Manage updates with the Download AppVirgin Mobile Shuttle - red
Manufacturer: UTStarcom Part number: CNETSHUTTLEREDVMB
- More product information:
- Editors' review
- User reviews
- Specifications
- Accessories
- Manufacturer info
- Bottom Line:
- The Virgin Mobile Shuttle is fast, sleek, and affordable, making it one of the most attractive handsets for Virgin Mobile customers.
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CNET editors' review
Virgin Mobile Shuttle - red price range: $350.00
- Reviewed by: Nicole Lee
- Reviewed on: 09/19/2008
- Released on: 09/28/2008
The good: The Virgin Mobile Shuttle has EV-DO, support for location-based services, a music player, and a 1.3-megapixel camera. It also has excellent call quality.
The bad: The Virgin Mobile Shuttle has quirky touch-sensitive keys that are a little too sensitive for our liking. Also, we think the Shuttle's WAP browser and slim multimedia offerings don't take full advantage of the EV-DO.
The bottom line: The Virgin Mobile Shuttle is fast, sleek, and affordable, making it one of the most attractive handsets for Virgin Mobile customers.
User reviews
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Though flawed, Shuttle is VM's best so far.
by TheDevilsPromDate on October 5, 2008
Pros: Resolution is high. 3G speeds are a welcome addition. Form factor is handsome. Micro SD card support. Good camera. Video recording capability. Solid price point and feature set for a no-contract phone.
Cons: Force feedback keys are sensitive, and overly exposed. T9 dictionary has 9th grade vocab & can't learn words. Text entry for WAP browser apps, AIM, and text messages are governed by 3 different, frustratingly fussy modes. Tends to self-reboot.
Summary: I, like presumably many other VM users, bought the Shuttle as an upgrade: hoping it would bridge the gap between the handset features I wanted and those for which I ...
Summary: I, like presumably many other VM users, bought the Shuttle as an upgrade: hoping it would bridge the gap between the handset features I wanted and those for which I previously had to settle. While the Shuttle comes very close to spanning that divide, it still manages to keep one foot firmly entrenched in VM's legacy: their inability to get one phone EXACTLY right. I'm not sure if this phone was rushed to market or if VM's manufacturers don't hold themselves to high standards of product testing or design. Whichever the case, this COULD'VE been a killer handset had there been more attention paid to details. While the form factor in aesthetically pleasing, its force feedback keys are far too exposed and sensitive, leading to unintentional triggers. The dedicated keys along either side of the spine are too flush. 3G on a phone that surfs with a WAP browser is like a NO booster on a Dodge Dart; a fast, desperately lackluster experience. Also, and here's the deal-breaker for me, whereas phones generally have ONE module providing T9 and ABC for entering text, the Shuttle has three (so far): one for your phone's general use and text messaging, another for AIM, and a third for the web. Each of these are different, having different menus, predictive vocabularies, and even rules for syntax (e.g. the web T9 insists upon capitalizing the first letter of EVERY WORD) As someone who does rather alot of surfing and messaging, this flaw is frustrating to the point where I must wonder if it's somehow intentional. To conclude, the Shuttle is not (as many VM customers hoped, myself included) the next generation of VM phones, but rather that generation's harbinger. It is a great phone for beginners who want a solid feature set, and a decent interim phone for someone who is waiting for VM to drop a real ace on us.
@ Aaroniuskgravies
Updated on Mar 18, 2009
I'm sorry if you found my review to be so terribly long. I assure you, it was so only in an effort to be comprehensive. Regarding the touch key portion of the review, I concede there is no mention of the owner's ability to turn down the Shuttle's sensitivity. Simply put, it's my experience that even on it's lowest setting it is still far too sensitive. Perhaps my handset is in some way defective. Perhaps your handset is somehow "magically better". Most likely, I imagine you're some nit-picky guy who would rather flame my review than provide a reasoned addendum.
And, on a more personal note, I would remind you: I'm a civilian. I don't work for VM or CNET. I'm a just VM customer who took the time to write a thorough reiview because he wanted other/prospective customers to have the benefit of an un-biased fairly knowledgeable opinion. If that means using all 1,000 characters of provided space, I guess you can either deal with it, or read a shorter review.
TDPD5 out of 5 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Excellent phone, but it has its up and downs.
by joshy16 on June 23, 2009
Pros: Great color screen, mp3 player, records videos, 3g, change your theme, and other customizing options,different resolutions on camera,and extra memory room with a mico SD card capability's,loud speaker,nice design,touch sensitive buttons are very nice
Cons: no flash on camera, dosent receive or send videos like it says, phone rarely reboots but occasionally does, problems when setting a low resolution picture as wallpaper (more detail in summery),have to buy a bunch of extras for music but its worth it.
Summary: I was really excited when i heard about a 3g phone from a pre-paid carrier like virgin mobile. When i got the phone everything worked great, it felt great and ...
Summary: I was really excited when i heard about a 3g phone from a pre-paid carrier like virgin mobile. When i got the phone everything worked great, it felt great and didnt scream virgin mobile. i love how the phone had a mp3 player and couldnt wait to get my music going on the phone, but i had to go buy a micro sd card, and i had to buy a usb adapter that would hold my sd card and plug into my usb port, i also had to buy headphones. i spent about 30 or 40 exta dollars to get everything going on the phone but its worth it in the long run. once music is on the phone their is no way to organizing the files, but you can add many playlist that hold your favorite tunes. I didnt really have to many complaints about the camera except that there was no flash, it would have been nice to have a flash on the phone to complement the other great features it carries. The 3g is great it downloads ringtones in mere seconds and browses the internet pretty quickly. Now comes my biggest complaint, i had taken a low resolution picture on my phone and attempted to apply it as my wallpaper. when i did this the phone shut off and began to reboot. it would come on and as soon as it came on it would reboot again. i thought that this was just a problem with the phone i had, but i sent it back and got a replacement, i had the first phone for two months before it happened. i had the replacement phone for about four months and the same thing happened again. i sent it back and i now have my third shuttle phone...so far no problems. I hope that this problem dosent happen again because the phone is really great and has excellent features. The camcorder only records 30 seconds of video but its a nice feature to have. when uploading photos onto a computer the transfer is very fast and is reliable, however when uploading video it takes forever, and unless you have a program that play cell phone video formats, then you are not able to watch your videos. when i tried to send a video or receive a video it would not work, im unsure of why but i am trying to figure out what is causing the problem. when watching videos on the phone you can make them full screen which is nice and the video are clear, the videos are also clear when you watch them on the phones browser. the ringtones are loud and soud great. some ringtones through virgin mobile are only 15 seconds, but once downloaded the phone makes them 25 seconds which really surprises you because you get more of the song as your ringtone. The touch sensitive keys are somewhat annoying at first. when on low sensitivity you have to hold your finger on the button for a second before it actually works. once you get accustomed to using the touch keys however, you find that they are really convenient and i set mine up on high sensitivity. i like the buttons because it makes accessing things on the phone a lot faster, and if you're lazy at pushing buttons them you will love them to. on the speaker phone touch key you have to hold your finger on it for a second no matter what your sensitivity level of the buttons is. Call quality was excellent with few dropped calls, everything was clear and the speaker phone worked fine also. Overall this is an excellent phone and i would recommended it to anyone, but beware of the few bugs it has after some use.
1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
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The best of what's around!
by bennyfitz on November 27, 2008
Pros: The screen is beautiful. The form factor is smooth, and it feels well-put together. The slider mechanism works well. It supports up to 4GB of external memory, which is great. The 3G works well for supported pages. It's plenty loud enough.
Cons: The web browsing on unsupported pages is buggy and frequently causes reboots, or freezes. The messaging is also occasionally unreliable. The camera works well if you take exactly the picture you want, but there are no editing features afterward.
Summary: I love the idea of this phone, and I wish it worked as well as it could. The text entry on the web is NOT easy, and doesn't learn ...
Summary: I love the idea of this phone, and I wish it worked as well as it could. The text entry on the web is NOT easy, and doesn't learn words, and capitalizes every word, so all your friends will know if you send a Myspace message from your phone. The bugs causing reboots and freezing are scary, because you never know when that freeze will be your last. I definitely recommend making sure you put all your videos and pictures on your external memory, just in case, but you can't send videos saved on the card. They keypad locking during calls is an inconvenience, as is the unlocking keypad in your pocket when you receive messages. The touch sensitive keys are too sensitive even on their least sensitive setting when bringing the phone out of your pocket, but then become slightly difficult to use during regular use, so you have to pick the lesser of two evils.
On the up side, regular messaging is a breeze, phone calls are simple and clear. You can access a multitude of functions with the phone closed, which is nice, though the menu system is much easier to use with the phone open. Sending picture messages and video messages is easy, as long as the video's not on your card. Playing videos and looking at pictures is great, because the screen is so big and pretty. The media player is basic and useful for personal spaces, but don't plan on entertaining friends unless they all like the same music you do, because it's not a very customizable player, and it's not all THAT loud. I would positively LOVE this phone if the resetting and freezing could stop. It goes for days and sometimes weeks just fine, but with as much as we all depend on our phones, it's just not reassuring that it continues to work again after hard resets (removing the battery with the phone still on, depending on your phone model you could lose some settings such as personalized ringtones or words added to the dictionary). I also have a hard time with the data plans offered. With the 3G speeds, which are great for checking Myspace and Facebook, you can actually burn through 20 or 50MB pretty easily if you do that a lot and hit some other, non-WAP pages. Some of those, which the browser will do it's best to load (it's best isn't good enough), are upwards of 1MB on their own, and hitting back doesn't always save you from burning through that data. This is the best phone Virgin Mobile offers, with the most features, but I'm seriously considering downgrading to the Samsung Slash just because Samsung is generally so much more reliable than UT Starcom.1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
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A really great preapid phone from Virgin Mobile
by frankazoid on September 30, 2008
Pros: no contract, 3G web, sleek, video camcorder, mp3 player, slider, decent battery life
Cons: no qwerty keyboard, 1.3 camera, touch sensitive keys(although can be turned off), cant use mp3s as ringtones
Summary: By far this is the best vm phone to date. It has all the features a contract phone has except its not a contract. The screen is a decent 2 ...
Summary: By far this is the best vm phone to date. It has all the features a contract phone has except its not a contract. The screen is a decent 2 inches, the ringtones come in loud and clear, as does mp3 songs. The camcorder is pretty decent for a prepaid phone. I just wish the camera could have been a 2.0 megapixel. There are other prepaid phone carriers that i know that do that, plus vm's wildcard phone had a 1.3. You woulda thought vm would update the camera. Oh well. The camera is pretty decent anyway. The 3G web is good. I have no big coomplaints with the web, other than the fact Virgin's biggest plan for data is 50mb, which some people would blow in just 1 day. But by far, I think this is one of the nicest looking Virgin Mobile, let alone phones, that i have owned. Like i wrote earlier it feels like i have a contract phone in my hand minus the contract...............The only overall major complaint i have other than 50 MB data plan is the fact theres no keyboard.Other than that I would recommend this phone to anyone who wants a phone and wants all the perks of a contract phone minus the contract. I just LOVE this phone.
1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Very good, long-lasting phone with lots of features.
by RockSumm on June 6, 2010
Pros: MUSiC PLAYER; good-looking layout and interface; nice keypad.
Email, IM, 3G internet, and bluetooth (although I don't use them.)
I have had it for a year and 5 months and it has lasted.Cons: If you don't lock the keypad during a call, your ear can press the "mute" button accidentally.
After a while, the battery life gets pretty short. Photo quality is not too great.
After 1 year, a corner of the screen will occasionally freeze up.Summary: This phone is overall very good, but it has way more features than I will ever use. For $100, it may not have been worth the money since I haven'...
Summary: This phone is overall very good, but it has way more features than I will ever use. For $100, it may not have been worth the money since I haven't taken advantage of all its features. However, I definitely recommend it. It is my 3rd virgin mobile phone. I have had the Marbl and the Super Slice before but the Shuttle is the best so far!
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Handling this Virgin Mobile Phone is A-OKAY for mom
by kathlinegln9 on June 5, 2010
Pros: It is a very comfortable phone to handle for my elderly mom's grasp. She herself doesn't understand how to operate it, so I act as a go-between to make phone calls for her when we are away from home or when I walk to the store for her...
Cons: In order to email it you have to type in small letters.especially if you want log into your website. Using Capital letters is somewhat hard for me.
Summary: I do like very much this little SHUTTLE Cell Phone, come in handy in emergencies when traveling away from home.
With this type of cell phone you have to deal ...Summary: I do like very much this little SHUTTLE Cell Phone, come in handy in emergencies when traveling away from home.
With this type of cell phone you have to deal with the battery life, or phone going completely off and adding minutes. I was VERY!!! glad to have this type of cell phone from Virgin Mobile . It made my mom satisfied for us to have it for emergencies. Thank you, -
Good just in parts.
by drewsmithwick on April 26, 2010
Pros: Very nice and colorful screen. Easy to use T9 word guessing system.
Cons: Short Battery life (sometimes) the 3G it runs on gets lost sometimes making you switch to PCS which sucks for calls.
Summary: Great for must everything except that it sometimes has to get off its digital network making it slower but this happens only every once in a while.
Summary: Great for must everything except that it sometimes has to get off its digital network making it slower but this happens only every once in a while.
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For the most part, I love this phone!
by Nursey1313 on April 25, 2010
Pros: I like the mp3 player, it sounds pretty good. I also love the big keys for texting.
Cons: I cant stand that very frequently I hang up on my calls when I open the phone. I also hate that my calls automatically connect on call waiting.
Summary: Does anyone else have this call waiting problem? If so, can someone please shed some light on this situation? Perhaps a solution? My bro told me it has something to ...
Summary: Does anyone else have this call waiting problem? If so, can someone please shed some light on this situation? Perhaps a solution? My bro told me it has something to do with car settings, but I cant find anything like that in tools.
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Poor Design - Near Useless
by integritytrainer on March 24, 2010
Pros: MP3 Player
Cons: Touch buttons active most of the time and trigger accidental commands
Summary: This phone is near useless because the touch (not push) buttons accidentally trigger the wrong command at the wrong time. Almost half the time when someone calls me and I ...
Summary: This phone is near useless because the touch (not push) buttons accidentally trigger the wrong command at the wrong time. Almost half the time when someone calls me and I pickup the phone, I accidentally send the call straight to voice mail because the touch button is activated to do that while a call is coming in. When making a call out, the touch button is activated to mute the call. So I call and the person I am calling can't hear me because I accidentally muted the call unknowingly.
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It's good for some things...
by ddferrari on March 19, 2010
Pros: 1)Looks nice, and it's sturdy.
2)Nice screen clarity (although hard to read on sunny days)
3)Fast web browser (it is 3G)
4)Camcorder (30 seconds max)
5)Decent call quality and battery life
6)Lots of tools
7)Pretty small and light weightCons: 1)Picture quality is so-so
2)Built-in ring tones are all annoying (bad hip-hop)
3)Don't waste your time with the "mp3 player"
4)No option to silence the ringer for specific callersSummary: The good parts: this is a nice phone for (gasp) making phone calls, surfing the web, and light texting. The voice command feature is cool- just say "call John", or "...
Summary: The good parts: this is a nice phone for (gasp) making phone calls, surfing the web, and light texting. The voice command feature is cool- just say "call John", or "text Angie",or "take a picture". But you don't have to program these commands first! It also has 3 separate alarm clocks, a scheduler, and a tip calculator (enter the bill amount, what % tip you wanna leave, and how many people in your party and it tells you what everyone needs to fork over). The stopwatch and regular calculator come in handy too. You can assign different ringtones for each caller, or designated "groups", ie: friends, family, business etc.
The bad: the mp3 player sucks- no tone controls, hardly and volume, and it sounds tinny. I bought this phone primarily for mp3, and it's unusable...but I liked the rest of the features enough to keep it. It can play movies if they're in a specific format, but with a 2" screen, I never bothered with it.
The camera is so-so, although it has a lot of tweaks like brightness, black and white, quality level (how many pixels), etc. Camcorder is limited to 30 seconds.
The ringer portion leaves a lot to be desired; the built-in ringtones are really lame, and there are only eight. You cannot use an mp3 as your ringer; only ringtones downloaded from Virgin (surprise!) Annoyingly, although you can choose different ringers for each caller, "silent" is not an option (for that telemarketer who somehow got your number), nor can you assign voice memos as ringers. "Vibrate and ring" is only available at the loudest setting, and it has no "ramp up" feature(starts quietly then builds volume with each ring).
The touch sensitive keys aren't so great... sometimes you can accidentally "ignore" a call that you wanted to take while reaching for the phone. On more than one occasion, my cheek activated the "mute" feature, causing some confusion. The buttons do have a sensitivity adjustment, but if it's set to the lowest level, you'll find yourself stabbing at the button 3 or 4 times to get it to work. Those with long nails will find them a challenge, as the touch feature relies on body heat, not pressure. I'm not a fan.
The bottom line is: this phone wouldn't satisfy anyone who's into really into texting, pictures and music... but for the web browsing, occassionally texting, phone talker type, it's nice. At $59 (down from $99) with no contract through Virgin- it's a steal. If you're into pay-as-you-go phones, Virgin is the cheapest by far (and I checked out everyone, albeit about 6 months ago). It's also the best looking phone they offer right now, in my opinion. The burnt-orange and black color scheme is downright handsome; I've gotten several compliments on it. Hope this helps!
Specifications
- Manufacturer: UTStarcom
- Part number: CNETSHUTTLEREDVMB
- Description: With the SHUTTLE, you can transport your music and videos. This sliding music and video phone features dual color screens, a 1.3-megapixel camera, Stereo Bluetooth Wireless, and much more.
General
- Packaged Quantity 1
- Product Type Cellular phone
- Form Factor Slider
- Integrated Components Digital camera,
Digital player - Antenna Internal
- Width 1.9 in
- Depth 0.7 in
- Height 3.9 in
- Weight 3.4 oz
Cellular
- Technology CDMA2000 1X
- Band CDMA 850/1900
- Service Provider Virgin Mobile
Messaging & Internet
- Cellular Messaging Services SMS
Communications
- Bluetooth Profiles Advanced Audio Distribution Profile (A2DP)
- Communication Features Internet browser,
Mobile Email client Phone Features
- Phone Functions Call timer,
Conference call,
Speakerphone,
Voice dialing,
Vibrating alert - Polyphonic Ringer Yes
- Additional Features TTY compatible
Organizer
- Personal Information Management Calculator
Memory
- Supported Flash Memory Cards microSD
Digital Camera
- Sensor Resolution 1.3 megapixels
Display
- Type LCD display - Color
Battery
- Run Time Details Talk - up to 234 min,
Standby - up to 319 hour(s) Miscellaneous
- Included Accessories Power adapter , Power adapter
Accessories
Manufacturer info
- Manufacturer profile
- Browse UTStarcom products on Shopper.com
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- Manufacturer:UTStarcom
- Phone: (510) 864 - 8800
