Kyocera Wildcard Prepaid Phone (Virgin Mobile) | 
| Brand: Kyocera
List Price: $99.99
Buy New: $94.99
You Save: $5.00 (5%)
Rating:  15 reviews
Sales Rank: 276
Media: Wireless Phone
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 0 x 0 x 0
Model: Wildcard
UPC: 836182001142
EAN: 0836182001142
ASIN: B000X9IG8Q
Release Date: October 15, 2007
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| Features:
| • | Flip open to reveal full QWERTY keyboard, dual LCD screens; includes 1.3-megapixel camera for still photos | | • | Pay for only the calling time you use with Virgin Mobile's minutes or monthly plans--no annual contract required | | • | Send text/picture messages and chat using AOL/Yahoo! services with optional service; download games and ringtones | | • | Up to 195 minutes of talk time, up to 150 hours of standby time | | • | Includes: Battery and Charger |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com Product Description
Get ready for high-powered messaging, email, chat, and a whole lot more with the ingeniously designed Kyocera Wild Card. An update to the popular SwitchBack, the phone looks like just another candybar style handset. Flip it open, though, and you've got a QWERTY keyboard and a large internal display. It's also one of the first handsets available from Virgin Mobile with Bluetooth wireless connectivity for communication headsets. Other features include a 1.3-megapixel camera, mobile web browsing, and mobile IM and email capabilities (via AOL and Yahoo!). It runs on the 1900 MHz CDMA network with Virgin Mobile's prepaid service, which requires no annual contract. 
The Kyocera Wild Card opens up to reveal a full QWERTY keyboard for easy emails, IM chats, and text messaging. See an overview of the phone's interior. |  | Virgin Mobile Service
With Virgin Mobile, you pay only for the calling time you use. You can choose a plan that's based just on minutes (with rates between 10 and 20 per minute) or a monthly plan with no annual contract (with select plans offering unlimited calling on weekends and after 7pm on weekdays). You can also choose from a variety of mobile messaging plans, which includes text and picture messaging, email, and IM (via AOL and Yahoo!). Virgin Mobile USA's national coverage is powered by the nationwide Sprint PCS network. Virgin Mobile contributes 5 percent of profits from downloadable content to The RE*Generation, its pro-social initiative to help homeless teens, as well as provides postage-paid return envelopes in every new package for customers to recycle old phones. Phone Features
The Wild Card's face features a large, 1.5-inch 65K-color screen with a 128 x 128-pixel resolution. You'll also find a dialpad here and a five-way center button that controls most of the phone's on-screen menus. Flip the phone open to reveal a full QWERTY keyboard, another five-way center button, and call control buttons. The design allows for calling functions to be performed with the phone open or closed. A horizontally oriented 1.8-inch screen (with a 160 x 128-pixel resolution and 65K colors) is placed above the keyboard between the phone's dual speakers. It can hold up to 500 personal contacts, with six numbers as well as fields for email, street addresses, URL, and notes. Because the Wild Card is Bluetooth enabled, wireless communication headsets can be configured with the phone. It also incorporates a jack for an earphone as well as a speakerphone for total hands-free operation. Support for basic text messaging and multimedia messaging (MMS) are built into the Wild Card. When used in combination with the phone's built-in camera, MMS opens up a whole new world of messaging fun. Instant messaging chat is also supported, thanks to an embedded AOL Instant Messenger client. A built-in wireless web browser lets you surf Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) 2.0 sites via the Virgin Mobile Web service. eZiText text entry, which is a technology that makes it easier for people to enter words and text on handsets, is built into the unit-- a plus for mobile email and text messaging users. A number of handy tools ship with the Wild Card, including an alarm, a calendar, and a calculator with a tip calculator. There's also a voice memo application for recording quick notes or numbers. The built-in 1.3-megapixel camera captures great stills and comes equipped with an LED flash, multi-shot adjustment, and a self-timer. Because the Wild Card supports Java applications it is compatible with many Java-based games. Many games are available from Virgin Mobile's wireless download service. You can also customize the phone with custom graphics and wallpapers, many of which are also available from Virgin Mobile. The phone fully supports Virgin Mobile's wireless content service, VirginXtras. Use the pay-per-use service to download ringtones, get content and vote in TV-based polls via the MTV area of your phone, or get jokes and updates from Comedy Central. Pick a celebrity voice to answer your voicemail, or get a Sponge Bob thought of the day. Vital Statistics
The Kyocera Wild Card weighs 4.1 ounces and measures 3.94 x 1.97 x 0.79 inches. Its lithium-ion battery is rated at up to 195 minutes of talk time, and up to 150 hours of digital standby time. It runs on the CDMA 1900 frequency.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 10 more reviews...
 Okay for what it is designed for, but it isn't a substitute for a full smart phone like a Treo or Blackberry. December 14, 2007
Anonymous (United States)
29 out of 33 found this review helpful
Okay for what it is designed for, but it isn't a substitute for a full smart phone like a Treo or Blackberry.
The sound quality should meet your expectations of any cellular phone, not just a prepaid unit. The uptime and reliability of the device is also satisfactory, we never had phone issues such as unexpected reboots or freeze / lockups.
This is an improvement over the clunky and awkward Switchback (first Virgin Mobile phone with decent text messaging keypad) but still woefully lacking in some basic features before it be could be considered on par with common smartphones.
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First, the good characteristics
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1. Sprint provided CDMA network provides decent data bandwidth / throughput, better than what you get with GSM and EDGE (Apple iPhone).
2. Lightweight, easy to open and easy to use keyboard, it weighs less than two packs of cigarettes.
3. More sound effects than a Louisiana Chili contest, excessive menu configurations for customizing basic events like opening and closing the lid can take as long as you want.
5. Setup was a breeze, we registered it online in a few minutes w/o ever having to wait on hold or speaking to a call center rep.
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Less than admirable qualities
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1. The battery door is a puzzle at first, and frustrating.
2 $$$ for basic extra services, the phone only supports blue tooth headsets, so rapid entry of address book contacts requires use of the "Contacts Vault", this is an online WEB entry page at VirginMobileUSA dot cwom that lets you enter address book entries, but you have to pay $1.99 a month to access them, STOP PAYING THE FEE AND THE ADDRESS BOOK IS LOST FROM THE PHONE UNTIL YOU RESUBSCRIBE TO THE MONTHLY FEE.
Messsaging services and VirginXL along with the online access feature to web sites can eat up your TopUpCard balance like popcorn.
We paid $10 for 1,000 IM's, PicMessages, SMS and emails and $5 for a month of web access but only for 5MB every month.
3. Lack of bluetooth support for anything except headphones, we tried pairing a BT keyboard Think Outside Universal Bluetooth Keyboard Stowawaywith no luck. The device appeared in the phones BT menu, but was marked with a "?" and wouldn't pair.
4. No SD or MicroSD slot (like the LF enV VX9900) this phone tries to emulate) , so you spend $$$ downloading music, or you can just put the MP3's on your own web site and download them but you can incur some major expenses just for downloading a few songs, as of this moment we have to pay $5 a month for 5MB of access, two or three songs you already own can destroy that monthly balance if downloaded from your own website.
5. No support for GoogleChat, despite the fact the phone seems to be JAVA OS, it won't support GoogleChat, only the provided AOL and Yahoo! IM.
6. Anemic email support, aside from VirginMobiles email service, they provide "access" to Comcast and EarthLink, we tried testing one of those connections and we received an error our inbox needed to be "updated". When we tried to perform the upgrade, we were greeted with a terse screen asking us to agree another $0.15 a day recurring fee whether we used it or not.
7. LOUSY camera, we set ours to the best resolution of 1280 x 1024 and High picture quality, and the results are the worst we've ever seen. See our uploaded customer image, you may have to guess what the picture is of and the surroundings, the point is at the lighting conditions and distance, this photo should've been tremendously better.
8. No basic copy and paste function, BlackBerry, Treos, Windows PocketPC smartphones and others have basic text select and paste functions so you could copy text from an email and paste into your date book, or copy contact info from an email and paste into the address book.
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Conclusion
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If all you need is easy to use text messaging capabilities and customary cellular phone service then this phone will meet your needs, anything else requires lowering your expectations.
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Future design / feature recommendations
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-Add an SD or MicroSD slot for MP3's, address book backups and data transfers, the cost of SD slot adapters is declining and is affordable when purchased in quantity by a phone manufacturer. Kyocera already incorporates these adapters in other phones and VirginMobile just has to spec' the option in phones they source.
-Include a personal information manager conduit for Windows and Macintosh PC's, the ability to synchronize the address and date book with your computer would propel the sales of this phone.
Consider that many BlackBerry and Treo users use the PDA features of email, calendering, contact manager more than the phone itself. With Virgin current price plans many of these owners would find this phone a feasible and less costly alternative to the common $125 monthly bills paid by many traditional smartphone users.
For $9.99 a month and 1,000 SMS, Pic, IM and Email messages, $5 for 5MB of web access and even $0.18 a minute talk time, this phone would cost us $25-$40 a month versus the $90 we currently pay SprintPCS for a Treo 755.
Also, remember, you don't pay all of the exorbitant taxes on prepaid phones that you do with traditional cell service, or if you are being taxed it isn't being defined when you buy the airtime cards.
Buy a $90 top up card and your service is good for an entire year, instead of having to TopUp $20 every 90 days with the other Virgin Mobile plans.
I like it! January 18, 2008
Yasings (Denver, CO)
11 out of 11 found this review helpful
Fed up with "traditional" plans - I decided to go the prepaid route and purchased this phone for myself and my kids.
So far, so good. We really like the Wildcard phone (and Virgin Mobile's pricing options are reasonable and not too much more expensive than the traditional plans).
Now, I should say that I'm a simple person. To me, a cell phone is brilliant if it allows me to make and receive calls(and texts) in the most concise, efficient, inexpensive manner possible. All other features are icing IMO.
That being said, as far as the prepaid market is concerned, I think the Wildcard is a great phone. The calls are clear (though the speaker function sounds kinda scratchy) the signal is strong and the ringer is loud. Physically, the phone is attractive and a convenient size. (We, too, initially had a problem getting the battery compartment to open - OMG! Fort Knox is less secure!).
The qwerty keyboard is as nifty as it is handy to use and the screen has nice colorization. The battery life is really good. I absolutely love the backlighting and 1-touch and voice activated dialing features. The internet works fine - though I'm too cheap to use it often (LOL). I do have to confess I've downloaded a ringtone or two (OK, three) as me and my kids really love that feature. The camera works OK - pictures could be clearer, but then again, I use my digital camera - rarely my phone - to take pictures.
I haven't tried the IM or Bluetooth features yet.
As with any product, there are things that can be improved: Now, I realize I'm way older than Virgin Mobile's young, hip, computer savvy target market, and that the Wildcard is not a Smart Phone - but the phone could be more intuitive. For instance, the process of setting up contacts is fine, however, I wish managing contacts were less cumbersome. I would love to be able to have something like 1-touch texting cuz as it stands now, I can click my handy-dandy quick text button on the phone, yes, but I still have to enter the phone number of the the contact I want to text - each time.
Also, I found the description of a couple of Virgin Mobile's monthly plans a little confusing - especially the whole "cash balance" part. However, when I called customer support they were very helpful and informative.
In conclusion - as I said before, I'm easy to please so I really like this phone and all it has to offer. However, if you are looking for a phone akin to a Blackberry or Sidekick, the Wildcard is not for you.
Really great prepaid phone but not best signal December 1, 2007
Antonio Espinoza (Dix Hills (L.I) and NYC)
10 out of 12 found this review helpful
I was intrigued at first by all the phones that Virgin mobile has available. Actually, one of my first phones was a Virgin prepaid phone handed down from my sister. Although it was prepaid I was happy with their prices, their customer service and the signal bars. I would get service almost anywhere, especially in Long Island as well but oddly enough, the Wild Card does not give me the best service. In places where I would have normally had atleast 2 bars the Wild Card barely has any bars at all. I am not sure if this is because Virgin now operates on Sprint's network, however, I cannot recall if Virgin operated on another carrier's network. As far as the phone, it's perfect, honestly, I was looking for a fun and cool fun and something that would work. Up to this point, the phone has not given me any problems, everyone on campus loves it too, and for everything it has, the features, the technology, it seems as if it's a more lucrative and expensive phone but Virgin has set the price very reasonably. The only annoying thing sometimes though, is the continuous alert that the phone has which asks me if I would like to go on AIM or check my e-mail. I am not sure if its because I have the unlimited texting, e-mail, and aim feature which is also another great cheap service from Virgin, or if its something the phone naturally does. All in all, the phone is excellent and the great online compatibilty, such as the Virgin mobile website and the phone, is excellent and efficient. I love the phone for now but plan on witing for the next Verizon EnV to debut and I will most likely make the switch.
Good for such a cheap phone. February 14, 2008
OldLadyGamer (Southern California)
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
Okay, this ain't no Blackberry, but for $99 this is the cheapest querty keyboard phone you can find. Add Virgin's dirt cheap pay as you go plan and it is perfect. Virgin phones have a plasticky feel to them, but it works. Just don't drop it.... The camera quality isn't as good as other Virgin phones, and the Wildcard is also without a video camera, but that's okay. I use it to access e-mail and for a nominal (about 5 min. per month) amount of phone calls.
 Okay, as far as it goes May 10, 2008
Liz (Boston, MA, USA)
6 out of 7 found this review helpful
I was a T-mobile prepaid customer, but I wanted internet access (which T-Mobile prepaid doesn't really offer). I was looking at smartphones. A co-worker was selling his Kyocera Wildcard. I've had it for 2 momths now. It's okay, as far as it goes.
Pros:
*Mobile web access. The Sprint network is pretty good as far as data goes. Access is pretty cheap: $1 per day or $5.95 for 30 days or 5 mb. It's nice to type on a full-sized keyboard. Voice coverage can be spotty. I have service at home and at work, but not at my mother's house. She doesn't live in the sticks.
*Sound quality. I don't like Bluetooth headsets, so I haven't tried it.
I used a old-school headset (looks like a pair of headphones, plugs into the phone), and I can hear people fine. They can understand me.
*Minute plans. I'm not a heavy user, so the 200-minute minute pack works for me. I'm not paying an exorbitant amount for minutes, and they roll over. I'm not a huge tetxer, but they also have texting plans.
*Size. It's smaller than a Sidekick, Blackberry, or even an LG EnV.
Cons:
*Camera. I'm a shutterbug, and the camera is terrible. The worst part is that the photos it takes aren't big enough to fill the screen. I've sent picture messages taken with my other phone, and they fill the entire screen.
*Battery life. I have to charge this phone constantly.
*Ringtones. The phone comes with 4 ringtones, and 3 are rap. That's fine if you like rap. I don't. The phone contains sound effects, like for opening and closing the phone, but you can't assign them as ringtones. If you want a non-rap ringtone, you have to pay for one.
*Backgrounds and wallpaper. The ones included are awful. Guess what you have to do if you want a different one?
If all you want is a full-size keyboard and a decent amount of minutes for a good price, without a contract, this phone will work well for you. If you want something more, like a nice camera or something you can customize, you'd probably be happier with a Blackberry or and LG EnV.
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