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CNET editors' rating:
3.5 stars
Very good
Detailed editors' rating - Average user rating: 3.5 stars out of 50 reviews
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Product summary
The good: VGA camera; easy to use; speakerphone; solid call quality with analog roaming; decent standby battery life.
The bad: Ho-hum design; limited multimedia messaging; no infrared port.
The bottom line: With a VGA camera and lots of custom content, this phone is cooler than it looks and should appeal to users who want to avoid lengthy--and costly--service contracts.
Specifications: Band / mode: CDMA 1900; Combined with: With digital camera; Weight: 3.7 oz See full specs
CNET editors' review
- Reviewed on: 11/11/2004
A small external display shows the time, the date, battery life, signal strength, and caller ID (where available). Though the screen is monochrome, it's easy to see in direct light. Other exterior features were minimal. The camera lens and the flash are on the lower-left corner, while a volume rocker and a convenient camera button sit on the left spine.
Inside, the phone features a bright, 1.75-inch-diagonal display capable of showing 65,000 colors. One place that Virgin does innovate a little is with the menu system. Rather than using text and small icons, the V7 offers large, colorful symbols for its settings, pictures, and messaging categories. Likewise, the navigation buttons and the keypad are clearly separated, well organized, and easy to navigate. A four-way, circular toggle offers one-click access to account information, text messaging, call history, and data services.
The Virgin Mobile Flasher V7 comes loaded with a number of consumer-friendly features, including a contact manager with a 99-name address book that has room in each contact for three phone numbers. Contacts can also be organized into caller and messaging groups and be paired with a ring tone or a picture for caller ID. Unlike many midrange phones, the V7 also works as a speakerphone and supports voice dialing. Other features include a vibrate mode, text messaging, multiple call timers, a scheduler, an alarm clock, a world clock, and a usage alert. The last of those is particularly handy because this is a pay-for-play phone. Rather than subscribing to a yearlong contract, Virgin Mobile users prepay for their cell time. They can access their account information through the phone's menu system and find out exactly how much money or calling time they have left before they need to load up on more.
Perhaps the most important addition to the V7 Flasher is the VGA camera. It includes a 4X digital zoom and a flash, but the image quality is nothing you would want to print out. Still, it performs adequately for casual snapshots. The LED-based flash is good for a few feet but not much more. The Flasher V7 can also take pictures when closed, and unlike many phones at this level, it offers an image preview on its external display.
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User reviews
- Average user rating: 3.5 stars out of 50 reviews
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