Let me start out by saying that I got this phone just under a week ago, so I'm a new user and I haven't tried everything out yet. But overall this is the best cell phone I've ever seen. I've owned a few dozen phones over the years, got my first when I was 16 in 1996 and have upgraded over and over again. This is the third time that I bought a phone over the internet from a place other than the cell phone companies page and the first good experience. The other two were on eBay, and I know you can get it cheaper there but the first one turned out to be a refurb and the second had problems and neither lasted 6 months. Amazon is a good place to buy because they will take it back and issue a refund if there is a problem, they pay the shipping on broken returns so you don't have to worry about paying anything if you get a dud.I have Cingular, and yes this phone did work immediately without any problems. I do not have the data service (I don't use text messages, e-mail or web) because my work phone gives me that for free, so I can't comment on those features or on how you set the phone up to work with them.First impression: The phone looks great! Not as great as the picture though for one reason: The speaker, which I was assuming was charged by a EMF and worked without wires, is wired through the clear part. However, the wires look like a frame drawn on the clear part so it doesn't look bad. The phone functions great, and comes with everything I need except games (I'm looking for some good card and skill games for it now). It came with an international charger, which I don't trust so I tossed it in a box and kept using my old phone charger (which was the same). It also came with a sync cable, which is a growing trend in Motorola phones that have any PDA functions and one which I am pleased to see.The software functions very intuitively. When I open the screen it brings up a dialpad with a redial button. If I clear that, it brings up my last call. If I clear that, it takes me to my various call lists (missed, dialed, received). If I clear that I get to a home screen. I can also just hit end and it goes to the home screen. The home screen is nice, but it has 4 hotkeys that you can program and it would be nice if it could have more or less depending on your needs. It also has a grayed out background which, if tapped, overrides the screen for you to see it, then goes back when tapped again. Cleaning the screen is a problem because I keep hitting keys, a key lock button would have been nice to relieve this.The settings menu is well laid out, except it took me forever to figure out how to set the clock (it didn't download the time from Cingular, perhaps because of the lack of internet settings). Look through all the menus, you'll find it. I forget where I did, but I was standing in a line for 10 minutes and in that time I set everything up including the elusive clock...I haven't tried music or videos yet, I'll update my review when I get around to that, and when I get some games on it.I took the phone to Disney (my old phone broke 2 days before we were going, thanks Amazon Prime overnight shipping for $3.99!) The battery said 100% for two days including at least 3 hours of talk and 2 hours of playing around with the menus. Then it suddenly dropped to 50% (I guess it isn't such a great meter) and stayed there until the night when I decided to charge it, so I can't say how long it lasted but I think that is pretty good for a phone (my last needed a daily charge to make it). I'll charge it daily anyway, since I'm used to it.Overall, I would reccomend this phone to everyone out there, but I like being the "only person on my block" to own it, so I'll tell you not to buy it instead :-)More details to come in a month or so when I have really tested everything out!