Reason and place of purchase

I got this phone for my older daughter to use a little over a year ago as she was starting secondary school and I wanted her to be able to contact me if she needed me.

We got it on a monthly contract from virgin, as we already have a contract with them for our phone, tv and Internet we got this for £10.00 a month (has now gone up to £10.21) and that includes calls, texts and bbm (blackberry messenger) and the handset was free.

As my older daughter has now upgraded her phone my other daughter is using this as she likes to bbm her friends (who all have these phones).

Although I am still a little concerned with children and mobile phones my daughter does not use this to make phone calls to me - only if really necessary and instead uses it to text me or message her friends, she also uses it to browse the Internet and take pictures too.

Description of the phone

The phone itself is black with a shiny black edge and the back of the phone is a rubbery feel texture. It is very durable as my daughter has dropped this phone several times and it has yet to break, although there are a few very small dints and minor scratches but these do not detract from the look of the phone.

There's a keypad on the phone and above that there's a small square scroller which you use to navigate the phone. You can lock the phone which is great as otherwise you can end up ringing people accidentally and when locked you need to enter your password to release, however it will still allow emergency calls even when locked but does prompt you 'are you sure you want to make an emergency call'.

You can also buy covers for the phone as we have purchased some through e-bay and these completely change the look of the phone, as I type my daughter has a One direction phone case on, but last week it was JLS. You can buy these covers anywhere however I did compare prices and found e-bay to be the cheapest and you can get them for around £5.00 which is great and if damaged is not expensive to replace:)

Functions of the phone

The phone itself has lots of useful features, we can send and receive e-mails, SMS, MMS, instant messaging and it has an Internet browser, alarm function (complete with snooze - very useful for those early mornings). It also has those little added extras such as calculator, calendar and maps.

The camera on it is also pretty good and my daughter has taken some lovely pictures on this phone, however I must admit I am yet to have them developed but the quality on screen certainly looks good.

Charging

The phone seems to charge up pretty quickly, and we have found that a full bar lasts over a day even with the constant bbm use going on, however it does go a little quicker if using the Internet a lot, but nonetheless you will still get a lot of time from a full bar of charge.

To summarise

This phone has certainly had its use in our house and my daughter actually prefers this one to her new upgraded (blackberry of course - she cannot do without bbm) touch screen phone, and it has lasted through many daily challenges and still came out tops!