Motorola w376g – Part 3 of my in-depth review

This is a follow-up to my w376g review part 1 and part 2. (Click here for part 1 or click here for part 2)This post picks up where I left off with part 2. If you enjoy this series of reviews, you might also want to sign up to receive email updates when I publish a new post to this blog, alerting you about new deals on TracFone airtime and phones, new bonus codes, and other topics related to TracFone use and saving money. I generally post new content 2 or 3 times per week, so I won’t be filling up your inbox every day. If you are a TracFone user, it is my goal to save you money and make your life easier. You can sign up for free updates here, and it’s easy to unsubscribe at any time if you change your mind.

Another link that might be helpful to you is my “best price on the Motorola w376g” page, if you’re on the lookout for the best price on this phone. When I find a new deal, I’ll create a post about on the blog, and update my “best price” page.

Alright, I’m finally wrapping up this series. When I set out to write this review, I didn’t intend on it being nearly so long. But, I kept coming up with new things that I thought people should know about, and the review kept growing. And since it’s the hot new phone of the moment for TracFone users, I’m sure other issues will come up in the future, and I’ll be here to discuss those as well. Anyway, on to the remainder of the review:

One thing that I forgot to mention previously on the review are the little indicator lights on the outside of the phone. The three indicators will light up to signal a new voice mail, new text message, or low battery. This is a pretty handy feature on the flip phone, and may save you some time opening and closing your phone. And, it looks pretty cool, too.

Another thing that a few people have asked me about is the charger for this phone. The end that connects to the phone is a mini-USB type plug, which is a becoming a fairly standard connector among many devices such as PDAs, digital cameras, GPS units and many newer cell phones. For many of these devices, that port functions as both a charger and a data transfer port. That way, the user can plug the device into a computer’s USB port to both charge the device, drawing power from the computer, and transfer info between the device and the computer. However, on this particular phone, data transfer is not allowed. Not only that, the phone will not even charge when connected to a computer USB port. This is not a big deal for me – I always plug my phone into the wall overnight 2-3 times a week anyway – but it may be a problem for some.

As a result of the limited data transfer, though, the only way you’ll be able to get pictures off the camera and onto your computer is by emailing them from your phone. That, too, has been glitchy for me, though. I really don’t foresee myself using this very much at all, but it would be nice to know it’s functional if I ever need to use it. So far, though, I haven’t been able to send a picture from the phone to either an email address or another phone. I may be doing something wrong, but there has also been some discussion of this on various forums around the web as well as from a couple of readers that have contacted me. So it looks like I’m not the only one having problems. Other users have reported that problem was corrected, either spontaneously or after filing a tech support request with TracFone. I will try to get in contact with TracFone and report the results here. I’m optimistic that it can be resolved. But for now, keep in mind it may be a hassle to get any pictures off your phone.

And, this brings me to my next point. If you happen to own this phone, and want to consult the user guide, it will probably save you some frustration if you don’t even bother. I don’t know if maybe TracFone/Motorola just assumed that by now everyone should know how to use the features on bluetooth-capable, web-enabled camera phones, but the manual is just a step above utterly worthless. If you have question about your w376g, you’ll be much better off searching the web or posting your question here and hoping another user can answer it, rather than spending any time looking through your instruction manual.

Finally, I feel obligated to mention this on all my TracFone reviews. I have been a Nokia 1100 user for 3+ years now, I think, and I keep hanging on to it for one specific reason – it is one of the only TracFone models that allows free incoming text messages. On the w376g, it will cost .3 units to receive an incoming SMS message (and more to receive MMS, although that’s not really my issue here). So if you are thinking of upgrading, but receive a lot of incoming texts every day, you’ll want to consider the costs.

Ok, wow, I just read back through the review and realized that I ended with a lot of criticisms there. I don’t want that to be the overall tone of the review, though, as I really am a big fan of the phone. I think that it is a great phone for making and receiving calls and has some cool features that make it much more fun than any other TracFone. Just know that some of these extras come with limitations, such as the limited data transfer capability.

Here’s a summary of what I do NOT like about the phone:

• poor user guide
• bluetooth might not work with some built-in handsfree systems in cars
• the phone can’t be charged from a computer USB port
• transferring pictures/sounds between the phone and a computer will require MMS messaging
• FM radio requires a wired headset to function at all
• it will cost you .3 units to receive a text (ok, this isn’t that big of a deal since all new TracFones work this way, but it’s my pet peeve so I’m putting it in my review!)
• there is no voice dialing feature
• Web browser button can be pushed accidentally; this may lead to units being deducted for web surfing you didn’t mean to do
• Web broswer can be slow

Now, the positives:

• Looks great
• Sound quality and reception are very good
• Camera is a nice feature to have handy
• Bluetooth is very nice and worked well with my headset
• Phone is solid, comfortable to use and carry, and fits in your pocket easily.
• Even though the browser isn’t fast, at least it’s there if you want to check it out.
• Supports mp3 ringtones
• Includes double minutes for life – this alone is a $49.99 value.

The phone costs only $49.99 – compare this to the original price of the w370 ($79.99), and consider the extras (Web Browser, Bluetooth, Camera, Double Minutes for Life), and you are getting a LOT of value for your $49.99.

In conclusion, I think that this phone is a great buy for the price. While the list of “negatives” on this phone is fairly long, those are mainly, in my opinion, minor annoyances, and I included them here just to make sure that people are aware of them. On the other hand, I felt that this phone scored high marks on the areas that important to me – how it functions as a PHONE in general, and as a TracFone specifically. The sound quality and reception are very good, the phone looks nicer than any other TracFone handset available, and the double minute feature will save you a lot of money. If you are a TracFone user considering this phone for an upgrade, I say “Go for it.” And I’ll do my best on this blog to keep you updated on the best prices available for this phone. You can check out the current deals on the w376g here.

Finally, I’m sure there are parts of my review that some may disagree with me on, or questions that people still have. Please post them in the comments section, and I’ll do my best to respond in a timely manner.

Motorola w376g – Part 2 of my in-depth review

First, I have to apologize for failing to meet my self-prescribed deadline of Sunday evening for getting this review completed. I hope you’ll forgive me. But, here’s part 2 of my review (w376g review part 1 can be found here). I really wanted to do an extensive review, and it ended up being very long. So, I decided to break it up into three parts to make it easier to read. (NOTE: Motorola w376g review part 3 is now available here).

Also, to stay informed on this phone and other TracFone topics, you may also want to subscribe to receive my future blog posts automatically in your email. To subscribe, click on the link to the right of the title of this post – it’s free, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

In part 1 of my w376g review, I discussed the phone’s appearance and dimensions, keypad function, voice quality, signal reception,

and use of ringtones. In this part of the review, I’ll continue to address some of the “extras” included in the phone and offer my final summary of the review.Click on the picture for more details on this phone:

Probably the most important extra for most people considering this phone is the bluetooth functionality. I’ve done fairly limited testing with this feature, but I found it to work fairly well. I have to admit that I’d never before even attempted to use a bluetooth phone, so I didn’t really know what to expect. But I had a Motorola HS 350 headset that I purchased a while back, and it paired perfectly with the phone when I followed the instructions in the phones user manual. (Note: I just posted about a good deal on the same headset that I use. You can find the details here.)

I then used the headset to place a test call, and I was very happy with the sound quality. In fact, I used the headset while a passenger in a car traveling at highway speeds, and the person on the receiving end of the call reported that I sounded very good. The volume on my earpiece was also very good.

However, there does appear to be a fairly significant stumbling block if you plan to pair this phone with a bluetooth device other than a headset. In the comments of my previous posts regarding this phone, other users have reported difficulty connecting to the built-in bluetooth in their vehicles.

It appears that the w376 can be paired to a vehicle’s bluetooth system with some effort, though. A reader has pointed out that the “access code” of the phone is set at “0000” and cannot be changed. So, you’ll need to change your vehicle’s access code accordingly. The steps to change the access code in your car will vary based on the car model. However, I’m assuming here that most vehicles equipped with this feature are pretty new, so you’ll probably be able to talk to the dealer to get help with connecting, if necessary. Just be advised, though, that it may not be as easy as you would hope.

Another area in which the bluetooth function is limited is in its inability to connect to a bluetooth-equipped computer. You won’t be able to use the bluetooth to transfer graphics or ringtones between your computer and phone. Similarly, the charging port on the w376g is a mini-USB, but you also won’t be able to use that connection to transfer files between the phone and your computer. For my personal use, this isn’t a great concern. But to some, it may be a major limitation of the phone.

Moving on to the camera function – I had briefly owned the first camera phone from TracFone, the Motorola C261, but that was a couple of years ago. From what I recall, this camera is slightly better than that on the C261, but I may be mistaken. The bottom line is that it works well enough to create adequate screen savers and background photos, or capture a must-have shot when standard camera is not available, but that’s about it. You certainly wouldn’t want to use the phone’s camera to make prints.

The phone also is another in the line of TracFones that offer web browsing capability. I tested this briefly, using the browser first to download a ringtone and then to find a couple of sports scores. The browser opens rather slowly, deducting 1 minute as soon as the browser is fully launched in the phone’s memory. After that, it will continue to deduct minutes as you keep the browser open.

I found the connection too slow to be enjoyable from an entertainment perspective. Also, the content you can access with the browser is restricted to TracFone’s own offerings, including ringtones and graphics, which cost extra to download, as well as limited pages on entertainment, sports, weather, news, and “top stories.” You won’t be able to surf the mobile web beyond these options from TracFone. Overall, I guess the browser is a nice feature to have available and use occasionally. But if you plan to make extensive use of the web browsing feature, I think you’ll end up pretty sorely disappointed.

But as far as entertainment, this phone does offer some other options. The FM radio is a nice touch and works pretty well, but only if you have a wired headset plugged in. The headset acts as the antenna for the radio, so you’ll end up listening to static if you don’t have a headset plugged in. If you have the headset, though, you can use the speakerphone to play the radio audio. And the radio is equipped with Radio Data System reception, which basically means that it can display the radio station/song info. The reception is also very solid, in fact it was better in my experience than my pocket radio that I use to listen to the ball games when I can’t watch.

The best entertainment feature in my opinion, though, is the game section. Tetris and Sudoku are both well-respected game options that, as far as I know, have never been included in a TracFone before. The soccer game, which is basically a foosball-type game, has been available on previous handsets but seems to be upgraded on this model.

The “office tools” menu also contains some nice options that available on the most recent line of Motorolas (including the w175g and the w260g). In this menu you will find some of the more standard features such as the calculator, stop watch, alarm clock, and lantern. A more in-depth feature, though, is the calendar. Basically, you can set appointments and tasks within this menu, and set up your phone to remind you when they need to be done. I found this to be pretty handy.

Finally, as I pointed out earlier, I’ll have the final part of this review available later this week. (NOTE: Motorola w376g review part 3 is now available here). However, if parts one and two of the review have you convinced that you want this phone, check out the best deals on the w376g here. I’ll update that page as new deals become available.