In the Beginning:
Cricket has finally started offering an Android phone on their network. Now they only have one and it’s no Droid X but if you have been waiting for a cheap Android phone with a cheap plane like I have then this might be the phone for you. Zio M600 starts at $299.99 and the plans for $55 a month. So let me go into a little more about the phone.
Phone Specks:
If you want to know about the specks of this phone you can got to the Kyocera web site here. I could boor you with all that but I will point out a few things. It has a standard head phone jack so just about any head phones will work in it. It has a Micro SD slot and it also comes with a 1 GB Micro SD card. It has micro USB connection for charging and transferring files. It is a CDMA hand set so it will not work outside the US. The phone is also running Android 1.6 Donut; I have looked around and saw on intomobile.com that the Zio will be getting Android 2.1 (éclair) in the future. I sent cricket an e-mail asking if the Zio M6000 is getting android 2.2 they didn’t say anything about 2.2 but they did say this “Kyocera will send out an Android 2.1 update in Q4” so intomobile.com is right.
The Phone:
The Phone itself is really light and feels comfortable in my hands. I should note I have big hands. The screen is nice and crisp inside, outside it can vary if you are not in direct sun light the screen is still read able but if there’s no shade it is hard to see the screen. It’s not so bad that you can’t see anything in the sun but you will have to double check that you are calling the right person if that is what you are trying to do with it.
What I do love about this phone and it was something I thought of when I was looking for an Android phone was it has the natural Google Android UI unlike HTC who puts a skin over the UI to make it prettier Kyocera kept the normal Android UI.
This what you can see here is not true Android this is something HTC and a lot of other company’s do to try and make it easier to use, and it pisses me right off. The biggest problem I have is that you can’t get rid of it. When you get a PC form HP most of the time HP puts some kind of activity center or whatever they call it that goes over the Windows UI this is support to make it easier to use your computer. At least HP lets you uninstall it if you don’t want it. Most of the phone makers do not let you do that on Android. But the rest of that rant is really for another day. The reason why I hate this is because it typically makes people more confused when they try another phone with the same OS.
The Camera:
The Cambria on this phone is ok it’s a 3.2 megapixels and from my uses it takes good photos I got two examples below:
The camera software that Android comes with is a little slower than I would like but other than that there is not much to complain about in my opinion. I should also mention that you can record video too but I just have not had a reason to make one yet so I did not test that out yet.
Keyboard & Buttons:
The on screen keyboard in Android is fine. I had no problem picking up the phone and just using it. I should also say that I’m use to using an on screen key board I’ve been using an iPod Touch for 3 or 4 years. Now I do have to say in some cases the keyboard is mapped odd like the return key is under the backspace key and in some cases the return key is the send button, so in thoughts cases you might hit return when you mean to backspace and you sent an IM before you were ready. When you are sending a text message there is a =-) button under there backspace so you may hit =-) a few times instead of backspace. But other than that it’s not that bad and as I said before I have big hands so it could be just me with thoughts problems once and awhile.
On the phone its self it has 6 buttons a camera, a home button, a menu button, a scroll wheel, a back button, and a search button. They feel a little clunky at times, like I’m in Facebook and I want to go back to the home screen so I hit the home screen button and nothing will happen and I end up hitting a few times before I get back to the home screen. Then other times I hit the home button and it goes right to the home screen. I guess it just has to do with what you are doing at the time.
Key Points of Love:
There is so much to love about this phone and Android OS but I don’t want to take all day talking about it, so I’m going to high light what I think stands out the most.
Widgets:
Widgets are a very cool thing on Android. Now widgets have been around a long time on the desktop for both PC’s and Macs but I never really liked them, they just always seem to be in my way. But on a mobile phone they are a life saver. I’ll start with the calendar widget. This widget sits on your home screen and will tell you the date and what appoints are coming up next in your calendar. This to me is very cool that I can just take my phone out unlock it and see what is coming up next without having to open up the calendar app, it is as effortless as checking to see what time it is.
Choice:
For the longest time I have been in the gated community of Apple’s app store with my iPod Touch. It’s a nice change to be able to know that I have the choice to put what I want on my phone and know that big brother can’t tell me no. Now I know that Android apps don’t have that nice Apple feel to them like iPhone apps do but I much rather have a ugly app that dose what I want it to do then an App that looks nice that dose only half of what I want to do.
Network Love:
The last thing I love about this phone is the network. Cricket Wireless caries this phone in the US. I was a Cricket customer before I got this phone and never had a problem with them, the planes for phones are just right, and you will probably not find a cheaper plane for an Android phone any place else. I should say that you should check to see if Cricket Wireless is in your area. You can see the all Crickets plans here.
Yes it’s Finally Over:
To make the a long blog entry short if you have Cricket or you know that Cricket works in your area, and you have been waiting a smart phone with an unlimited plane go out and get this phone you won’t be sorry. Yes the phone is running Android 1.6 but like I said they do plan on upgrading it to 2.1 in Q4, so that shouldn’t bother you. The price of the phone is $229.99 which is cheap for an android phone considering the Nexuses one was $500 without contract. Good phone good plan and the winner is you.
