Cell Phone: Free Phones for the Masses
When I hear the word free, I can’t help but think “what’s the catch?” “what’s wrong with it?” and “do I really want something from the reject bin?” But today’s free cell phones don’t deserve any such reaction. Though you won’t see any premium handsets included among the freebie options, carriers now offer no-cost phones that go far beyond basic.
I tested one phone from each of the four major U.S. carrier–Cingular, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon Wireless–and found handsets that ranged from fair to very good. Cingular’s selection was easily the most generous, while Verizon had the slimmest pickings.
Clearly, many carriers have improved their array of free phones, but you may have trouble finding these models at their retail stores: Many freebies are available exclusively via the carrier’s Web store. That introduces a time lag before you get the phone. Also, in some instances, the phone becomes free only when you obtain a rebate, meaning that you’ll incur up-front costs. And typically you’ll have to sign a two-year service contract, as you would when arranging to get any other new handset through a wireless provider.
If you’re okay with these constraints, a free phone can go a long way. It’s a great choice for folks who need multiple phones for, say, their family or their employees. If you tend to lose or drop your phone–or don’t care what happens to it–why not save your cash and go for a free phone? Here are a few worth checking out.
Cingular
Motorola’s Slvr L6 cell phone.
I found a wider selection of free phones at Cingular than at any other major U.S. carrier. Cingular invites you to choose from among nine capable handsets–ranging from clamshell-style LG, Pantech, Nokia, Samsung, and Sony Ericsson phones to candybar-style Motorola Slvrs–all gratis. I tested the innovatively thin Motorola Slvr L6. To get the L6 for free, you’ll need to request a $50 mail-in rebate, but this handset just might make the potential hassle worthwhile.
With a weight of 3.3 ounces and a thickness of 0.4 inch, the Slvr is lighter and thinner than many other current cell phones. A nonfolding cousin of the Razr, this handset sports the same flat, blue-backlit dial pad and five-way navigation button in the center. Though flat, it’s comfortable enough to hold for phone calls. Don’t want to hold it indefinitely? Use the speakerphone. The volume control on the L6 is not readily apparent, unfortunately, because this model lacks an up/down button on the side; instead, you use the left/right arrow keys on the five-way navigation button.
The L6 features a 640-by-480-pixel camera; is compatible with a Bluetooth headset; runs the AIM, ICQ, and Yahoo Messenger instant messaging clients; and lets you view Web-based e-mail, including AOL, MSN Hotmail, and Yahoo Mail. It’s nice to have the IM and e-mail in a pinch, but the L6 isn’t ideal for these communication modes; it lacks a QWERTY keyboard and runs at dial-up or slower connection speeds. Another shortcoming: The unimpressive 1.8-inch screen showed visible lines that made images and text look rough and hazy.
Other members of the Slvr family are the cameraless L2 (offered for free at Cingular.com) and the iTunes-compatible L7 ($150 with a two-year contract from Cingular.)
Sprint
Samsung’s a640 cell phone.
The slickest-looking clamshell-style phone I checked out is the Samsung a640, which has an ’80s retro design. In fact, this shiny black handset reminds me a lot of KITT, the cool talking car from the 1980s TV show Knight Rider. Its narrow and elongated dimensions (1.8 by 3.6 inches) make it very comfortable to hold. It’s also light (at 3.2 ounces) and compact enough (at 0.9 inch thick) to fit in most pockets.
Though the casing feels plasticky, Samsung and Sprint have made the a640 easy to use. For example, it’s equipped with buttons for quick and easy access to features such as the speakerphone, camera, Ready Link walkie-talkie (service costs extra), and volume.
The front consists of a 640-by-480-pixel camera and a 1.2-inch external screen. With the phone closed, you can easily take self-portraits. My photos came out reversed in this mode, as if I had taken them while looking through a rear-view mirror, but it’s a fun feature nonetheless.
Inside, you’ll find the 1.8-inch internal screen, the usual five-way navigation button, a dedicated back button, two soft keys, a Talk button, an End button, and the alphanumeric keypad. Like the Slvr L6, the a640 suffers from lackluster screen quality; visible lines on the display tend to make graphics and text look shadowy.
A voice recognition feature allows you to dial the a640 by saying aloud either a contact name stored in the handset’s phonebook or the phone number itself. I accomplished both tasks easily. If the phone doesn’t recognize the number or contact name, you can repeat it until it is recognized. Saying status spits out your phone’s coverage, current signal strength, and current battery status. You can record a message and then send it via SMS. You also have the option of recording up to five memos, each up to one minute long. You can access popular IM and e-mail accounts on this phone, too; it supports AOL, MSN, Yahoo, and Earthlink.
With the phone’s user-friendliness and conveniences, such as dialing and text-messaging by voice, this free phone is a solid performer.
T-Mobile
Samsung’s t619 cell phone.
As I write this, T-Mobile’s roster of free phones includes Motorola’s Pebl in four different colors (black, blue, orange, and green), Samsung’s t309 and t619, and Nokia’s 6030. I tested the Samsung t619.
This basic clamshell phone weighs only 2.9 ounces and is compact enough (3.9 by 2.0 by 0.7 inches) to fit in a small pocket. It has an internal antenna, a 1.3-megapixel camera, a 1-inch external display, and a 1.8-inch internal display.
The internal keypad layout consists of a five-way navigation button, two soft keys, send and end buttons, a clear key, and an alphanumeric keypad. The camera button is located on the right side panel, and the volume control is on the left side. Combined with T-Mobile’s user interface, these controls make using the phone simple enough.
In addition, the phone’s dial-by-voice feature comes in handy for looking up contacts and placing calls without pressing buttons. For further hands-free operation, you can use a Bluetooth headset with this phone. Like all of the cell phones discussed here, this one lets you access popular IM clients (AIM, ICQ, MSN, and Yahoo Messenger).
Another free T-Mobile handset worth checking out is the Motorola Pebl. PC World reviewed the Pebl in August 2006.
Verizon Wireless
Nokia’s 6215i cell phone.
Of the four carriers whose offerings I looked at, Verizon Wireless had the skimpiest selection of free phones: At this writing, you can choose between UTStarcom’s CDM-180 and Nokia’s 6215i. I tried the latter because it has a few more features than the CDM-180.
For instance, the 6215i offers a unique internal OLED screen. This type of display promises to consume less power and provide wider viewing angles than do the TFT screens built into many cell phones. Graphics and text looked a little better on this phone than on the other three models I reviewed, though shadowy lines were noticeable on-screen.
Like the Samsung a640 from Sprint, the Nokia 6215i lets you dial by voice. But before I could use this function, I had to preselect the contacts from the internal phonebook so that I could voice-dial a friend’s number. The speakerphone worked fine for voice calls.
The phone’s remaining capabilities are standard fare. For example, you can use the 6215i to access your AIM, Yahoo Messenger, or MSN Messenger instant messages. Though you can get POP3 and IMAP e-mail support by subscribing to Verizon’s VZEmail, accessing e-mail messages on a non-QWERTY-keyboard-enabled phone like this one is cumbersome.
The phone is relatively slim and compact, measuring 3.4 inches tall by 1.8 inches wide by 0.8 inch thick. It’s also lightweight at 3.3 ounces. The external antenna looks passe now that many phones have internal antennas. The internal keypad layout consists of two soft keys below the screen; a five-way navigation button; a speakerphone button; a camera button; Send, End, and Clear keys; and the dial pad. Though the 6215i is an average handset overall, it’s good enough for your day-to-day calling needs.
The cell phones I looked at for this column represent a good sampling of the features you’ll find on free handsets. Keep in mind that because these phones are free, there’s always a chance that they could be discontinued and become unavailable. But if your needs are modest and your budget is tight, just about any free phone should do the trick.