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!).

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...

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!

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...

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.

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.

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.

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.

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...

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.

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!

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...

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)...

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8724133&productCategoryId=abcat0801002&type=product&tab=1&id=1200703057164#productdetail

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.

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.

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!

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.