Audiovox CDM-8500
Average Ratings
Great phone!
I have had this phone for about 2.5 years now. I realize that no one is going to buy this phone anymore but I just had to put my two cents in.
I have read many of these reviews and I can't understand why some people are complaining about it not having a camera or games. It's a phone. You use it to talk to people.
I have had no problems with this phone for all the time I've had it up until about a month ago.
It just seems to shut off on it's own. It isn't a battery life thing. I'm not sure what it is. A few days ago (while it was on the car charger) i would turn it on and then it would shut off, this happened three times in a row. Again, this is just a recent thing but my phone is getting up in age.
This phone has done me well. I'm looking at Samsung a860 right now, but I'm going to wait a bit for reviews.
This phone has been great. I would recommend it to anyone who just wants a phone without all the extra gimmicks.
A Pretty Good Cheap Little Phone
I've had an 8500 for about six months now, and its certainly not bad for what you pay for it ($79 US). First off, it looks great, and the dual-LCD display is convenient, especially if you use your phone as a watch as I do. Wish it had a color display, but for the price I'm not going to complain, and the multiple backlighting colors are a nice touch.
Also, its a tri-mode CDMA phone! The more expensive color 8610 that came out after isn't... kinda a shocker.
Another convenient thing about it is its size- its quite small and handy. I also like the fact that its a flip phone, since that keeps the antennae and battery farther away from your head- yes, I know, they tell us there's no health problems associated with heavy-duty mobile phone usage, but its a technology that's gained mass popularity only relatively recently, so who really knows?
The only cons that I can see are that its 'average' in a number of areas- average battery life, average sound quality- but I thnk the latter is more the phone's fault thatn the network's... on the Sprint network (what Virgin uses), I've never dropped a call... maybe once. My friend on AT&T Wireless sure can't say that.
True cons? Oh wait... the vibrate function could be stronger... it seems set on 'light tingle' rather than vibrate, and you will sometimes fail to notice it if there's a lot going on. Other than that, for the price, its pretty good, especially if you want a tri-mode phone that looks good.
It also has a lot of features like speakerphone and voice memo, though I seldom/never use 'em. But its good that they're there in case I do.
Decent
Overall this phone is halfway decent. It is very small and has alot of extra features like voice activated dialing and speakerphone. I'am using it on the Virgin Mobile Service,nothing special, but its good for a prepaid service.
PROS:
SPEAKERPHONE
VOICE ACTIVATED DIALING
SIMPLE MENUS
SMALL
EXTERNAL ID
CONS:
BATTERY LIFE
NO GAMES
PAINT CHIPS WHEN U USE THE BELT CLIP
ONLY LIKE 2 of 7 BACKLIGHT COLORS ARE DECENT
BAD RINGTONES ALTHOUGH THE DOWNLOADS ARE GOOD
The phone is great for the infrequent user or a teenager but when it comes to making calls indoors on Long Island, GOOD LUCK!
The best phone of...1300 B.C.
This is (was) a great phone. Although it is sorta ancient, it truly is a really good phone...
PROS:
-Simple. None of this high tech stuff
-Very small. Far from big and bulky
-Never broke. I had this phone for 2.5 years and i never had ONE problem
CONS:
-Sorta old. Pretty much it.
So, I mark off .5 of a point because its old. Otherwise....pretty good phone. However, it doesn't really "fit in" with the phones of 2005...going on 2006...lol.
Abominovox 8500
This is the most wretched pile of dung I have ever owned. Not only is it horrible, I paid an outrageous price for it, something like $150 several years ago. I would trade it for a $20 Nokia and be far ahead.
Bad points:
* Absolutely unusable keypad. Extremely touchy trying to use the middle button in the 5 way, and you really need to use that.
* Volume not usable. Single control for ringtone volume and earpiece. If you get ringtone loud enough to hear, the phone will blast your ear.
* Lousy non-intuitive interface.
Good points:
* Wheee! Silver flip phone!
Probably the highest and best use was suggested by Virgin Mobile themselves after I took it down: Gravity testing! Onto concrete from at least 10 stories. This is truly not much more than electronic scrap. If someone offers to give you one, run!
If its what you're looking for...
Decent phone if you want something that will make a call and doesn't have too many features. The size is the primary selling feature, still one of the smallest flip-phones I have ever seen even compared to more modern tech. Different colored backlights, but not a full color screen. Sometimes gets bad signal compared to other phones on same network. Lots of them had problems with "searching", or giving up on even connecting to the network; so be VERY wary if purchasing second hand.
AWSOME!
This was my 1st phone (last year) with virgin mobile and it was so awsome i miss it so much
pros:
-large screen and clear
- 7 diff background colors
-2nd lcd screen
-easy to use
-small
- l o n g battery life
cons:
-little rubber piece easy to loose for charger
-easiest colors to read from for screen are girl colors
-animations are girly
-no color screen or camera
-paint chip easily w. holster
-SCARY clown on the from lcd display when turning on and off
this phone was awsome... but a little hint, DONT bite the antenna the replacemnt ones are horrible
A Fine Starter Phone
I recently upgraded from the Audiovox 8500 to the Flasher V7, using the Virgin Mobile Service. The Audiovox was a pretty cool phone, being that it was one of my firsts, and I didn't really know what else was out there.
As soon as I upgraded phones, I realized that the 8500 really wasn't anything special. Don't get me wrong, it is a really nice phone, but the features don't quite cut it.
Pros;
- The design is a really nice one. It appeals to the more fashion-consious tyoe.
- The backlight colors. When the phone rings, the front display flashes all of it's colors.
- The keypad color. I really loved the blue.
- World clock, calculator.
- Downloadable ringtones.
Cons;
- Phone quality service. When ever i'd call some one, it's really hard to hear. Could be that I'm living in a less densley populated area.
- Service. I hardly EVER had service. I couldn't do anything, without a full bar of service.
- When theres no service, the clock dosn't appear, along with that date on the screen. Instead, it says 'roaming', so you have to get the clock manually, which is a pain, considering you just wan't to check the tme.
- No games.
- Calender, and the events manager wasn't very easy to manage.
- The graphics are REALLY girly... Sunflowers, clowns with hearts, teddy bears.. None for guys.
So, overall.. It's a nice little starter phone if you've tried none other. Hopefully you'll be living in a larger city to get the full service that is expected. I enjoyed my time with this phone, but sometimes its just better to move on :)
Audiovox=Horrible
At first it was a great phone. I accepted that the ringer was very quiet and that the phone i *just* bought needed a software upgrade. However I found the signal indicator to be going up and down like a yo-yo. Sometimes calls never made it to my phone. My carrier used cdma technology yet there was problems with calls so often that I stopped using my cellphone. ( I live 2 blocks from a tower ). The caller often sounded tinny. If I used the phone for more then 15 mins, it started to burn my cheek - this shouldnt happen!
I *LOVE* to text message. I think i send over 50 a day. This phone cant even txt m essage properly... I refuse to use T9 entry, so I set it to Alpha mode... often enough when i would enter jkl 2 times to get k, i got j twice or id get jk. Often if i chose to reply to a txt, the phone would send it to someone who sent me a message and was in the inbox. (This should never happen).
Dialing was another problem. I was dialing a 1-800 number when suddenly it started to speed dial.
Oh and the phone didnt even know how to use the battery properly. Id hang up the phone and suddenly it would beep and warn the battery was low, ( the level was at 2 bars), then it wud just turn off. when i power it back up, it had 3 or 4 bars (and it was freshly charged).
I refuse to ever buy an Idiotvox phone again, and I tell everyone what a crap-phone it is. I now have a Samsung sph-a600 and i love it ( for now ). We'll give this new phone some time before i review it.
One thing i do feel the need to say in Audiovox's defense about people who whine this phone doesnt have a cam.. its a *PHONE* Not an mp3 player, or a theatre system, or a palm pilot, a toaster or a camera. If you want such a device, then *buy* one!!! It's a phone, and thats all it is so don't get mad that your phone is just a phone.
