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>> Hi, my name is Ken German [assumed spelling], senior editor here at CNET.com. Today we're gonna take a first look at the Kyocera Wild Card. Also called the M1000, this is a new phone for Virgin mobile service. Virgin Mobile has only had a couple of texting phones, this is the second one. First one we saw was the Kyocera Switchback, and I like this design a little better. Even though it is a little more boxy, the Switchback was a little curvy. But I like this design better, it's a little more user friendly. Here on the outside we have a very large external display, which is nice. The previous phone had a really small one, you couldn't really use it for a lot of functions, so I like this a lot better. Shows all the date and time, and all that information you need. You can also use it to scroll through most of the menus, which is pretty nice cause on the previous phone you couldn't get through everything. Wasn't impressed with the navigation toggle however. Very flat with the surface of the phone, really it's not necessary when you have the outside of the phone, they can be raised just a little bit. You have a dedicated speakerphone button, which is always great, some set shortcuts around the toggle, and then of course the dedicated back button. The keypad buttons also, really wasn't impressed with, also very flat with the surface of the phone, also felt a little plastic. Here on the side you have a volume marker, which is nice cause it is covered with rubber, so it's very tactile. I had no problem finding it when the phone was on my ear. Also you have a dedicated camera button right above. Camera lens is here on the back, there's a flash with it, and also [inaudible] unfortunately. Open up the phone inside, you have that full QWERTY keyboard. Really like the placement of the keys, they're pretty big, even for someone with large hands like me. Each of the buttons do double as a numeric key or a symbol key, so everything's right at your fingertips, you don't have to sift through a lot of menus to find the keys that you need. Have some dedicated buttons here around the side which are good, you have a symbol button for actually pressing the symbol keys, a shift, a back key, and an enter key as well. You can talk on the phone with the phone open, but the only speaker is here on the outside so you have to hold it like this, so it's kind of, a little uncomfortable and looks kind of silly. However the speaker inside does work for the speakerphone, so when you want a speakerphone call you do have to open the phone. Wasn't impressed with the speakerphone though, just didn't have the best quality. Wasn't impressed with the internal display, little small, felt it could be a little wider.
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Overall though, pretty nice phone for texting and messaging, very useful, pretty user friendly. I'm Ken German and this is the Kyocera Wild Card M1000.
^M00:02:00
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