A good cell phone, but absolutely no peripheral features.
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The good: Very clear voice qualities, acceptable speaker phone function. SUPER cheap ~ AT&T now has this phone as a "(prepaid) GO Phone" @ $9.99 new or $7.99 reconditioned) , somewhat strange but very user friendly key board, nice size, camera fairly good. Absolutely unexcelled Bluetooth connectivity with anything other than my P.C. ~ Grabs my Intellitouch X Link (bluetooth) as soon as I pull into my drive.
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The bad (or less than `good'): Speaker phone may only be engaged AFTER call is initiated. Absolutely NO means of linking with PC by means of USB cable, no memory card capabilities anyway. VERY limited internal memory, P/C- Bluetooth connectability listed buy apparently not supported, I can't figure how to get the VERY LIMITED pictures out of the phone. `Recording' function apparently for phone dialogue only. Slippery, smooth greasy feeling exterior may be negated by adding a "rubberized" snap-on cover.
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Overall critique: For use as a cell phone VERY adequate, easy to use. For anyone wanting only a bare bones, easy to use cell phone, it's great! Has virtually none of the bling-bling non-phone features most cell phone users seem to want now days. Want a good, simple cell phone (only)? Go for it!
Even though this's a prepaid phone, AT&T will assign it to a normal monthly (month-to-month) account without initiating a contract. Nokia 2720 S40 Unlocked Flip Phone with 1.3 MP Camera with Bluetooth--US Version with Full Warranty
I bougtht this from AT&T as an 8 dollar Go phone with 0 minutes. I asked AT&T for the unlock code (they will provide it with proof of purchase from them), and popped my old sim card in. For 8 dollars, this is a great phone. It gets better reception than my old Motorola V190 where I live, and it has bluetooth. Bluetooth is important to me because my state recently banned cell phone use in cars except for handsfree. It is only dual band, so don't buy if you need a quad band. Battery life is decent, and the phone is easy to use. The key press could be better, but it is not a deal breaker nor inadequate in any way. The instruction manual is poor, and it doesn't document all the features. For example, there is a speaker phone, but is is not even mentioned in the manual. The button for it activates once you have made a call. If you play with the keys, you will find all the features. The camera, at 1.3 mega pixels is not great, but I expected that. One nice feature is being able to back up the phone and transfer files to/from a pc via bluetooth using Nokia's free PC Suite software and a $2.95 bluetooth usb adapter from ebay. The phone has a calendar to which you can add appointments, birthdays and the like. You can also add contact info such as address. I don't think the phone has a lot of memory so I don't know how much you can store. By contemporary phone standards, this is a pretty basic phone. For 8 dollars, it was an incredible bargain, and I am quite happy with it. I have an old, original AT&T plan, and the only way I can get a new phone from AT&T is to move to a new (more expensive) plan. So this phone meets my needs very well.
I got this phone as a replacement phone for my father. He had been using a Motorola V195, but it suddenly stopped working after many years of faithful service. I was looking for a simple, easy to use phone similar to the V195, because he's not tech savvy, and for him, the simpler, the better. The Nokia 2720 S40 Flip fit the bill. An added bonus is that the call quality is much clearer on the 2720. It's a straightforward flip phone, with some nice features. In fact, after setting up his phone, I liked it so much, I bought one for myself, to replace a Samsung flip phone. But the 2720 I bought for myself came from WalMart, for $31/shipped site-to-store. The phones are similar, but not identical. I'll do my best to explain the differences below:
To begin with, the Amazon 2720, even though it says "US Version with Full Warranty", does NOT come with a full US warranty from Nokia. The good folks at UnlockedCellPhoneKings, who filled the Amazon order, explained to me that ALL UNLOCKED CELL PHONES void the manufacturer's warranty! They also stated that Amazon writes the headings for the ad and they have no control over what Amazon writes. In terms of the warranty that does come with the Amazon 2720 -- THEY (UnlockedCellPhoneKings) provide their OWN warranty (in this case, a 1 year warranty). And while that's better than nothing, it is not the true full US warranty that comes with the WalMart pre-paid Nokia 2720. Furthermore, the WalMart prepaid 2720 comes in a sealed package, with the actual manual that's specific to the 2720. The 2720 that I got from UCPK's came was in a generic box with a generic manual. I called UCPK's to ask why, and they explained that they buy in bulk, then put together packages after they get an order. They claimed that the phones are brand new, but there's really no way of knowing that. I would suggest that if you buy one of these phones from Amazon, rather than from WalMart, you buy it from UnlockedCellPhoneKings -- they were a pleasure to deal with, and they have a toll free number.
As far as the phone itself, I prefer the one from Amazon. It has certain options (i.e. it allows you to re-configure BOTH soft key pads, rather than just the left soft key pad), and the home page (the page you see when you first open the phone) has the time in a much bigger font than the WalMart 2720. But that's basically aesthetics, and each person's preferences are going to be different. In terms of actually using the phone, they're both easy to set up and easy to use. (I had read that some people felt the volume was too low when using the speakerphone. I think the reason is that the speakerphone does not use the same volume setting as the normal mode. You have to press the up volume button while you're on the speakerphone in order to increase the volume to a more audible level.) The only real drawback I found is that these phones are fingerprint magnets. I would suggest getting some inexpensive face plate covers (front and back), since they faceplates not only provide protection to the phone, but also they cut down considerably on the fingerprints.
In terms of a simple, easy to use flip phone, the 2720 does a good job, and these types of basic phones are becoming harder and harder to find. And while I like some of the features of the Amazon 2720 better than the WalMart 2720, for the price, I'd go with the WalMart 2720 for $31/shipped to the store. The one inconvenience, as another reviewer pointed out, is the fact that there's no USB outlet or removable memory card on the 2720, so even though it takes photos, there's no simple, direct way to GET the photos from the phone to your computer. There are two possible options. 1 is to get a USB Bluetooth dongle to plug into your computer. You then pair the phone with the computer (but not as a modem) and you can transfer files from the phone to the computer, or vise versa, IF you have the right software. (Nokia has 2 free software suites -- Nokia PC Suite (which is older), and Nokia OVI Suite. Even though PC Suite is older, a lot of users seem to prefer it to the newer OVI Suite. Both are available for free download on the Nokia site.)
Another option is to get a USB SIM card reader. They work like memory card readers, and range in price from around $8 to $30. I read some reviews and the cheaper ones don't seem to work all that well. The one that seemed to get the highest reviews was the: Dekart SIM Card Reader + SIM Manager 2 software. Here's the Amazon link: http://www.amazon.com/Dekart-Card-Reader-Manager-software/dp/B0045BIUGG/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1296592924&sr=8-5. It can also be purchased directly from the Dekart site: [...](Personally, I find the shipping costs to be ridiculous from both places, but I was unable to find this item from any other source other than Amazon or Dekart directly.)
(NOTE: I have T-Mobile, and the SIM cards from the old phones worked perfectly in both the Amazon 2720 and the WalMart 2720. I simply inserted the old SIM cards, synced them with the built-in phone address book memory, and was on my way. The folks at UCPK's explained that the 2720's that they sell are designed to work fully with T-Mobile. They will still work with AT&T, but not all of the options will be fully operational. The ones from Walmart appear to be locked into T-Mobile, but I'm not 100% sure about that.) - Unlocked - Flip Phone - Cell Phone - Unlocked Phones'
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