The reason I was attracted to this phone was because it looked so much like an iPhone. I've wanted an iPhone for sometime but couldn't afford one and I didn't want to add an Internet/Data package.. The i68 allows you to have a cool looking phone without the absurd additional costs that come with an iPhone.

When I got the phone and started working with it, I found it overwhelmingly complicated not to mention very cheaply made. It was already unlocked for AT&T and T-Mobile so I didn't have to change any settings. I was told I could put the sim card in and go. Uh, not quite.

There are two icons for Text. If you click on the first one, you get an option for SMS, MMS, and Voice Mail Server. Huh? What's voice mail doing under a Text icon? Your other SMS icon/option simply opens the texting screen. The screen itself is very hard to use if you're used to texting a lot. I found it better to do it with the stylus than trying to use my fingers. And even in using the stylus, sometimes you have to push down hard to get the letter to show up. There are so many different languages to choose from, and when I thought I had it set correctly to English, some other language came up when trying to use a question mark, or exclamation, etc. It simply takes too much time to text on this phone. The Calendar worked fine and acted normal. Under the Calls icon, you can find your missed calls, dialed calls, etc, but 8 out of 10 times, the phone number comes up with no name. Only sporadically will the person who's calling name show up. The camera works ok but not really worth taking any pictures with. The calculator is odd as it doesn't even have a percent option.

In order to find your bluetooth option, you must look under the icon Tools. Not too odd and my bluetooth was very simple to set up. Under Settings, you're able to set up special ringtones as well as accessing things such as call waiting, caller ID, etc. Now things get a bit weird. Under Documents you will find something that says memory card. This is where you will see your java, mp3, video options, etc. In other words, if you are able to download anything from your pc to your phone, it will be under here. The only thing that seemed to do what it should was transferring pictures to my phone from my pc. Under the MP3 option, there were some interesting songs in Chinese, Chinese loaded games, but American video clips. Hmm.

The Notes icon works as it should and you can make notes to remind you of things to do, to remember, etc. Now let's get to the Clock icon. Once you open this up, you're offered options for World Clock, Alarm, Stopwatch. This is where things got weird for me. I set the clock to Los Angeles time but it still had to be set up to read correctly. It was showing the date backwards, no am or pm for the time....and a pain to try and figure out how to set it. I managed to set the alarm to 6am and it actually works but I still can't figure out how to get it to read pm.

Under the Service icon, you will find your options for data setup...data account, WAP settings, and internet. Pretty normal. Under the Java icon, you will find the Java application which you have installed.

Down towards the bottom of the phone, you will find the Phone icon. This opens up phone book options. Here you can add, delete, and edit your phonebook entries. The Dial icon is self-explanatory as it opens a screen with numbers and you simply dial. Easiest part of the phone if you ask me! Under the Multimedia icon, you wil find items such as Camera, Games, Image viewer, etc. For the most part, that works well.

The phone does not get good reception. Most can't hear me unless I yell into the phone. I've tried the phone indoors, outside, etc., and it still has bad reception. The phone also comes with 2 batteries but I've actually had the battery die in the middle of a conversation...at the one hour mark. That's pitiful. The charge doesn't last long at all.

In the Sciphone Quick Start Guide, you get an extremely unhelpful "manual". I had to go online and print out a manual that was a bit better. Even with that manual, it's still very hard to figure things out. I've done search after Google search for help with the phone and there was barely anything. Lots of people describing what the phone can do, but no step by step instructions. The one "help board" I found never activated my account so I couldn't use it. Even so, the moderators are rude in their responses to those desperate for help.

My pc did not recognize the new hardware when I plugged in the USB cord that came with the phone. I had to dowload an updated version of the software and even then, the pc only recognized the USB on occasion. When it did work, I was able to transfer some pictures and download some free Java applications but it is not as user friendly as some say.

Overall, I've found this phone to not be worth the time and aggravation involved. The phone looks good but that's about where it ends. Persoanlly, it makes much more sense to save for the day you can afford the data plan as well as the iPhone. Just my personal opinion. I've taken my sim out and put it back into my older Blackberry.