Kyocera Cyclops K325 / K312
Average Ratings
By Your Command
If your TV wasn't tuned to ABC at 8:00 every Sunday night during the late 70s, the title of this review will make no sense. For this I apologize.
What makes no sense to me, however, is why this spiffy little contraption has no reviews.
Perhaps its initial price alone was sufficient to keep the Virgin faithful away from Kyocera's latest offering; the Cyclops launched at $99, which is a bit of a stretch for a mainstream prepaid user like myself. I dunno.
Or maybe it was the name, or the color of the thing. It comes off looking a little feminine, to be sure, with its glossy pearlescent finish and its saucy red stripe down the center. Color this baby black, keep the stripe, and call it the Onyx or some other equally gender-neutral moniker, and you've got yourself a hit. Cyclops are big, nasty scary things, after all; who's gonna want to put one in their pocket, regardless of how girly it looks?
Either way, the phone performs well. It's no signal magnet like the Shorty, but it's got great earpiece clarity and volume, and like most Kyoceras it's put together well. The screen could be better, but after snagging one at Best Buy for $70, I can hardly complain.
PROS:
+ Good voice clarity
+ Well-constructed
+ Improved Kyocera UI
+ No external antenna--very pocketable
+ 1.3 megapixel camera
CONS:
- Screen's a little dim
- Not the best reception in fringe areas
- Glossy white phones make me feel like dancing
The fact that this is one of Virgin's top-shelf handsets speaks more about Virgin than it does about the phone itself. It's an unassuming little device that won't let you down as long as you're not looking for miracles.
Not Very Good
This phone is terrible. It has a horrible battery life and it scratches very easily. The sound quality is bad also. Overall, the best thing I can say about this phone is...I really can't think of anything.
its ok
i think this phone stinks in a nice way it had its moments of freezing up the camera was poor, what i like about this phone was they made it durable it was not made cheap the body was good and they had nice bright colors red and white, would i recommend this phone? no to someone that text alot but if you are a talker its good had no problems
don't have it buttt
I don't have this phone but I used to and my boyfriend currently does.
I do agree that this is not the best phone in the world but it is an older model phone and is going to have things that aren't as snazzy as some of the new phones
CONS
The camera quality on this phone is very bad. When you zoom in the quality of the picture gets grainier instead of clearing things up.
The phone gets dirty easily because the phone is white. When you scratch the phone it is more visible to the naked eye.
PROS
This phone is very durable. I dropped it in the bottom of a mud puddle and it still worked. The only thing that happened is I had to buy a new charger because the old one got mud in it.
I've also thrown it against the wall and it has stayed together and never had a problem with it.
Very clear speakers. Anytime I have ever talked on this phone I have been able to hear the other person on the line wonderful. They have also been able to hear me with no problems
Ehhh
I actually received this phone as a gift last year. I have to say for a VM prepaid phone this thing wasn't half bad. I'm a butterfingers so I can see that this phone is not built for durability. I have dropped this phone several times and the paint has chipped from the silver piece covering the camera lens
Pros-
great daytime pictures
loud speaker/ringtone
front pocket stasher
hold for vibrate side button
Cons-
easy to scratch
cheap screen
no hotkeys
the button for the camera is pretty much useless since the center ok button works
crappy cyclops
the cyclops is a terrible phone. the camera is terrible as you zoom in the quality get much worse.then its very scratchable the phone is a overall piece of junk
pros cons
bad camera
horible service
very durable
good battery life
sweet phone
this phone is awesome!!! i just got it today, but i know how to work a phone and be satisfied. This phone is everything i want and need. I had a switch_back also with Virgin Mobile, and i hated it. The navigation button being in the middle of the phone was stupid and made it hard for me to type the right words. but anyway, this phone is easy to text on. the keys are nice and big and the red back lit keys are sweet. never seen that on a phone before. besides the LG chocolate and the flip version of the chocolate. But other than them, ive never seen it. the screen is big and bright, the camera seems horrible over the phone, but its not really good until the pics are uploaded into "My Pix" on the VMU site. The sound quality on it is idk. i haven't made any calls because i love to text and need to save my balance for texts and IM's. the ringtones are loud too. The preloaded ones are crap. they are always stupid on VM phones. Overall, this phone is freakin' sweet!!!
THE Prepaid Option
If your credit isn't good enough for a billed line of service with a major carrier, your phone options are limited. Qwest? Forget about it. They offer ONE prepaid phone. T-mobile offers the Sidekick 3 at $400 -- but one of the side-effects of having bad credit is you don't have $400 dollars to plop down on a prepaid piece of mobile equipment. You could go halfsies and get a RAZR with its measly VGA camera but really the way to go is the Cyclops. J.D. Powers rated Virgin Mobile best prepaid service and for good reason. The hipster operator had me up and running on my phone over my 15 minute break at work.
Now that I have my Cyclops, what can I do with it? I'm surfing the mobile web at $5.00 a month (compare to $5.99 for T-Mobile billed service). Using the OZ email client, I can check my Yahoo! mail anytime I want. My pictures are topnotch as long as I pick the correct white balance for the situation and don't use the flash (which makes them look very blue). Best photo technique: flip open the phone (but don't raise it) push the OK button on the middle of the direction pad to go to picture taking mode, get as close as possible to subject and hit the same button again while framing.
What else can I do? Well I'm using mp3 ringtones and will probably get a William Shatner answering message. The USB cable is on its way thanks to EBay (Virgin is out of stock and Kyocera wants $40--no dice). From there, I *should* be in as good of shape as if I had the sd card option.
The Cyclops supports nearly everything Virgin can offer, and I'm paying MUCH less than I would on any billed plan with the same features. Calling is 6.99 monthly + 10c/minute + 1000 txt/pix at 9.99 + 5.00 for web and 3.00 for VXL comes to less than 40.00. Compare to Cricket (not as fun for the same price or more) or T-Mobile billed (Basic Plus 29.99 + 9.99 also for 1000 messages + 6.99 for t-zones + 1.49 for callertunes). I'm almost happy I failed that credit check. I'm spending less dough.
Impressed and Suprised
I bought my phone about a month ago because i needed something in case of social emergency's (Ben broke up with Gwen, Jason moved out, Tonya is bi now, etc.) and other things i really didn't NEED the phone for. Well the thing was for a long time i could'nt find a phone that could hang with the high standards i had set due to the fact that my last phone was an i870 (boost). Then i came across this phone. It had ALMOST everything i wanted. So I got it. I'm actually Impressed and very surprised about this phone because i really didn't think it had much to offer me.
Pros---------
Great reception (Virgin Mobile)
Fast txting
Loud speaker
Easy menu
O.k camera
Does everything i "need" it to do.
Cons---------
OK camera (Ive seen better 1.3mp photos)
Kinda Flimsy
sometimes (after dropped or while txting) it will turn off all the sudden, not a big deal everything is there wen i turn it back on.
I gave this phone a 4 because all though it wont make you breakfast with English muffins and peach jelly, it gets the job done.
Not bad for a cheap phone, but annoying "alerts"
This hasn't been a bad phone. It works like it should, call quality is acceptable. The ear speaker hole is very small, and if you aren't holding the phone just right, you'll lose the sound entirely. But a little practice and it's not a problem. The stock ringers could be better, and the camera is all but useless. But again, it's a cheap phone.
The one major annoyance for me has been the "missed call alert" function. It can't actually be disabled, despite having the option to select enable or disable in the menu. When disabled, a missed call, unresponded text or voice mail alert, makes the phone beep or vibrate every 5 minutes. Neither Kyocera nor Virgin Mobile seems to know anything about the problem. I've had 3 replacements now, all doing the same thing.
