PCD Shuttle User Reviews

phones good
fast in 3g
slow when not
i like the ability to turn the touch keys sensitivity up and down
nice sturdy slider

I really, really like this phone! its the best that VM has had so far (w/o helio) and the features are really fun! i like the video as well, bcuz it turns out well, and the SIM card is really convenient!

I really like the shuttle, it's a convenient phone for those of us who can't be around a computer daily, and travel alot, with the google maps options, or even just the web capability to look up info. The music and video on this phone is really awesome, I like how you can put this in play mode, and hide it, so you can continue to scroll through contacts and menus while listening to more music. The card has me sold, I love the convenience of the the microsd port right in the front, it makes it easier to switch out which cards I have in there, for different genres. One of things that really bothered me, was the restore settings reset it does, randomly, when you go into any Java app. Also, I'll have the phone locked, in my pocket, and it somehow manages to unlock itself, without sliding, and calls people so that I end up hearing voices screaming from my pocket. All in all, the past three phones, all had the music option, with MP3's and videos, with the exception of the WildCard, which intrigued me with the full keyboard...which this phone lacks. Really looking forward to the Helio Ocean 2 coming out soon for VM. =) 

Well, I've had this phone for about a month so figured I can now share my thoughts about it.  I've been a Virgin Mobile customer for about 5 years now and have to say by far this is the best phone they have offered.
So far, I love this phone!  The design is pretty cool, it's sleek, fits easily in your hand.  The slider opens very easily with no effort.  My main complaint would be with the touch keys on the front.  Sometimes they can be a little too sensitive, and I've got mine set to one of the lower sensitivity settings.  But it's just more of an annoyance than anything, nothing major.
As for performance, can't complain here.  Gets good reception in most places.  Call quality is good, I can hear the other callers perfectly well.  I haven't played with the speakerphone yet so can't really speak on that.  I was kind of bummed though to find that I still can't get reception in my cube at work.  Apparently, my cube locale must be a dead zone cause I can go a couple of rows down or into the meeting rooms and get perfect reception... oh well. 
It did freeze up on me about a week ago; I had to take the battery out to turn it off.  I took it out of the holder late that evening and the back was extremely hot and it wouldn't do anything; was completely frozen.  Apparently, it had been like that for several hours; when I turned it on the next day, I had several txt messages from the previous day going back to the early evening hours.  Hasn't happened since, hopefully it was just a one time occurence.
As for features, it's got everything to suit my needs.  I love the 3G speed, it actually makes using mobile web a convenience.  My previous phone, the Snapper, had mobile web, but it was slower than dial-up sometimes waiting for the pages to load... if they even loaded at all.  Camera quality is decent, wish it had a flash on it like my previous phone did.  Vid quality is pretty good as well.  I do hope, however, that VM at some point upgrades from the WAP browser they currently use.  I use the web function usually only to check news, weather, or sports when not near a computer, so I can access most of those sites.  But some sites that do not support mobile web are not legible or take forever to open. 
To wrap up, very nice phone.  Again, best phone offered by VM to date!

Just got my Shuttle a few days ago and have a few first impressions to share.
 The over-all physical design of the phone is fairly slick, although I find the flat keypad buttons annoying because I have large fingers and find it difficult to dial by touch like I did on my old phone - I have to look at the keys on this one. On the other hand, I like that the touchpad keys are lighted, so they are easy to see in dim light. The four touch sensive buttons are a nice feature, also.
 The phone is charged through a (proprietary?) combo data/power port. I don't like the flimsy plastic piece that covers this port when not in use (to keep dust/moisture out of the unit) because I can see it getting torn off easily. Speaking of this port - from what I've been able to determine from 3 days of searching the internet, there doesn't seem to be any kind of data cable for it. It would seem that the "data" function of this port is just used for programming the phone during production, which seems like a tragic waste to me - being able to sync my phone with my PC for contacts, music, videos, etc would have increased the value of this device considerablly.
 The video quality is pretty good as far as resolution goes, but I've noticed videos getting out of sync with the audio from time to time. This is most noticable if there is a lot of movement in the video, such as a closeup of a person waving their arms. (I'll have to experiment more with this.) The audio is fair, not great, but not bad either, especially considering that this is a phone and not a laptop or stereo.
  I spent 45mins on a call to my dad today. I noticed the phone got very warm by the end of the call; not quite hot, but not entirely confortable either. Since I've noticed the same thing with my last two phone, I'll chalk this one up as a typical issue with most cell phones. As far as the call itself, the sound quality was average and the physical shape of the phone is so-so for someone with big hands. One feature I noticed that I really liked was  the volume control buttons on the side of the phone - it's nice to be able to adjust the volume while talking without interupting the conversation.
  Overall, the Shuttle has some very nice features that I like a lot: programmable voice commands, MP3 player, web browser, games, 1.3mp camera, etc. I especially like the fact that this phone has a micro SD card slot you can load up with music, pictures and videos. What I especially DON'T like the slot is that you can not load games on the phone with it - you can only download them from online (at about $6 a pop in most cases).
 
Ok, so as a wrap up - yeah, I think the phone was worth the $100 I spent on it because it's got some really great features, especially considering that Virgin Mobile sells it as a "pay as you go" unit, but at the same time, it's hard to get over not being able to use the data port to sync with my PC or use the micro SD card to load games. It's like picking 6 out 7 lottery numbers - you're grateful for what you got, but you can't help thinking "what if..."

awesome phone. plays mp3, videos, surfs web, email, buddy beacon,. also has a great picture and video camera.