Reviewing T-Mobile's Nokia 2760 Prepaid Cell Phone

There are plenty of prepaid cell phone service options these days. In my household there's been Boost, Virgin Mobile, Verizon Wireless and now T-Mobile. The switch to T-Mobile was due to the fact that unlimited nights for Verizon VS T-Mobile meant paying $1.99 only on the days you use your phone and with T-Mobile $1.00. Though if you text a lot, currently on that plan, Verizon only charges $0.05 a text for send and receive while T-Mobile at the moment costs $0.10 to send and $0.05 to receive. There's also a Sidekick plan requiring the Sidekick prepaid cell phone and has unlimited texting, e-mailing, web browser and instant messaging for a dollar.

One currently good feature about T-Mobile is a $10.00 card lasts for up to 90 days of active service. Verizon requires $15.00 every 30 days regardless of any balance or service becomes interrupted. In the past I missed the day to refill and ended up losing the balance in my phone. Since it seemed pointless to keep refilling $15.00 every month when the phone wasn't being used much, it was time to check out other prepaid plans. Upon searching for a phone within budget that had all the fun gadgets, I came upon the Nokia 2760 flip open cell phone model.

Its sleek design fits easily in most pant pockets and purses. On the outside display is the camera and mini screen displaying the time, date, battery, volume and signal strength. It lights up in a medium blue color. The main screen contains 3 options: Go To, T-zones and Menu. T-zones contains information such as: My Account, Downloads of music, games, applications and more. Access to the web is available in this section.

This phone contains all the usual items in a phone such as alarm, calculator, voice recorder, camera and calendar. One feature is it includes a radio that works with the included Nokia headset. The camera has a zoom feature but using it may result in grainy appearing photos. Photos can be saved and used later as a caller ID photo. Many camera phones don't currently offer the availability to record short video. This Nokia model allows you to shoot up to 2 minutes of video with sound.

The phone comes with two preloaded games. The first one is Petz-DEMO. It's about 60 seconds of game play. The game's object is to take care of a pet by giving him food, water and petting him. After the 60 seconds is over, the game asks if you want to purchase the game's full version. The other game offered is Frogger 25th Anniversary. You may remember Frogger from the Seinfeld episode where the character George played by Jason Alexander tries to escort this classic game across the street through traffic.

The phone including instant messaging from AOL/AIM, ICQ, Windows Live Messenger and Yahoo. E-mailing is also an option from AIM/AOL, Yahoo, Comcast, Earthlink, Gmail and more. If the e-mail company isn't listed via the e-mail link, it can't be access this way but can via the web. It's a good idea to check often on T-Mobile's website to see the rates for both IM's, E-mail and Web as they do charge a fee for the services. Setting up voicemail is simply as the phone offers help for voicemail such as calling voicemail from own phone, landline and while roaming. Also information on how to save a message, change password and playing messages.

The good aspects of this phone: clear display screen, bright colorful icons and easy to navigate. Has the nice feature of a speakerphone. Preloaded ring tones aren't bad. Some bad aspects are: Phone will continue in call unless end button has been pressed. Closing the phone will not result in the phone ending the call or any item opened on the phone. The phone's backlight will not stay on while the phone is in use during a phone call. Also the backlight will not stay on after so 15 seconds unless one of the keys is pressed.

This phone has some fun gadgets, isn't too expensive and is good for those who need a basic prepaid phone. Check out all T-Mobile phone plans to ensure the plan will meet the calling needs before purchasing a prepaid T-Mobile cell phone. Visit T-Mobile online to check that coverage is available in the area the cell phone will be used. This phone can be purchased at Wal*Mart, Best Buy or online at http://www.t-mobile.com/