with audiovox's cdm-8600, verizon continues to try to inject a little more style into its lineup of handset offerings. coming on the heels of the attractive samsung sch-a530, the 8600 will appeal to a broad audience seeking a feat>feature rich phone at a moderate price ($109 with a one-year contract). yet as sexy as this mobile is on the surface, it has a few design blemishes that some users might find irksome. the good: striking design; high-resolution interior display; exterior lcd; built-in speakerphone; high-speed wireless web access; 32mb of memory. the bad: cramped and confusing keys; inconsistent battery life; no included games; fragile antenna. the bottom line: aside from a few minor design flaws, this eye catching flip offers a solid feature set and adequate performance. An outstanding phone we have evaluated is the Audiovox CDM-8600, a cell phone that has been created to rival a very competitive market. Released around 01/10/2003 the CDM-8600 supports the networks AMPS 800 / CDMA 800 / 1900. Measuring only 83 x 42 x 20 mm and having a weight of only 90 g, this item´s size will please its users. This phone arrives with a 900 mAh Li-Ion battery, enough to talk for about 3.00 hours and gives in standby 165 hours. An attractive option of the Audiovox CDM-8600 is the speaker phone, being a useful tool anywhere! The screen on this cell phone lets installation of wallpapers of 120 x 128 px. Audiovox designed the CDM-8600 with a 32 chords ringtones engine, ready for you to add all the ringtones you wish. The gaming engine Audiovox CDM-8600 runs on BREW / J2ME, supporting fun little games! Not surprisingly, since it is now standard in all phones, the CDM-8600 supports both SMS and EMS. The calendar available is very easy to use and Audiovox equipped it with a phone book enabling a contact list of 300. The prediction text tool uses the T9 technology, which is very easy to use. The data transfer uses the cdma2000 1xRTT technology. Connection to a computer is supported with a cable to transfer information. We conclude believing the Audiovox CDM-8600 to be a very attractive companion cell phone and we greatly encourage it to you!