Cricket A100

The Cricket A100 is exclusive to the prepaid carrier, boasting a number of mid-range features at a reasonable price. A black-and-silver candy-bar phone, the A100 measures about a half-inch thick and has a 1.8-inch LCD screen, 2.5 mm mono headphone jack and mini-USB charging port. The A100 has a speakerphone with voice-activated dialing, as well as other standard features such as mobile web browsing, texting, games and apps. There are 31 megabytes of built-in memory for ringtones and other downloads. It doesn't have a camera or Bluetooth capability, though. Cricket estimates the A100's battery life at 4.5 hours. Unfortunately, we found no independent evaluations of call quality or talk time.

This basic budget phone isn't immune to criticism. The speakerphone is too loud, and sound quality is variable, reviewers complain. The software also has a tendency to freeze up. Still, many users say they are pleased with the phone overall; one contributor to PhonesGo.com calls the A100 "one of the less irritating phones I've had." The user interface is another plus, which many find intuitive and say would make a good children's phone. Those users who have taken the trouble to comment on the phone like its value, and some point out that the price is even better when buying directly from Cricket's website. If the A100 isn't enough phone for you, Cricket's TXTM8 (*Est. $160, no contract) is a solid messaging phone that gets good reviews.

There are no comprehensive, professional reviews available for the Cricket A100, as most reviewers overlook such low-end prepaid phones. We found decent evaluations at PrepaidReviews.com and The Review, a blog, as well as a small number of user reviews at PhonesGo.com and PhoneScoop.com.