TracFone Promotional Codes for May 2010

Posted on May 27, 2010 by pbushx2

To get to the current TracFone Promotional Code database, click here. To visit Tracfone.com, click here.

I reviewed the list of bonus codes last week, and there really weren’t too many changes there. A handful of codes came up as expired since the last update, and I added just two new codes:

33045 for 250 bonus minutes on a 400-minute, one-year card
78775 for 200 bonus minutes on a 400-minute, one-year card

I’ve got the Samsung r355c review pretty much wrapped up, although I may do a quick video sometime soon here. But now that I’ve got that review mostly out of the way, I’ll get started on the LG 420g. I activated that phone today and will be putting it through its paces over the next few days, then start publishing the review after the long weekend.

Also, before I go, I’d like to remind everyone to have a safe holiday weekend, especially if you’re driving. Please be safe and smart, follow all local laws, and use common sense when it comes to mobile phone use behind the wheel. Remember there are thousands of other drivers and passengers out there counting on you to be safe for their good as well as your own. Happy Memorial Day!

Samsung r355c Review Conclusion

Posted on May 19, 2010 by pbushx2

Extras

The Samsung r355c has a nice phone book with room for 1000 contacts. Each entry also allows for five phone numbers (mobile, home, work, fax and pager) as well as an e-mail address. Contacts can have custom callerID photos and ringtones, or you can save them to groups.

Other basic features of the r355c include a vibrate mode, speakerphone, SMS and MMS, a calendar, a memo pad, an alarm clock, a world clock, a calculator, a stop watch, a unit converter, and a tip calculator. It also offers a voice recording feature, limited to 60 second increments, but it’s buried in the “My folder>My ringtones>Record new” menu path.

Support for voice commands is another nice feature, allowing users to initiate calls and otherwise control their phone nearly hands-free. I was particularly impressed with this feature, which was designed by the same company that produces Dragon dictation software for computers. I didn’t need to customize the software, but there are a handful of settings that can be modified to make sure it accurately responds to your commands.

I tested it with a headset meant for the Apple iPhone/iPod touch, as well as with a bluetooth headset and simply using the phone’s built-in microphone, and it worked very well in all three situations. This feature worked equally well in a car at highway speeds, with the radio playing, as in a quiet environment.

I tried it with the command “Call 123-555-4444,” and it asked me to confirm that the number was correct (verbally), then dialed. The voice recognition also did a good job of recognizing the names of contacts. I tried several, and the phone got them all correct. When I spoke the name of a contact with multiple phone numbers in the phone book entry, I was asked “which number,” and could then respond with “home,” “work,” or “mobile.”

I was very pleased with this feature. While I am not in favor of people using cell phones while driving, I understand that some people will do it. And if you must, this voice recognition feature will be helpful to you.

One final thing that I’d like to point out is that there are no games on this model. I was also unable to find any to add myself, and Net10 does not currently have any available. I don’t understand a lot about this, but from what I’ve read CDMA models generally use BREW rather than Java. BREW applications need to be approved by the carrier, whereas Java applications are generally more open. So it seems unlikely that this model will ever support games and apps.

Samsung r355c Review Conclusion

The r355c is available for Net10 (for $99.99) and Straight Talk ($129.99).

The Samsung r355c is a nice little prepaid phone that looks like a BlackBerry, but doesn’t function like one. If you buy this phone expecting a BlackBerry or similar smartphone functionality, you’ll be disappointed. But if you’re looking for a quality prepaid phone that works well for text messaging and adds in a few other handy features, I think this is a good pick.

Here are the things I like about the Samsung r355c:

Qwerty keyboard
Low rate of 2.5 cents per text message
Attractive design
Music player produces good sound
Headphone connector is standard 3.5mm
MicroSD adds a lot of storage – up to 16 gb
Compact and lightweight
Voice recognition works very well
Good signal reception
Easy to connect to a computer for transferring images and pictures (by USB, bluetooth, or removable memory card)

Once I actually sat down and listed out the negatives, I see that I actually don’t have too many complaints with the Samsung r355c. In fact, some of the “cons” on this list are pretty minor, but I had to have something to write!

Here are the negatives:

I would be happier with a higher display resolution than the 176×144 on this device
Shortcut navigation keys are not customizable
Audio quality could be better (it’s not terrible, but I thought I should mention it here)
Pictures taken by the camera are average at best
Camera lacks video recorder
Browser is slower than t401g or Finesse, but the same as the r451c or 290c
Data connection is only 1xRTT rather than the faster EVDO
Small keys might be a problem for some people (though I don’t mind them)
It doesn’t include games, and I couldn’t figure out how to add my own.

As I said above, I think this is a good phone. It seems solid and well-made, excels at pulling in a signal, produces good audio quality. With a QWERTY keyboard and .25 units (2.5 cents, approx) per text message, texters should be happy with it. The mp3 player, voice recognition, unrestricted bluetooth and microSD card slot are also features that I will use. All in all, I think it’s a decent phone even at the higher price tag.

To find this phone from Net10, check out there site by clicking here. To buy it from Straight Talk, click here.

Samsung r355c Review Part 3

Posted on May 12, 2010 by pbushx2

Note: this is a follow up to part 2 of the Samsung r355c review, which you can read here.

Camera

The Samsung r355c camera captures images in four resolutions (1,280×960, 640×480, 320×240, and 176×144) and three quality settings (super fine, fine, normal). Other setting options include the following:

five white balance presets (Auto, Sunny, Cloudy, Tungsten, and Flourescent),
five color effects (Normal, Black & White, Sepia, Negatvie, Green),
a night-shot mode,
self-timer (Off, 2, 5 or 10 seconds), and
four shot modes (Single Shot, Series Shot, Mosaic Shot, and Fun Frames).

I found photo quality to be average among the America Movil brand phones – colors are muted and most images are somewhat blurry. There’s no flash, as with all current phones for Net10 or Straight Talk, and this doesn’t help the image quality. In terms of photo quality, the r355c is pretty comparable to the Samsung t401g and r451c. However, it falls short of the LG 290c, which produces crisper images. Here are a couple of sample shots I took with the 355c:

Another thing lacking on this phone is video recording capability. At this price point, I was a little surprised that the r355 doesn’t include a camcorder option, but it’s not unusual among America Movil phones. At this time, only two other phones in the whole TracFone/Net10/Straight Talk family can record videos: the Samsung Finesse from Straight Talk, and the Samsung t401g for Net10.

I was also disappointed with the rather sluggish performance of the Samsung r355c. It seems a little slow to start the camera and to write images to the internal memory, and quite slow to load thumbnails from the “my images” folder. I was able to somewhat speed up the time to capture images by turning off the shutter sound.

On the plus side, Samsung makes it easy to get pictures off the r355c. You can connect to a PC by either Bluetooth or USB, or you could save the pictures to the removable memory card and plug that in to your computer directly. Of course there’s always the MMS option as well. It will cost 3.5 total units to send a 1.3 mp photo using the Net10 version of this phone. On the Straight Talk side, it depends on the plan you’re on. Of course the unlimited plan is unlimited, so you can send as many pics as you want. On the lower usage plan, it will cost you one of your 1000 text messages as well as the amount of data transmitted in sending the picture (varies depending on the quality of the image and other settings).

All in all, I guess this camera isn’t really worse than any other America Movil phone, with the possible exception of the LG 290c and maybe the Samsung Finesse. However, I guess I was expecting a little better since this phone is newer and more expensive than all other Net10 phones and most Straight Talk phones. So I guess the message here is that if you don’t expect too much, you won’t be let down.

Browser

The browser on my Net10 version of the Samsung r355c appears to have the same capabilities as all Net10 and TracFone handsets. The home page includes links to several commonly-accessed destinations such as:

iGoogle; Yahoo! Mobile; MSN Mobile; Net10′s downloads section; email (Hotmail, Yahoo, Gmail); Social Networking (Facebook, Twitter, Myspace); Weather, Sports and News (The Weather Channel, ESPN, Fox News, CNN Mobile); and some other mobile-optimized sites (SuperPages, Moviefone, Wikipedia, Answers.com, eBay, Amazon). All of these sites that I tried worked well on the r355c.

I also used the Menu>Go To URL option to load other sites not linked from the homepage, including MapQuest’s mobile site (m.mapquest.com) and in fact this very site. I didn’t have any problems accessing any sites that I tried, so I think it’s safe to say you’ll be able to use this browser to access the sites you need.

However, since this is a CDMA phone, it is by nature a little slower than the GSM network. The Samsung r355c ended up needing about 20%-30% longer for each page load compared to the t401g, when loading the same pages on each phone side-by-side. So Net10 users might consider the t401g as an alternative to this model if browser speed is an important factor. On the Straight Talk side, the Samsung Finesse offers a faster data technology (EVDO) compared to the 1xRTT on the r355c.

Mp3 Player

I was quite pleased with the mp3 player on this device. First, it’s important to note that it has a standard headphone jack (3.5 mm) as compared to the proprietary SAmsung connector on the t401g, or the smaller 2.5mm jack on the r451c. This means you won’t need any special headphones or an adapter to listen to music on this model.

Sound quality is very good, and the sorting options seem to be more helpful than on the t401g or r451c. You can create playlists in the order of your choice, although it is a little cumbersome to do so. You’ll need to add songs one by one, in the order you want them, if you want some order other than alphabetical. And to change the order of songs already in a list, you’ll have to delete the song you want to move from a playlist, then add it again. At that point it will be placed on the end of the playlist. So it’s not ideal, but at least offers some flexibility.

My biggest complaint about the music player is that it is impossible to lock the phone while the music player is running. I used this music player for a few hours one day and had three-four instances of accidentally pressing a button while the phone was in my pocket.

This part of the review is getting pretty long, so I’ll wrap it up here. In the next installment I’ll go over the organizational tools and my final thoughts on the Samsung r355c. If you want to buy the phone right now, you can learn more about a discount code for the Net10 version by reviewing this post, or click here to get the Samsung r355c from Straight Talk.

Samsung r355c review Part 2

Posted on May 11, 2010 by pbushx2

Note: this is a follow up to part 1 of the Samsung r355c review, which you can read here.

Display/keypad

The official specs on the Samsung website indicate that the r355c has a screen resolution of 176 by 140, which seems pretty low. Indeed, the screen on this model is not as sharp as the higher-resolution LG 290c. However, I wasn’t disappointed with the appearance of the display. In fact, I didn’t really even realize the resolution was that low until I compared it side-by-side with the 290c, and even then I had to look up the specs on the Samsung site to confirm that the r355c has a lower res screen. So it doesn’t seem to be too big of a deal.

At the highest brightness setting, the screen is sufficiently bright. Even for use in direct sunlight, the screen will work fine, although you should expect the usual glare that accompanies all phones with a glossy screen. All told, the display isn’t a strong suit on the r355, but it’s not a tremendous liability either.

Something that is a strong suit, though, is the keyboard. Ease of texting and menu navigation are very good. As I alluded to in part one of this review, I expected the tiny keys to trip me up a lot more than they did. However, the shape and spacing of the keys allow for really quick texting. I am able to use the tips of my thumbs (as opposed to the fingernail) to quickly compose messages either one- or two-handed. Two-handed obviously works more quickly, but one-handed typing also is easier than any other America Movil phone available. So whether you use one hand or two, you’ll be texting faster than you ever have before.

One downfall of the keyboard is the lack of customizable shortcut keys. From the home screen, the left and right soft keys are coded to the “menu” and “browser” functions, respectively. The directional keypad offers shortcuts to the following destinations:

Up: Compose text message
Right: Sound Settings
Down: Contacts menu
Left: Messages menu

In addition, there’s a camera shortcut key on the right side of the phone and a volume rocker switch on the left side of the phone. The volume switch is easily accessible when you are holding the phone to your ear. There are also several keys on the face of the keyboard that have shortcuts assigned to them: Calendar function, voice command activation, a key that toggles the “vibrate only” mode on or off, and the space bar, which will lock the phone when you press-and-hold.

It’s also worth noting that the voice commands can also be used to load a certain menu using the “go to” command, such as “go to settings.” But this might not work if you’re trying to be quiet, or in a situation with a lot of background noise, and even when it works it might not be any faster than actually navigating through the menus by hand.

So there are a lot of shortcuts on the phone, but unfortunately you’re out of luck if you want to add a shortcut of your own. The Samsung t401g, only available for Net10 as of this writing, is the only similar model that allows for customization of the shortcut keys.

Connectivity

The Samsung r355c can be connected to a computer by USB as well as by bluetooth. Bluetooth can also be used to connect to another compatible device for the transfer of pictures and ringtones. Whether by USB or Bluetooth, I was able to transfer files both to and from the phone, but nothing more. Once again, as with any previous TracFone/Net10/Straight Talk model, it looks like there is no possibility to tether this phone to a PC and use it for mobile internet access.

As usual, I haven’t tried connecting to a GPS or navigation system, since I don’t have either of those, but the r355 does connect to a standard bluetooth headset, so it should also work with any of those other bluetooth audio systems. The bluetooth menu in the phone claims to support hands-free bluetooth, which in theory would mean that you can use the voice command function through a nav system or GPS unit to initiate calls and other functions, but of course I wasn’t able to test that. The r355c also supports the A2DP Bluetooth profile, which allows the phone to transmit stereo audio to compatible devices. This would be handy if you are planning to make heavy use of the mp3 player on the Samsung r355c.

That’s it for this installment of the review. I’ll be back later this week to cover the camera and the extras on the Samsung r355c. If you can’t wait for future segments of my review and want to buy it right now, you can learn more about a discount code for the Net10 version by reviewing this post, or click here to get the Samsung r355c from Straight Talk.

Samsung r355c Review Part 1

Posted on May 6, 2010 by pbushx2

General Overview

The Samsung r355c is the new CDMA phone that is now available for both Net10 (for $99.99) and Straight Talk ($129.99). For a long time, Net10 seemed to ignore the CDMA side of their business, so it’s noteworthy when they introduce any new CDMA model at all. The r355, however, is even more remarkable due to the design and feature set it offers.

It’s the first slab-style QWERTY phone introduced for Net10, and at first glance the design is reminiscent of a BlackBerry or other “smartphone.” Beyond the qwerty keyboard, there are a host of other nice features that make this an appealing device. The r355c offers a rate of 2.5 cents per text message, 1.3 megapixel camera, bluetooth, music player, web browser, voice commands, and a MicroSD card slot to store your music and pictures. This is all in addition to the standard set of features you’d expect on a phone today.

Because of its qwerty keyboard on the face of the phone, I expected this one to be heavy, but it’s surprisingly light at just under 3.7 ounces. Compare this to 4.2 ounces for the LG 290c, 4.4 ounces for the Samsung T401g, and 4.6 ounces for the Samsung r451c. When I first saw pictures of the r355c, I expected it to be large and bulky like the slider models released in October 2009 by traight Talk and Net10. However, it feels sleek and compact. It measures 4.4″ high x 2.4″ wide x 0.5” deep.

The device is tapered a little, such that it’s slightly wider at the top than at the bottom, which not only makes it seem more compact but also adds to the streamlined appearance and makes it easier to handle one-handed. Pair this design element with the nicely rounded corners and slim design, it ranks very well on my standard evaluation of “how well does it slide in and out of your pocket?”

External/Appearance

As with any phone, how you feel about the appearance is a matter of personal preference. To me, the Samsung r355c looks like an elegant device. I really like it. Certainly there will be people that disagree with me, however, and feel that the qwerty keyboard makes the device to cluttered, but it’s not a problem for me. The only sign of this phone being a prepaid phone is a small TracFone logo centered below the screen, but it doesn’t have the words “TracFone,” “Net10,” or “Straight Talk” printed anywhere on the outside of the phone. It’s also possible to remove any airtime balance or due date from the home screen, so I highly doubt that most people would assume this is a “cheap” phone.

Indeed it’s not a cheap phone, by prepaid standards, and I think it feels like a solid and well-made device as well. The screen and the entire back of the phone are glossy and attractive, while the sides of the phone and the keyboard are made of slightly more “rubbery” plastic that allows for easy handling (so it is less likely to slip out of your hand). The keys feel solid and give just the right amount of a “click” sensation when pressed. I’ll get into more detail on the keyboard later in the review, but so far I like it.

General Phone Function

The reception and signal strength so far has been very impressive. In fact, it’s the best phone I’ve ever used among Net10 CDMA or Straight Talk phones. It is definitely better than the Samsung r451c or Finesse in that regard, and even outperforms the LG 290c and 220c, both of which do a good job on reception. I have been able to make calls in fringe areas and deep inside buildings where other phones have failed me.

The voice quality is good, especially among CDMA models. In my experience, the audio on the Samsung r355c better than the r451c, and pretty close to the LG 220c and LG 290c. If you’re judging strictly on the audio quality during calls, you’ll probably want to go with one of the LG models, but if you end up going with the r355 you won’t be disappointed either.

Call volume is adequate, but I did note a decline in audio quality at the highest volume settings. In my estimation, the drop off was greater than I expected at these higher levels. So when I was using the phone in very noisy situations, I turned up the volume but lost a little clarity as a result. At the same time, the person on the other end of the call said I sounded loud and clear, even where the background noise was loud on my end.

The ringtone volume was about what I expected, although the recent LG phones for Net10, Straight Talk, and TracFone are slightly louder. The phone comes with 20 default ringtones, and allows for custom ringtones that you can receive via download (from Net10 or Straight Talk, or from a third-party), by bluetooth from another phone, or by loading the tones onto a microSD card in the phone. I was also surprised to learn that full mp3 songs could be set as your ringtone. Further, specific ringtones can be assigned to either groups or specific contacts in your list.

Battery life so far has been good. On my first charge, I got four full days, although I didn’t do much calling in that time as I didn’t activate it until a few days later. I did notice that using the mp3 player seemed to take a toll on the battery, and it discharged rather quickly on a day when I used the music player for about 3 hours. I’m now on my second full charge, and have done more calling, texting, browsing, and music, and at this point I think that 3 days of use will be the average battery life for moderate use.

That’s all I’ve got for now. I’ll be back next week with more details about the Samsung r355c [EDIT 5/11/10: You can now read part 2 here]. For now, though, I’m pretty happy with it. If you can’t wait for future segments of my review, you can check out the phone from Net10 by reviewing this post, or click here to get it from Straight Talk.

Samsung r355c Review Video

Posted on May 4, 2010 by pbushx2

Here’s a quick post today to let you know that my Samsung r355c review is under way, and to give you a look at the phone via a YouTube video.

I received the r355c via FedEx over the weekend, and recorded a short video as soon as I got it to share my first impressions of the phone. Here are a couple of the things that jumped out at me in the first few hours of using the phone (after the video was recorded):

The Net10 Version of this phone offers an SMS rate of just .25 units, the lowest rate yet for a Net10 phone. That, along with the qwerty keyboard, should be appealing to people who do a lot of text messaging.
The package lists the camera as VGA (which is equal to .3 megapixels). However, it’s actually 1.3 megapixels, with a maximum quality setting of 1280*960.
The camera lacks video recording.
The audio connector on the r355c is a standard 3.5mm headset jack, which means you won’t need an adapter or special headphones to listen to the mp3 player. Standard headphones will work fine.
The USB connector/charger is the same microUSB format as on the recent round of LG phones for TracFone, Net10, and Straight Talk.
Signal Reception seems excellent so far.
Battery life appears to be good.
Sound quality seems acceptable, but not great.
“Thumb-typing” on the tiny qwerty keyboard is a lot easier than I thought it would be.

Anyway, I’ll be getting into more details on all of the Samsung r355c specifics this week, but for now here’s the video:

LG 320g Net10 Review, Part 2

Posted on May 3, 2010 by pbushx2

This is the second half of a review of the LG 320g for Net10. If you haven’t already read part one of the review, you can find it here. Now, here’s part 2 of the review:

Internal display/keypad

The display on the 320g is the same size as on the 300g, which is one of the smallest screens in the Net10 lineup. The screen on the 320g is brighter and sharper than most other Net10 phones I’ve tried recently, though, which somewhat makes up for the size. It’s also bright enough to function quite well even in direct sunlight.

The menu layout is the same as on the LG 300g, 400g, and 600g. It seems that navigation through the menu is slightly improved over the 300g and 400g. One thing that I disliked about the 320g is the lack of an “ok” key in the middle of the directional pad. I’ve found that I much prefer a dedicated OK key over using one of the soft keys. The 300g is similarly lacking the OK key, but the flip-phone style LG 600g has an OK key in the center. That is my preference. Another problem I have with this model is that the shortcut keys cannot be reprogrammed by the user.

On the 320g, the keys are easier to use than the 300g, due to the raised nature of the keys. The 320g keys also seems less “sticky” than the 300g. Message composition is easy using the T9 predictive text, and I found that the phone was able to keep up with my fastest texting. It was also easy to hold one-handed while texting despite its diminutive size, which surprised me. Still, with the host of new QWERTY phones available on Net10, the LG 320g is probably not going to be the choice for frequent texters.

Camera/Connectivity

There is no camera, no bluetooth, no web browser and, as far as I can tell, no way to connect this phone to any other electronic device. In fact, as I stated previously, it’s not even possible to receive MMS messages with pictures or audio clips. So there’s not much to talk about here.

Extras

Again, there’s not much to talk about with the LG 320g in terms of extras. It includes the basic organizational feature list such as an alarm clock, calendar, note pad, calculator and stop watch. These all function as expected, and the calendar actually does a nice job if you want to set up basic reminders more than a few days in the future.

Two games are included on the 320g: Sudoku and Reversi. These are the same games as were included on the LG 600g, 400g, and 300g. Nothing special, but a way to pass a few minutes if you need to.

Conclusion

The LG 320g just might be a good phone for you if you want loud ringtones and calls, a sleek appearance, a very light-weight phone and no web browser. However, unless you are specifically looking for those attributes, I suggest you look at other models.

The LG 320g is good enough for basic phone, I guess, but it’s not a great value in my opinion. The hissing background sound during phone calls is really the big downfall of this model, in my opinion. If you want a similar model, I’d suggest the LG 300g since you can get that from Net10 free with a 300 minute card. There are a couple of minor advantages of the newer 320g over it’s predecessor: the look and feel of the 320g are distinctly more modern than the 300g , and that’s important to some people. In terms of function, though, I don’t see any reason to pay more for the 320g.

An even better bet is probably the LG 600g, which is also offered free in some Net10 bundles. That includes all the features of the 320g in a flip phone model, plus it has a camera, unrestricted bluetooth, a web browser, better audio quality, and a larger screen.

To sum it up, the LG 320g isn’t a terrible phone, but there are definitely better values in the Net10 lineup. Click here to see other phones available for Net10.

Pbushx2s Weblog

In-depth info about TracFone, Net10, and Straight Talk

Monthly Archives: May 2010