T-Mobile Prism Prepaid Android Phone (T-Mobile)

I'm an experienced Android user, and so far the phone is working pretty well. We'll see how long it lasts after the first full month of use. The features on this phone are nice, the screen is simple and the phone is thin and light. Plenty of space for music, photos, and videos. Added with an SD card, it holds a lot. I don't normally care for touch screen keyboards but I'll make an exception for this one. Tipping the phone sideways lengthens the keyboard and makes texting easier. The web browsing is excellent, very clear and allows full page exploration. Comes with the Android Gingerbread system, which is nice. Its fast and has a lot of nifty features. Overall, excellent phone.

Let's get something out of the way first, this is not a power device for the experienced smart phone users. Android devices spread all spectrum of user base and the PRISM is squarely aim at the first time demographics. Powered by a 600 MHz single core processor, this phone is only about 60% speed of my Spring XPRT which is more than a year old at this point. With this said, the menu transitions are snappy and most applications hums along in a self assure pace without missing a beat. The 3.5 inch 320x480 resolution screen isn't going to win any awards, but it is colorful, clear, sensitive and pretty useable. Unlike the SPRINT devices, TMOBILE only loaded minimal amount of crapware onto this.

If you are already a Google family like mine, the suite of software works right outside the box. Gmail, Drive, Music, Talk are integrated and functions transparently. I miss the ability to integrate with Google voice like I can with a Sprint device but this is not a fatal flaw. As an added bonus, WIFI calling (basically voice over IP via WIFI) works right out of the box and can be used to make free phone calls when you are at home. PRISM comes with a GPS, Bluetooth, WIFI(b/g/N), 2G/3G mobile data speed, accelerometer, proximity sensor and a digital compass. The operating system is v2.3.5 (Gingerbread)which is more speed optimized than many of the 2.2 devices still out there. The on board camera clocks in at 3.15 MP, 2048x1536 pixels but I would only use it in cases of emergencies or for people simply don't know any better (which is more or less the same assessment of most of the mobile cameras). 2GB SD card comes standard with the phone but you can expand to 32GB if you want (but... why?). If you do any traveling, this device operates with both GSM 850/900/1800/1900 and HSDPA 850/1700/1900/2100 networks. This means this phone will function in most of countries with a GSM network infrastructure.

This is one smartphone that doesn't break the bank! $20 on contract or $150 off contract, this device is comparably superior than similar offerings from Samsung such as the DART. I bought this device for my 11 year old son on a PAY as you GO plan and he had no problem leaving the dumb phone world behind after a few minutes of fiddling. This is a great device for first time SMARTPHONE users. Although racing Ashalt 6 probably isn't appropriate, give PRISM a shot if you simply need a reliable device to make/receive phone calls while learning what all the BUZZ with the SMARTPHONE world is all about.

Pro:

* A very cheap device ($20 on contract, $150 off)

* WIFI calling works and doesn't use plan minutes.

* Integrated phone books with Google contacts.

* Ability to switch to pay by day plan right on the phone.

* Minimal bloatwares installed

* Although a very slow device, there were very few crashes or lockups. Resource management seem to work pretty well out of the box.

* Can utilize over 40,000 programs for the Android ecosystem.

Con:

* Very limited internal storage (< 200MB). Programs have to be installed on internally memory while data (i.e. music, books, movies) can be loaded on the SD.

* Fairly slow by the modern standards. Some programs won't run well because of the low processor speed(i.e. games, Netflix, etc).

* Virtual keyboard a pain to use (Hint: learn to use swype).

* Included Camera is next to useless.

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I have a number of different Android phones in my household, ranging from this one to much higher end ones. Each has its advantages and disadvantages. Which one is best for you depends on your needs.

The biggest advantage of this one is price. I got it as a lightning deal. If it hadn't been for that, I might have gotten a Samsung Exhibit II 4G Prepaid Android Phone (T-Mobile) which is a MUCH better phone. I have experience with that one, and its predecessor, and they are pretty good low end Android phones.

The biggest disadvantages of this phone are features, amount of ROM and processor speed. They curtail what you can do with it, but meet my needs anyway. If you have a phone at home, in your office, and have hands free calling in your car, you might need a lot less in a phone than others do. I have fairly constant access to a computer, except when I'm driving, in which case I won't typically use a phone for more than making phone calls.

This phone has a 3.2 MB camera. That's good compared to even good phones from five years ago, but bad compared to even cheap point and shoot cameras. Likewise the video camera capability is fairly basic and won't look very good on a big screen TV. Still photos will be adequate as long as you don't plan to zoom or crop. For me that's not a big issue because even the best Android phones have cheap lenses, digital zoom, and no viewfinder. So a better phone would not help me and I'll stick with a camera when I need one.

This has a rear facing camera. Without a front facing camera, applications such as Skype are limited to voice, at least in one direction. There's no light on the phone, so everything from the simplest flashlight app to taking pictures in relatively dark areas won't work.

The processor is too slow to watch something like Netflix without it being jerky. It's not impossible to use for that purpose, but it won't be very good. Then again, even the best processors won't do me much good if I have to use a display that's this small. I'm not likely to want to watch a movie on a moderately bigger screen such as with a Samsung Galaxy S II anyway, so I'll have to live with Netflix or Amazon at home. But that would be the case with the best Android phone for me so it's not a loss.

This phone has 3G, not 4G. That can be much slower. If you live in an area without good 4G coverage, it won't make a difference. And with WiFi, you can get by without either of them. Given my situation, I won't have a problem at home, at the office, or while driving, and even places like Starbucks or my doctor or dentist have WiFi these days. So do some entire cities in Silicon Valley. So do some airports, but the lack of it can make things tougher. In my case it's so rarely needed that I don't have a data plan. So 4G would not help me at all. When pressed, I ask whoever I'm traveling with to look things up.

Although it's easy to get a much larger microSD card for very little money, there are many things that can't be installed on it, and it's easy to use up the phone's ROM fairly quickly. If you are planning to use mostly built-in apps, it's not a problem. I've downloaded under a dozen of my 100 Amazon apps, since I limited it to the ones I actually use. And I added a small handful from the Play store. That alone used up almost all of the ROM. Then again, I have what I anticipate on the phone. So if you plan to add every interesting app that comes along, let's hope they can go on your SD card.

I do use things like Google+, calendar and on-line directory and it's nice having things synced automatically. But for me it works when I'm near WiFi. That's fine because I won't need to use those things away from my phone except when I'm near a computer as mentioned. Syncing my contacts and calendar automatically once a day should be fine, and realistically it will happen much more than that. Plus, with Google+ I won't have to worry about storing my photos and videos locally, and won't have to worry about transferring them since it's automatic. The resolution is good enough given the screen size that when looking at photos on G+ not taken with the phone, it won't make a difference.

Some things such as syncing your phone directory to T-Mobile's MobileLife will NOT work over WiFi. But even without a data plan, they will work over 2G if you turn it on. If you plan to use the navigator, set it up to plan the trip before you leave, while you still have WiFi, unless you will have reliable 3G. In my case I have navigators in all my cars, so it's not a big loss for me.

For somebody with needs like mine, who wants calendar, contacts, and photos synced, wants to be able to make calls or send messages from anywhere there's reception, this phone might work fine. It has the look and feel of other Android phones, but not the capabilities. But it might not meet those needs either. After a few days, mine started rebooting randomly throughout the day. That can be annoying during a phone call, more than annoying when you are using the navigator while driving, and an even bigger problem if the navigator can't resume after a reboot. After an extensive web search I found that random rebooting is a common problem for this phone. I found no clear solutions. A possible cause, according to some posts I read, was clearing out cache and user data for apps I never used. I may have done that because there's simply no other way to have enough room for adding a handful of apps. So if you can accept the apps it comes with and very little more, and the phone goes more than 30 days without rebooting for no reason, then this might be a good choice for you.

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This phone looks good for how much it costs, and it works well. It lacks the features of some other phones that aren't much more expensive, but that's as one might expect anyway. I got it for $129 on Amazon with Prime shipping. For a moderate increase in price, the Samsung Exhibit II 4G is much faster, has a little more screen size, and front/rear cams with led flash on the back. The Prism is better in terms of price, but many user might be disappointed with the feature set. On the plus side, Huawei's speakers sound pretty good and the battery life seems to be decent. This is my second Huawei-manufactured handset and I'm impressed with how much they give you for the price charged. This phone is a great value, but it is definitely not a high-performance rig.

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I am a 20 year old guy, who was looking for a simple phone, so I figured I would go with the prism. after reading a few reviews and watching some videos, i figured it looked pretty good. Here are a few things about the phone that I don't like. Right away, I found out that the phone does not have call waiting (even though it states it does), and I hung up on my boss. Also I'm not a big texter but after 2 weeks i have to manually erase all my messages, or else all incoming texts are blocked, so i have no clue who sent it just a notification that someone tried texting me. another thing, the phone comes with 2gb of memory, which is absolutely useless because after the phones internal memory is full, it notifies me that i have low memory and to transfer all apps to sd card. apps that are preloaded with the phone cannot be transferred, and this blocks you from being able to download apps. Now onto the actual apps, the apps will not open 2 out of 3 times. When I am driving, I am often tempted to throw the phone out the window because I am so frustrated by how it closes my apps on its own. the internet connection is terrible as well, and the phone is extremely slow all together. This phone is terrible, I wish i had saved my money and bought a better one. My advice, save your money and invest in a better phone/plan.

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