This phone was handed to me as a company phone. I have been a Nokia user for years now and I have always enjoyed its intuitive menu system.

At first the Audiovox phone seemed like any other phone. All the basic features these days are standard, so I wanted to dig for the "power features".

The Good:
- The phone has an incredible battery life. Never ran out of juice on me.
- The connection is very good, but it always depends on where you are and who the provider is. Sometime it beats my GSM phone in availability of service.
- The screen display is large and easy to see.
- Voice activation is very good
- Vibrating feature very useful
- Web features.

The Bad:
- You cannot tell whether you receive messages. Occasionally my voice mail indicator on the screen says that I have no new messages, when in fact, I have over 5 messages on my inbox. Usually the green light blinks, but I learn on how not to rely on that.
- The menu system is rather cumbersome. I found myself lost a few times.
- The V+ button and the envelope buttons didn't work quite well. If you tried reading the manual, you must have had some difficulty in setting it up.
- The manual is poor in making it simpler. I can see people having difficulty in operating this phone.
- The Antenna is retracteable. A thing of the past?
- Choice of ring tones is rather limited to a few "normal" ones.
- Not shock-proof. The visor broke on the first fall. I have half LCD now and no insurance.


Overall, I seem to be a bit biased towards new phones in general. But after using cell phones for years now, I believe that I can be a good critic in terms of useability/features and usage.

The CDM-9000 is a good phone in general, but I'd prefer a Nokia over it.

TC




Recommended: No