Wednesday, July 23, 2008
The Cell Guru Is Giving Away an i425
There's another giveaway affot, but it's not from here. Head over to the Cell Guru's site and you'll see that he's giving away a Motorola i425 to whoever gives him the best suggestion for spiffing up the site. So head on over and tell him I said hi :)
UPDATED: Net10 Intros Unlimited!
Looks like Net10 dropped a bit of a bomb on the cellular market today...see this post...
...or not.
Because I'm ecstatic...
That Net10, whose coverage mirrors that of Verizon on-contract or AT&T on-contract depending on where you are (in other words pretty much everywhere), and whose phones aren't downright overpriced or underpowered, has introduced an unlimited plan!
It gets better...
Not only is the plan contract-free, it also includes text messaging! Okay, so there's no mention of picture messaging so I'm assuming that they'll keep charging for that, but text is usually a $10 or $20 a month option on top of voice service, and they've included it.
The price? $79.98 per month.
The offer isn't available in all areas; it's GSM-only. But that's still great, because AT&T's coverage area (contract-class remember?) is HUGE. Also, text messaging is included in the monthly price, as is the otherwise-half-a-unit-per-minute web browsing charge. Subscription services (on Tracfone's limited mobile web), ringtones, graphics, games and MMS still aren't free, but on MMS you don't have to pay the data charge so messages are just 10 cents apiece. Pretty good deal if you ask me.
Let's compare the current prepaid unlimited plans...
Net10 - $79.98 for talk and text, cheap MMS, limited web browsing full AT&T network
Virgin Mobile - $79.99 for talk, $10 extra for messaging (text, picture, IM, certain e-mail), Sprint network only
Page Plus - $60-$62 or $75-$77 for talk, depending on the area, Verizon network only
Others - Sprint network only, usually $70+ per month
Boost - $50 for talk, $60 for talk and text, $70 for talk, text and web, Sprint network only, limited to a single region
...and contract plans...where taxes and fees abound...
Sprint - $89.99 for talk and messaging (text, picture)
T-Mobile - $99.99 for talk and messaging (text, picture), $50 per month for additional lines, FlexPay may be available but with more expensive phones and slightly less coverage
Verizon & AT&T - $99.99 for talk only, $20 extra for messaging (text, picture, etc.), no additional-line discount, Net10 runs on the AT&T network for less!
So if you don't send and receive picture messages, Net10 could actually save you $40 a month over a CONTRACT plan with the same underlying carrier! That's not even accounting for the taxes and fees that are piled onto the contract plans, which would probably be around $20 per month. No activation fees either.
This, along with Virgin and Page Plus's options, are the first reasons that high-minute users might actually want to switch to prepaid rom a contract plan. If the word gets out, contract providers will have to play catch-up, which means good things for everybody.
Granted, Boost, CricKet, MetroPCS, other smaller unlimited carriers and in some cases Page Plus can provide cheaper rates for unlimited service versus Net10, but none of these can offer as much coverage, and Page Plus doesn't offer unlimited text messaging. The phones on everyone but Page Plus tend to be quite expensive as well.
Speaking of phone prices, here's Net10's current lineup:
$79.99 - LG 225 (camera flip w\external display)
$69.99 - Motorola w375 (camera flip...no Bluetooth though to my knowledge)
$59.99 - LG 1500 (flip w\external display)
$49.99 - Motorola w370 (flip)
$49.99 - LG 200 (CDMA flip)
There are other phones available as well (the LG 300 is available at Wal-Mart for $30 including an accessory kit).
One caveat of the plan is that you can't buy a card for it in a store; you have to buy online. Also it may not be available everywhere. Last, it's voice and text only until my testing (or someone else's) proves otherwise.
Whatever you make out of this, it's pretty clear that Tracfone has dropped a bombshell into the prepaid, nay, the whole cellular industry with this plan. There's no longer a coverage or price-per-minute sacrifice when making the jump to prepaid. Phone selection will likely follow. For the price of a contract activation fee you can get a "free phone" from Net10 with 300 minutes and 60 days to try out the service. That's longer than any contract provider's tryout window I've heard of. If you want a higher-end phone, you buy one for $70, something a contract provider would insist was $34.99. Granted, the Motorola w375 isn't a really high-end unit, but there's no contract either. Plus, the outlay on the phone now is reversed by the lack of taxes, fees and just plain monthly basic charges for the unlimited phone bill.
In comparison, $80 a month would likely get you only 900 minutes (with unlimited nights, weekends and mobile to mobile) on a contract plan, with no messaging of any sort, after taxes and fees are taken into account. Okay, maybe 200 messages, but not unlimited.
As I was saying, this whole thing is rather game-changing. Or maybe I'm just excited.
By the way, thanks to the forum members who spotted this, and if you're trying to figure out how to buy a Net10 phone online check this link out, You can get a refurbished Motorola c261 cameraphone (which is decent, see my review of it) for $29.99 including $30 in airtime. Very nice.
Thanks to The Sweeper for the information and the update! I guess this confirms that AT&T (and mybe T-Mobile?) is giving Net10 a very good deal on minutes because unlimited service is not available in CDMA areas, but still, this option is just great.
...or not.
Because I'm ecstatic...
That Net10, whose coverage mirrors that of Verizon on-contract or AT&T on-contract depending on where you are (in other words pretty much everywhere), and whose phones aren't downright overpriced or underpowered, has introduced an unlimited plan!
It gets better...
Not only is the plan contract-free, it also includes text messaging! Okay, so there's no mention of picture messaging so I'm assuming that they'll keep charging for that, but text is usually a $10 or $20 a month option on top of voice service, and they've included it.
The price? $79.98 per month.
The offer isn't available in all areas; it's GSM-only. But that's still great, because AT&T's coverage area (contract-class remember?) is HUGE. Also, text messaging is included in the monthly price, as is the otherwise-half-a-unit-per-minute web browsing charge. Subscription services (on Tracfone's limited mobile web), ringtones, graphics, games and MMS still aren't free, but on MMS you don't have to pay the data charge so messages are just 10 cents apiece. Pretty good deal if you ask me.
Let's compare the current prepaid unlimited plans...
Net10 - $79.98 for talk and text, cheap MMS, limited web browsing full AT&T network
Virgin Mobile - $79.99 for talk, $10 extra for messaging (text, picture, IM, certain e-mail), Sprint network only
Page Plus - $60-$62 or $75-$77 for talk, depending on the area, Verizon network only
Others - Sprint network only, usually $70+ per month
Boost - $50 for talk, $60 for talk and text, $70 for talk, text and web, Sprint network only, limited to a single region
...and contract plans...where taxes and fees abound...
Sprint - $89.99 for talk and messaging (text, picture)
T-Mobile - $99.99 for talk and messaging (text, picture), $50 per month for additional lines, FlexPay may be available but with more expensive phones and slightly less coverage
Verizon & AT&T - $99.99 for talk only, $20 extra for messaging (text, picture, etc.), no additional-line discount, Net10 runs on the AT&T network for less!
So if you don't send and receive picture messages, Net10 could actually save you $40 a month over a CONTRACT plan with the same underlying carrier! That's not even accounting for the taxes and fees that are piled onto the contract plans, which would probably be around $20 per month. No activation fees either.
This, along with Virgin and Page Plus's options, are the first reasons that high-minute users might actually want to switch to prepaid rom a contract plan. If the word gets out, contract providers will have to play catch-up, which means good things for everybody.
Granted, Boost, CricKet, MetroPCS, other smaller unlimited carriers and in some cases Page Plus can provide cheaper rates for unlimited service versus Net10, but none of these can offer as much coverage, and Page Plus doesn't offer unlimited text messaging. The phones on everyone but Page Plus tend to be quite expensive as well.
Speaking of phone prices, here's Net10's current lineup:
$79.99 - LG 225 (camera flip w\external display)
$69.99 - Motorola w375 (camera flip...no Bluetooth though to my knowledge)
$59.99 - LG 1500 (flip w\external display)
$49.99 - Motorola w370 (flip)
$49.99 - LG 200 (CDMA flip)
There are other phones available as well (the LG 300 is available at Wal-Mart for $30 including an accessory kit).
One caveat of the plan is that you can't buy a card for it in a store; you have to buy online. Also it may not be available everywhere. Last, it's voice and text only until my testing (or someone else's) proves otherwise.
Whatever you make out of this, it's pretty clear that Tracfone has dropped a bombshell into the prepaid, nay, the whole cellular industry with this plan. There's no longer a coverage or price-per-minute sacrifice when making the jump to prepaid. Phone selection will likely follow. For the price of a contract activation fee you can get a "free phone" from Net10 with 300 minutes and 60 days to try out the service. That's longer than any contract provider's tryout window I've heard of. If you want a higher-end phone, you buy one for $70, something a contract provider would insist was $34.99. Granted, the Motorola w375 isn't a really high-end unit, but there's no contract either. Plus, the outlay on the phone now is reversed by the lack of taxes, fees and just plain monthly basic charges for the unlimited phone bill.
In comparison, $80 a month would likely get you only 900 minutes (with unlimited nights, weekends and mobile to mobile) on a contract plan, with no messaging of any sort, after taxes and fees are taken into account. Okay, maybe 200 messages, but not unlimited.
As I was saying, this whole thing is rather game-changing. Or maybe I'm just excited.
By the way, thanks to the forum members who spotted this, and if you're trying to figure out how to buy a Net10 phone online check this link out, You can get a refurbished Motorola c261 cameraphone (which is decent, see my review of it) for $29.99 including $30 in airtime. Very nice.
Thanks to The Sweeper for the information and the update! I guess this confirms that AT&T (and mybe T-Mobile?) is giving Net10 a very good deal on minutes because unlimited service is not available in CDMA areas, but still, this option is just great.
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
STi Mobile Is Still Alive
It looks as though STi Mobile is still alive and...um...squirming. Not kicking, just squirming.
Anyhow, they've changed up their phone sales policy a bit, and messed with their plans. Here's the quick rundown:
All phones sold from STi's website come with $20 of airtime preloaded. Your options are:
Sanyo 200 (basic flip) - $40
Samsung a660 (less reliable slightly less basic flip) - $40
LG 225 (camera, web-enabled flip) - $65
Or get the phones for $40, $26 and $50, respectively, from CheapPhoneCards, which has a few small discount codes on the phones and packs in $10 of airtime with the Sanyo 200.
The messaging and data section has been taken out of the website, with rates for the services buried in the FAQ. Then again, the FAW still talks about older plans so I'm not sure what to trust. International dialing is at the forefront of the site right now however, and the rates are admittedly rather decent.
Their rate plans are:
8.9 cents/minute plus 9 cents per day
7.9 cents/minute plus 25 cents per day
$24.99 for unlimited nights and weekends starting at 9 p.m., 20 cents/minute otherwise
$29.99 for unlimited nights and weekends starting at 7 p.m., 15 cents/minute otherwise
Technically, airtime doesn't expire, but if you leave the service for long enough the monthly fees will eat it away.
STi isn't a particularly good deal now, nor has it been for awhile, unless you talk in some weird pattern that efficiently skirts around the daily fee, or you call internationally a lot and want to direct dial.
Just for fun, I ran some numbers, and you'd have to use an average of 16 minutes per day (480 per 30-day month) to make the 7.9 cent per minute plan worthwhile over the 8.9 cent one. This would get you a $45.42 monthly cellular bill on prepaid service. The same number of minutes could be gotten on Virgin Mobile for between $24 and $36 s month, depending on how you buy your minute packs. The unlimited night and weekend plans? xTreme Mobile offers 9 p.m. nights and weekends for $18ish a month (60 cents per day) with 15 cents per minute calling during weekdays. STi's 7 p.m. plan *might* work for you if you use more than 80 minutes a month between 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. (otherwise xTreme Mobile would be a beter fit) or if you use more than 3000 (!) 7 p.m. nights and weekends but less than 35 anytime minutes per month (otherwise Movida's Penny plan would be a better fit) or if you use a TON of night and weekend minutes but less than 135 anytime minutes (at which point Virgin Mobile's $50 plan, with 400 anytime minutes, would be a better fit).
Just sayin'. STi is great for special usage cases I suppose, but you probably aren't one of 'em.
Anyhow, they've changed up their phone sales policy a bit, and messed with their plans. Here's the quick rundown:
All phones sold from STi's website come with $20 of airtime preloaded. Your options are:
Sanyo 200 (basic flip) - $40
Samsung a660 (less reliable slightly less basic flip) - $40
LG 225 (camera, web-enabled flip) - $65
Or get the phones for $40, $26 and $50, respectively, from CheapPhoneCards, which has a few small discount codes on the phones and packs in $10 of airtime with the Sanyo 200.
The messaging and data section has been taken out of the website, with rates for the services buried in the FAQ. Then again, the FAW still talks about older plans so I'm not sure what to trust. International dialing is at the forefront of the site right now however, and the rates are admittedly rather decent.
Their rate plans are:
8.9 cents/minute plus 9 cents per day
7.9 cents/minute plus 25 cents per day
$24.99 for unlimited nights and weekends starting at 9 p.m., 20 cents/minute otherwise
$29.99 for unlimited nights and weekends starting at 7 p.m., 15 cents/minute otherwise
Technically, airtime doesn't expire, but if you leave the service for long enough the monthly fees will eat it away.
STi isn't a particularly good deal now, nor has it been for awhile, unless you talk in some weird pattern that efficiently skirts around the daily fee, or you call internationally a lot and want to direct dial.
Just for fun, I ran some numbers, and you'd have to use an average of 16 minutes per day (480 per 30-day month) to make the 7.9 cent per minute plan worthwhile over the 8.9 cent one. This would get you a $45.42 monthly cellular bill on prepaid service. The same number of minutes could be gotten on Virgin Mobile for between $24 and $36 s month, depending on how you buy your minute packs. The unlimited night and weekend plans? xTreme Mobile offers 9 p.m. nights and weekends for $18ish a month (60 cents per day) with 15 cents per minute calling during weekdays. STi's 7 p.m. plan *might* work for you if you use more than 80 minutes a month between 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. (otherwise xTreme Mobile would be a beter fit) or if you use more than 3000 (!) 7 p.m. nights and weekends but less than 35 anytime minutes per month (otherwise Movida's Penny plan would be a better fit) or if you use a TON of night and weekend minutes but less than 135 anytime minutes (at which point Virgin Mobile's $50 plan, with 400 anytime minutes, would be a better fit).
Just sayin'. STi is great for special usage cases I suppose, but you probably aren't one of 'em.
UPDATED: Hear me on the Prepaid Podcast
I just got off of a Skype call with Joe over at PrepaidReviews.com. Had a nice chat about prepaid phones, the situation in the prepaid market, that sort of thing. It'll be in this month's Prepaid Podcast, which should be out in a day or two. No, this isn't why I haven't posted here in awhile (with reviews of the phones I have sitting around), but it is something and the podcast is pretty good, so you might want to take a look.
UPDATED: Here's the podcast page on PrepaidReviews
UPDATED: Here's the podcast page on PrepaidReviews
Monday, July 14, 2008
Three More Phones, Target Promo
As if I didn't have enough stuff to review, I just grabbed the following handsets at Wal-Mart:
LG 300g (Net10)
Samsung u410 (INPulse -> Page Plus to test new services partly)
Nokia 1208 (T-Mobile)
The 300g (and included accessory pack) was $30, as was the Nokia 1208 (no accesory pack). The Samsung weighed in at $60; I've tested the cheaper u340 before and one thing it lacks is web access, something I need to test data on Page Plus.
A quick tip: I noticed a buzz on howardForums about a sale going on at Target stores this week: the Samsung u340 is just $20 there. Grab it while you can, so long as you're sure you won't miss web access when using it on Page Plus.
LG 300g (Net10)
Samsung u410 (INPulse -> Page Plus to test new services partly)
Nokia 1208 (T-Mobile)
The 300g (and included accessory pack) was $30, as was the Nokia 1208 (no accesory pack). The Samsung weighed in at $60; I've tested the cheaper u340 before and one thing it lacks is web access, something I need to test data on Page Plus.
A quick tip: I noticed a buzz on howardForums about a sale going on at Target stores this week: the Samsung u340 is just $20 there. Grab it while you can, so long as you're sure you won't miss web access when using it on Page Plus.
Friday, July 11, 2008
More Phones To Review
Well, I've been back from Philmont Scout Ranch (photos at http://www.picasaweb.com/iansltx/philmont2008) for nearly a week and am off on another trip, this time to Florida for mom's birthday and to visit relatives and such. I'll probably get photos up of that trip in due time as well.
Anyway, since this blog, up until a few minutes ago, has been woefully lacking in new content, here's some additional news about the stuff that's in store, and about stuff that's happened in the prepaid space:
1. Page Plus Cellular will shortly be rolling out data and multimedia messaging. Rates appear to be .12 cents per kilobyte (about what Virgin Mobile charges on their monthly plan) and 40 cents plus data per MMS (very steep). The feature seems to be working for some people at the moment, but not for everyone, probably as a consequence of the variety of phones active on the service. Additionally, Page Plus seems to be reworking their minute decrementing system again so you may actually have to pay face value on stuff like text messaging and data rather than getting a discount on those services as well as voice minutes when adding higher-denomination airtime cards.
2. Verizon INPulse recently introduced a messaging package: $10 a month gets you unlimited "IN" messaging plus 250 messages to everyone else. Funny how that works...on Virgin Mobile with a plan of similar cost per month (one of the monthly plans, to be precise) I could get unlimited messaging for that much, to anyone. On AT&T GoPhone, or one of VMo's other plans, $10 would get 1000 messages to anyone. In short, the deal is only good if all your friends are on Verizon, and your usage patterns actually fit the very slim profile for which INPulse isn't absolute highway robbery.
3. The day before yesterday I got a brand new Virgin Mobile UTStarCom Arc in the mail (ordered it with overnight shipping). Seems like a decent phone. It also seems like Virgin Mobile is standardizing their user interface over all their phones, though their UI is more, erm, traditional and in my opinion better than the evil-ness that is Verizon's "Red" UI. Basically take a typical phone menu system (LG, Sanyo, Samsung or such) and slap a white-on-red pop-art-ish paint job on it and you've got Virgin's user experience. I'll also be grabbing the LG 300g bar phone in time for it to arrive at my destination, a few days away at this point. Will probably order it in the hotel tonight.
And yes, I'll be getting some actual phone reviews up here sometime. Apologies to everyone left hanging, annoyed, etc.
One last thing: make sure and check out my sponsors. They're what keeps this site going, buying phones, reviewing phones, etc. They pay for my cell phone plan, my mobile broadband and maybe an icee or two when I'm on the road :)
Anyway, since this blog, up until a few minutes ago, has been woefully lacking in new content, here's some additional news about the stuff that's in store, and about stuff that's happened in the prepaid space:
1. Page Plus Cellular will shortly be rolling out data and multimedia messaging. Rates appear to be .12 cents per kilobyte (about what Virgin Mobile charges on their monthly plan) and 40 cents plus data per MMS (very steep). The feature seems to be working for some people at the moment, but not for everyone, probably as a consequence of the variety of phones active on the service. Additionally, Page Plus seems to be reworking their minute decrementing system again so you may actually have to pay face value on stuff like text messaging and data rather than getting a discount on those services as well as voice minutes when adding higher-denomination airtime cards.
2. Verizon INPulse recently introduced a messaging package: $10 a month gets you unlimited "IN" messaging plus 250 messages to everyone else. Funny how that works...on Virgin Mobile with a plan of similar cost per month (one of the monthly plans, to be precise) I could get unlimited messaging for that much, to anyone. On AT&T GoPhone, or one of VMo's other plans, $10 would get 1000 messages to anyone. In short, the deal is only good if all your friends are on Verizon, and your usage patterns actually fit the very slim profile for which INPulse isn't absolute highway robbery.
3. The day before yesterday I got a brand new Virgin Mobile UTStarCom Arc in the mail (ordered it with overnight shipping). Seems like a decent phone. It also seems like Virgin Mobile is standardizing their user interface over all their phones, though their UI is more, erm, traditional and in my opinion better than the evil-ness that is Verizon's "Red" UI. Basically take a typical phone menu system (LG, Sanyo, Samsung or such) and slap a white-on-red pop-art-ish paint job on it and you've got Virgin's user experience. I'll also be grabbing the LG 300g bar phone in time for it to arrive at my destination, a few days away at this point. Will probably order it in the hotel tonight.
And yes, I'll be getting some actual phone reviews up here sometime. Apologies to everyone left hanging, annoyed, etc.
One last thing: make sure and check out my sponsors. They're what keeps this site going, buying phones, reviewing phones, etc. They pay for my cell phone plan, my mobile broadband and maybe an icee or two when I'm on the road :)
AT&T GoPhone Free Phones
Look in the "packages" section of AT&T's GoPhone website and you'll see something interesting: phones that are free or better-than-free with an airtime card. There are two ways that airtime is included, however. I've marked phones with an asterisk that have the airtime preloaded. The ones with no asterisk have the airtime as a separate card, for even more bonuses and savings!
LG CG150* - $40 including $25 in airtime
Nokia 2610 Refurb - $25 including a $25 airtime card
Samsung a117 Refurb* - $29.99 including $25 in airtime, $40 including $50, $80 including $100
Nokia 2610 Refurb* - $40 including $50 in airtime, $80 including $100
Pantech c120 Refurb* - $25 including $25 in airtime
Samsung a437 - $10 w\$25 airtime purchase
Pretty good deals, if you ask me. Granted, you may or may not have to open up a new line of service to take advantage of these deals, but they're really good anyway. Not bad at all in my opinion for a non-contract cell phone.
LG CG150* - $40 including $25 in airtime
Nokia 2610 Refurb - $25 including a $25 airtime card
Samsung a117 Refurb* - $29.99 including $25 in airtime, $40 including $50, $80 including $100
Nokia 2610 Refurb* - $40 including $50 in airtime, $80 including $100
Pantech c120 Refurb* - $25 including $25 in airtime
Samsung a437 - $10 w\$25 airtime purchase
Pretty good deals, if you ask me. Granted, you may or may not have to open up a new line of service to take advantage of these deals, but they're really good anyway. Not bad at all in my opinion for a non-contract cell phone.
AT&T GoPhone Free Phones
Look in the "packages" section of AT&T's GoPhone website and you'll see something interesting: phones that are free or better-than-free with an airtime card. There are two ways that airtime is included, however. I've marked phones with an asterisk that have the airtime preloaded. The ones with no asterisk have the airtime as a separate card, for even more bonuses and savings!
LG CG150* - $40 including $25 in airtime
Nokia 2610 Refurb - $25 including a $25 airtime card
Samsung a117 Refurb* - $29.99 including $25 in airtime, $40 including $50, $80 including $100
Nokia 2610 Refurb* - $40 including $50 in airtime, $80 including $100
Pantech c120 Refurb* - $25 including $25 in airtime
Samsung a437 - $10 w\$25 airtime purchase
Pretty good deals, if you ask me. Granted, you may or may not have to open up a new line of service to take advantage of these deals, but they're really good anyway. Not bad at all in my opinion for a non-contract cell phone.
LG CG150* - $40 including $25 in airtime
Nokia 2610 Refurb - $25 including a $25 airtime card
Samsung a117 Refurb* - $29.99 including $25 in airtime, $40 including $50, $80 including $100
Nokia 2610 Refurb* - $40 including $50 in airtime, $80 including $100
Pantech c120 Refurb* - $25 including $25 in airtime
Samsung a437 - $10 w\$25 airtime purchase
Pretty good deals, if you ask me. Granted, you may or may not have to open up a new line of service to take advantage of these deals, but they're really good anyway. Not bad at all in my opinion for a non-contract cell phone.
Virgin Mobile Intros UTStarCom Arc
In addition to introducing an unlimited voice plan called Totally Everything (see my post on www.unlimitedcellular.info for more info on that one) Virgin Mobile has switched up their phone lineup and added another handset into the mix: the UTStarCom Arc.
As you might have guessed, this little guy is a flip phone. It's rather low-end, basically a flip version of the Super Slice, with a VGA camera and Bluetooth as its most prominent features. Though it is not exactly the same in design, or in model number, the Arc looks like a UTStarCom Mini redone for Virgin Mobile.
At $50 the phone seems to be a flip phone option for Super Slice features, or a successor to the now-discontinued Snapper (made by Pantech for Audiovox which was sold to UTStarCom who is now spinning the company off as Personal Communication Devices). Needless to say, I'll be picking this little red wag...er...phone up and putting it through the obligatory paces to see whether it's worth the money. Though I'd think it would be.
In other phone lineup news, the white Cyclops is no more, at least online. Instead, the Cyclops is available in red for $50, and includes 20 in airtime versus the normal $2.50. There are also a few phones that are free with airtime purchase: the Oystr with $10 in airtime, the Aloha with $15 and the original Slice with $20. The Super Slice, at least for now, is gone.
As you might have guessed, this little guy is a flip phone. It's rather low-end, basically a flip version of the Super Slice, with a VGA camera and Bluetooth as its most prominent features. Though it is not exactly the same in design, or in model number, the Arc looks like a UTStarCom Mini redone for Virgin Mobile.
At $50 the phone seems to be a flip phone option for Super Slice features, or a successor to the now-discontinued Snapper (made by Pantech for Audiovox which was sold to UTStarCom who is now spinning the company off as Personal Communication Devices). Needless to say, I'll be picking this little red wag...er...phone up and putting it through the obligatory paces to see whether it's worth the money. Though I'd think it would be.
In other phone lineup news, the white Cyclops is no more, at least online. Instead, the Cyclops is available in red for $50, and includes 20 in airtime versus the normal $2.50. There are also a few phones that are free with airtime purchase: the Oystr with $10 in airtime, the Aloha with $15 and the original Slice with $20. The Super Slice, at least for now, is gone.
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Motorola w175g, Motorola w260g (Tracfone GSM)
Sorry for the lack of reviews, everyone! Have been a bit on the busy side lately but I really wanted to get a bunch of material out before going on a two-week trip to Philmont Scout Ranch in new Mexico. Thus, a first look at some phones. Starting with the Motorola w175g and w260g, showing just how much $10or $15 can get you...
You may wonder why I'm reviewing two phones at once. Easy: the phones, aside from their form factors, are identical. Same screens, same interface, same everything. Though the w260g carries a $5 premium due to the flip versus bar design.
First, the differences between the two phones: the w175g is the typical featureless black bar phone while the w260 is a slightly less featureless black flip. The w175g does have a textured pattern on its back, but since the unit is made of hard plastic it doesn't really help your grip any. The keypad mimics that of the Motorola Razr, albeit at a much lower quality. It's essentially a big piece of rubber with ribbing to differentiate between rows of buttons. It's moderately useable. In terms of size and durability, the phone isn't exactly small or thin, but it's absolutely pocketable and the featureless black plastic probably makes it seem larger than it is.
The w260g doesn't have the textured back of the w175, but it does have a shiny black clamshell front. Similar to the w370, LEDs will light up for incoming calls and messages, and as a low battery alert or when the battery is charging. It's not caller ID but it's cool-looking and shows up better in the sun. Size-wise the phone is aagin not the smallest one out there, with a nearl-suqare, wide footprint, but it is pretty thin for a phone that doesn't have an antenna bulge at the bottom. The keypad on the w260g is quite a bit larger than that of the w175g (you have more space for such things on a flip phone) but it is also made of a single sheet of rubber and is thus not ideal for much more than typing in phone numbers and menu navigation.
Now to the stuff that is the same across both phones...
First off, the phone ringers get LOUD. Not quite as loud as the Nextel phones of old, but you won't be missing your phone ringing if it's turned up on high. However there is plenty of range on the ringer settings so if you want a quiet phone you can do that. The vibrate motor on both models is decent as well. One complaint I have about the ringer speaker is that it tends to distort at higher volumes and there's no bass response, but for $10-$15 I'm fine with ringer quality.
Call quality is decent as well. While in the little bit of informal testing I did actually experienced a cut-out in a good signal area (basically all of town) on the w260g call quality was solid. No call quality problems like the Motorola c155/c139. Voice quality on both ends was fine as far as I could tell, even when using the speakerphone; this is probably due to the CrystalTalk enhancement software on these phones, which I believe first came out for Tracfone on the Motorola w370. Again, no complaints here, though I wouldn't say these phones win any awards for clarity.
I'm not really sure about battery life as I only got the units in Wednesday but this type of phone tends to have really, really long life (a few weeks even) since there isn't much running and GSM is generally (or seems to be) more power-efficient than CDMA.
For user experience Tracfone has added a few more newbie-specific prepaid features. When you turn these phones o, before activation, you get a message telling you to activate, where to activate and the information you need phone-wise to do so. This information has now been whittled down to the phone serial number (no SIM ID anymore), and no code entry is needed. Once you click past the activation instructions you'll get a messag telling you, on the home screen, to turn the phone off and on again. This message disappears once your phone gets activated, the replacement being "You have 60 days until you need to refill" or similar, depending on today's date and the date you need to add more minutes. Nice touches for people new to prepaid, though for old hands a quick trip to the Prepaid menu to turn these notices off may be required.
For the rest of the UI, you're looking at a typical Compal-made Motorola: close to the old Synergy interface but with slightly larger fonts so some options have to scroll, and a menu system where you have to be careful not to press the center button if you think that's "select" (it usually brings up another menu). Since these phones are basic units you don't get a media gallery to play ringtones and view garphics, nor do you get web, multimedia messaging or MP3 ringtones. You do, however, get quick access to most phone features either from the home screen (by pressing the shortcut-triggered softkeys or arrow keys) or the main menu. I wouldn't say these phones are as easy to use as the Nokia models but they're not all that difficult either.
Two things that stick out as user-unfriendly are volume changing and text entry, however. On the first point you don't have a volume rocker on the side of the phone, and neither do you have dedicated keys at the home screen. So it's a trip into Ring Styles (by a shortcut button if you have one set up), then a few more steps, to change ringer volume. There may be a quicker way, but I haven't found it.
For text entry, the problem is that Motorola uses their old iTAP system on everything with their branding on it. This exclused iDEN phones but includes the phones available on Tracfone. The implementation on these phones is particularly clunky; you don't hit "space" to accept a word and go on, you hit the "menu" key. Or something like that; guess I'm much too used to the smooth experience that is T9. The problem is that the alternative, multitap input, is downright arduous on the keypads these phones have.
So that's about it for the Motorolas w260 and w175. They're certainly worth the $10-$15you pay for them if you buy from Circuit City or the like, and they're fine "free phones" if Tracfone feels the need to bundle them with an airtime card or two. You even get a good signal and a boatload of MIDI ringtones in the package. But these phones ahve "basic" written all over them and their lack of any service other than voice and (rather hard-to-use) text pin their value squarely below $20.
Two phones down, a zillion more to go. Up next: the Motorola i425 from Boost Mobile (finally!).
You may wonder why I'm reviewing two phones at once. Easy: the phones, aside from their form factors, are identical. Same screens, same interface, same everything. Though the w260g carries a $5 premium due to the flip versus bar design.
First, the differences between the two phones: the w175g is the typical featureless black bar phone while the w260 is a slightly less featureless black flip. The w175g does have a textured pattern on its back, but since the unit is made of hard plastic it doesn't really help your grip any. The keypad mimics that of the Motorola Razr, albeit at a much lower quality. It's essentially a big piece of rubber with ribbing to differentiate between rows of buttons. It's moderately useable. In terms of size and durability, the phone isn't exactly small or thin, but it's absolutely pocketable and the featureless black plastic probably makes it seem larger than it is.
The w260g doesn't have the textured back of the w175, but it does have a shiny black clamshell front. Similar to the w370, LEDs will light up for incoming calls and messages, and as a low battery alert or when the battery is charging. It's not caller ID but it's cool-looking and shows up better in the sun. Size-wise the phone is aagin not the smallest one out there, with a nearl-suqare, wide footprint, but it is pretty thin for a phone that doesn't have an antenna bulge at the bottom. The keypad on the w260g is quite a bit larger than that of the w175g (you have more space for such things on a flip phone) but it is also made of a single sheet of rubber and is thus not ideal for much more than typing in phone numbers and menu navigation.
Now to the stuff that is the same across both phones...
First off, the phone ringers get LOUD. Not quite as loud as the Nextel phones of old, but you won't be missing your phone ringing if it's turned up on high. However there is plenty of range on the ringer settings so if you want a quiet phone you can do that. The vibrate motor on both models is decent as well. One complaint I have about the ringer speaker is that it tends to distort at higher volumes and there's no bass response, but for $10-$15 I'm fine with ringer quality.
Call quality is decent as well. While in the little bit of informal testing I did actually experienced a cut-out in a good signal area (basically all of town) on the w260g call quality was solid. No call quality problems like the Motorola c155/c139. Voice quality on both ends was fine as far as I could tell, even when using the speakerphone; this is probably due to the CrystalTalk enhancement software on these phones, which I believe first came out for Tracfone on the Motorola w370. Again, no complaints here, though I wouldn't say these phones win any awards for clarity.
I'm not really sure about battery life as I only got the units in Wednesday but this type of phone tends to have really, really long life (a few weeks even) since there isn't much running and GSM is generally (or seems to be) more power-efficient than CDMA.
For user experience Tracfone has added a few more newbie-specific prepaid features. When you turn these phones o, before activation, you get a message telling you to activate, where to activate and the information you need phone-wise to do so. This information has now been whittled down to the phone serial number (no SIM ID anymore), and no code entry is needed. Once you click past the activation instructions you'll get a messag telling you, on the home screen, to turn the phone off and on again. This message disappears once your phone gets activated, the replacement being "You have 60 days until you need to refill" or similar, depending on today's date and the date you need to add more minutes. Nice touches for people new to prepaid, though for old hands a quick trip to the Prepaid menu to turn these notices off may be required.
For the rest of the UI, you're looking at a typical Compal-made Motorola: close to the old Synergy interface but with slightly larger fonts so some options have to scroll, and a menu system where you have to be careful not to press the center button if you think that's "select" (it usually brings up another menu). Since these phones are basic units you don't get a media gallery to play ringtones and view garphics, nor do you get web, multimedia messaging or MP3 ringtones. You do, however, get quick access to most phone features either from the home screen (by pressing the shortcut-triggered softkeys or arrow keys) or the main menu. I wouldn't say these phones are as easy to use as the Nokia models but they're not all that difficult either.
Two things that stick out as user-unfriendly are volume changing and text entry, however. On the first point you don't have a volume rocker on the side of the phone, and neither do you have dedicated keys at the home screen. So it's a trip into Ring Styles (by a shortcut button if you have one set up), then a few more steps, to change ringer volume. There may be a quicker way, but I haven't found it.
For text entry, the problem is that Motorola uses their old iTAP system on everything with their branding on it. This exclused iDEN phones but includes the phones available on Tracfone. The implementation on these phones is particularly clunky; you don't hit "space" to accept a word and go on, you hit the "menu" key. Or something like that; guess I'm much too used to the smooth experience that is T9. The problem is that the alternative, multitap input, is downright arduous on the keypads these phones have.
So that's about it for the Motorolas w260 and w175. They're certainly worth the $10-$15you pay for them if you buy from Circuit City or the like, and they're fine "free phones" if Tracfone feels the need to bundle them with an airtime card or two. You even get a good signal and a boatload of MIDI ringtones in the package. But these phones ahve "basic" written all over them and their lack of any service other than voice and (rather hard-to-use) text pin their value squarely below $20.
Two phones down, a zillion more to go. Up next: the Motorola i425 from Boost Mobile (finally!).
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Page Plus Cellular Adds Online Account Managment
Late to the party, maybe, but it's still very much appreciated...
Page Plus Cellular now has an online account manager with a decent array of features, though for some things (activation, phone and number changes) you either have to call them up or get ahold of a dealer.
What you can do, though, is a pretty good amount. You can update personal information, view and add to your airtime balance, enable and disable features like text messaging and voicemail, and view logs of all account activity. The last two things I can't even do on my Sprint account online! Okay, I can see how many minutes I've used per month and I can see call logs on my bill, but this is better.
Yet another reason to go Page Plus, especially with the Alltel takeover providing a gargantuan coverage footprint for such an inexpensive service. Once I get a little money from my sponsors (check them out, they're great!) I'll probably pick up another phone to use with Page Plus. Maybe the Samsung Juke; it's $110 at Wal-Mart's site right now...
Page Plus Cellular now has an online account manager with a decent array of features, though for some things (activation, phone and number changes) you either have to call them up or get ahold of a dealer.
What you can do, though, is a pretty good amount. You can update personal information, view and add to your airtime balance, enable and disable features like text messaging and voicemail, and view logs of all account activity. The last two things I can't even do on my Sprint account online! Okay, I can see how many minutes I've used per month and I can see call logs on my bill, but this is better.
Yet another reason to go Page Plus, especially with the Alltel takeover providing a gargantuan coverage footprint for such an inexpensive service. Once I get a little money from my sponsors (check them out, they're great!) I'll probably pick up another phone to use with Page Plus. Maybe the Samsung Juke; it's $110 at Wal-Mart's site right now...
Four Phones In, One To Go
The UPS truck arrived today with the T-Mobile Nokia 2610. Very snappy for "ground" shipping if you ask me. Also, the FedEx truck brought me the Tracfones from Circuit City. So I'm even farther behind on phone reveiws now, but I have a lot more stuff to post up here :).
The Virgin Mobile Slash from Samsung will arrive Friday.
I'll make sure to at least give non-battery-life reviews of all the phones I have right now before Sunday, when I head out to Austin, thence to Philmont Scout camp for two weeks. Which will be quite a task, considering how many reviews I've got to do, but that's my own fault.
Anyway, check back here soon for reviews of everything from the Motorola w175 to the Virgin Mobile Slash!
As a sneak peak, I must say that the w376 (Tracfone Motorola) is a nice phone, taking the strengths of teh w370 and improving upon them.. However if you want a loud ringer, the Motorola w175/w260 remind me of the old Nextel days. More later!
The Virgin Mobile Slash from Samsung will arrive Friday.
I'll make sure to at least give non-battery-life reviews of all the phones I have right now before Sunday, when I head out to Austin, thence to Philmont Scout camp for two weeks. Which will be quite a task, considering how many reviews I've got to do, but that's my own fault.
Anyway, check back here soon for reviews of everything from the Motorola w175 to the Virgin Mobile Slash!
As a sneak peak, I must say that the w376 (Tracfone Motorola) is a nice phone, taking the strengths of teh w370 and improving upon them.. However if you want a loud ringer, the Motorola w175/w260 remind me of the old Nextel days. More later!
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
More Phones Coming!
So I've got a lot of ad money now, thanks to you guys checking out the various sponsors syndicated through Google as well as the great BabbleBug.com store. So I decided to do some phone-buying...
Since Tracfone won't let me buy from their site anymore, I went over to Circuit City's website and grabbed all three new Tracfones: the Motorola w175g, the Motorola w260g and the Motorola w376g. They should be in by the end of this week so I should be able to give everyone at least a first look...
Then I headed to Virgin Moile's website and picked up the new Slash slider from Samsung (say that three times fast). The funny thing is, that phone alone will end up costing me more than the other phones I bought yesterday, combined.
My last stop was T-Mobile's online store, where I picked up a Nokia 2610. It'll be free after a rebate, and was $30 before.
So that's five more phones to review and, likely, give away. Now to finish a big video editing project I've got going so I can review the phones I have had sitting here for a ridiculously long period of time...
Since Tracfone won't let me buy from their site anymore, I went over to Circuit City's website and grabbed all three new Tracfones: the Motorola w175g, the Motorola w260g and the Motorola w376g. They should be in by the end of this week so I should be able to give everyone at least a first look...
Then I headed to Virgin Moile's website and picked up the new Slash slider from Samsung (say that three times fast). The funny thing is, that phone alone will end up costing me more than the other phones I bought yesterday, combined.
My last stop was T-Mobile's online store, where I picked up a Nokia 2610. It'll be free after a rebate, and was $30 before.
So that's five more phones to review and, likely, give away. Now to finish a big video editing project I've got going so I can review the phones I have had sitting here for a ridiculously long period of time...
Monday, June 16, 2008
AT&T GoPhone Free PhonesLook in the "packages" section of AT&T's GoPhone website and you'll see something interesting: phones that are free or better-
Look in the "packages" section of AT&T's GoPhone website and you'll see something interesting: phones that are free or better-than-free with an airtime card. There are two ways that airtime is included, however. I've marked phones with an asterisk that have the airtime preloaded. The ones with no asterisk have the airtime as a separate card, for even more bonuses and savings!
LG CG150* - $40 including $25 in airtime
Nokia 2610 Refurb - $25 including a $25 airtime card
Samsung a117 Refurb* - $29.99 including $25 in airtime, $40 including $50, $80 including $100
Nokia 2610 Refurb* - $40 including $50 in airtime, $80 including $100
Pantech c120 Refurb* - $25 including $25 in airtime
Samsung a437 - $10 w\$25 airtime purchase
Pretty good deals, if you ask me. Granted, you may or may not have to open up a new line of service to take advantage of these deals, but they're really good anyway. Not bad at all in my opinion for a non-contract cell phone.
LG CG150* - $40 including $25 in airtime
Nokia 2610 Refurb - $25 including a $25 airtime card
Samsung a117 Refurb* - $29.99 including $25 in airtime, $40 including $50, $80 including $100
Nokia 2610 Refurb* - $40 including $50 in airtime, $80 including $100
Pantech c120 Refurb* - $25 including $25 in airtime
Samsung a437 - $10 w\$25 airtime purchase
Pretty good deals, if you ask me. Granted, you may or may not have to open up a new line of service to take advantage of these deals, but they're really good anyway. Not bad at all in my opinion for a non-contract cell phone.
Thursday, June 05, 2008
Verizon Buying Alltel
So it looks like, for $28.1 billion, Verizon will buy Alltel, catapulting its coverage and user base to the largest in the U.S.
This means a few things...
1. All prepaid providers using Verizon's network will soon get a nice home coverage boost (namely Page Plus Cellular).
2. Nobody knows what'll happen to Alltel's pepaid plans. Maybe they'll stay, more likely they'll go away. They're too good of a deal for the likes of Verizon, it would seem.
3. The landscape on roaming will be changed. Alltel has GSM roaming for AT&T, T-Mobile, etc. With the Verizon takeover that may or may not stay around. In a few places Verizon has kept GSM turned on for roaming, previously used by a company they purchased, but it may or may not happen here.
4. In some areas, Alltel actually provides "Sprint" (Virgin Mobile, etc.) service. This might change when Verizon comes to town.
I'll post more information here as the changeover progresses. It'll mean more coverage for one carrier, sure, but less competition overall...we'll see how this pans out.
This means a few things...
1. All prepaid providers using Verizon's network will soon get a nice home coverage boost (namely Page Plus Cellular).
2. Nobody knows what'll happen to Alltel's pepaid plans. Maybe they'll stay, more likely they'll go away. They're too good of a deal for the likes of Verizon, it would seem.
3. The landscape on roaming will be changed. Alltel has GSM roaming for AT&T, T-Mobile, etc. With the Verizon takeover that may or may not stay around. In a few places Verizon has kept GSM turned on for roaming, previously used by a company they purchased, but it may or may not happen here.
4. In some areas, Alltel actually provides "Sprint" (Virgin Mobile, etc.) service. This might change when Verizon comes to town.
I'll post more information here as the changeover progresses. It'll mean more coverage for one carrier, sure, but less competition overall...we'll see how this pans out.
T-Mobile: New Phones, International Rates
Looks like there are some new phones headed T-Mobile To Go's way. Best Buy (http://is.gd/rUL) has a few models that I've talked about before...the Nokia 1208 ($30) and the Nokia 2760 ($70). The 1208 is comparable to the 2610, it seems...maybe a little cheaper on T-Mobile's side. The 2760 is your typical Bluetooth camera flip low-end phone.
In other news, you can get internet on T-Mobile To Go...but you have to go to Mexico or Canada to do it. In canada, it's a pretty penny (well, a penny and a half) per kilobyte and in Mexico it's $0.01 per KB. However it's cheaper to talk in Canada than in Mexico, with roaming rates of 69 cents per minute versus $1.49. You're better off getting a SIM in that particular country, but that's assuming your phone is unlocked, which it may or may ot be.
Also, MMS (if it's available) doesn't cost anything extra in Canada or Mexico vs. what it costs here. Neither does texting in Canada; 10 cents to send, 5 to receive. In Mexico, and in elsewhere, text messages are a whopping 35 cents to send, though still 5 cents to receive, apiece.
I still don't understand why T-Mobile To Go doesn't allow data access beyond their free (and admittedly okay) T-Zones.
In other news, you can get internet on T-Mobile To Go...but you have to go to Mexico or Canada to do it. In canada, it's a pretty penny (well, a penny and a half) per kilobyte and in Mexico it's $0.01 per KB. However it's cheaper to talk in Canada than in Mexico, with roaming rates of 69 cents per minute versus $1.49. You're better off getting a SIM in that particular country, but that's assuming your phone is unlocked, which it may or may ot be.
Also, MMS (if it's available) doesn't cost anything extra in Canada or Mexico vs. what it costs here. Neither does texting in Canada; 10 cents to send, 5 to receive. In Mexico, and in elsewhere, text messages are a whopping 35 cents to send, though still 5 cents to receive, apiece.
I still don't understand why T-Mobile To Go doesn't allow data access beyond their free (and admittedly okay) T-Zones.
New Tracfone\Net10 Phones, Available For Sale
Looks like the newest Tracfon\Net10 phones are available online now, for sale.
LG 300g (bar phone) - $30
LG 400g (not-as-ugly-as-I-thought flip phone) - $40
Of course, both phones include $30 worth of airtime.
Also, the LG 1500 + an accessory kit is available for $50, or refurb'd with no kit for $30. The Motorola c261 is available refurbished for $30.
On the Tracfone side...
Motorola w175 (bar phone) - $15
Motorola w260 (flip phone) - $30
Also, the LG 225 (with an accessory kit) and the Motorola c261 (without) are $50, including a double minutes for life card. Decent deal, I'd say.
EDIT: The Motorola c261 is actually $40. Even better deal!
Also, shipping is currently free for all orders of $35 or greater.
LG 300g (bar phone) - $30
LG 400g (not-as-ugly-as-I-thought flip phone) - $40
Of course, both phones include $30 worth of airtime.
Also, the LG 1500 + an accessory kit is available for $50, or refurb'd with no kit for $30. The Motorola c261 is available refurbished for $30.
On the Tracfone side...
Motorola w175 (bar phone) - $15
Motorola w260 (flip phone) - $30
Also, the LG 225 (with an accessory kit) and the Motorola c261 (without) are $50, including a double minutes for life card. Decent deal, I'd say.
EDIT: The Motorola c261 is actually $40. Even better deal!
Also, shipping is currently free for all orders of $35 or greater.
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...
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Net10 Deals
They've done it again...Net10 has a lot of refurbished phones so they're unloading them at prices that contract carriers would call "FREE!!!1!" without flinching...remember that all phones come with $30 worth of airtime preloaded...
Motorola v170/v171 - $19.99*
LG 1500/Motorola c261/v176 - $29.99*
New Nokia 1600 - $29.99*
Nokia 1600 w\extra $30 card - $30***
New Motorola v171 - $39.99
New Motorola w375/LG 1500 - $59.99
Motorola v176 w\extra $60 card - $60**
New LG CG225 - $79.99
* This phone costs the same or less than the airtime on it
** This phone costs less than the airtime on it plus the airtime bundled with it
*** Both of the above
All things considered, it's a good time to buy a Net10 phone, especially if you want a cameraphone; the c261 is effectively free refurbished. Or grab the refurbished Nokia 1600...just counting the airtime alone you're getting sub-six-cent minutes!
Coming soon...
Apologies for the long period of silence. I'm now over a week out of school (yep, I'm now a sophomore at Colorado School of Mines) and I need to get back to work here. Expect reviews of a half-dozen phones, and if you're waiting for that Flare you won, I'll get that out to you. Very sorry for the silence, the wait, etc. Once I have all these phones that are sitting around reviewed, I'll give some of them away and buy some others to review. Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera...
While you're waiting, check out the forums for the latest information and deals on prepaid service. If you have any questions, the folks over there are quite helpful.
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
T-Mobile Deals and Amazon Steals
First off, thanks for your support in visiting this site and the sites of my sponsors. If you're new here (a majority of people are) then welcome. If not, then welcome back. Glad to have you.
Second, T-Mobile has put their $25-refill-with-purchase-of-a-prepaid-phone promotion into full swing again. Well, I take that back; the three Samsung phones recently introduced don't include the card. However, the brand-new-to-the-prepaid-site Samsung t429 slider does! The phone, which gets you Bluetooth and a camera, as well as that $25 refill, is $100...and in case anyone is wondering, yes, this means you can get the Nokia 2610 for free if you count in the airtime that's already on the phone, plus the airtime that's on the card. Sounds like a sweet deal to me...check it out here...
Third, Amazon looks to have some decent deals on various phones, mostly by way of rebates. For example, if you want to pick up the LG Aloha for $2 after rebate, you can...just pick up some other stuff to net yourself free shipping. Find out more here.
Thanks to the folks at the forum who dug this stuff up!
Monday, April 28, 2008
Tracfone Mother's Day Special - LG 225 On The Cheap
The Sweeper has found another Tracfone deal, though it's pretty easy to catch. Browse to the Tracfone website and type in your zip code to order. If AT&T provides service in your area, you'll see at the top of the page (well, after the banner announcing free shipping for orders above $35) a $49 deal: the LG 225, complete with the usual Double Minutes For Life, plus a car charger, headset and phone case...all for a mere $50, $30 less than the phone has been going for alone! It even looks like the phone is new, with no mention of being refurbished anywhere on the site. I'm not sure on the quality of the phone, as Tracfone doesn't like me (if someone could loan me the unit for review that'd be great!) but it costs the same as the Motorola w370, which has less features and no accessories. I'd call this one a win...
Sunday, April 27, 2008
T-Mobile's Pay Per Day plan is out!
Looks like the T-Mobile Pay Per Day prepaid plan is out! No Gold Rewards, but true to the preliminary news it has 7 p.m. night calling and mobile-to-mobile for $1 per day (only on days you use the phone) and 10-cent calling otherwise. Not sure about airtime expiration, but the plan seems to be a good one for people who talk more than less, and the old plan is still available if you want that. Again, choice is good, and now that all four carrier-brand prepaids (INPulse, Virgin Mobile, GoPhone, T-Mobile To Go) have an unlimited M2M\Night&Weekend option available, the real competition can begin. Wait...I think so far T-Mobile wins vs. Verizon and AT&T, and ties with Virgin Mobile. Sound familiar? That's sort of what's happening on the unlimited (contract) side of things, except there Sprint is better than everyone else.
T-Mobile Sidekick for $150 on prepaid
Thanks to the folks over at HowardForums, I've found a sweet deal at BestBuy's website for the T-Mobile Sidekick ID. Someone may have mentioned this before on my own forums, but anyhow the phone is $150 and includes $30 in airtime, enough for a month of Sidekick service. Granted, the ID doesn't have a camera, but $150 is a decent price to pay for T-Mobile's only phone that allows unfettered data and messaging (well, except for any other Sidekick)...
T-Mobile To Go Gets More Phones
Looks like there's some more phone choice on T-Mobile To Go. Okay, if you want to split hairs you could say that, with the activation kit, you could put the service on any of these phones anyway (or on the iPhone, if you wanted...that's what I'm doing right now) but now you can get a few more (slightly older) phones preloaded with prepaid T-Mobile goodness at a decent price...
Samsung t319 (camera flip) - $40
Samsung t619 (1.3 megapixel camera music Bluetooth flip, with MyFaves if you ever need that) - $50
Samsung Trace (take the t619 and turn it into a thin bar phone) - $50
This nearly doubles the lineup of T-Mobile To Go phones, at least ones available on their website (which speaks more to To Go's lousy lineup than anything else, what oh well), and more selection is always a good thing. The prices are decent. I'd say it's all good...and yes, I'll eventually review those phones, though at present I have no fewer than FIVE phones to review (Aloha, Super Slice, Shorty, Samsung m300, Pantech c300) and after that I want to grab the cheap stuff (AT&T GoPhones) so the new T-Mo To Go phones may have to wait until summer.
Then again, if I get enough sponsor revenue I'll go ahead and order 'em.
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Tracfone News & Phone Reviews
Sorry for not updating as often as I'd like. I'll probably not be updating until this weekend in any large way, by the way. Then starting Friday I'll probably be gone until the Wednesday after that...and sporadic until Sunday following because of school winding down, tests, the realization that I need to focus heavily on school and actually get things done, etc.
But there are a few news items that are pretty important...thanks to BabbleBug (check 'em out via the link on the righthand side of this page) for one piece of news and to the folks at the forum for the other.
But before I get to the news, www.prepaidreviews.com (from whom I get the odd visitor every day or two) has a podcast up. It's monthly, and production value is what I'd like to call "meh" but the guy did score interviews with higher-ups at both Page Plus Cellular and CricKet's data team. He also talks a bit about T-Mobile's FlexPay service, which is basically what you'd call a "hybrid" on any other carrier...except T-Mobile charges you full price for the phones and contract price for the plans.
But the news...first, Tracfone...
1. They now have a 70-minute card for $19. The reason it's more minutes and slightly cheaper than the 60-minute 90-day card? It lasts a mere 60 days. The card seems poised to replace the $20 60-minute card (I don't see a reason why Tracfone would keep both of them around, though I hope they would) with a rate that's actually lower than the rate on the $25 90-minute card (27.1 cents per minute versus 27.8) but higher than the $30 card (27.1 vs. 25). Of the four cards in its price vicinity, it falls in the middle as far as minute usage per month, though its cost per month is toward the higher end...
$19 - 35 min/month - $9.50/month
$20 - 20 min/month - $6.67/month
$25 - 30 min/month - $8.33/month
$30 - 40 min/month - $10/month
On the other hand, if you are just running low on minutes and just need more minutes rather than expiration, and would rather spend less money than more, the $19 card works well. Especially with the double minute card.
2. The Tracfone w175g is now out. Hopefully it will replace the c139 quickly...it's a much better phone from what I can see. Then again, at the same price ($15) you're not going to get a ton of quality no matter what. On the other hand (spoken like the guy from Fiddler on the Roof) it's a much nicer phone than its CDMA counterpart, the Kyocrap...Kyocera K126c. Likewise, though in lesser measure, the upcoming Motorola w260 on GSM (price: $30) looks a bit better than the LG 200c that is its CDMA price counterpart, though the 200c's price has tumbled recently.
That's the Tracfone news. Now on to the stuff from BabbleBug. though I have to mention in passing that the LG Aloha is now available in purple (slightly less girly?) as well as the original white. I promise, I'll review the darned thing soon, and I'll send out the LG Flare to its winner soon. Sorry about both things...
So about BabbleBug: they've sent me two phones (thanks guys!) from two different prepaid carriers. One has a lot of on-box branding but no on-phone branding, the other has no on-box branding (or even box in my case) but a little on-phone branding. The former is the ridiculously small Pantech c300 from Cingu...er...O2 Wireless (Locus Mobile). Once you take the phone out of its O2-branded packaging (which is much easier to get into than the typical blister pack) it looks like they just grabbed a bunch of Cingular phones and resold them...the phone comes complete with Cingular menu options, the ringtone and the big "jack" on the center button. The other phone is from Total Call Mobile, and it's a little bigger but still nice and slim: the Samsung m300. It's quite an achievement for a small prepaid provider to get a phone on their network while the parent carrier is still...um...carrying it, so props to Total Call for that. Then again, both of these phones are priced pretty high, though for their feature sets and age I'm not complaining.
I'll be reviewing the phones soon (possibly sooner than the three Virgin Mobile units I have sitting on my desk right now) I hope, and my thanks goes out to this site's primary sponsor, BabbleBug, for letting me use 'em. Stay tuned for a boatload of reviews...and I gotta sign off now lest my productivity takes another dive :/
P.S. Support this site so I can get even more phones to review, so this place can become THE prepaid phone review source...and so I can give away even more phones, even some higher-end ones. Like, seriously high-end ones.
But there are a few news items that are pretty important...thanks to BabbleBug (check 'em out via the link on the righthand side of this page) for one piece of news and to the folks at the forum for the other.
But before I get to the news, www.prepaidreviews.com (from whom I get the odd visitor every day or two) has a podcast up. It's monthly, and production value is what I'd like to call "meh" but the guy did score interviews with higher-ups at both Page Plus Cellular and CricKet's data team. He also talks a bit about T-Mobile's FlexPay service, which is basically what you'd call a "hybrid" on any other carrier...except T-Mobile charges you full price for the phones and contract price for the plans.
But the news...first, Tracfone...
1. They now have a 70-minute card for $19. The reason it's more minutes and slightly cheaper than the 60-minute 90-day card? It lasts a mere 60 days. The card seems poised to replace the $20 60-minute card (I don't see a reason why Tracfone would keep both of them around, though I hope they would) with a rate that's actually lower than the rate on the $25 90-minute card (27.1 cents per minute versus 27.8) but higher than the $30 card (27.1 vs. 25). Of the four cards in its price vicinity, it falls in the middle as far as minute usage per month, though its cost per month is toward the higher end...
$19 - 35 min/month - $9.50/month
$20 - 20 min/month - $6.67/month
$25 - 30 min/month - $8.33/month
$30 - 40 min/month - $10/month
On the other hand, if you are just running low on minutes and just need more minutes rather than expiration, and would rather spend less money than more, the $19 card works well. Especially with the double minute card.
2. The Tracfone w175g is now out. Hopefully it will replace the c139 quickly...it's a much better phone from what I can see. Then again, at the same price ($15) you're not going to get a ton of quality no matter what. On the other hand (spoken like the guy from Fiddler on the Roof) it's a much nicer phone than its CDMA counterpart, the Kyocrap...Kyocera K126c. Likewise, though in lesser measure, the upcoming Motorola w260 on GSM (price: $30) looks a bit better than the LG 200c that is its CDMA price counterpart, though the 200c's price has tumbled recently.
That's the Tracfone news. Now on to the stuff from BabbleBug. though I have to mention in passing that the LG Aloha is now available in purple (slightly less girly?) as well as the original white. I promise, I'll review the darned thing soon, and I'll send out the LG Flare to its winner soon. Sorry about both things...
So about BabbleBug: they've sent me two phones (thanks guys!) from two different prepaid carriers. One has a lot of on-box branding but no on-phone branding, the other has no on-box branding (or even box in my case) but a little on-phone branding. The former is the ridiculously small Pantech c300 from Cingu...er...O2 Wireless (Locus Mobile). Once you take the phone out of its O2-branded packaging (which is much easier to get into than the typical blister pack) it looks like they just grabbed a bunch of Cingular phones and resold them...the phone comes complete with Cingular menu options, the ringtone and the big "jack" on the center button. The other phone is from Total Call Mobile, and it's a little bigger but still nice and slim: the Samsung m300. It's quite an achievement for a small prepaid provider to get a phone on their network while the parent carrier is still...um...carrying it, so props to Total Call for that. Then again, both of these phones are priced pretty high, though for their feature sets and age I'm not complaining.
I'll be reviewing the phones soon (possibly sooner than the three Virgin Mobile units I have sitting on my desk right now) I hope, and my thanks goes out to this site's primary sponsor, BabbleBug, for letting me use 'em. Stay tuned for a boatload of reviews...and I gotta sign off now lest my productivity takes another dive :/
P.S. Support this site so I can get even more phones to review, so this place can become THE prepaid phone review source...and so I can give away even more phones, even some higher-end ones. Like, seriously high-end ones.
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Tracfone Bundles...They're Near You!
Thanks to The Sweeper and the Turk, another news bit for Tracfone has come floating in. At your local Wal-Mart may well be sitting a bundle of fun that includes a Tracfone (Motorola v170 or LG 200c, depending on whether you're in a GSM or CDMA area), a car charger, a headset and a case for the phone. The price? The same as the phone itself would normally cost.
This is a good deal for everyone I'm thinking. The idea behind it on Tracfone's end is probably to give out $10-$15 worth of accessories that would get people to use their phones more, so they could get the money back several times over when it comes time to buy a refill. Sly business model but if it works they'll keep it, and people will get free stuff with their phones. Not a bad deal in my opinion :)
T-Mobile To Go Anew?
It seems that the guys over at www.tmonews.com (learned about the site via The Sweeper) have bug up a new T-Mobile "hybrid" plan that's coming in a week or so, April 30th to be precise. It actually sounds a lot like the lower in Verizon INPulse or AT&T's $1 a day GoPhone, and is a better deal than both, though data still isn't to be found. They're also intro'ing two basic Nokia phones.
The new plan will be $1 a day on days you use your phone. What you get for that dollar is unlimited nights (no weekends) starting at 7 p.m. (better than INPulse's 9 p.m.) and mobile-to-mobile (similar to GoPhone and Verizon, just with a smaller mobile-to-mobile base by about 60%). Anytime minutes that aren't to T-Mobile customers will run you 10 cents apiece. Text messaging pricing won't change...I believe it's 10 cents to send a message and 5 cents to receive at the moment.
The new phones are the Nokia 1208, a very basic bar phone, and the Nokia 2760, a rather low-end cameraphone flip. I'm sure they'll be inexpensive and I'll probably even take the 2760 over the Alcatel Oxygen Wireless will be rolling out soon. Then again, neither phone is impressive, unless the 1208 is free with an airtime card and all you do is talk, with a text or two mixed in.
I don't think T-Mobile will discontinue their old (good) prepaid plan, and I hope they don't. This is no replacement for a regular prepaid plan but it's a definite addition to their lineup, and more hybrid variety is always good!
Sunday, April 20, 2008
What Do You Want Me To Review?
Welcome to the 666th Go4Prepaid post. No, I'm not evil, just making an observation.
Anyway, please comment on this post on what phones you want me to review soon. It looks as though ads are going to generate about $80-$90 this month, though with your support of BabbleBug and whoever-puts-their-Google-ads-up-top it could be more. With that budget in mind, what does eveeryone here want reviewed? Specific models please. I'm thinking of grabbing a phone or three from T-Mobile To Go or AT&T GoPhone this time around unless people really want otherwise.
By the way, sorry to the winner of the LG Flare for my not having shipped the phone out to you already. I'll try and do it tomorrow. Things have been rather busy for me lately.
EDIT: Looks like AT&T's pricing gives me plenty of models to review. How's this sound for a lineup? Refurbs would be bought when available.
Nokia 2610
LG CG180
Samsung a117
Pantech c3b
Pantech c120
Whew, that's a lot of phones to review. Then again, I have to review three now.
Anyway, please comment on this post on what phones you want me to review soon. It looks as though ads are going to generate about $80-$90 this month, though with your support of BabbleBug and whoever-puts-their-Google-ads-up-top it could be more. With that budget in mind, what does eveeryone here want reviewed? Specific models please. I'm thinking of grabbing a phone or three from T-Mobile To Go or AT&T GoPhone this time around unless people really want otherwise.
By the way, sorry to the winner of the LG Flare for my not having shipped the phone out to you already. I'll try and do it tomorrow. Things have been rather busy for me lately.
EDIT: Looks like AT&T's pricing gives me plenty of models to review. How's this sound for a lineup? Refurbs would be bought when available.
Nokia 2610
LG CG180
Samsung a117
Pantech c3b
Pantech c120
Whew, that's a lot of phones to review. Then again, I have to review three now.
Locus' O2 Wireless In The News for Intro'ing Alcatel Phones
They sell you 1000 minutes a month for $40. Their website isn't quite set up yet to reflect this. Their phone selection makes you think you're in a third-world country. They're O2 Wireless (aka Oxygen, powered by Locus Telecom, no relation to O2-by-Telefonica in Europe and such), and they're now selling Alcatel phones.
These guys somehow made it onto the front page of PhoneScoop today with the E206a, which actually has a decent set of features, ranging from EDGE to Bluetooth to a camera. I doubt that most of these features will be useable in the near future though; Locus' agreement with AT&T, on whch the O2 service runs, has so far been voice-and-text-only. Then again, things could change. On the other hand, Page Plus cellular still hasn't rolled out data, and they said they'd do that a year ago.
So please don't excited about this handset, whose screen and keypad are reminiscent of the Nokia 1600, but with a lesser-quality user experience (but without the call answering bug, see my review). I'm pretty sure Alcatel is a no-name for a reason, though that probably means the E206a will be quite cheap for someone...if not for the consumer then for Locus, which would help them to keep the 1000-for-$40 plan running.
As for me, I'll take a Nokia phone any day of the week. Or a Moto c168i. Or a Pantech. Or an Alcatel review unit to dissuade me of their inadequacy (hint, hint).
These guys somehow made it onto the front page of PhoneScoop today with the E206a, which actually has a decent set of features, ranging from EDGE to Bluetooth to a camera. I doubt that most of these features will be useable in the near future though; Locus' agreement with AT&T, on whch the O2 service runs, has so far been voice-and-text-only. Then again, things could change. On the other hand, Page Plus cellular still hasn't rolled out data, and they said they'd do that a year ago.
So please don't excited about this handset, whose screen and keypad are reminiscent of the Nokia 1600, but with a lesser-quality user experience (but without the call answering bug, see my review). I'm pretty sure Alcatel is a no-name for a reason, though that probably means the E206a will be quite cheap for someone...if not for the consumer then for Locus, which would help them to keep the 1000-for-$40 plan running.
As for me, I'll take a Nokia phone any day of the week. Or a Moto c168i. Or a Pantech. Or an Alcatel review unit to dissuade me of their inadequacy (hint, hint).
Movida: Not So Dead After All
Looks like Movida got purchased by the cell phone supply chain company APC Wireless. That means they aren't going out of business, and I don't even think anyone noticed any service interruption. The word from APC is that customer service will improve and other things will stay constant. I tend to think though that APC, leveraging its relationships with phone makers, will eventually intro newer phones into Movida's lineup, which is good unless they're Kyoceras. Even then let's hope that Kyocera has learned something from Sanyo, from whom they recently purchased the mobile phone division.
No Slash For You
Looks like Virgin Mobile cancelled my order for the Slash. Looks like it won't be out for awhile then. Sorry everyone...guess I'll be reviewing the three phones I said I'd review in the near future. I'll order some GoPhones and such to review when I get back to Texas, where AT&T will actually send me stuff rather than saying "you haz a PO box you cant play". Grr.
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Shout-Outs and A Suggestion Box, Plus a Net10 Deal
Sorry for not posting recently. It's been busy. To update on the purchase of the Virgin Mobile Slash, I've got nothing. The order is "submitted" but that's it.
A few things to tide people over between now and when I release either something more newsworthy or a review of one of the three phones sitting on my desk right now (Aloha, Shorty, Super Slice)...
1. Net10 is having another nice sale on one of their phones. This time they're giving away a Motorola v176, complete with 300 minutes of "starter time" when you buy their $60 600-minute 120-day airtime card. Seems like a good enough deal. It can be found here (thanks to The Sweeper for the tip!):
http://www.net10-store.com/direct/net10/itemdetl.jsp?prod=3626&tech=GSM5AT
2. Want something covered here that has to do with prepaid service (like maybe a review of some T-Mobile To Go phone or AT&T GoPhone...or information on some weird prepaid service?) Comment on this post and I'll see what I can do. I'm slightly "better connected" than the average Joe on these things, thanks to my working with a few of the companies that sell the various providers' airtime and phones, so I may be able to get an inside scoop on something. Plus, thanks to your visiting sponsors' sites, I can buy phones to review and such!
3. Most of my traffic here comes from Google, with the second-biggest traffic source being direct hits from a bunch of loyal viewers (thanks!). The remaining 7.31% (over the last month, as of this writing...I have Google Analytics embedded in every page, and no, I'm not maliciously tracking your every move, don't worry) are non-search, non-direct hits. Here's a shout-out to a few of the people who give me a visitor or two per day...and yes, Google search makes up well over 90% of the search-driven hits to this site, in case anyone wants to know:
A few things to tide people over between now and when I release either something more newsworthy or a review of one of the three phones sitting on my desk right now (Aloha, Shorty, Super Slice)...
1. Net10 is having another nice sale on one of their phones. This time they're giving away a Motorola v176, complete with 300 minutes of "starter time" when you buy their $60 600-minute 120-day airtime card. Seems like a good enough deal. It can be found here (thanks to The Sweeper for the tip!):
http://www.net10-store.com/direct/net10/itemdetl.jsp?prod=3626&tech=GSM5AT
2. Want something covered here that has to do with prepaid service (like maybe a review of some T-Mobile To Go phone or AT&T GoPhone...or information on some weird prepaid service?) Comment on this post and I'll see what I can do. I'm slightly "better connected" than the average Joe on these things, thanks to my working with a few of the companies that sell the various providers' airtime and phones, so I may be able to get an inside scoop on something. Plus, thanks to your visiting sponsors' sites, I can buy phones to review and such!
3. Most of my traffic here comes from Google, with the second-biggest traffic source being direct hits from a bunch of loyal viewers (thanks!). The remaining 7.31% (over the last month, as of this writing...I have Google Analytics embedded in every page, and no, I'm not maliciously tracking your every move, don't worry) are non-search, non-direct hits. Here's a shout-out to a few of the people who give me a visitor or two per day...and yes, Google search makes up well over 90% of the search-driven hits to this site, in case anyone wants to know:
- HowardForums - The largest cell phone forum on the 'net as far as I know...I'm a proud member, my username is iansltx
- PrepaidPhone - Powered by PrepaidWireless.com and a little bit of Yours Truly, you've got various info on prepaid phones and breaking news, with little news overlap between it (mainsteam) and myself (less mainsteam...as in, no news snippets or press releases)
- Cell Guru - The home of the prepaid and hybrid comparison charts for cell phone service, as well as various bits of information about phones, providers and cellular news in general. If you like this site, you'll like the Cell Guru's.
- PrepaidReviews - Probably the biggest prepaid-focused site on the 'net, with seventy thousand unique visitors per month (wish I had that!), with a nice amount of reviews by various people on prepaid cell phone service from just over two dozen providers. They also have a comparison tool, a (mainstream-ish) blog and a few articles on prepaid service in general.
- PrepaidWireless - I've done some work for these folks, who, like this site's main sponsor BabbleBug.com, sell prepaid phones and airtime.
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Net10 Intros 450-minute card, Tracfone to carry Motorola w260g
Looks like there's a little news on the Tracfone front today. First, Net10 now has an online special on an interesting airtime card. Their new, online-only, 450-minute card lasts 90 days, providing a denomination between the 300-minute, 60-day and 600-minute, 120-day cards. On the Tracfone side of things, you've now got the 90-minute 90-day, $25 (as seen in Wal-Mart) card online.
In bigger news, Tracfone is queuing up another phone for their lineup: the Motorola w260g. Okay, it isn't that big news...aside from being a tad thinner and shorter than the Motorola w370, and coming in black instead of silver, and costing $30 instead of $50 (with double minutes for life thrown in) there's nothing different between this phone and the Motorola w370. Maybe this is a slight downgrade, sort of like the LG 200c vs. the LG 3280.
As a side note, the suggested retail price for the Motorola c261 is now $30, a far cry from the $80 where it started...
Wednesday, April 09, 2008
A Few Updates\We have A Winna
First off, apologies for the long wait to announce contest winners. Have been busy lately, and will continue to be busy for the next several days, meaning I probably won't be able to ship the phone 'til sometime next week. That said, the winner is Danamark!
Before everyone beheads me for his not posting on the forum, he did leave the nice comment that follows, which is a really good tip that nobody brought up so far as I know:
Great job, man. Check your Private message box on the forums. I need info on where to send the phone to...
If you didn't win this time around don't worry about it. I've got three other phones I need to review (Super Slice, Aloha, Nokia Shorty), all from Virgin Mobile..though if someone wants to make a bid on the Shorty (including charger and case) I may sell that phone instead of giving it away. Also, I have to talk with MyMinutes about the Aloha, as to whether I can do a giveaway there. At any rate, the giveaways will not cease and there will be at least three phone reviews up here in the relatively near future. Not this week though...to much to do. Maybe next week, or the week after. Check back here, and don't forget to support this site's sponsors! Especially since Babblebug (this site's biggest sponsor currently) may let me borrow some of their stuff for review. Thanks guys!
Guess that's about it news-wise. Now let me check my mail to see what the heck is happening with the Slash I ordered...
Before everyone beheads me for his not posting on the forum, he did leave the nice comment that follows, which is a really good tip that nobody brought up so far as I know:
Tip for buying "pay as you go phones" from local store.
All those Electronic, et al., ads that you find in the Sunday paper can be found on-line at:
http://www.salescircular.com
Here are this weeks Sunday ads for Virginia for prepaid phones..
http://www.salescircular.com/va/cell/ppaidp.shtml
Not cheap enough for you? Just wait for next weeks ads. :)
Also, while looking at the newer phones at Virgin Mobile,
03/26/2008,
looks like they are offering new Pay As You Go Plans?
http://www.virginmobileusa.com/rates/minute.do
Great job, man. Check your Private message box on the forums. I need info on where to send the phone to...
If you didn't win this time around don't worry about it. I've got three other phones I need to review (Super Slice, Aloha, Nokia Shorty), all from Virgin Mobile..though if someone wants to make a bid on the Shorty (including charger and case) I may sell that phone instead of giving it away. Also, I have to talk with MyMinutes about the Aloha, as to whether I can do a giveaway there. At any rate, the giveaways will not cease and there will be at least three phone reviews up here in the relatively near future. Not this week though...to much to do. Maybe next week, or the week after. Check back here, and don't forget to support this site's sponsors! Especially since Babblebug (this site's biggest sponsor currently) may let me borrow some of their stuff for review. Thanks guys!
Guess that's about it news-wise. Now let me check my mail to see what the heck is happening with the Slash I ordered...
Sunday, April 06, 2008
AirVoice Ramps It Up
Looks like AirVoic Wireless has upped the ante on long-term prepaid CDMA (Verizon) service by just a bit. Their $50 refill now lasts a whole year. This wouldn't be as big of a deal if it weren't for the fact that Page Plus Cellular's $50 refill lasts a mere 120 days (the closest competitor) with the same amount of airtime...and the fact that Airvoice doesn't look to charge a 50 cent per month service fee that Page Plus does. Granted, off-network roaming is a rather shocking 11x the price of regular talk, but if you are in Verizon's service area and find that the biggest refill you're getting is $50 on page Plus, you may need to take a look at AirVoice Express.
EDIT: Looks like the monthly fee is $1. Nevermind.
Saturday, April 05, 2008
Virgin Mobile Deal Update
A few more deals for everyone...
- Target has the Aloha for $10 now.
- Target has the Wild Card for $79 now (not too bad...though just 99 cents off the previous price).
- RadioShack has the Super Slice for $39 now.
- Circuit City has the Super Slice for $37 now.
- Circuit City has the Cyclops for $37 now.
That's it for now. Got a lot of non-phone-related stuff to do today :). As always support this site's sponsors!
Friday, April 04, 2008
Wild Card and Super Slice Reviews at CellGuru
The Cell Guru has reviewed (in a nutshell) a few of the phones he has, namely the Virgin Mobile Wild Card (Kyocera) and the Super Slice (UTStarCom). You can check out his reviews below...
http://www.cellguru.net/phone_reviews.htm
http://www.cellguru.net/phone_reviews.htm
Another Prepaid Bites The Dust: Movida!?!
Yep, looks like the folks at Movida, after cycling through a few plan options, have gone bankrupt. They said that Sprint was charging them too much to use the network. I think the more likely case is that Wal-Mart was taking too much money on the front end out of the phone purchases, but either way they're dead. Guess the Hispanic audience wasn't large enough, or some other such problem. I'm just surprised that a company with such a large retail presence (read: Wal-Mart) would fail after only a few short years of being out there. Oh, right...we're in a recession or something...
...though I've been talking with the folks at BabbleBug and they said they can work something out for former Movida customers to switch over to Total Call Mobile (same network, 10 cents per minute, 5 cents per text, 90 day expiration on airtime, cheap international calling) at prices that are really, really nice. Click on over to BabbleBug if you're a victim of Movida's bankruptcy...the info on this concilliatory promotion should be up pretty soon.
...though I've been talking with the folks at BabbleBug and they said they can work something out for former Movida customers to switch over to Total Call Mobile (same network, 10 cents per minute, 5 cents per text, 90 day expiration on airtime, cheap international calling) at prices that are really, really nice. Click on over to BabbleBug if you're a victim of Movida's bankruptcy...the info on this concilliatory promotion should be up pretty soon.
Virgin Mobile News and Deals
Todays news bits are all about Virgin Mobile.
First, they've revised their phone lineup. They've phased out some of their older phones and done a discount deal on others that aren't quite so old, but are going to be phased out soon enough...
In the phase-outs department, the Oystr is gone (good riddance) as is the Switch_Back (see Oystr).
In the deals department, there are three phones available for "free" with airtime now. There's the Kyocera K10 Royale that has been there for awhile now, with $10...er...$9.99 in airtime. Now there's the LG Aloha (didn't they just introduce that phone?) with $14.99 in airtime. Last, there's the Slice (the original one) free with $20 in airtime. Out of the three I would definitely go for the Slice, but it's neat to see the stairstep offerings there. What's weird though is that the Marbl is still $14.99 with the usual $2.50 in airtime included.
But wait...the news ain't over yet...
According to some quick work by The_Sweeper over on the forums (thanks!) Virgin Mobile is intro'ing a Samsung phone, and a slider no less, in the quite near future. I had actually heard of this awhile back on HowardForums in some capacity or other, but ow it's semi-official, though the pictures on the website have been taken down (though The_Sweeper grabbed them so they remain). The m310 "Slash", sporting the new, more subdued, Virgin Mobile look (as opposed to the utterly twelveyear-old-girly LG Aloha) gets you a camera, Bluetooth and a decently slim 0.7" thickness, as well as the usual VMo stuff like web and applications. At $79.99 the camera had better be 1.3 megapixels, but the fact that it's a more name-brand affair than the other $80 phone, the Kyocera Slider Sonic (which has been out a little this side of forever), is a point on the pro side of things.
In even more news, though this pertains more to this site than otherwise, the LG Flare giveaway ends this Sunday, so post a tip or comment or question on the forums to enter yourself! Remember, this phone comes with more airtime than you'd get if you bought it regularly, and it comes activated and ready to go...so enter now!
Also, I will be getting the Super Slice in for review in a few days, as well as that old, beloved Nokia Shorty, courtesy the Cell Guru (paid for by ad revenue from this blog's sponsors, BabbleBug.com and whoever-uses-Google-AdWords).
LAST NEWS FLASH: I just bought the Samsung m310. If Virgin Mobile doesn't just cancel the order due to the phone being a bit of a pre-release marketing-wise right now, I should be getting it around the time I get the Super Slice and the Shorty. It's a rather expensive phone for the likes of poor blogger-me so if you wouldn't mind supporting the folks who support this site, I'd really appreciate it. Might even be able to give the phone away, if I don't become too attached to it ;)
First, they've revised their phone lineup. They've phased out some of their older phones and done a discount deal on others that aren't quite so old, but are going to be phased out soon enough...
In the phase-outs department, the Oystr is gone (good riddance) as is the Switch_Back (see Oystr).
In the deals department, there are three phones available for "free" with airtime now. There's the Kyocera K10 Royale that has been there for awhile now, with $10...er...$9.99 in airtime. Now there's the LG Aloha (didn't they just introduce that phone?) with $14.99 in airtime. Last, there's the Slice (the original one) free with $20 in airtime. Out of the three I would definitely go for the Slice, but it's neat to see the stairstep offerings there. What's weird though is that the Marbl is still $14.99 with the usual $2.50 in airtime included.
But wait...the news ain't over yet...
According to some quick work by The_Sweeper over on the forums (thanks!) Virgin Mobile is intro'ing a Samsung phone, and a slider no less, in the quite near future. I had actually heard of this awhile back on HowardForums in some capacity or other, but ow it's semi-official, though the pictures on the website have been taken down (though The_Sweeper grabbed them so they remain). The m310 "Slash", sporting the new, more subdued, Virgin Mobile look (as opposed to the utterly twelveyear-old-girly LG Aloha) gets you a camera, Bluetooth and a decently slim 0.7" thickness, as well as the usual VMo stuff like web and applications. At $79.99 the camera had better be 1.3 megapixels, but the fact that it's a more name-brand affair than the other $80 phone, the Kyocera Slider Sonic (which has been out a little this side of forever), is a point on the pro side of things.
In even more news, though this pertains more to this site than otherwise, the LG Flare giveaway ends this Sunday, so post a tip or comment or question on the forums to enter yourself! Remember, this phone comes with more airtime than you'd get if you bought it regularly, and it comes activated and ready to go...so enter now!
Also, I will be getting the Super Slice in for review in a few days, as well as that old, beloved Nokia Shorty, courtesy the Cell Guru (paid for by ad revenue from this blog's sponsors, BabbleBug.com and whoever-uses-Google-AdWords).
LAST NEWS FLASH: I just bought the Samsung m310. If Virgin Mobile doesn't just cancel the order due to the phone being a bit of a pre-release marketing-wise right now, I should be getting it around the time I get the Super Slice and the Shorty. It's a rather expensive phone for the likes of poor blogger-me so if you wouldn't mind supporting the folks who support this site, I'd really appreciate it. Might even be able to give the phone away, if I don't become too attached to it ;)
Tuesday, April 01, 2008
Aloha Everyone!
The folks from the UPS dropped something else off at my dorm today: the LG Aloha from Virgin Mobile, provided for me by the generous folks at MyMinutes.com, who sell that sort of thing. I just did some quick comparisons between it and the LG Flare that got last Monday (battery still isn't dead yet!) and a review will be coming shortly. Probably in the next day or two. To start off though, I must say that this phone is, as expected, practically identical to the LG 200c on Tracfone, though the software is a bit different, as is (to a small extent) the styling. One thing's for sure though, and that's the striking resemblance between this l'il guy and the Tracfone LG 200c that I reviewed awhile back...they're the same model of phone and it shows.
By the way, the main sponsor of this site is still BabbleBug, so check out their selection of airtime, phones, calling cards, SIM kits and other such goods by clicking the banner to your lower-right. Though I must say that they don't sell Virgin Mobile, Buzz Mobile or AT&T GoPhones quite yet, and MyMinutes does, hence the source of the Aloha for review. Thanks to both of them for supporting this site, especially BabbleBug, who has sent me phones for review in the past, and is paying for the ad banner you see on the site right now.
Monday, March 31, 2008
Virgin Mobile Switches Its Audience With Tracfone
In an unprecedented step of policy, to combat falling stock prices, Virgin Mobile will be focusing heavily on the core market of any sane cellular company: talkers. Tracfone seems to be doing just the opposite.
Effective today, Virgin Mobile will be discontinuing all phones higher in feature set than the Super Slice, with the Super Slice's existence still in question. Text messaging bundles will stay around, but a new website theme suggests that the main arm from now on will be voice calling, in this recession economy of ours.
Virgin Mobile's minute plans are being emphasized more and more, and rumor has it tat an unlimited option will be available in a few short days, though pricing remains a mystery. Rumor also has it that Virgin Mobile will be re-introducing its Shorty phone, though this time it'll be with a color screen. Sounds like something I've seen before...you know, the Nikia 2126i from Tracfone?
Which reminds me: Tracfone is doing something even weirder. They're now tailoring their phones and services to the teeny bopper audience, with cheap phones and data-heavy services. In an unprecedented collusion with Virgin Mobile, Tracfone will be exchanging all its stock of Nokia and Motorola phones for Virgin Mobile's Kyocra...Kyocera and UTStarCom models. That means that the K126c on Tracfone will be here to stay. It looks like Tracfone has also secured a deal with Alcatel for cheap yet seemingly full-featured GSM phones, since Virgin Mobile is CDMA-only and Tracfone seems to still want to keep up their GSM service.
Effective immediately, all Tracfone promotional codes are void, the airtime cards now carrying a dollar denomination rather than a minute one, except for special "minute plans" where airtime, when purchased in bulk, is still less expensive. The Net10 brand seems to have survived intact, though it will be exclusively LG phone-wise for the forseeable future, to avoid tarnishing all of Tracfone's reputation with subpar phones. After all, Carlos Slim wants to get even richer off of the service, which is larger than the third and fourth largest cellular carriers in Mexico, combined. Then again, Slim (who owns the company that owns Tracfone) owns the company that owns the largest cell provider in Mexico anyway.
Look for garish-colored packaging on Tracfones near you, as well as more sensible-looking, ower-end but higher-quality Virgin Mobile phones. It's odd that Virgin Mobile would discad the main benefit of the Sprint network, data, in favor of a voice-centric model, but then again rumor has it that roaming agreements Tracfone has worked out over the years of its existence are being transferred over to Virgin Mobile in exchange for help on setting up data services and data roaming agreements to make Tracfone's CDMA arm experience a rich one.
Weird, but who am I to say what's riht and wrong in the cell industry? And who am I to write an article about the two big prepaid companies like there's actually something going on with them today?
Yes, folks, it's April 1st. Happy April Fools' Day!
Sunday, March 30, 2008
More Phone Reviews - Coming Soon!
It sure looks as though I'll soon have reviews of all the shiny new Virgin Mobile phones under my belt. Or most of them at least. Between paying for the Flare out of the ad money gathered for this site from Google and the great folks over at BabbleBug, getting the Aloha on loan from MyMinutes.com, and now (again from ad money) getting the Super Slice from the Cell Guru, he reviews are pouring in. Add to that the review of the Net10 Nokia 1600 and you've got a lot of phone reviewing from right here. Maybe even beating out PhoneScoop on review density, and I'm a one-man band ;). Then again, they also have a lot of stuff that I don't...
So anyway, reviews for the Super Slice and the Aloha will be coming up in the next week or two, and another phone or two will follow. I may be able to get a review unit for another sweet phone from BabbleBug, but it hasn't been confirmed yet (supporting them always helps with such matters) and, once the ad money permits, I'll be laying out the cash for the Virgin Mobile Wild Card, though reviews of the Motorola w175g and the LG 400g may come between now and then.
Thanks to everyone for their support, and please keep on with it; I'm putting 100% of the money earned this month on ads back into the site for phone reviews and the new domain name, www.go4prepaid.net, so please keep the support of this site going, both for BabbleBug and whatever Google might be serving up above this post. If your friends might have need of this site, tell 'em. If you have any questions about stuff, check out the forum and you'll probably get an answer there. Or drop me a line.
In closing, remember that there's a giveaway going on right now! Head over to the forum and post something useful, whether it's a question or a tip, and you're entered into the giveaway. The prize is the LG Flare that I just reviewed, brand new and with about $9 worth of credit (more than you'd get with it at a store), so it's worth shooting or, especially with the great odds :). Good luck in advance!
So anyway, reviews for the Super Slice and the Aloha will be coming up in the next week or two, and another phone or two will follow. I may be able to get a review unit for another sweet phone from BabbleBug, but it hasn't been confirmed yet (supporting them always helps with such matters) and, once the ad money permits, I'll be laying out the cash for the Virgin Mobile Wild Card, though reviews of the Motorola w175g and the LG 400g may come between now and then.
Thanks to everyone for their support, and please keep on with it; I'm putting 100% of the money earned this month on ads back into the site for phone reviews and the new domain name, www.go4prepaid.net, so please keep the support of this site going, both for BabbleBug and whatever Google might be serving up above this post. If your friends might have need of this site, tell 'em. If you have any questions about stuff, check out the forum and you'll probably get an answer there. Or drop me a line.
In closing, remember that there's a giveaway going on right now! Head over to the forum and post something useful, whether it's a question or a tip, and you're entered into the giveaway. The prize is the LG Flare that I just reviewed, brand new and with about $9 worth of credit (more than you'd get with it at a store), so it's worth shooting or, especially with the great odds :). Good luck in advance!
Friday, March 28, 2008
And we have a domain name again!
This time, the domain, which is go4prepaid.net this time (and should be live shortly, and point to this site) will be in my name, so what happened to go4prepaid.info (non-renewal by a friend leading to it vanishing and being taken up by some link farm-ish thing) won't happen here. I'll hopefully get www.go4prepaid.com eventually as well, but at least there is now an easier way to get here than the usual g4pp.blogspot.com. Enjoy!
LG Flare Giveaway
Yes folks, it's here. I'm giving away the LG Flare I just reviewed (a fine phone for voice, I must say), for free, and the contest to get it starts now and ends 11:59:59 PM Mountain Time, Saturday night, April 5th, 2008.
Okay, so it isn't as much of a contest as a plain old giveaway with an entrance requirement. The requirement: post during the giveaway period to the Go4Prepaid Forum with something of value (I determine this subjectively but it's easy to do...anything from a spotted Tracfone deal to a promo code to a tip on some new carrier or phone available). Also, if you don't mind checking out this blog's sponsors (don't realy care about the ads on the forum just yet...they aren't mine...) that'd be great. Do this and you're entered into the giveaway. At midnight, Sunday morning, I'll figure out who won and private message them via the forum so they can claim their prize.
That's about it. Again, the prize is a shiny new LG Flare flip phone, which I reviewed last night, loaded with about $9 in airtime (I had to top up $10 on it so it has more on the phone than when I got it out of the box). Total value, including tax: $40-ish. Post on the forum to enter and best of luck to you!
P.S. MyMinutes (thanks guys!) said they're sending the LG Aloha to me today for review. Look for something here soon about it! Also, look for a review on the UTStarCom Super Slice from Virgin Mobile in relatively short order as well.
Okay, so it isn't as much of a contest as a plain old giveaway with an entrance requirement. The requirement: post during the giveaway period to the Go4Prepaid Forum with something of value (I determine this subjectively but it's easy to do...anything from a spotted Tracfone deal to a promo code to a tip on some new carrier or phone available). Also, if you don't mind checking out this blog's sponsors (don't realy care about the ads on the forum just yet...they aren't mine...) that'd be great. Do this and you're entered into the giveaway. At midnight, Sunday morning, I'll figure out who won and private message them via the forum so they can claim their prize.
That's about it. Again, the prize is a shiny new LG Flare flip phone, which I reviewed last night, loaded with about $9 in airtime (I had to top up $10 on it so it has more on the phone than when I got it out of the box). Total value, including tax: $40-ish. Post on the forum to enter and best of luck to you!
P.S. MyMinutes (thanks guys!) said they're sending the LG Aloha to me today for review. Look for something here soon about it! Also, look for a review on the UTStarCom Super Slice from Virgin Mobile in relatively short order as well.
Virgin Mobile $60 1-year Promo
Looks like right now if you add $60 to your account within three days and are within 30 days of getting the phone activated, you get a year of service time extended to you. Normally the amount is $80. Neat little bonus, though I would check your My Account page for an obnoxious little popup saying so before you go out and do it.
Thursday, March 27, 2008
LG Aloha Review Soon!
This isn't 110% sure, but looks like MyMinutes.com (thanks guys!) is going to send me an LG Aloha for review here. No, I'm not forgetting about reviewing the LG Flare that is sitting to the right of me on my desk, that'll come later this evening, promise. Just saying that you're in for a review-filled treat this month (and a little of next month). :)
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
LG LX165 Flare (Virgin Mobile)
EDIT: Battery life looks to be a little over a week, maybe eight days, in mostly-standby usage. Very good by me.
So here's the review of the LG Flare, finally out, a few days after I got the phone (Monday early afternoon, paid for by your visiting my sponsors: BabbleBug and the Google-syndicated stuff).
The battery bars are still max'd out at the moment so I'll have to return back to this review for battery life stats, but for everything else on this Bluetooth-toting basic flip phone, the jury is no longer out, and this is evinced by the following review...
So here's the review of the LG Flare, finally out, a few days after I got the phone (Monday early afternoon, paid for by your visiting my sponsors: BabbleBug and the Google-syndicated stuff).
The battery bars are still max'd out at the moment so I'll have to return back to this review for battery life stats, but for everything else on this Bluetooth-toting basic flip phone, the jury is no longer out, and this is evinced by the following review...
First, the build quality is nice. I would shy away from calling it "perfect", as there's a tiny amount of wobble in the hinge when the phone is closed (which I've seen in most LG phones I've had) but it's darned close. One thing about the buttons though: they're a bit more firm than usual to my touch, as in extra pressure is needed to get them to register. The feedback when they're pressed is great, however I wouldn't do a ton of texting on this unit.
But as I was saying, the fit and finish of this phone is great, superb if you compare it to the rest of Virgin Mobile's lineup, especially to the Kyoceras. Admittedly, this phone is basic, with no camera and...no camera (aside from the Wild Card's keyboard this phone looks to support everything Virgin Mobile has to offer shy of a camera) so there isn't a lot of stuff to do wrong, but for $30 I'm impressed. The phone is also quite small, nice and thin, and rather light, though not too light (there is such a thing). Styling, breaking away from the teeny-bopper designs characteristic of typical Virgin Mobile phones (though this seems to be fading a bit), is black with silver accents (aside from the red Virgin Mobile logo that lights up the external screen...which is color...when the phone is open) and looks very professional, posh, etc. It's still plastic, and yes that black front will attract fingerprints (thus requiring an OCD amount of wiping to keep it looking good) but when I first saw the price sheet on this phone *somehow* and it said $50...well...this, I would say, is a $50 phone. Especially considering that its precursor, the LX150, is being sold on other prepaid services for the same, or higher, prices, than the $30 at least.
If you're wanting photos, they'll be at the end of this review, by the way.
Anyhow, reception on this phone is pretty good. Then again, I'm happy to say that Sprint has excellent coverage around these parts, but at least the Flare doesn't show signs of weakness. I'm pretty sure it would hold up in less phone-friendly areas, too; its internal antenna is fine for receiving the PCS-band signals Sprint gives off. Voice quality, distinct from reception, is merely okay; the fourteen-minute call (during which I topped up $10 on top of the $2.50 starter airtime) I made with it sounded on the harsh side, but then again I'm used to the iPhone and my Sprint HTC Mogul, which I told to use a better voice encoder awhile back. Still...
The phone also has Bluetooth, though the only thing you can do with it is hook up to a headset or handsfree device of some sort. I'd say Bluetooth reception is merely average, maybe a little low, but then again I'm using cheap Insignia headphones as a headset. Maybe I should get a real headset sometime and see how that fares with my various Bluetooth-enabled phones :)
In terms of user interface, cross Virgin Mobile's red (or black or speckly blue), pop-style themes with the UI that dates back to the LG 225 cameraphone and possibly beyond and you get the picture. Then again, even i the status icons that show up at the top of both internal and external screens start to look dated, why mess with something that works, and has worked for nearly three and a half years. Though again there has been a facelift at least on the Flare, adopting a more flat, modern, motif to fit the audience. Cool by my book.
Feature-wise, you get nothing out of the ordinary on a basic flip phone aside from Bluetooth and the color external display, which pretty much fades into the surrounding blackness when it is off. The web browser is fine for something running on the 1xRTT system, but then again 1xRTT is slow compared with EvDO (yes,, I know, "well duh", but this was made in 2008 yaknow). Probably to keep people from sucking down 5MB of data in one sitting, or even one month, something I also found impossible with other Virgin Mobile phones (like the Kyocera Cyclops and the original UTStarCom Slice). Text messaging is fine, though, on further looking seems like you'll need another phone to do IM or download applications. Ah, the life of a basic phone.
In case you're wondering, however, this phone isn't cursed with the lack of ringers experienced by some other low-end VMo phones. This little guy has a halfway decent assortment and of course you can buy more at obscenely overpriced rates from the online store, whose entrance fee (if you want to buy via phone) has been raised to 15 cents per day. Hey, they don't say "nickel and dime" for nuthin'...and yes, the ringer quality and loudness is perfectly fine, though not amazing in any way.
A few notes on the activation process for this phone: it is done over the air, or is that way as the primary method, rather than requiring you to type in programming information as with older phones. you just activate online, hit ##VIRGIN, start the activation and follow the on-screen, web-based instructions. Nifty if ya ask me. Also, this is the first Virgin Mobile phone I've had to use an MEID instead of an ESN. The first phone I got to do such a thing was the Nokia 2366i awhile back. Guess LG ran out of their block of ESNs and thus had to move on to the (much longer) MEIDs as phone serial numbers (something GSM did a long time ago, though heir system is called IMEI).
In closing, this is a great phone to go with the new Minute Pack options that Virgin Mobile just rolled out. it seems to be a fine phone for voice calling, and can get by okay with occasional text and web usage (and casual cell phone gaming...like PacMan etc). Bluetooth is a real plus for such a phone, and since the Flare has it, and it's reasonably easy to use, it works out. So if you're contemplating grabbing one of the "Minute Packs" that Virgin Mobile offers, and think that talking is going to be what you're gonna do on your phone (and your talking will be limited to Sprint's rather broad service area) this is a prime candidate that will almost undoubtedly cost less than the headset it's paired to. Just don't think you're going to save the world via high-speed simultaneous IM and stereo Bluetooth audiobook reading with this phone...or ay Virgin Mobile phone for that matter.
In my book, that's a thumbs-up.
By the way, once the battery runs out on this phone, I'll be giving it away to a lucky winner. Details to follow tomorrow...as in after 9:00 a.m. Mountain Time (it's still the 27th in my book).
Virgin Moible Slices Slice Price, Verizon INPulse Gets the Juke
Just a few sale notes while I'm on my hour-long lunch break that I worked into my class schedule this semester...I'll be getting the LG Flare review out probably this evening...
1. Want the Virgin Mobile UTStarCom Slice? That'll be $20. Yep, the Slice price is down in the dust now...it's not a horrible phone, though it lacks a camera and Bluetooth. I guess, hence the price. That and the fact that it's a rather old phone for Virgin Mobile's current lineup.
2. Verizon's INPulse plan now allows ou to buy the Samsung Juke music phone and put it directly onto their (read: Page Plus Cellular's, heh) service. All for a mere $125, which isn't horrible considering that it's the trendy hip phone of the moment, right? I'd personally go with a Krzr though.
Thanks to the folks on the forums for this info, and thanks to our sponsors (BabbleBug.com, lus the ones syndicated by Google's network) for helping me get the ad money needed to review (and give away!) phones. Support them; I might be able to earn enough this month to also get the Super Slice and review it, and probably even give it away to a lucky winner once the review is over. Thanks!
Monday, March 24, 2008
Virgin Mobile Flare: Review Coming Soon!
I got the Virgin Mobile Flare about 2:00, from FedEx (well, indirectly, due to my school's dorm mail policies). I had a class then so it was about 3:00 before I got to mess with it. But I have now played with it a fair amount and it seems pretty sweet. Look for a review here relatively soon (next day or two) with battery life added in a few days later. Hope this helps everyone! By the way, I'll probably be giving away this phone after I finish my review, and it'll have more than the "starter" amount of airtime on it. Look back here after the review for more details!
Friday, March 21, 2008
Nokia 1600 (Net10)
Here it is, folks: my review of the Nokia 1600 on Net10. I got the phone from Dollar General, for $30 plus tax, including $30 worth of airtime (300 minutes) and activated it on what is now AT&T via Net10's website. The process of activation and number-getting was easy enough. But what about the phone, which has (edited) proved out an astounding ten-day battery life?
First, the one problem with the phone I found, and this has gotta be a model-specific problem because I haven't heard of this problem from other Nokia 1600 users: the phone won't stop ringing on an incoming call, and if you get it to stop ringing, you have to restart the phone to get it working again. Pretty serious software bug, but I have heard of nobody else who has experienced this, so everyone is probably good to go getting this phone.
Why is everyone good to go with this phone? Because it is to GSM what the Nokia 2126i is to CDMA, or pretty close anyway. To get an idea of the size of the phone, I actually have a few pictures comparing it with the Nokia 2126i. Apologies for the quality; they were quick, low-light shots with my iPhone.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2149/2351575594_5fdc66d8b5_o.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2006/2350744795_6ba6824808_o.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2199/2351573670_5dac9a0da0_o.jpg
As you can see, form-factor-wise, the two phones are pretty near identical. Granted, the 1600 is a bit more boxy and, on Net10 at least, black, but they're basically analogs of each other. Great build quality on both, by the way.
Let me stop right here to say that if people are wondering whether the Nokia 1600 is a step up or a step down from the Nokia 2600 that preceeded it, I'd say it's a step down in some things, such as display quality (the 1600 screen is the same low-res affair as the one found on the Nokia 1600, or very similar at least) but a step up in others, such as sound quality...but I'll talk about that later.
Signal-wise, it has been awhile since I've tested a GSM phone on the now-AT&T network, but the 1600 seems to pull a decent signal in my rather informal testing. Then again, we're talking about using a network that was owned by a local cellular carrier, not the cellular hash that passes for AT&T in some other places.
As to ringtones and such, the Nokia 1600 offers a truckload of 'em, plus a few empty spots for I-don't-quite0know-what, and they're all loud and clear over the speakerphone. Some of them are the regular polyphonic ringers, but a surprising number are "real music" tones, which the phone does a nice job of reproducing. The vibrate motor is also solid.
Software is, no surprise, great; Nokia has been in the cell phone business since way back and it shows. The UI is easy to get around, though not particularly customizable. And yes, you get the requisite bunch of games and tools that all modern phones sport. Though that one calling bug is pretty important, I'm sure it''s just the unit I got, though I didn't return the phone yet because I'm now in Colorado and the phone is in Texas (I got it while I was down on spring break from school) so I don't have anything to compare it against, save other reviews.
My advice to everyone; if given the choice between this and the Motorola c139, get this, but that's obvious. Given the choice between this and the 2600, it's a bit of a toss-up, though I'd go with the 2600. Given the choice between this and a non-Nokia phone of similar features, I'd go with this little guy...again, it's basically the GSM equivalent to the Nokia 2126i that everyone loves so well, except minues a flashlight and plus real music ringers...and with Net10 service instead of Tracfone. As an added bonus, you can get the phone reconditioned from Net10's website or new from a few places (see the Tracfone Deals thread on the forums) for less than the value of the airtime on it, or at most for the value of the airtime on it (aka $20-$30). My verdict: good buy.
Stay tuned for a review of the LG Flare on Virgin Mobile in the next week or so, and reviews of the upcoming LG 400g and Motorola w175g phones when they come out on Net10 and Tracfone, respectively!
First, the one problem with the phone I found, and this has gotta be a model-specific problem because I haven't heard of this problem from other Nokia 1600 users: the phone won't stop ringing on an incoming call, and if you get it to stop ringing, you have to restart the phone to get it working again. Pretty serious software bug, but I have heard of nobody else who has experienced this, so everyone is probably good to go getting this phone.
Why is everyone good to go with this phone? Because it is to GSM what the Nokia 2126i is to CDMA, or pretty close anyway. To get an idea of the size of the phone, I actually have a few pictures comparing it with the Nokia 2126i. Apologies for the quality; they were quick, low-light shots with my iPhone.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2149/2351575594_5fdc66d8b5_o.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2006/2350744795_6ba6824808_o.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2199/2351573670_5dac9a0da0_o.jpg
As you can see, form-factor-wise, the two phones are pretty near identical. Granted, the 1600 is a bit more boxy and, on Net10 at least, black, but they're basically analogs of each other. Great build quality on both, by the way.
Let me stop right here to say that if people are wondering whether the Nokia 1600 is a step up or a step down from the Nokia 2600 that preceeded it, I'd say it's a step down in some things, such as display quality (the 1600 screen is the same low-res affair as the one found on the Nokia 1600, or very similar at least) but a step up in others, such as sound quality...but I'll talk about that later.
Signal-wise, it has been awhile since I've tested a GSM phone on the now-AT&T network, but the 1600 seems to pull a decent signal in my rather informal testing. Then again, we're talking about using a network that was owned by a local cellular carrier, not the cellular hash that passes for AT&T in some other places.
As to ringtones and such, the Nokia 1600 offers a truckload of 'em, plus a few empty spots for I-don't-quite0know-what, and they're all loud and clear over the speakerphone. Some of them are the regular polyphonic ringers, but a surprising number are "real music" tones, which the phone does a nice job of reproducing. The vibrate motor is also solid.
Software is, no surprise, great; Nokia has been in the cell phone business since way back and it shows. The UI is easy to get around, though not particularly customizable. And yes, you get the requisite bunch of games and tools that all modern phones sport. Though that one calling bug is pretty important, I'm sure it''s just the unit I got, though I didn't return the phone yet because I'm now in Colorado and the phone is in Texas (I got it while I was down on spring break from school) so I don't have anything to compare it against, save other reviews.
My advice to everyone; if given the choice between this and the Motorola c139, get this, but that's obvious. Given the choice between this and the 2600, it's a bit of a toss-up, though I'd go with the 2600. Given the choice between this and a non-Nokia phone of similar features, I'd go with this little guy...again, it's basically the GSM equivalent to the Nokia 2126i that everyone loves so well, except minues a flashlight and plus real music ringers...and with Net10 service instead of Tracfone. As an added bonus, you can get the phone reconditioned from Net10's website or new from a few places (see the Tracfone Deals thread on the forums) for less than the value of the airtime on it, or at most for the value of the airtime on it (aka $20-$30). My verdict: good buy.
Stay tuned for a review of the LG Flare on Virgin Mobile in the next week or so, and reviews of the upcoming LG 400g and Motorola w175g phones when they come out on Net10 and Tracfone, respectively!
Reviews: Now Easy To Access
Not that it was hard to do (I tagged the reviews awhile back), but finally I got the code on the blog so they're easy to access. Just go to Categories on the righthand side of the page and click the Reviews link. Then scroll to your review of choice. If anyone has a better idea for review access, let me know...though I'm not going to switch to WordPress to get that advantage, unless someone can find me an easy way to move my posts over from here (Blogger) to there.
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
The Flare Is On Its Way
Okay, not technically on its way yet. That'll have to wait until tomorrow. But I just now ordered, with money raised by the sponsors of the site (BabbleBug and Google AdSense), the LG Flare from Virgin Mobile. I'll review it as soon as I get it in, so everyone will know whether this is the next big thing in terms of Virgin Mobile phones...or not.
Speaking of reviews, I will be posting my take on the Net10 Nokia 1600 in the next few days. As to its underlying carrier, the phone was using former CellularOne\Dobson towers, which are now very much AT&T. It's actually the first GSM phone in my history to have a number local to my hometown, since CellularOne "owned" a local prefix and AT&T didn't until they bought those guys.
EDIT: My Flare has shipped as of earlier today (19th) and will be here Monday.
Speaking of reviews, I will be posting my take on the Net10 Nokia 1600 in the next few days. As to its underlying carrier, the phone was using former CellularOne\Dobson towers, which are now very much AT&T. It's actually the first GSM phone in my history to have a number local to my hometown, since CellularOne "owned" a local prefix and AT&T didn't until they bought those guys.
EDIT: My Flare has shipped as of earlier today (19th) and will be here Monday.
Sunday, March 16, 2008
A Few Deals...
Well I'm back from spring break now so I probably will have very little time to spend writing here, but then again I've got a Nokia 1600 review to post as soon as the battery runs low, as well as a Flare review when I get that phone and review it. But now, some deals:
1. The Virgin Mobile Cyclops (by Kyocera, see the review here and here) is now $30 at RadioShack and $28 at Target. I suppose it's worth that much...
2. The Virgin Mobile Kyocera Marbl and the LG Aloha are $15 in some places, $10 in others (the Aloha is ten bucks at RadioShack) or even less at still other places of sale (K-Mart will give you $10 off their price if you buy the Marbl with a $20 airtime card).
3 Some Walgreens stores (the ones that have the phone in stock) may well offer the Net10 Nokia 1600 for $20...with 300 minutes...meaning that I got ripped off when I bought it last week for review at Dollar General. That or the Walgreens pricing is insane. I'll go for the latter.
Thanks to the guys at the forums for pointing all this stuff out!
1. The Virgin Mobile Cyclops (by Kyocera, see the review here and here) is now $30 at RadioShack and $28 at Target. I suppose it's worth that much...
2. The Virgin Mobile Kyocera Marbl and the LG Aloha are $15 in some places, $10 in others (the Aloha is ten bucks at RadioShack) or even less at still other places of sale (K-Mart will give you $10 off their price if you buy the Marbl with a $20 airtime card).
3 Some Walgreens stores (the ones that have the phone in stock) may well offer the Net10 Nokia 1600 for $20...with 300 minutes...meaning that I got ripped off when I bought it last week for review at Dollar General. That or the Walgreens pricing is insane. I'll go for the latter.
Thanks to the guys at the forums for pointing all this stuff out!
Friday, March 14, 2008
Want a high-end Amp'd...er...Page Plus Cellular Phone?
Then head over to UglyEric.com. One of the things his site offers, in addition to Page Plus "dealer" services, is a bunch of phones you can use with the service, activated and ready to go. Some examples? The Kyocera Jet from Amp'd (R.I.P.) is between $40 and $85, depending on how good condition you want the phone in. You can also grab the old Windows Mobile Samsung i600, which can incidentally connect to the internet over the little-known QNC protocol, even when running on Page Plus (just don't use it for anything but e-mail...it's a painfully slow 14.4 kilobits per second). There's the Audiovox 8910 for $40 (meh) and the Motorola v265 for $24 (hmm), and the LG vx6000 cameraphone thrown in for good measure at $25 (hmmmm).
There are a few other phones there, refurbished ones (as opposed to used ones), but they're the standard, rather old, fare sold by Page Plus Cellular, or in this case BabbleBug.com, who will give you reward points when you buy them toward the next refill you get with BabbleBug. If you're just interested in seeing those phones, clicking the BabbleBug banner to your right (they're a sponsor of this blog), then clicking the Prepaid Phones link to the top and right, will get you there. For all other phones though, the plac eyou desire us www.uglyeric.com, where the phone selection at least spans a wider age range, and the feature set a wider breadth, even if the highest-end phone is still a Kyocera.
There are a few other phones there, refurbished ones (as opposed to used ones), but they're the standard, rather old, fare sold by Page Plus Cellular, or in this case BabbleBug.com, who will give you reward points when you buy them toward the next refill you get with BabbleBug. If you're just interested in seeing those phones, clicking the BabbleBug banner to your right (they're a sponsor of this blog), then clicking the Prepaid Phones link to the top and right, will get you there. For all other phones though, the plac eyou desire us www.uglyeric.com, where the phone selection at least spans a wider age range, and the feature set a wider breadth, even if the highest-end phone is still a Kyocera.
GoPhone Update
Looks like AT&T no longer has the Treo 750 on GoPhone, which is to be expected; it's a smartphone. At least they still ahve the Nokia N75, which is quite high-end for those environs. And of course you can always bring your unlocked (i)phone into the mix if you need that sort of high-end action. Or just another AT&T phone, like the Treo 680. AT&T also has some decent deals on the low end, offering the (old but freakishly small) Pantech c3b and the (less old but bigger) Motorola v190 for $20 apiece. Not bad, all told.
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Virgin Mobile's Website Gets Some Flare
You saw it in Best Buy, you saw it on best Buy's website. I even predicted its existence based on a bit of insider information before anyone else did. Now it's official...officially buy-able from Virgin Mobile's online store that is: the LG LG165 "Flare". With dual color displays and Bluetooth, as well as some decent styling that I'd say sets it apart from the usual Virgin Mobile lineup, I'd bet that this one is gonna be a winner, especially at the $30 price point at which it is starting out. Especially for the crowd that doesn't want, or isn't allowed to have, a camera on their phone.
At this point I'd like to say that I've already ordered one and a review will be up soon. But here's where my sponsor, BabbleBug, comes in, as well as the Google sponsored links that run across the top of this page: visit them and tell your friends to do the same if you like this site, and I get money which I can then spend on stuff like the Motorola w175g, the LG 400g (see the post below this one) and the Flare. Thanks in advance for your support, and with that I'll get back to posting :)
In other news, the Wild Card is back up to $100, no freebie messaging pack included.
At this point I'd like to say that I've already ordered one and a review will be up soon. But here's where my sponsor, BabbleBug, comes in, as well as the Google sponsored links that run across the top of this page: visit them and tell your friends to do the same if you like this site, and I get money which I can then spend on stuff like the Motorola w175g, the LG 400g (see the post below this one) and the Flare. Thanks in advance for your support, and with that I'll get back to posting :)
In other news, the Wild Card is back up to $100, no freebie messaging pack included.
New Phones On Net10 and Tracfone
Today Tracfone launched a phone. Net10 launched a different phone. Both were GSM. The Tracfone was the Motorola w175g, whereas the Net10 phone was the LG 400g. The former looks to be the replacement for the aging, lousy little beast known as the Motorola c139. With looks reminiscent of the Razr2 or the Motorola SLVR, albeit at a comparatively portly 0.55" in thickness, I don't think anyone is wanting to go back to the c139, especially since the w175g has a bigger screen and polyphonic ringtones (the c139 dosn't have 'em).
About the LG 400g, it looks to be the GSM version of the LG 200c, albeit a bit of an uglier duckling on first glance. We'll see when teh phone actually is available for sale. Neither it nor the Motorola w175g on the Tracfone side are, yet.
For more info on the phones, check out the posts on the forums about them:
http://z7.invisionfree.com/Go4Prepaid/index.php?showtopic=204 (LG 400g)
http://z7.invisionfree.com/Go4Prepaid/index.php?showtopic=203 (Moto w175g)
Thanks to everyone who found out about these l'il guys!
About the LG 400g, it looks to be the GSM version of the LG 200c, albeit a bit of an uglier duckling on first glance. We'll see when teh phone actually is available for sale. Neither it nor the Motorola w175g on the Tracfone side are, yet.
For more info on the phones, check out the posts on the forums about them:
http://z7.invisionfree.com/Go4Prepaid/index.php?showtopic=204 (LG 400g)
http://z7.invisionfree.com/Go4Prepaid/index.php?showtopic=203 (Moto w175g)
Thanks to everyone who found out about these l'il guys!
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
T-Mobile Reduces Activation Kit Prices
Well, T-Mobile is dropping prices again. Their SIM-only kit is now $5, right in line with what eBay sellers would charge for the same thing. So basically they're charging cost plus overhead to get you started with their prepaid service on any unlocked tri-band or quad-band GSM phone (iPhone anyone?). Cool beans.
Speaking of activation kits, if you're looking for one on AT&T or one for overseas, this blog's sponsor, BabbleBug, has both of 'em. ou can get Airvoice's GSM SIM for $8, with I'm-not-sure-how-much credit, AT&T's GoPhone SIM for $10 including $10 worth of credit (okay, $9.99, grr...) or Oxygen Wireless's GSM SIM kit for $4.99 with 50 minutes. They all run on the same (AT&T) network but hey, different strokes for different folks. There's also Roaming4Less, for overseas stuff, at $50 for a SIM. As an added bonus, you get $1 toward other BabbleBug purchases when you buy one of the AT&T-based SIMs, or $3 if you get the Roaming4Less SIM, handy when you need a refill.
So that was the "message from our sponsors", so to speak. I for one am glad the folks at BabbleBug have a product decent enough to recommend, and thus I recommend it :). To get it, just click on over to their site thorugh the sponsor banner to your right (you may have to scroll up or down to see it, but you know what I mean). Thanks for supporting this site, by the way!
Speaking of activation kits, if you're looking for one on AT&T or one for overseas, this blog's sponsor, BabbleBug, has both of 'em. ou can get Airvoice's GSM SIM for $8, with I'm-not-sure-how-much credit, AT&T's GoPhone SIM for $10 including $10 worth of credit (okay, $9.99, grr...) or Oxygen Wireless's GSM SIM kit for $4.99 with 50 minutes. They all run on the same (AT&T) network but hey, different strokes for different folks. There's also Roaming4Less, for overseas stuff, at $50 for a SIM. As an added bonus, you get $1 toward other BabbleBug purchases when you buy one of the AT&T-based SIMs, or $3 if you get the Roaming4Less SIM, handy when you need a refill.
So that was the "message from our sponsors", so to speak. I for one am glad the folks at BabbleBug have a product decent enough to recommend, and thus I recommend it :). To get it, just click on over to their site thorugh the sponsor banner to your right (you may have to scroll up or down to see it, but you know what I mean). Thanks for supporting this site, by the way!
Monday, March 10, 2008
LG 3280 Price Drop, Multicolored Oystrs
Just a few news bits scavenged from the forums...
1. The LG 3280, with nothing included in the way of double minute cards or the like, is down to $40 in some places. I'd say it's worth that much...it's certainly worth more than the LG 200c, but then again it is priced accordingly.
2. The Virgin Mobile Kyocera Marbl (reviewed here awhile back) is now available in two new "limited edition" colors. So, in all, you could "collect all five": standard, purple, sky blue, ocean blue and green. Or not...it's not a great phone anyway unless you just want to talk on it, and if you just want a phone to talk on spare yourself the hassle and give yourself more coverage with a Tracfone. Then again, this could be expected; awhile back there were three or so colors of the Kyocera Oystr (also for Virgin Mobile) available...if I remember correctly they were standard white, pink and green. Pastels, all of 'em.
1. The LG 3280, with nothing included in the way of double minute cards or the like, is down to $40 in some places. I'd say it's worth that much...it's certainly worth more than the LG 200c, but then again it is priced accordingly.
2. The Virgin Mobile Kyocera Marbl (reviewed here awhile back) is now available in two new "limited edition" colors. So, in all, you could "collect all five": standard, purple, sky blue, ocean blue and green. Or not...it's not a great phone anyway unless you just want to talk on it, and if you just want a phone to talk on spare yourself the hassle and give yourself more coverage with a Tracfone. Then again, this could be expected; awhile back there were three or so colors of the Kyocera Oystr (also for Virgin Mobile) available...if I remember correctly they were standard white, pink and green. Pastels, all of 'em.
Sunday, March 09, 2008
Nokia 1600, Nokia 2126i at Dollar General, Phone Sales and more!
First, I'd like to thank the folks (particularly Turk and The Sweeper) contributing to the forum thread for Tracfone deals, Virgin Mobile deals and other phone deals on the forum. Particularly the one about Tracfone deals; that superthread is actually quite informative if you're looking to get a Tracfone. It is here:
http://z7.invisionfree.com/Go4Prepaid/index.php?showtopic=22
I was out and about yesterday and today, and one of the things I spotted (phone-wise, among other things such as various phones at Walgreens, see my forum post about it) was a bunch of Nokia 2126i's...at my Dollar General store...for $15! "My" store meaning the one in Fredericksburg, Texas, as I'm on spring break right now.
Another phone I saw was the Nokia 1600 on Net10, also at Dollar General. It includes (as Net10 used to include, and now does again) 300 minutes and 60 days of service, for the same price as the minutes alone: $30. Naturally, I picked it up, and it is now running on CellularOne Dobson-turned-AT&T beside me, complete with a local number. Look here soon for a review!
http://z7.invisionfree.com/Go4Prepaid/index.php?showtopic=22
I was out and about yesterday and today, and one of the things I spotted (phone-wise, among other things such as various phones at Walgreens, see my forum post about it) was a bunch of Nokia 2126i's...at my Dollar General store...for $15! "My" store meaning the one in Fredericksburg, Texas, as I'm on spring break right now.
Another phone I saw was the Nokia 1600 on Net10, also at Dollar General. It includes (as Net10 used to include, and now does again) 300 minutes and 60 days of service, for the same price as the minutes alone: $30. Naturally, I picked it up, and it is now running on CellularOne Dobson-turned-AT&T beside me, complete with a local number. Look here soon for a review!
Virgin Mobile Flare: Out At Best Buy
Hasn't been much news of late on the prepaid front (unless you count analog sunset, which doesn't account to much)...'til now...
Virgin Mobile's "Flare" phone (the LG LX165) is now available at Best Buy, both in stores and online. The price: $30, as expected. Thanks to forum member "The Sweeper", who has the phones, there are now some firsthand pictures of the cute little thing, albeit at cameraphone quality.
Can't wait to get my hands on one of these...the darned thing actually looks respectable despite being Virgin Mobile!
More Info (Virgin Mobile site) - http://www.virginmobileusa.com/phones/phoneDetail.do?skuId=VML165
Best Buy - http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8701924&type=product&id=1199495191194
Pictures - http://z7.invisionfree.com/Go4Prepaid/index.php?showtopic=189&view=findpost&p=11177592
Virgin Mobile's "Flare" phone (the LG LX165) is now available at Best Buy, both in stores and online. The price: $30, as expected. Thanks to forum member "The Sweeper", who has the phones, there are now some firsthand pictures of the cute little thing, albeit at cameraphone quality.
Can't wait to get my hands on one of these...the darned thing actually looks respectable despite being Virgin Mobile!
More Info (Virgin Mobile site) - http://www.virginmobileusa.com/phones/phoneDetail.do?skuId=VML165
Best Buy - http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8701924&type=product&id=1199495191194
Pictures - http://z7.invisionfree.com/Go4Prepaid/index.php?showtopic=189&view=findpost&p=11177592
Wednesday, March 05, 2008
A Word About Tracfone Promo Codes and forums
Look to your right, ladies and gentlemen. There is a link there, to what looks to be the most comprehensive list of Tracfone promotional codes on the 'net...thanks to Turk and everyone else on the Go4Prepaid forum! Over a hundred codes, and more of them "proved" recently than I know of other sites doing. It even looks to be more than that of the Tracfone_Users Yahoo group, which has been aroud for five and a half years now. That doesn't mean much in terms of keeping current promotional codes up, but it's something nonetheless.
Some other forum stats:
Users - 61
Posts - A little over 1500
Topics - Around 200
Hot topics - Tracfone promo codes, Tracfone sales, Virgin Mobile sales (Tracfone topics have over 125 posts apiece incidentally)
Age - 8 months
vs.
Tracfone_Users
Users - 2230+
Posts - 22900+
Age - 65.5 months
Then again, that's the biggest Tracfone forum anywhere. Everyone else seems to be...well...lower in posts, much lower. Tracfone_Users actually seems to be the largest, most ative cell phone related Yahoo group...interesting. Maybe they should join in here :)
Some other forum stats:
Users - 61
Posts - A little over 1500
Topics - Around 200
Hot topics - Tracfone promo codes, Tracfone sales, Virgin Mobile sales (Tracfone topics have over 125 posts apiece incidentally)
Age - 8 months
vs.
Tracfone_Users
Users - 2230+
Posts - 22900+
Age - 65.5 months
Then again, that's the biggest Tracfone forum anywhere. Everyone else seems to be...well...lower in posts, much lower. Tracfone_Users actually seems to be the largest, most ative cell phone related Yahoo group...interesting. Maybe they should join in here :)
Friday, February 29, 2008
...and we have a sponsor!
Yes, folks, look down and to your right. No longer is there the hulk of Google there for a bunch of sponsored links, but rather, a static banner touting a static sponsor, BabbleBug.com. Good company, that...I work for 'em a bit and we decided if they helped support this site, I'd support them right back with placement of that "buggy" banner right to the right on the pages of my site.
Even better, they actually have something to do with the actual content of this site, and they aren't some random link farm! They sell cell phones, cell phone airtime and other such goodies, to be exact. So check 'em out; they've got my seal of approval, both as a customer (which I am at times) and a person who works with them.
Happy March everyone!
Even better, they actually have something to do with the actual content of this site, and they aren't some random link farm! They sell cell phones, cell phone airtime and other such goodies, to be exact. So check 'em out; they've got my seal of approval, both as a customer (which I am at times) and a person who works with them.
Happy March everyone!
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