Saturday, May 24, 2008

Tracfone News Bits, Reviews To Come, etc.

First off, apologies for the long period of silence on here. It was more out of laziness and poor time management than anything else. I intend to remedy that. Yesterday the Flare was FINALLY sent, and today, after doing a few other writing-related things, and seeing Indiana Jones at my local theater, I'll get down to doing some phone reviews.

Speaking of phone reviews, I grabbed an LG CG180 from the local AT&T store (formally Dobson CellOne formerly Concho CellOne) with $25 in airtime for $40. The purpose was to test out the data speeds on AT&T's current network around here, which is EDGE but suffering from not-so-great backbone service due to former ownership by Dobson CellularOne. In the AT&T store itself speeds were decent, around 225 kbps, though latency (delay) on page loads was not too hot. However it seems like they had a mini cell site in the store, because my average speed tests on my iPhone (into which I put the AT&T SIM card...it's a nicer phone than the CG180, heh) are around 70-80 kbps. That might seem decently fast, until you find out that 3G rom AT&T will be coming here early next year, and between now and then you have your choice of Verizon and Sprint EvDO, which is 10-15x that speed. Sorry guys, not impressed.

Yes, if you're wondering, a review of the LG CG180 on AT&T will follow relatively shortly.

In other news, Tracfone is releasing a few new phones. The LG 300g is GSM, runs on the Tracfone side of things, and looks to be a replacement for the Motorola c139 even more than the Motorola w175g is. The price will be the same as the w175g, looks like: $15, though Circuit City may sell the phone for $20. Though I'd think the LG would be more amicable to a promotion or two when such times come around.

Speaking of Circuit City, they'll have Tracfones soon,including another all-new one: the Motorola w376g! It looks like this phone, basically the Tracfone version of the w375 on Net10 (which is a cameraphone version of the w370 for all practical purposes), will have Bluetooth! Then again, Tracfone has culled Bluetooth from the feature sets of its phones before, so you can't be sure. But one can hope...and the price is right, at $50. I'll get it when it comes out, to review.

Last but not least in the line of phone information, the Virgin Mobile Slash is out! Well, at RadioShacks, that is. This cameraphone slider looks nice from what The Sweeper has posted over on the forums. Hmm, wonder if my local RadioShack franchise has it...

Last but not least in the news area, take a look to your right. No, not at the ad of BabbleBug this time (currently this site's main sponsor) but at the Creative Commons badge below it. Yes, this site is now licensed via Creative Commons, and with my particular license, in order to copy content, just make sure to cite Go4Prepaid as the source, don't use the info for commercial purposes unless you check back with me, and pass these license conditions on to whoever reads the content you lifted from this site. Sound fair Cool...a lot cooler than a copyright, for sure...

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

What is Net10? Is it a seperate phone company, or is it a branch of one? Im a little "cell phone illiterate..."

Faith Baptist Church said...

Hello there,

Net10 is the same company as Tracfone. They're owned by another communications company (that doesn't do cell phone service of their own in the US) but let's forget about that for the moment...

Tracfone and Net10 use service from various carriers (mostly AT&T and Verizon, with some T-Mobile, US Cellular and Alltel thrown in, plus a few small carriers) depending on where you are. Phones vary by area depending on whether the network they use is GSM (what AT&T uses) or CDMA (what Verizon uses).

Tracfone and Net10 are basically different pricing schemes (one is low flat-rate, the other is variable-rate, with slightly cheaper phones that come preloaded with less minutes) for the same service. Hope this helps! If you want more info, check out the forums!

Anna Belkine said...

The new samsung slider phone for virgin is now on the website, too. It looks sweet, too. Will you review it like you wanted once?

Anonymous said...

Ian, so you know, Tracfone now lists the W376g on their website, it does mention that the phone is Bluetooth enabled.

Anonymous said...

yoo hoo does anyone know when the tracfone W376g is coming out? i can't find it for any area code...and someone said it wasn't being released til June 6...but that's today...any news?

Faith Baptist Church said...

Stay tuned to the blog and the forums for updates. At the moment I can't find the w376g out anywhere. When I do find it (or someone else on the forums does) I'll post to the blog...

Unknown said...

I got my Dad (90yrs) a Tracfone last year and it has worked fine, but now he says he can't hear on it. I am looking for a replacement phone for him. Does anyone know of a tracfone that has loud hearing volume on it?? My search has begun.

Anonymous said...

* Hi Judy...what was the Tracfone Phone Model your Father had?

* Did something happen to the Phone that he cant hear on it anymore, or did his hearing worsen?


- Turk@g4pp-Forums

Unknown said...

His phone is a Motorola V170. He has always complained about it, but now he says it's terrible. He does not wear hearing aids (he can't). He really only has shall I say "one good ear". Let me ask, are Hearing Aid Compatible phones any louder than regular phones? He only needs it to make calls. I have been looking at the Motorola W370. People are saying that it is a louder phone. I've trained him on a flip phone, so that is what I would like him to have. Just looking for a phone that has louder ear volume than what he has. Thanks in advance.

Anonymous said...

* Judy...from all the reviews I saw/remember, the Moto w370 has a loud/louder speaker...so I think this phone would be a good choice also.

*If you do decide to get it, it is on sale this week at K-Mart Stores for $30 (includes Double Minutes for Life also)...if K-Mart is out of them, just take this weeks K-Mart Sales Paper to a local Walmarts and they'll match the price.

* I dont know the answer to the Hearing Aid Compatible question, sorry.....good luck!

PS: If anyone has any phone questions, feel free to join our Forums and ask your questions there (its FREE!), we'd be glad to help if we can....the link is to your right in the upper right hand corner of this Blog.


- Turk@g4pp-Forums

Anonymous said...

Last week I purchased the new Motorola W376g Tracfone which is suppose to be Bluetooth® enabled. I also purchased a Wireless Gear Bluetooth® Speaker Phone, Model 4PR910.

I followed the instruction for both items but they do not pair up or connect with each other. I is a must that I have a handfree cellphone device, for my state has a new handfree law that went into effect 1 july 2008.

I need to know which model Bluetooth® enabled device(s) will work with my Motorola W736g Tracfone. HELP PLEASE!!!

Unknown said...

Just wanted to follow up. I did get my Dad the Moto W370 phone. It is working great. He can hear on it and now has no fear of calling anyone. The earpiece is a lot louder than his old V170. Thanks for all the help Turk. I'm glad I went with the W370.
By the way, I called the tracfone number and got some guy in Belize. It was going to take 2 weeks to transfer from one phone to the other. I turned around and called the Florida number and it was changed over in 10 minutes.
Can't thank you enough for the best advise on this site.

Anonymous said...

The Motorola w376g has a passkey of 0000 (4 zeros) and cannot be changed. Change the passkey to 0000 on the device being paired to.

Anonymous said...

Is the tracfone bluetooth the same as REGULAR bluetooth.?

mrs.shepherd said...

I recently bout the motorola W376g,because it said it had bluetooth technology. My whole porpose of getting the phone was so that I could get ring tones from my friends. Boy was I wrong I just waisted my money cause there blue tooth technology is not like other bluetooth. You can not connect to other bluetooth phones. So in answer to the question is there bluetooth like other bluetooth no it is not. I waisted my money cause the phone dont do what i bought it for. I am looking into a fone from go phone, I have talked to the coustomer service there and they said that thier bluetooth phones do connect to other phones and you can send and recieve ring tones and when I am able to get one of thier phones I will never do bussiniss with tracfone again and I am going to advise others who ask not to either. The way I see it if you say the phone has bluetooth technology it should work like other bluetooth. i mean bluetooth is bluetooth anyway that was what I though untill I got my phone.

Faith Baptist Church said...

Actually, you're right, the Motorola only has that "profile" set enabled for its Bluetooth functionality. Lots of phones, due to carrier restrictions or lack of processing power, only have the capability to do Bluetooth with headsets\handsfree sets. For example, the Virgin Mobile LG Flare, and even some GoPhones.

On the other hand, the LG 600g (from Tracfone) has full Bluetooth capabilities, supporting file transfer as one of its Bluetooth profiles.

So don't be too mad at Tracfone; they do have an option that has full capabilities for Bluetooth. GoPhone also has phones that are locked down in this respect. Plus, GoPhone is more expensive per minute...

Anonymous said...

Is it possible to transfer a phone number from one Tracfone to another? If so, how would I do that?

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