it about the same length as the original Razr.
- Display: The display is bright but not nearly crisp as, say, the screen on the Samsung A990. Our only quibble with the cell phone’s design is the front of the cell phone attracts a lot of grease and fingerprints quickly. But we can live with that flaw – the Krzr’s that attractive.
- Keypad: The trademark flat keypad found on the Razr, is here as well. For some reason, it’s still super cool. With its blue backlit numbers and lines, it looks like something out of the movie, Tron. While you might think it would be hard to dial on a flat keypad, we found it pretty easy to do. However, we should note that those with larger hands should probably stick with the Motorola Razr. The Krzr is a perfect fit for people with smaller hands. Additionally, we did find occasionally that we accidentally hit the wrong button when using the round 4-way nav-key.
Battery Life
In the battery life department, the Motorola Krzr had decent performance. We found that we could last three days before needing to recharge when using the Motorola Krzr regularly to make calls and send/receive text messages. Users who barely use the cell phone to make/receive calls and send/receive messages can wait about six days before needing to recharge. While heavier cell phone users will likely need to charge the Motorola Krzr every other day. Additionally, we did find the battery drained extremely quickly when we used Bluetooth. But if you have a MiniUSB-to-USB cable you can always charge the cell phone by connecting it to a computer.[tags]Motorola Krzr, Motorola Razr, K1m, Verizon Wireless, Samsung A990[/tags]
Filed under Cell Phones by on Jul 28th, 2007. Comment.
When speaking of unlocked cell phones people are referring to the SIM card; When you purchase an unlocked cell phone you are not restricted into being with a fixed service plan or any specific network as it can be operated from any one of them. In essence what this boils down to is that you just purchase the phone and with the service plan you are not signing up with any type of cellular service provider. This is ideal for people that are not looking to buy a service/phone plan combination or that are looking to own a certain type of phone that are unable to buy from their local retailer for that particular cellular phone provider.
Why Aren’t Cell Phones Unlocked in the First Place?
To guarantee a customer stays with a particular service provider all cellular service providing companies electronically lock their cell phones, to ensure they may only be used with their network. This is done with the SIM card which stores all the phones customized information, when it connects to the provider’s network, the SIM card is sent an electronic signal which prevents another provider’s network from accessing the card; this is where roaming charges come from, one company charging another to use it’s service towers.
How Can One Unlock a Cell Phone?
There are ways to unlock a cellular phone by entering a particular code which will remove the electronic lock placed on it. There are companies which sell this information on the internet; these companies will research the phone figure out its SIM card’s code and send it to the end user to unlock their phone to use with another service provider. This could be very helpful to a person who travels frequently for work or pleasure, as it may reduce roaming charges; unlocked cell phones may connect to any network.
Sometimes Unlocking a Cell Phone isn’t all it’s cracked up to be
Unlocking a cellular phone doesn’t guarantee that the phone will work with all networks, the only way to guarantee an unlocked cell phone will work is to purchase it new from a third party dealer. Alternately if one were to choose to unlock an existing cell phone their first choice should be to ask their provider to unlock it. The reason for this is simple, because there is no “hacking” into the phones memory or dealing with a third party vendor that little is known about, going directly to the company is probably a safer route.
An Unlocked Cell Phone May Not Be for Everyone
The one downside and one of the reasons that most people shy away from buying an unlocked cell phone from a third party distributor is the price tag; essentially what you pay for an unlocked cell phone is very close if not the same as the manufacturers suggested retail price. Because of this the majority of people make the choice to buy a cell phone/service plan, in one package which will allow the person to get the phone for free or nearly free, when they put their signature on the dotted line as the saying goes.[tags]Unlocked Cell Phones, cellular service provider, cellular phone[/tags]
Filed under Cellular Phone Tips by on Jul 26th, 2007. Comment.