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I’ve been wanting a phone with a QWERTY keyboard for a while now.  I like to text to Twitter and such, and it was getting to be a real pain doing so on a regular phone keypad.

But I’m too cheap to sign on for a traditional contract plan, even if they often do have spiffier phones.  I prefer to use a prepaid carrier, Virgin Mobile, for my cell phone needs.  It’s proven to be MUCH less expensive than signing on for a regular plan, and then being stuck with it if I’m not happy, can no longer afford, it, etc. I’m one of those people who’ll look for wholesale handbags before breaking down and paying retail. I try to never pay more for anything than I have to!

When I was looking for a new phone, I did consider the Wild Card, which has the slide-out QWERTY keyboard.  But when I checked out the floor sample at my local Target store, I found it to be kinda cheapy and more like a toy than a real phone.  SO I passed.

I am very glad I did, because Virgin Mobile has recently rolled out the successor to the Wild Card…the X-tc.  I went to Target to look at it, and I was immediately sold.  It looks and feels like a real piece of electronics, unlike the cheapy toy-ness of the Wild Card.  And it costs just $10 more…$99.99 as opposed to $89.99 for the Wild Card.

I found this phone to be very easy to use.  Figuring out the QWERTY keyboard took a little effort, but nothing that can’t be done by just reading the owner’s manual.  The full-color screen is a lot bigger than that of the Wild Card, which makes it easier to use this phone to surf the internet.

The camera is pretty good, but it has no flash, and a lot of the pics I took came out dark.  But this was because we were at a ballpark, and the seats we were in were in the shade and sorta under the roof.

This phone also plays mp3s.  You can load them either via a microUSB connection, or via a microSD card (neither is included with the phone).

The phone has more features than I will probably use, you can check it out on the Virgin Mobile website.

The Virgin Mobile service is top-notch, if you are looking for pre-paid, contract-free service, these guys are the way to go.  You can either just *pay-as-you-go*, or sign up for one of their monthly plans.  If you do sign on for a plan, remember that there is still no contract, you can change it from one month to the next if you’d like, with no penalties at all.  You are 100% to go with what suits your needs and your wallet at any time.

Their website is wicked easy to use, you can do just about anythng with your account from it.  But if you have problems, I’m happy to say that their Live Advisors are very helpful, and the call center is not outsourced to some foreign country where no one speaks English very well.  HINT:  They have a lot of pre-recorded menus, but I have found that if you just press 0 when you’re on the line, they will redirect you to a person.

In  these tough economic times, for some people, signing up for an overpriced contract makes no sense.  But now you can have a feature-loaded, spiffy-looking phone, without the contract hassles and for much less cost.

I love this phone.  Very highly recommended!