To recap: a few months ago zzzPhone appeared on the scene, with claims that this high-spec, customized cell phone would go for as low as $149, and be shipped directly to you. The company was originally run by two Americans, Larry Horowitz and Matt Hammond (Hammond is now gone) who set themselves up in Haikou, China with a relationship with a Chinese factory to build hot phones, cheaply. Amusingly, the company's U.S. address is in Las Vegas, and its domain registrar is "Wild West Domains." In other words, these guys embrace risk.

Unfortunately, according to zzzPhone's U.S. agent Jesse Nowlin, the men embraced a little too much risk. They started taking orders only to find that the phones their factory was churning out didn't work on any U.S. network and that the second run of phones also wasn't satisfactory. Cue arguments that zzzPhone was some sort of scam, and a lot of refunds.

"The factory screwed us, so we had to start over," Nowlin explained.

(Note to budding entrepreneurs: Really, don't try to take orders on products you don't have in hand yet. I know Dell does this, but it had a lot of practice.)

Consequently, zzzPhone has switched manufacturers to the well-regarded SIM Technology which is legit enough to show up at U.S. trade shows and it's selling two models that can be "cosmetically" customized, not totally feature-customized. The phones still start at $149, and they have odd enough features. Nowlin brought both models to the PC Magazine offices for our perusal, and you can check out our photo slide show.

The base zzzPhone model is a hunkin' brick of a phone, running a low-end OS called, Nucleus. It has some impressive features. First, it supports two SIM cards, so you can make and receive calls on two different GSM networks at once say, T-Mobile and AT&T. This is a popular feature in Asia, where people frequently have multiple prepaid accounts, but it's pretty much unknown here.

The zzzPhone also has an analog TV tuner that works pretty well to pull in analog TV stations. To use it, you have to pop out the world's longest antenna. Seriously, this thing makes the LG Vu 's antenna look like a little stub. You could poke an eye out. And alas, the TV tuner won't work past the February 2009 analog TV turnoff date in the U.S.

The zzzPhone has a big touch screen, and two buttons near the top of the phone that neither Nowlin nor I could figure out. Backing up all these features is a mind-boggling 3000 mAh battery that's double the capacity of most smartphones' batteries.

In case that's all a little too "Wild West" for you, zzzPhone will also be selling a Windows Mobile model for $349, unlocked. zzzPhone's Windows Mobile 6.1 device has a touch screen and full QWERTY keyboard. It's pretty small maybe about BlackBerry Curve -sized and runs a powerful 624Mhz Marvell PXA310 processor. It features Wi-Fi, an FM radio, and GPS. And yes, Nowlin said, it's legally-licensed Windows Mobile 6.1. Not Windows CE, not a clone.

The Windows Mobile phone is not shown properly on zzzPhone's somewhat insane-looking Web site, which now purports to feature a $225,000 solid-gold phone and a QWERTY handset that is, strangely, not the one it's actually selling to the U.S. Nowlin said he's working on improving the site.

zzzPhone still has some serious rough edges. If you want a phone serviced, it has to be shipped back to China. The company has a tech-support 800 number, but your call gets answered in China. And it still hasn't managed to get phones out to any major review sites. But, Nowlin swears they're now fulfilling orders, and have shipped out several hundred phones. We still wouldn't recommend buying any until we are able to review the phones, and have heard from some happy customers. (If you're a happy customer, how about posting to our discussion boards?)

What's next? zzzPhone's next model will run Google's Android OS, Nowlin says. We hope to see it in our Labs later this year.