Virgin Mobile Lobster 320 review

To go along with its mobile network, Virgin Media markets its own phone under the Lobster brand.

The Lobster 320 is one of the cheapest in the range, costing just £25 on pay as you go, but with such a low price tag, is it any cop?

Strengths
You wouldn't necessarily describe the Lobster as flash, but it's certainly not without its charms. For starters, it's very small and light so it slips easily into your pocket and the rubberised effect on the rear means it's quite comfortable to hold. It might be small in stature, but when you flick it open it has a surprisingly large and well-spaced keypad. Also, because the directional pad is marked with shortcut functions, the phone is pretty easy to get the hang of.

The menu system is also very straightforward and anyone's who's used a Nokia phone will find it instantly familiar because it's obviously been heavily influenced by the menus on the Nokia handsets.

The Lobster offers simple call and text features, but not much in the way of extras. That said, it does sport a camera, which many of its similarly priced rivals do without. The camera only has a VGA resolution and the phone doesn't support MMS so the only thing you can really do with the pictures is use them as wallpaper on your phone.

Call quality was generally pretty good with crisp and clear speech, but the handset's reception wasn't quite as good as some of the other budget phones we've used recently.