Samsung Slash

The Samsung 'Slash' is a solid phone; one of the newest and best thus far from Virgin Mobile. It is of a very good build quality, unlike all others that have come before it (cheap, feels like a kids phone, plastic). There is a very nice chrome feel, the slider works very smoothly and opens quickly almost on its own.

Expect excellent call quality, as well as a great speakerphone. Calls come in crystal clear; the speakerphone works flawlessly thanks to the two-way capability (virtually no breakups while you're talking to the person and vice versa). Signal strength is much better than average. Battery life is respectable.

The phone's screen is large and of very good quality. The keypad lights up uniformly in an off-white color. The proprietary Virgin Mobile interface is well laid out and operation is quick, as is checking your balance and internet/Virgin XL access. Ringtones and graphics are more respectable, heading more in the trendy vs. kid direction. Ringtone volume fades in gradually vs. ringing full-on; expect to set a high volume for both this and the speakerphone for optimal sound.

The simple camera works good enough. There's no flash, but the phone compensates white balance for low-light conditions. It is only VGA (640x480) resolution and does not have any zoom. You have controls for brightness, white balance, color chooser and fun frames. Setting a photo as wallpaper fills the entire screen nicely.

The phone does NOT record video or play music. I haven't tested Bluetooth capability, but my take is it will work great.

I would encourage anyone who wants to upgrade their Virgin Mobile phone to check this Samsung phone out, I promise you won't be disappointed. It is VM's best phone to date with a solid feature set and build quality. There are also Samsung Slash accessories that will fit the cell phone too.