Are Kins decent enough phones?

[prism]

Switching to Verizon with my family (we all live in separate parts of the country so a family plan is necessary), and my mom, sister and brother-in-law all like the Kins from what they've seen online. They don't care about any type of smartphone functionality or the social networking features of the Kin; they simply want phones that are decent for texting, have speakerphones and decent cameras, and primarily something with good call quality.

At first I recommended against them as they were huge failures in the marketplace, but if they're a decent quality phone for the price, what's the big deal? Has anyone used one, and if so, how do they stack up to similarly-priced dumbphones?

 

[Ika]

From what I know, the Kin is a crappy smartphone, but a pretty good featurephone. It's also one of the few phones with wifi you can get on Verizon that won't lock you into a data plan. The OS apparently sucks but also apparently Microsoft said they would eventually bring WP7 to the Kin.

 

[Slick5150]

Aren't they shutting down the service that the Kin relies on to work?

 

[rudeguy]

don't Kins require data?

Either way..stay the hell away from them.

 

[zerocool84]

Aren't they shutting down the service that the Kin relies on to work?

Yup, Kin is dead.

 

[prism]

Hmm, I don't see data plan required under them, and they're listed as Feature Phones (dumbphones). I'm assuming their basic functionality as I described in my OP would remain unaffected even after whatever proprietary system they use gets shut down, right?

 

[zerocool84]

Hmm, I don't see data plan required under them, and they're listed as Feature Phones (dumbphones). I'm assuming their basic functionality as I described in my OP would remain unaffected even after whatever proprietary system they use gets shut down, right?

There are many other choices for your money if all they want to do is text oh and fyi all feature phones on Verizon require a data plan. You need to do some research.

 

[prism]

There are many other choices for your money if all they want to do is text oh and fyi all feature phones on Verizon require a data plan. You need to do some research.

Nope, only 3G feature phones require a data plan. Although the Kin utilizes 3G, so I guess I different feature phone would be a better choice...

 

[XJustMeX21]

They released the kins a second time as feature phones. They do not require data. The original kins have had there services canceled so they are effectively dead. You can tell the difference between the two with the "m" at the end of the product name. The kin oneM and kin twoM are feature phones and should be pretty decent ones at that.

 

[Rottie]

Many kids think Kins are far superior than any smartphones out there.