LG LX-160 / Flare

I type faster than the Marbl too and I'm almost 50

I too am looking for a faster VM phone, I do lots of texts (over 1000 a month) and need something that types a lot faster than the Marbl.

It's not TOO awful in ordinary text mode but typing emails on the browser in my yahoo or hotmail box, very slow... "lags" is the right word for it, have to pause to wait for the cursor and if I don't... strings of gibberish.

Which might be ok if I were typing a text to Coast to Coast, they might think its an alien trying to contact the show in some weird language, but I think I just need a device that types plain English ok, meaning FAST.

My Nokia 2610 with AT&T is much faster to type on.

I like the keypad of the Marbl, particularly the widely spaced 'soft touch' keys, and it has a nice display.

But, it also scrolls very slow in mobile net, herky jerky sort of stop and start and I accidentally choose or click the wrong things because of the delayed reaction.

The Marbl is a great basic device if you don't intend to use it very often and don't have over $20 to spend on the phone, but I too definitely need advice on which VM phone to replace the Marbl with.

I would like a Kyocera Wildcard, but for the price I'd hesitate to invest if it is no faster than the Marbl. Do want a QWERTY keypad and a good resolution camera, music phone that streams audio off the net ... who wouldn't.

But, for a $50 limit on purchase price, I'd like to know if the LG FLARE or the UTStarcom ARC would be the better choice.

The Arc has a VGA camera, and MMS capability; the FLARE, no MMS.

I do WAAAY more texting and browser than calls. Without a camera onboard, the MMS capacity wouldn't be of much use on the Flare anyway (for me), my Nokia has MMS but no camera and so I don't use MMS on it.

Anyone out there who can help decide ?

My Marbl is parked right now with minimal balance while I use my AT&T GoPhone Nokia 2610 for texting & email.

I was talking about political stuff one day while texting with someone and the Nokia crasht, the next day I could no longer get texts from that source, had to route the texts differently. Suspect they may have blocked the texts from them due to unpopular political content, can't prove it... but makes me wonder if I should get a faster VM phone and see how the political content does texting with them Was kinda spooky, Men In Black wouldna been a surprise.

Ultimately the Wildcard might be a good investment if I can text freelly on Virgin Mobile without mysterious text blockage issues.

Anyone out there who can help with this critical phone swap decision??