Here's another "free" phone from Verizon, with a two-year committment.I don't like paying for phones because the service costs plenty enough by itself. I needed a new phone because my old Samsung A670 had no speakerphone at all. This U340 has one, but the volume is simply not loud enough to be what I would consider an acceptable speakerphone. With the volume at the highest setting, it's just barely OK if there's very little ambient noise in the background. Two friends of mine have LG phones and their speakerphones are loud and have good voice fidelity. But, each of them had to shell out about $40 for their phones, even with a plan committment.What I do like is the navigation through the menu items, which is quite a bit better on this phone than my old Samsung A670. Very user-friendly, even to a person who doesn't use a cellphone as a plaything.Transmission and reception is about average compared with other cellphones. To a much greater extent than most people realize, these characteristics are controlled more by what kind of equipment the antenna sites have and how they are configured for coverage. You can have a hooptie iPhone with sucky call performance just like you can with these cell phone company freebies if the coverage is marginal.I haven't had any problems with the battery so far, but I've only had the phone a couple of weeks. I must say, it is quite small when compared to any other cellphone battery I've ever seen.The camera seems to take better quality pictures than my old A670 did, and there's no flash. This is a disappointment to some people, but I'd rather not have a flash that may draw unwelcome attention to it and to me. Physically moving the phone up and down in the air changes how light or dark the image capture will be, and I've found this camera will take OK pictures in even fairly low light situations.All in all, if you're a cellphone "power user" go get a hooptie name brand latest-gen phone. If you are oriented toward simple functionality and economy, consider selecting this from the "free" phone list at Verizon. The price is right!+++ Additional comment after having the phone for two months +++The battery in this phone is really the best I've ever seen in terms of strength and length of service between charges. After seeing other reviewers complain quite a bit about the battery, the amazing battery performance surprised me, and I thought I should add this comment. So, yes, the speakerphone is a tinny, low-volume bust, but the battery is definitely a big cut-above that of any other cellphone I've used.