The Palm Centro comes in two colors, red and black. The red phone is more popular with the females. The Palm Centro has a small keypad; it also acts as a keyboard when the applications of computers are availed on it. The phone is equipped with 1.3 mega pixel camera. The camera has a 2x zooming capacity. The camera lacks flash and also editing options. But still the picture quality is quite praiseworthy but the colors are not that bright as expected. Video recording facility is also available with the camera. The phone has features like speakerphone, three-way calling, vibrating mode, speed dial and a special feature where a text message is immediately sent when one fails to receive a call. The set supports instant messaging as well as text and multimedia messaging.

There is Bluetooth 1.2 support. The memory of the phone is limited. There is place for the contacts list where many numbers can be stored against each entry. Email addresses, web, office or home addresses can also be stored. There is option for storing birthdays against each entry. There are total 37 ring tones in the set, all of which are polyphonic. Call groups can be formed and there is option of putting a photo against each entry or each group. Television channels can also be seen with the help of Sprint T.V. The phone also has an option for playing music of MP3 and DRM protected files. This phone can be used as a wireless modem for a laptop. This set also comes with the game of sudoku loaded.

The picture quality of the phone is fine. The battery can stand up to 3.5 hours of talk time. The phone has an attractive price range. The push email and Bluetooth facilities including some productivity applications are its positive points.

It lacks a WI-Fi. The speakerphone is a bit weak. The keyboard is a little crowded and the hardware is not perfect.

The Motorola W385 (Verizon wireless)

The Motorola W385 is quite a dependable phone. The editors have rated it as very good and the users have given it excellent ratings. The users have provided it with an 8.4 on 10. The phone has good functional quality and has quite a reasonable price of $29. The phone has a color display but the texts come in a tiny form. The display screen of the phone is rectangular in shape and is not too big. The cell has a VGA camera in built, which takes pictures in about three resolutions.

It is equipped with digital zoom; about 10 kinds of frames and the color, brightness are adjustable. The camera does not have a flash facility and is unable to record a video. The photo quality is keeping par with the VGA camera. Self portrait can be taken with the help of the mirror strip available on the front side of the phone. This phone also has a large memory of including about 1000 numbers in the contact list, allowing at least 5 numbers and two email addresses against each entry. The other features are multimedia messaging, voice commands, Bluetooth facility, speakerphone, world clock, calculator, notepad, calendar and also an alarm clock. It also allows the GPS services. The phone also includes 22 polyphonic ring tones and other alert tones. The photo of people can be saved in the memory of the phone against each number or against each group formed. But these photos cannot be seen in the external display of the phone.

The call quality of the phone is fine and quite sharp and the speaker phone works excellently and clearly. The users came with no serious allegations against the phone. The battery supports at least 4 hours of talk time. The phone is user friendly and has an integrated blue tooth support.

Due to the VGA camera the photo quality lacks excellence and the internal display is of a low resolution.

The Kyocera Marbl K127 (Virgin Mobile)

The Kyocera Marbl K127 has received a good response from the editors of the cell review site but the general users are not quite fond of the phone. Still the phone is a good one for basic use and is quite decent for making calls the basic purpose of any phone. This is a flip phone which lacks an external display. The phone is not too big and it easily fits into the pocket and hence easy to carry. The phone has a nice design and is attractive; it has a logo of the virgin mobile inscribed in its body. The display of the set is 1.5 inch. The text size is small and cannot be adjusted, while the contrast and backlight time can be adjusted. The keypad has large buttons which are a bit big for the phone’s size. And the backlight of the keypad is a bit too bright.

The phone’s contact book can store limited contacts of at the most 200 contacts. Each contact entry can hold up to six other phone numbers, two web, two email, and two street addresses. It can also support notes against each entry. There are only 4 polyphonic ring tones. Caller groups can be formed and a ring tone can be assigned to each of them. Photo can be paired with each group for caller ID purpose but this is to be done without the help of camera or multimedia messaging options, so it is a bit useless. The phone also offers two games, Race 21 and Brick Attack. The phone also comes with a WAP 2.0 web browser which helps in downloading and browsing the net. Other regular features of the phone are alarm clock, tip calculator, speakerphone, stopwatch, a voice memo recorder, scheduler, text messaging and a countdown timer.

The call quality and volume is pretty good and the battery supports 3.8 hours talk time.

The phonebook and ring tone selection is too small.

The LG Aloha –LX140 (Virgin Mobile)

This phone has been rated as good by the editors of the cell review site. But the users seem to be quite happy with the phone. Many have rated it as perfect. This is a flip phone with no external display. The screen can be seen when the front flap is opened. There is a red light on the phone which blinks to confirm that the phone is on, it can also be switched off. The size of the phone is average and it is of quite light weight. The internal screen is relatively small according to the size of the phone, it’s only 1.5 inches, and it only supports a text of 8 lines. The backlight and the font size can be changed and adjusted. The keypad is well designed, the buttons are large in size and there is a backlight to have a better view of the keypad. The buttons are at a distance which makes it easier to dial and type. The phone does not have space for a large phone book. It can only support 199 contacts; five phone numbers, three email addresses, one web address and notes can be supported against each contact entry. There are a total 10 polyphonic ring tones. Caller groups can be formed and each group can be assigned with one of the ring tones. There are two games included in this set, the games are, ZooZooClub and Battle Reverse. More games can be downloaded with the help of the phone’s wireless browser. The phone provides a space of 3.5 MB for storing any downloaded content. Other features are a voice memo recorder, speakerphone, alarm clock, a notepad, a scheduler, world clock, text messaging and a tip calculator. It also has voice dialing facility.

The phone is quite a simple one and is very much user friendly. The battery supports three hours of talk time.

The call quality is not too good and lacks external display.