got the phone because it was free!
no bluetooth, small keys, etc
piece of sh**
only good for any emergency phone at best!
oh forgot picture taking quality is poooooooooor!

Confucious say "You get what you pay for." So you got good value!
But yeah, it's not great but will be handy for US trips since its unlocked.

Anyone can confirm if this phone will accept micro sdhc cards? Manual says sd but it also says a max size of 4 gig, which I thought is what sdhc are.

- don't know if the phone will accept sims other than Speakout. Someone please confirm.

I got the free phone with my $100 top-up and I can assure everyone that the phone is unlocked. I put my Mobal sim card (which has its phone number in England) in and it connected to Rogers.

But I do find those tiny keys hard to press accurately.

- It DOES NOT have bluetooth, so in order to copy your pictures to your computer you need to use a micro SD card (not included). I can't find info if it accepts SDHD cards, so if someone can please confirm this, let us know. I'd like an answer before I go out and buy a card.

- It has a VGA only camera that I think only takes stills. Can't testify to the quality as stated above, I don't have a micro SD card to transfer the pics to my computer and, well, it has no bluetooth

- it has a speakerphone

- it has FM radio and comes with headphones that connects to to the USB port (same used for charging the unit with the wall plug). Also lets you play music files that you add to the micro sd card.

- has calculator, calendar, 500 contacts, alarm, stopwatch, converter, fake call, games and seems to be a very good lasting battery.

- Internet browser and email, although I don't know if this can be used with Speakout. Someone please confirm.

- don't know if the phone will accept sims other than Speakout. Someone please confirm.

All in all a great little phone, it seems, the best end-of-year package from 7 Eleven I've seen. Seems durable enough and well, so lightweight. A huge step up I think, from the other crappy Nokia offerings. I'm now getting another as wife's minutes are over. Worst case I'll put the second phone up for sale on kijiji for a few bucks, along with one or two of the $5 worth of minutes with their sims.

This is a great deal. For $100 + tax = $112.00 you get

$100 air time + $25 bonus air time + $10 sim + $5 included air time = $140.00 value

The phone is basically disposable, that's my review.

Enjoy =)

Also, how long do you have before you have to activate the $100 voucher? I really don't need to add money to mine for several months.

OK, I did my duty and searched the forum, and it appears that the voucher is good for one year. However, do I have to activate during the promotion period in order to get the extra $25 credit? If I activate it in the spring, do I lose the bonus?

It's also interesting that in the gallery of wallpaper images that comes preloaded on the phone is the logo for H2O wireless, a US provider that uses the AT&T network.

I fully expect the Alcatel 356 is locked to the Speakout/Rogers network, but does anyone who has one know for sure please? Thanks.

That's what I thought too.

But this phone (or at least the one I got) is completely unbranded and looks to be possibly already unlocked . . . or else impossible to unlock.

I jumped the gun and bought an unlock code for 1.50 US before even trying a different SIM, but then tried other sims, and they SEEM to work without prompting for unlock. Reason I say SEEM is because they are two deactivated accounts sim's.

When I try any way of entering the code to unlock nothing happens (that's why I say possibly impossible to unlock). And it doesn't pop up with "locked" or "unlock code:" or anything.

Can anyone else confirm?

there are people who may find good use of it

I can top up online and not bother with yet another free phone - or invest some additional time and effort going to the store and pick up one of these free. But I can't think of a use for it so why bother?

However, if it was unlocked ... then being able to put in a US SIM card in it would actually be very useful when crossing the border. All my other phones are locked to Rogers and/or Rogers' Speakout.