Firefly Mobile glowPhone - Pink

OK! Here's the REAL deal with this phone. I have a feisty five year old with whom I once nearly had a heart attack around when her sitter wasn't answering the phone after 15 calls. My heart was in my feet with anxiety, fear, anger - you name it, I felt it. What happened? They simply went to do laundry and the sitter left her phone. While that 10 minute period felt like an eternity, all was well, but what if something truly had happened? How would my baby let me know? I still couldn't bring myself to get her a cell phone, but what do I do? I remembered seeing a little girl years ago with something that looked like a phone, but not quite - she said it was a "fly." Well, that's the part I remembered. Thank goodness for Google; enter the Firefly!!! I was elated for "Santa" to get this for my princess, and so was she until we realized no one knew what it was or how to get it activated. Emailed the company, it responded with "take it to T-mobile or Verizon." Both companies looked at me like I had five heads citing there was nothing special, it's a phone and the lowest plans were $35/mth. Even my Sprint offered some crazy high plan. Negative! I just wanted something for emergencies*. Next up was Metro, it too didn't offer a solution. I was bummed and had finally given up when I was driving and saw a random hole-in-the-wall cell phone place. I figured one more [final] try can't hurt. Walked in and immediately, him: "oh you have a Firefly, I haven't seen those in years." It felt like I heard angels singing and bright lights shining down on this young man. Me: "I love you!" lol Cost: $25 to activate/prepay/load phone. The $25 covered the activation and purchased her 200 minutes. All that I have to do is add $10 every 90 days so that her minutes don't expire. Now THAT is perfect! Wireless Provider: H20 Wireless [the store was named Page Plus] Verdict: THIS PHONE ROCKS, and it's so damn cute! -Pretty aesthetics -Four buttons [upper left = talk/answer, upper right = power/disconnect, lower left = mommy, lower right = daddy] -Middle button is for navigation/enter -Surprisingly she can read texts, she just can't send them. So I can text her, she just can't text me back. -Parental controls allows for programming who she can call/receive calls from, in addition to time limits, ect. -A decent selection of ringtones -Surprisingly, there is an avatar selection for each contact - really cute ones. -It houses games too - who knew. -Operates as a flashlight -911 auto feature -It has decent screen savers. -Not too grown, looks like it belongs to a child, and perfectly suited for one! I'm not sure why this phone isn't much more popular. I feel so much more at ease now that she has it, with a firm understand that it is for emergencies only! *So much so that when I was calling her, she told her sitter she wasn't going to answer since it's only for emergencies. lol Let me know if you have any questions, I'm happy to help. I know I was super skeptical about the purchase given the horrible reviews, but I also noticed they were from 2008. The purchase was the best investment for my sanity, and it will be for yours too. I promise! ------------------ Update: 2.11.15 ------------------ -I just loaded $20 on to her phone. How many minutes is that? 400! Wow, right? -Regarding surcharges people have written about, I believe that may be provider specific. The only surcharge her provider, H20 Wireless, has is .15 per week. Not even close to the .35 a day I've read. -I just purchased this very cute starter kick for it that includes a case, flashlight and car charger. http://www.amazon.com/Firefly-Starter-Kit/dp/B000W9MCRI/ref=pd_rhf_cr_s_cp_4_6CNH?ie=UTF8&refRID=10K2PEB3DQT9K7QFJKED

Just got this for my grand-daughter who is 8. She loves it and so do I. I set it up as a bring your own phone to T-mobile. I bought a $10 card sim card and was charged just $10 for set up. I can refill the card anytime I need to. I don't have a T-mobile account so this is a stand alone. Very inexpensive to set up and maintain! Programming was easy. It has a few games. But her mother and I agree it is so easy for her to hit the mom or dad buttons or the nana number to call me when needed. Or 911 in case of something more dire. T-mobile will be servicing 2G phones like this though 2020 which, by then, my grand-girl will be ready and able to handle a more mature phone. The pink is really cute (even though we generally hate to use pink stuff with her but this one is so vibrant that it is raspberry). Big screen! GET this to go with it: Have one to sell? Sell now Details about 3ft USB 2.0 A Male to Mini-B 5pin Male Data Sync Charge Cable for GPS Cell Phone so you can make your own car or wall charger!

I bought this phone for my 7 year old daughter when she started wanting to ride her bike to school in the mornings. I was so afraid of her falling off her bike and having to hobble to the nearest phone. I was excited to get it, but that wore off fast. Trying to set this thing up to have minutes was absurd and totally inflexible. It's a pay as you go, but you can't add minutes mid-month if you run out, your just SOL till you can add minutes the next month, no exceptions. After all the struggle with this ridiculous phone, we ended up getting a free phone from Verizon and adding her to our plan for an additional 5 bucks a month. All the kid features that I thought were fabulous about this phone (blocks all incoming and outgoing calls except for the ones you enter into the phone book) are standard on almost all phones these days, I just didn't realize. Overall this phone is a waste of money and materials. I'm sure your current cell phone company has something cheaper and better.

Good quality phone but difficult set up instructuons. Easy for my daughter to use.

Great little starter phone. They can't text out but can receive text. They can only call who you put in the contacts. It has two special buttons for mom and dad and a 911 button. Has a few simple games like snake but over all great for kids. No Internet or apps. Perfect for young ones.

I received my firefly and got the tmobile card and put time on it went to put in contacts and it is password protected will NOT let me in how do you get past that to put contacts in

Great little beginner phone, don't expect any fancy. The Firefly company is defunct, so don't expect any service or help from them. You must activate this on a GSM network such AT&T or T-Mobile. We activated our daughters on our AT&T account. It runs on the old EDGE system not 3g or 4g. It will not work with a Microcell which requires at least 3g. Sounds good and clear in call.

Bought this phone for my 4 year old in case of emergencies. It didn't come with instructions but I just googled them and the phone worked great. I added the phone to my AT&T plan and had no issues with service. 10 dollars a month and I send this phone with my daughter everywhere she goes. She has been using apple products since she was a baby so working this phone was too easy for her.