Ask Norissa, my husband, and my mama how bad I am with phones. I think I left my phone over at Norissa’s house for about 3-5 days without stressing because I could not care less. My mama and husband often leave me messages like the following, “What’s the point of having a phone if you never answer it or charge it?”

In June, a company reached to me and asked if I would review their Lumia 1320 because it was budget-friendly and high-quality. Around that time, because of all the family pressure to keep a phone coupled with my wanton ways with technology, I had bought and damaged my Iphone which led me to buy a less expensive phone, which I am not going to mention because of the horrible user experience. Even though I won’t mention the name, here is an excerpt of my complaint letter to the company:

“I bought this phone in January and after a few months of ownership, I am confident in saying that I am completely and utterly disappointed with my phone. I am unable to complete a text without the phone cutting out.

Without exaggerating, my phone dropped one call 10 times while in the middle of an important meeting. It was completely embarrassing. Not to mention that it is a struggle to touch on an icon and have it open on the first try. This is an AWFUL phone.

 I bought this phone under the premise that I would have a solid, cost-efficient phone that would allow me to text, reply to emails and browse the web for my personal and business use. It does neither.

 Again, so utterly disappointed by this product and I want my consumer needs to be addressed by issuing me a full refund for this product.”

Mouthful, right? (It was and is a horrible, evil phone)

But enter the wonderful, bomb LUMIA 1320 a few months later: my husband  now complains that I am always on “the computer” (because of its size). This phone is the antithesis of Le Bootleg phone.

It’s amazing.

Let me get to the things that I love about this phone.

The size: If you have a big purse and can never find your phone in time, this phone eliminates that issue. That is also why my husband calls it “the computer.”

The screen size: With all of my other phones, I really don’t enjoy reading ebooks that I would download and I wasn’t particularly interested in buying a Kindle because I really wasn’t into ebooks like that. But the size of this screen makes a reluctant ebook reader like me more apt to read with the phone. In fact, I downloaded Leo Babauta’s The Little Book of Contentment” to the phone and love it! By the way, it’s an excellent read if you are looking to be happy with what you have.

 It’s good on energy: Like I mentioned before, I am not good with charging my phone. I have been able to browse the Internet, chat, and read my books for two days without charging it.

 It’s easy to use..for the most part. When I got it, I was still traumatized by Le Bootleg Phone so I was hesistant, but using it was pretty intuitive with a little practice. I found the app store so I could download my Twitter, Yahoo, Google, and whatever else I needed. On top of that, taking pictures is easy as well.

 It’s good for business: I do a lot of business with Fivver which requires me to always be in touch with my freelancers and review their work in real-time.

 The cost: This is a beautiful phone and it is ideal for those of us that want a cost-effective and well-designed phone. The Lumia 1320 is available in stores and online exclusively at Cricket Wireless for $229.99 after a $50 mail-in-rebate Cricket Visa® Promotion Card. Cricket Wireless is a no-annual-contract provider.

There was only one thing that I haven’t loved about my experience: the email setup. I have a GoDaddy email account for The Frugal Feminista and it took my husband and his friend, an MIT graduate, a couple hours during our 4^th of July BBQ to make it sync. As for the big dog sites like Yahoo and Gmail, you won’t have any problems downloading their respective apps or accessing them via their webpages.

Other than that, I am in LOVE.

If you are frugal feminista that needs to Tweet, update her status, read ebooks, surf the web, not drop phone calls, and have a cute phone that catches everyone’s eyes because of its size and the bright beautiful back design(mine is orange), then definitely check out the Lumia 1320.

With the phone being less than $300 and without a contract, I would consider The Lumia 1320 Frugal Feminista certified! Here is a link to the apps and experiences of others on the Lumia 1320 product page.

Frugal Feministas— What do you think? Would you buy The Lumis 1320 (if you needed a new phone)?

[info_box type=”alert_box”]Caring for yourself including takes care of your finances.  I encourage all ladies who are serious about self-care to go on The Happy Finances Challenge. In 42 days you can learn to make money decisions that will lead to long-term financial happiness. [/info_box]