For the longest time I had a Motorola cell phone with a hefty monthly bill of $50 or more per month from Verizon Wireless. It wasn't until about 6 months ago, I decided enough was enough. With the economy in disarray as of 2008-09 and possibly beyond, cutting costs is something everyone is looking to do. I decided one way to decrease my spending, was to stop paying so much for mobile cell phone services I found a great deal on the Nokia 1208 prepaid cell phone from T-Mobile, which included a $25 prepaid phone card with it.

My main purposes for using a cell phone are comfort and peace of mind (and text messaging). Should I need it for an emergency, I can have a quick way to make a call, but won't be bogged down by a monthly bill for it. My theory is why pay so much monthly when you can simply add minutes as you go along. This way you're not paying as much as $50 plus a month or $600 or more a year for a service plan. Of course if you have the Apple iPhone with AT&T service, wireless internet and all that jazz, then you're probably paying a lot to use the services. What follows here is my review of the Nokia 1208 prepaid cell phone by T-Mobile, including a look at its various features and uses.

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The Nokia 1208 cell phone comes in the traditional plastic packaging that most electronics products come on. It includes several accessories in addition to the cell phone itself. Here's exactly what is included in the Nokia 1208 package:

Nokia 1208 phone

SIM card

Battery & wall charger

Hands-free Headset

User Manual

Mobile services guide/terms & conditions

Phone card with free 10 minutes starter airtime

Note: When you first receive the package, youll want to keep the back panel info as well as the info located on the SIM card's holder card.  You'll need these various product ID #'s when you go to the T-Mobile site to register your phone.  Make sure to record all info together, such as passwords, logins, etc, or else you could be out of luck with accessing your phone and refilling online.

The phone itself is lightweight and compact at 77 grams. It's just under 3 inches in height and fits nicely in your pocket, or in a waist/belt clip (not included). You can purchase it in a variety of colors, including the sleek black model shown. The screen size is 96 x 68 pixels, which is rather small, but again it's a cell phone.

Calls made with the Nokia 1208 may have static or get dropped depending on where you're located, but this is nothing new for cell phones. The T-Mobile customer service rep told us that the phone would work well in our local vicinity but may not work quite as well if we left the state. I've yet to test this, but for my purposes the phone hasn't disappointed so far. I noticed I lost reception while out on a boating trip, but that's not a huge deal for a cell phone, unless of course you get stranded. And yes, the phone will work with your Twitter account to send Tweets via SMS/Text message.

Text messaging works well with the phone, and it includes a special feature which predicts your words, basically it will form words based on the letter keys you're pressing. I turned this feature off as it got in the way of messages a lot, but some may find it helpful. If you know how to text it won't matter for you much at all.

As for charging the phone seems to have a decent battery time. It uses a Standard Li-Ion 700 mAh (BL-5CA) battery. According to the phone specifications it has a stand-by time of up to 365 hours, with a talk time of up to 7 hours, which sounds generous. Leaving it turned on all the time, you may see the battery run down fast, especially if you're using the features or games a lot. As mentioned the phone comes with a wall charger, and T-Mobile/Nokia offer special cigarette lighter chargers as well.

I've yet to use the hands-free headset, but it's not a bad additional accessory for using your cell phone while in the car or walking somewhere by foot. The User Manual is helpful as well in explaining how to program and use your T-Mobile Nokia prepaid cell phone. It gives you instructions on charging as well as how to put in your SIM card, which can be a little bit complicated for some, due to the small size of the card. The SIM card comes on a holder card which you detach it from. That holder card has your specific phone ID info, so I'd recommend recording the information on a piece of paper, for registering your phone later.

Since this is a pre-paid cellular phone by Nokia and T-Mobile, you won't pay on a monthly basis like regular cell phone service plans. Instead you'll purchase minutes either by going online or dialing *ADD from the Nokia 1208.  The minutes will be automatically added to your cell phone time when you do that. You can also purchase the T-Mobile minutes cards at various pharmacies, retailers and grocery stores, or online. With the cards you'll need to either dial a special phone number and enter your phone card ID, or go online to replenish your minutes with the card.

The available denominations for the cards & minutes you purchase are $10, $25, $50, $100. The $10 gets you just 30 minutes, while $25 gets you about 3 hours. In comparison, the $100 deal may be best as it gets you 1000 total minutes which may be good on a longer basis than 3 months also.

T-Mobile offers two choices for how you work your pre-paid plan. You can go with the Minute costs as described above, or you can choose the daily charge. In the Daily Charge plan, you will be charged just $1, but only on days you use the phone. If you look at it this way, the T-Mobile Prepaid plan would cost $31 at most in any given month, which compared to most cell phone service plans is less expensive.

The Nokia 1208 included 10 minutes of free starter time for the phone. Some people may find just 10 minutes starter time not enough, but the deal I found also included a $25 minutes card as well, which was good for 3 months and about 3 hours total talk time. The thing to note is that you must renew your minutes before each expiration date (usually 3 months time). If you do not renew, you automatically lose your cell phone number and will have to acquire a new one.

Note: I have not figured out how many minutes text messages eat up, but I'd imagine that the more you text, the quicker your minutes deplete!

Let me start by saying I was able to purchase the Nokia 1208 for just $20, and it included the $25 phone card for more talk time. Not a bad deal, but the fact that the phone costs $20 may make some think it's a piece of junk. Not the case at all. While I merely use it in case of an emergency or to make a quick call to home or the office, it includes a lot of interesting and helpful features for a simple $20 phone.  It's also quite sturdy and hard to break.  You'd have to step on it repeatedly on pavement or run it over to really crack the thing.

You can program in quick dial numbers which is very helpful. For example, set up your phone to dial your home phone # when you press the number 3 key and then the green phone key. You can do this for up to 9 numbers. It's not as many as most phones but still a helpful feature. Otherwise you simply enter the number and press the green phone button to make a call.

Call Log: See how many calls you've made, how many you've missed, as well as your Text messages sent and received. Also check the call timer to see the duration of your last call, longest call and all calls.

Alarm Clock: A typical feature on most cell phones these days, set a one time or multiple time alarm for yourself. This could be helpful if you're on vacation or on the road for a business trip.

Calculator: A feature always handy to have with you while out and about, say for figuring out what sort of tip to leave your waiter.

Calendar/Reminders: There's a calendar complete with the ability to put events/reminders on various dates. You'll get a reminder notice for any event you program, and in advance by as much time as you'd like to be reminded. Great way to remember important things like your anniversary or wife's b-day!

Composer: This phone is polyphonic for ringtones, so you can't use the latest Akon, T-Pain or Taylor Swift ringtones on it. However, you can play around with the included "Composer" feature to design your own polyphonic ringtones.

Converter: Useful for converting currency, temperatures, weights and other measurements.

Stopwatch and countdown timers: I use the stopwatch when jogging, working out or taking walks, to gauge how much time I've done. With the countdown you could use it for cooking or any number of other things.

Flashlight: The Nokia 1208 has a nice little flashlight built into the top of it. While it won't create a huge spotlight for outdoors late night searches, it will help you find your car's key entry in the dark.

Games: There's 3 games included on this phone, and they're in color. I'd say the color is comparable to a low end Gameboy, but still they're entertaining. You get Soccer, Rapid Roll and Dice Games. I'm absolutely addicted to Rapid Roll as you have to try to guide a ball down to various platforms without falling or getting crushed at the top of the screen. It's highly addictive in a Tetris-way, and a great way to kill time if you're waiting in line somewhere or waiting for an appointment. Soccer is not quite as fun to me, but I'm used to sports games on high-end video game systems like the Xbox. Nonetheless, you've got 3 games to play at your discretion.

As you can see from the above list of features and extras you get quite a bit in this simple and compact cell phone!

For a simple, inexpensive cell phone, the Nokia 1208 and its prepaid T-Mobile phone service are rather reasonable for cost and use.  If you're a casual cell phone user or only need one for emergencies, get this.  It offers an array of simple yet useful little features and ways to keep your attention, such as the Rapid Roll game.  While it won't provide you crystal clear phone calls always or reception in very secluded areas, it will provide you the peace of mind of having a cell phone in your pocket when needed for emergencies or calling/texting someone.  The price plans also give you significant savings over using a regular monthly service.  If you were to purchase $25 of minutes and use that for 3 months, you're basically paying $8.33 a month for cell phone service.

I recommend this simple little phone for casual cell phone users, those who want a simple phone for comfort/safety, or maybe for parents to give their kids a simple phone to have just in case.   If you can pick the Nokia 1208 prepaid cell phone up new at the $20 deal with a $25 phone card, you've found yourself a steal.