Samsung JetSet SCH-R550

The clamshell Samsung JetSet SCH-R550 offers a lot of features for its no-contract-required price, but it's managed to fly under the radar of professional reviewers since its release in late 2008. But then, Cricket phones do not attract a lot of reviews in general -- Consumer Reports, for instance, doesn't rate any of them. Along with the Samsung Messager, it's the most expensive offering in Cricket's bevy of prepaid cell phones, and it offers Tri-Band and EVDO capabilities. The scant owner reviews on the Web indicate satisfaction, but the sampling is far too small to form any kind of consensus.

Higher-end features found on the JetSet include a 2-megapixel camera/camcorder with no flash, a music player with dedicated buttons on the side, 60 MB built-in memory, a microSD slot that can handle up to 16 GB cards and stereo Bluetooth. The Samsung JetSet SCH-R550 also offers text messaging, instant messaging, a Web browser, GPS functionality, voice dialing, voice recording, speakerphone and headphone jack. There is a 1-inch color external screen and a 2.1-inch color screen inside with 240-by-320-pixel resolution. Because there are no professional reviews, there has not been independent testing of the claimed battery life of 3.5 hours of talk time per charge. Neither is there an indication of call quality.

We found no credible professional reviews from the usual top sources: CNET, PCMag.com, Consumer Reports, WirelessInfo.com, InfoSync or MobileBurn.com. We found no owner reviews at Amazon.com and CNET and just a couple at PhoneArena.com and PhoneScoop.com.