Kyocera Rise Smart Phone Review

I bought my Kyocera Rise by Virgin mobile phone on clearance for only $30 at Target over a year ago in January 2013. Clearly this is very affordable for a pre-paid phone. It was a decent phone considering what I paid for it. I will start off with what I like about it and why I have kept it for so long: The slide out keyboard. It slides out and is very easy for typing and texting. It's also a solid phone. I've dropped it so many times without it breaking. I even dropped it on the sidewalk in a bad rain storm and didn't realize it fell out of my pocket. When reached shelter I realized my phone was no longer in my pocket. I figured I must have dropped it somewhere. When the rain let up I retraced my steps and found in on the ground completely soaked. I pulled the battery out and did my best to dry off the phone. Once the phone was dry I put it back together and recharged it. When I turned it back on - it worked. I couldn't believe it. I thought for sure my phone was a goner but it pulled through after being drenched. Unfortunately it stopped working a few months later. But I'm impressed that it lasted as long as it did. I replaced it with the exact same phone. This time I paid $40. Again, the main reason I have kept my phone for this long is because of the slide keyboard.It also has a decent battery life. The battery on my older phone was starting to go though so I think as time goes on the battery life gets worse and worse.

There are a lot of things I don't like about the phone. The phone can sometimes freeze up and shut down when various apps are running. Sometimes it shuts itself off and then turns itself back on. This doesn't happen a lot, but it surprises me when I suddenly hear my phone turning on ..when I thought it already was turned on. Some apps do not work well. Vine and Instagram are always giving me problems. I actually uninstalled the Vine app because my Vines would always "fail" and never get posted. This also happens with Instagram videos and some Instagram pictures. It's unclear if this is problem is happening because of poor Virgin Mobile service or with the apps. The videocamera on the phone isn't very good. This might be why the Vines are so bad. Another problem I have had is sending photos to Twitter. They just don't transfer. When I try to share a photo to Twitter, the phone says "sending tweet" and then it never completes. It freezes up and I have to restart the phone. This is very frustrating. 

I've already bought another phone but I am reluctant to officially switch over because I really don't want to give up my sliding keyboard. It's really the only thing keeping me to the phone.