Kyocera Strobe K612 / SwitchBack Specs, Features & Reviews

i decided to submit a review even though its been discontinued for quite a while. my reasoning was that their might be somebody who wants to buy this phone off of ebay,etc.
so heres my review:

i think this phone is a very sturdy, and good phone for the avid texter (like me). i read the other reviews stating that its "unresponsive", "turns on and off" but i have never had that happen to me before.

PROs:
*very sturdy- ive dropped it quite a few times and i only have a couple of scratches and a barly visible crack in the screen.

*texting is a breeze- the QWERTY keyboard is very useful

*one time i left it out in the sun (it was over 100 outside, and it was outside for about 3 hours, i forgot about it lmaoo) and the only thing that happened was the front screens color got a slight blue tint to it

*modifying pictures contains lots of options- i can change the brightness,sharpness, saturation, hue, color change, not to mention rotate and resize it.

*the things are uploaded on it are cute- the preloaded images are cute! (animated monkeys, frogs, a car, cake, corn, etc.) and the wallpaper choices are very neat

*none of the other things the other reviewers said happened, happened to me.

CONs:
*if you use the front screen you have to change the way you type (T9Word or regular) every time, it wont stay one way. (but i cant imagine why you would type that way since you have a full keyboard)

*i dont like the font of the phone and you cant change it.

other than those 2 minor things its a great phone that i would recommend to anyone! ive had this phone for two years and i am switching because i want something a little bit more advanced. like the samsung delve, or the lg glimmer. (something with a touchscreen) but i hope this was useful! (=

At first I read the reviews n thought twice about getting it but i got it n I luv it!!!
There r some cons n some pros!! I had the motorola razr n think this is much better!!!

PROS
LUV THE TEXTING!!
LIKE THE APPS!!!
LOCK KEYS
LIKE THE PRELOADED SCREENSAVERS
CAN RECORD AND PUT IT AS RINGTONE!!!!
SMALL!!!
LOUD SPEAKERFONE!!
LOCK KEYBOARD N TURN ON VIBARATE BY HOLDING A BUTTON
DOESN'T TAKE LONG TO CHARGE
AND SOO MUCH MORE

CONS
FLIP IS HARD TO GET OPEN
BATTERY LIFE SUCKS
CANT TURN ON VIBARATE WEN CHARGING
THERES MORE BUT THESE R OFF THE TOP OF MY HEAD

overall if u like textin n have small fingers its a fone i like this fone and i recommend it hope this helped!!

So saw this phone and thought cool, I'm a text a holic so I thought it would be perfect for me..man, I was wrong! I have had this for four months...already it doesn't keep charge, the outside buttons are wearing off(i have a cover and i never use the outside!),most of my calls are speaker phone or ear piece calls because the sound quality is terrible,i dropped it once and I might as well have slammed it because the effect would've been the same! I never got my rebate. not the phones fault and the companies should have recalled them or something if they knew they were going to discontinue the phones!! So now i have to pay retail price AGAIN 4 months later....not cool!!!!!!

The only reason I am giving it even one star is because this phone is unbreakable. My 2 year old has chewed on it, thrown it and dropped it dozens of times. Other than that, it is terrible. The phone has a complete mind of its own. It shuts off at random constantly. The camera is one of the worst I have seen. You can't even tell who you have taken a picture of! The screen size on the inside is decent, but the picture takes up only half of the screen. DO NOT BUY THIS PHONE!

i have had this phone for about 6 months and by the second week it started to get really crappy. the phone shuts on and off by itself and restarts, it freezes while I'm trying to read pic messages, and it deleted my data once. overall i wouldn't recommend this phone especially from metropcs because metropcs is just a crappy service provider

ive owned many virgin mobile phones and this one is not good.the pros are the instant messenger is ok,unlike other virgin mobile phones that just decide not to work. and i love the bright blue keyboard lighting. and i like the sound, good speakers.and now for the cons
-heavy and ugly compared to what they have now.
-bad reception, what good is a keyboard if it takes 8 days to send a message lol.
-poor components, this phone is not made well like the ugly big plastic back cover.which of coarse yu cant see wen in the stores case.
-horrible camera
-freezes every so often.
-likes to turn itself on,and off. yu could literaly turn this phone off and then 30 minuets later get a phone call from someone.
but wat i found out was, wen i got pissed off wen this phone BROKE DOWN AFTER GOING BANNANAS ON Me and deciding to do whatever it wants after youve had it for some time, i threw it at a wall, and nothinh happened, very sturdy

I would not recommend this phone. I have had 5 of this phone-the first one was my fault for needing a replacement(it got stolen), the second one stopped working after I downloaded one of the ringtone applications that it provided, the third one i had to return the next day because the charger hole wasn't built right, the forth one got and virus, and now I am on number five. This phone has a mind of its own and shut on and off by itself and randomly freezes. It doesn't hold a charge very long. the buttons are very small-lucky for me I have small fingers, but someone with larger fingers should not get this phone. Constantly the sound doesn't work. My service is the Lilburn(suburb of Atlanta) based MetroPCS and it doesn't get good service at all, also(for Metro users) Metro does not have trackers for its phones. Bluetooth does not work very well. It also does not have alot of text room in each message-if you text alot you will get very frustrated. I would HIGHLY urge you not to get this phone.

!!!!! THIS PHONE SUCKS! At first i thought the phone was so cool. Because i picked it out for Christmas. But after a few weeks with it, i figured out it was crappy.
Like i take my phone to school with me incase i have a emergency. so i keep it in my book sack when i go to p.e.
So it turns on when someone calls you. and it was off.
It started ringing.....(she moves her body like a cyclone....)And my teacher was in there! she took my phone and went through my messages! what whore! well anyways lol! yeah dont take this phone to school!!!
And it's really hard to mash the buttons bc u press like 5 at the same time. Even if you can type fast on a lap top like me. yeah its pretty hard to txt with it!well say its (aggervating!)
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DON'T GET THIS PHONE!

You think, from looking at it, that it's a great phone for texting, but you would be wrong. They texting keys are WAY too small, plus add on to that the fact that this phone is VERY prone to condensation getting inside the unit, even if you don't drop it in the water, or take it out in the rain. In short, TAKE A PASS ON THIS PHONE!

I decided to post even though this phone has been discontinued by all providers:

I think that this is a very well-rounded handset. For the most part it is very simple and straight-forward, making it easy to customize, personalize, and understand without having to hop into the owners manual. The QWERTY keyboard gives the phone a high utility, but makes it thick and bulky.

I read many ill-reviews stating that the Strobe had a "mind of it's own", "would turn on and off at it's will", etc. I have owned my phone for nearly two years and have yet to encounter this issue, even given the fact of how many times that thing has taken a dive out of my hand. I have probably dropped this phone about 30-40 times and once it even fell from a second-floor balcony. It has also taken a ride through the washer AND dryer and the only problem I can recognize in these latter years of it's life is that keys 3, 6, and 9 flicker on-and-off when the keypad is lit.

The phone does have its design flaws, and some pretty major ones at that. The keys on the front are offset making it impossible to dial blindly. Even if they weren't offset, they are WAY too small, especially for a guy with big hands like me. Both the front and inner screens are fairly pettite and have a pretty bad overall resolution. The camera is pretty junky, even with all of the settings optimized at maximum. The look of the phone is sort of "girly" and is a little unprofessional and "sporty" (kind of like a race car, LOL).

Aside from the errors on the engineer's side of this phone, it is very decent and durable. I am surprised mine is still alive.