Kyocera Marbl / K132 / Velvet
Average Ratings
An OK Phone
Kyocera could do better. I' m not too thrilled with my Marbl.
Pros:
Real Ringtones
Durable
Thin
Speaker Phone
Easy Web Access
Very Fast
Cons:
No Camera
Speaker Phone is difficult to access
Ignorant
I love my Marbl phone
I bought my Marbl with Virgin Mobile and I'm very happy with it.
Pros: Cheap rates with Virgin Mobile! You don't have to be afraid of running up a bill.
Good sound quality, clear and loud.
Navigation is very intuitive and I was making calls and receiving voice mail in no time.
Virgin Mobile's web service is based on the Openwave browser. This is basic WAP browsing, but I've been able to get a lot of functionality out of it by using WAP sites and by preprocessing regular sites through the search service at http://m.yahoo.com. As soon as I figured out how to add bookmarks, I was rolling. Virgin Mobile does not seem to be metering my data use, either - again no fear of high cost.
I had never texted on a phone before, and I was surprised how easy it was to pick up this skill. By using Yahoo! mobile Messenger, I was able to do light messaging, and I was able to view my Yahoo! freemail in text format.
Cons: If you're used to a high end phone, the color screen will not have a high enough resolution or size for you. For what I do, this is not really an issue.
The Openwave web browser, on Virgin Mobile's connection, is slow! This wasn't a real issue with WAP sites or Yahoo! Mobile's own pages, but I felt it when I had Yahoo! preprocess regular pages. If you need something more like real web browsing, you will need to choose a higher level phone capable of Opera Mobile.
But overall, this is a great phone for a young person or anyone on a budget, and for a backup phone for anyone. I wholeheartedly recommend it.
Want a good phone? This isn't it...
So, you're on a budget and you need a phone. You walk into your local Wal Mart in hopes to find a good cheap pay-as-you-go device, and you come across the display of the Marbl. for $20 you think "hey, it'll do what I need and keep me connected," but the saying "You pay what you get for," is the perfect motto for this phone.
To begin with, when I first pulled this phone out of it's package, I felt like I was handling a child's toy. It was made of a thin hard plastic that you would feel used on a toy gun, so it felt like it could fall apart in my hand. Another big issue I had with this phone was the text messaging. While yeah, texting was capable, it was not moving as fast as I would have liked. So typing out a message became tedious simply because I would have to wait for the typed text to catch up with me. The display on the phone was pretty low res and ugly, displaying some very unattractive colors. The preloaded ringtones were something awful. Very generic and grainy sounding tones. Yes, you could download a ringtone or two, but with how low the volume stayed, you really didn't want to waste your money. As with most Kyocera phones in the Virgin Mobile lineup, this phone had no bluetooth, so if you are thinking you are getting this phone and it has the bluetooth, think again. Last but not least the keypad felt very odd on this phone. Hard plastic buttons that almost clicked when you pressed them made me not want to text at all.
Now for the good... Voice calls. This phone was great with the calls, never actually had calls drop or anything. Not bad quality voice and I was told that the mic was pretty sharp and I was heard clearly.
So, in closing... If you are buying a phone just to make voice calls, this is a pretty decent phone for $20. If you are wanting any of the bells and whistles, even text, look for something a little better. The extra money spent will be worth it.
Well..... about this...
I got this phone as something easy to text my friends with. something cheap and easy to use. Well now i need everything it DOESN'T have to offer. I love playing music and sampling music off phone's Internet. the only problem, i need a friends phone to do that. sound reception is poor, lack of battery life (i have to recharge every nite and i cant even leave it on for more than a day), lack of, well, STUFF! no front display, no camera, no really spectacular graphics, it looks bad(my friends make fun of it and call it the Barbie phone), etc. There is maybe one good thing- if you are looking for a cheap phone for emergencies only, or you will use a phone maybe once or twice a week, here's your phone! Mine was a mere 20 bucks.
overall-
PROS: CONS:
Small graphics
light reception
cheap features
durable load time
no antenna battery life
looks
EWWWWWWWWWW LOUSY
Who in the world would name this phone the Velvet. It feels like crap in your hand. The color is so obnoxious that Stevie Wonder wouldnt even use it. Kyocera shouls stick to making kitchen knives. I have a nice set of ceramic knives that could hold a better conversation than this lousy phone.
It is so NOT user friendly. Did I mention that the color is Gnarly gross. I think the cup and string I used when I was a kid worked better than this piece of trash. I though it in the garbage, and when I got home it was on the curb with a note from the trash man. He said, and I quote,
"Please dont ever ever think that I want this piece of crap in my truck"
Guess what? IT sucks
Oh it's bad... It's REALLY bad.
This is absolutely the s...l...o...w...e...s...t... phone I have ever seen. When texting, I can have the message typed out with my fingers before it is actually finished inputing itself on the screen. The delay is that bad. Sure this phone is extremely cheap, but that doesn't mean it should be marketed or sold...
Pros:
+ Inexpensive.
+ Light-weight.
+ Nice compact size.
Cons:
- Display is absolutely horrendous.
- Sound is pitiful. Forget downloading a ringtone, because you won't even be able to make out what it is once you get it.
- SLOW! I cannot stress how badly this phone lags. I've waited up to 10 seconds for the menu to open up after pressing the soft key.
Now, I realize that this phone isn't meant for multi-media tasks such as internet usage (which, by the way, is so slow that it will take a good 10+ minutes for a single page to load, but even the most basic and cheapest of phones should be able to competently send texts and have quick menu navigation, and this phone can do neither. My advice, spend the extra 10 or 20 dollars and get the next step up, whatever it may be.
you get what you pay for
i got this phone cuz my snapper stopped charging and i needed something to last me a little while. while i do like the size of the phone, i miss the features of my snapper not to mention the speed.
Pro's:
Small size
Pretty decent signal
Shortcut keys in 4 way toggle
Cheap replacement phone
Good Voice quality
Con's:
No external caller ID
No AIM
No Camera
No Frills
SLOW SLOW SLOW screen changes
You have to buy decent ringtones & wallpapers from VMU
vibrate could be stronger (nothing from VM beats the shorty)
battery life not as long as they say
EXTREMELY SLOW
conclusion:
if you're just looking for a phone that can last you while you're getting your other one fixed or if it was stolen or something get the phone. If you just want a basic phone get it. Really this phone is targeted toward older adults who want to go pre paid.
Where's The Battery??
Pros: Great Size, great menu, easy to use
halfway attractive.
cons: POOR-POOR-POOR (read junk) Battery life
able to 6-8 hrs. in standby with NO CALLS PLACED OR RECEIVED. lESS IF I'M SILLY ENOUGH TO TRY TO USE IT AS A PHONE & MAKE A COUPLE OF CALLS. Virgin referred me to Kyocera who promptly referred me back to Virgin (we know who Larry and Moe are now - where's Curley?).
The salespeople @ Radio Shack just look confused. So,,, saved my receipt and back she goes. Also, the 1900 cdma is "iffy" - think not? Drive by a police cruiser who is broadcasting on the radio or using the radar then watch your call dump. These are as bad as the tu** radios Qualcomm used to dump on the military .... guess the axiom about "beware equipment from the low bidder" is true.
FIRST KYOCERA phone!!!
PROs:
a)Sleek design
b)Internal antenna
c)Excellent sound quality, better than Motorolla and LG
d)built in Speaker.
CONs:
a)Too many pop-ups in the software.
b)Would have been better if it had Bluetooth
Bought the phone from CRICKET for $99.Cant ask for more from these low end phones. Does a good jobconsidering its low end phone.
Was impressed with my friends K612 which made me buy this phone from the Kyocera brand
A Decent low end phone!!
Pretty good low end phone.
Really liked the slim and sleek design.As for now never any issues of that sort. Hopefuly this continues in the future too.
PROs:
a)Good slim and sleek Design
b)Speaker sound quality is impressive.
c)Simple and cute UI.
d)No call drops
Cons:
a)Did not like the phone color.
Well this is my first Kyocera phone.It has good network coverage and i liked the ringers.
Houston, TX
