I hate cell phones. In my opinion, long distance communication is best done via a land line (Limited Mobility? Oh, the humanity!) or a computer through e-mail, IM, or social networking sites. So if you're like me, you want a cell phone that you won't be using that often (business, emergencies, maybe even time-to-time socially), that you won't cry over if it is broken or stolen, and, most of all, MUST BE CHEAP. This product is very reasonably priced (7/2011: 22 + ns on Amazon, slightly more at a retail store), the value of the minutes is among the best for a prepaid cell phone, and the cell phone itself is pretty sweet. Buy it, carry it around with you or leave it in your car, toss it around, buy one for your ten year old to teach them about conservation, whatever.
Especially with Tracfone, double minutes are a necessity. Don't get a Tracfone without it. In fact, there's a version of this phone with triple minutes. It's something like 90 bucks extra but depending on how much you use your phone, you may want to look into it. Best value I figure is the 200 minutes purchase. After double minutes and a promo code (promo code book included with purchase, by the way), you'll get approximately 450 minutes. After taxes and everything, I calculated that each unit costs around 9 cents. Better than what Net10 offers. Higher minute packages may have better value, but if you have to make those kinds of purchases on a regular basis, you might as well look into a phone with a contract. Functionally, this item works pretty much in the same way you'd typically expect a prepaid phone to work: the number of units per minute (1:1) for a call is rounded up, whether you were talking for two seconds or 59.999 seconds; texts are .3 units, probably the best value you can find in a prepaid; the browser is lame and should be used only in emergencies, and is .5 units to start and .5 units for every minute in the browser.
As for the phone itself, I like it. A lot. But first, the three things which bother me the most about this phone MUST have the most elaboration, to let you know what you're getting into.
1. Text Previews: This is nothing new. Tracfone seems to utilize a tactic in which you cannot see from whom you are receiving a text. Is it from a colleague? Is it from a new number? Is it spam? You can't tell. All they provide you before you open it is the first few characters of the text which was sent. Can't blame them, really. Their texts are so cheap, they have to make certain that you at least open every single one you get.
2. The Browser Button: This is the most common problem I've found in all of the reviews I've read. Not only is the browser button a big soft key which you also use as the "Back" key, but it's also placed right next to the "Pwr/End" key. Key lock MUST BE ACTIVATED ON THIS PHONE, or you'll wind up punching this button while slipping the phone into your pocket and wasting a LOT of units. Horrible. You'll be pressing this button a couple of times when you do not want to. Bam. Half a unit expended. If you hit the "End" key quick enough, you might avoid it. Invariably, though, you will be wasting money thanks to this little baby. This, too, is suspected to be a ploy to cheat you out of your hard-purchased units. Frankly, I think it was just a stupid human factors mistake made on someone's part. It's really the worst aspect of this phone and it could have all been avoided if only the phone had...
3. Personalizability: I can change the background and ringtones, okay, fine. I CANNOT change what the soft key buttons do. If I could change the Browser Button to, say, a Camera Button, this would be the God of all Prepaid Phones. Unfortunately, we're stuck with a shortcut to a horrible, useless browser and guessing where the shortcut key to the half-decent camera is (tip: it's "Left" on the Navigation Key).
That's all the bad stuff, though! Let's talk about the good stuff. Remember, this is a prepaid phone. I'm matching it up to other prepaid phones I've seen before.
Light
Great-looking
Great battery life
SD card slot
Good camera
Excellent keypad (see below)
Volume is on-par
Full of other useful functions (such as games, mp3 player, and calendar with event planning!)
The keys are small, yet are very easy to master (and they have a wonderful response), even if you have big fingers. I do not know the threshold between comfort and frustration; all I know is that if small keys have been an insane problem for you in the past, you may want to find a demo of this phone to check it out first.
This phone is worth it. You can laugh at the poor souls who have sold themselves into $600+ a year contracts while you thriftily expend $15 $20 a month for a phone with nearly the exact same features. The difference could help you pay for a netbook, which more than makes up for any deficiencies you may find in the cell phone (and which is also a great selling point when you're negotiating with your aforementioned ten year old).
Just get it. The only time you'll regret it is when you hit that stupid Browser Button.
Edit: 8/4/2011
The phone charges with a micro USB cable. (There -isa difference between micro USB and mini USB.) These cables are cheap from Amazon. You can have one shipped to you for about two bucks. I'd recommend getting a couple and a USB car charger, which, depending on the quality, should set you back around five to ten bucks. Being able to charge the phone from a computer is a great feature, but you may also be wondering what kind of data you can transfer between the phone and the computer. The answer is nothing -if you don't have a micro SDHC card (4gb SanDisk w/ adapter is seven bucks). With the card installed, connecting the phone to the computer should both charge the phone and allow you to change the contents of the SDHC card. No special software should be required. The reason I'm bringing this up now is that lately I've been having issues with this feature. It started to work, but connecting the phone with the card installed to my computer now brings up a hardware failure notice. This is a minor issue, but an inconvenience nonetheless. I have to open up the back of the cell phone, take out the battery, remove the card, place the card into the adapter, and connect the card to my computer that way. That's the only issue I've had with this phone so far. I'd still have bought this phone if I knew it had this issue, however. I will update if I find a resolution to this issue.
Some other information. I mentioned getting a car charger, but you may never need it. I'm on day five without charging my phone, and it's still got half battery life. And yes, I have been using it. This totally makes up for the connectivity issue, and then some. Also, as far as adding things to the phone, buying the SDHC card has been a good idea. There's plenty of tiny extras for the phone you can find online. Ringtones do not need to be in a special format, mp3 will work. If you do a search for games for this phone, they're everywhere. I download mine from Mobile Heart. (You can play Civilization! I love this game.)
So, about a month in, I've found one setback and a couple of really big pluses. Rating still stands at five stars.
Edit: 8/27/2011
Still working great. The phone averages about four days on the battery without charge. (Compare this with maybe two days for a smart phone.) Also, I obtained a Bluetooth device (Rocketfish Rf-Mrbtad Micro Bluetooth Adapter, $11). File transfers are a lot easier, and it's nice not to have to worry about cords and stuff. A little bit slower, but it makes up for the problems with USB cable connectivity. Still the best prepaid phone I've ever owned. I think this will be the last edit until I stop using the phone. Rating still stands at five stars.
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