Samsung T301G Prepaid Phone (Tracfone) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)You may turn off GPRS (mobile web/MMS) to save battery life if you do not use GPRS features. However, the option requires accessing a secret menu. This is how:
Open the slider and type *#4777*8665# and a menu should pop up. Go to menu number 5, Attach Mode. Select Manual attach. OK. It will inform you that you need to restart the phone for this to take effect - do this later. Then go to menu number 2, GPRS detach. The phone will notify you that it has done the GPRS detach, which means that it is no longer connected to the GPRS network. Now restart the phone, and there should be a blue and white G at the top of the screen instead of a red and white one. Success! Of course, you may reverse this at any time by going back to the secret menu and selecting Auto attach and GPRS attach.
This will NOT adversely affect your ability to add minutes to the phone via [...] or by using a minutes card purchased in a store. If blocking the browser makes you unable to add minutes directly from the phone, just GPRS attach again and you'll be fine. If you cannot remember the code, consider putting it into a note (in the tools menu) for safe keeping.
Enjoy your longer battery life!

Click Here to see more reviews about: Samsung T301G Prepaid Phone (Tracfone)

This stylish Samsung T301G slider phone offers an affordable way to stay in touch with family and friends across town and around the globe via voice communication and text messaging via the Tracfone prepaid wireless service. In addition to voice communication, it offers a full range of messaging options--both text and picture messaging as well as IM capabilites--and it's mobile Web ready. It features a VGA camera for capturing still photos on the go, Bluetooth connectivity for handsfree devices, color display, speakerphone, bi-lingual support (English and Spanish), organizer tools, up to 4 hours of talk time, and up to 20 minutes of starter airtime upon activation.
Tracfone Service Tracfone provides nationwide prepaid wireless service using the nation's leading cellular providers to create a national footprint covering 99 percent of the U.S. population. This gives you connectivity everywhere cellular service is available. You can use your Tracfone across the U.S. and if you move, you can relocate your wireless number with just a phone call.
You can buy bundles of minutes (which must be used within a set time limit of between 90 to 365 days) from the Tracfone web site on your home PC or directly from your phone's web browser. For example, if you purchase a block of 120 minutes of airtime, you'll need to use that within 90 days of your first use. When you buy additional airtime minutes, your Tracfone service is extended automatically by another 90 days. Tracfone also offers international long distance calling to over 60 international destinations (including Argentina, Brazil, China, Mexico, most European countries, and many more), which deducts the same amount of minutes from your phone as when you make calls to destinations within the U.S.
This phone ships with a number of handy Tracfone services, including free voice mail, free caller ID, and free call waiting. And perhaps most importantly, the integrated TracFone Airtime Balance Display shows you how much airtime you've used and how much is left, so you can control your costs. You must activate your cell phone before use either by calling the Tracfone toll-free number or going to the Tracfone web site.
Phone Features The Samsung T301G has a brightly colorful LCD screen (128 x 160 pixels, 65K colors) that sits above a standard navigation area with send/end buttons and soft navigation keys. The face slides smoothly up to reveal an alpha-numeric keypad. The phone's small internal 2.4 MB memory can store up to 100 contact entries in the handset's phone book, and it also displays the last 30 incoming/outgoing/missed calls.
Handsfree communication is easy thanks to the integrated speakerphone. This phone also provides Bluetooth wireless connectivity (version 2.0), and includes profiles for communication headset and handsfree car kits.
If you need messaging capabilities, the T301G has you covered as support is built-in for sending and receiving both SMS text messages and MMS picture messages--great for sending on-the-go photos captured by the phone's VGA camera (640 x 480-pixel resolution). The T9 predictive text technology is built into the unit, which autocompletes text for you as you type on the alpha-numeric keypad and offers options for selecting the correct word.
Other features include:
Includes up to 20 minutes of starter airtime upon activation (after activating your TracFone on the TracFone web site)
TracFone Airtime Balance Display shows you how much airtime you've used and how much is left, so you control your costs
Downloadable ringtones, graphics, news, weather, sports and more using Airtime Minutes
Organizer tools: Alarm clock, calendar, calculator, world time, stopwatch, converter
20 pre-loaded ringtones
Multilingual text display (English and Spanish)
Vibrating alert

Vital Statistics The Samsung T301G weighs 2.92 ounces and measures 3.92 x 1.95 x 0.56 inches. Its 800 mAh lithium-ion battery is rated at up to 4 hours of talk time, and up to 336 hours (14 days) of standby time. It runs on the 850/900/1800/1900 MHz GSM/GPRS frequencies.

Get 64% OFF

Click here for more information about Samsung T301G Prepaid Phone (Tracfone)

Read More...

HTC FUZE Smartphone (AT&T) - Refurbished Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)After comparing features on quite a few different phones, I thought the HTC Fuze would be the perfect replacement for my aging, but still quite functional HTC Wizard (Cingular 8125).
This phone has GPS, Windows Mobile 6.1, a decent camera, a nice screen resolution, a usable slide-out keyboard. In short, it has everything I was looking for in a smartphone.
Once I got it home, I found three significant issues:
1) Non-Standard USB Data/charging jack
Being someone who works with computer hardware quite a bit, I am very averse to "trying to fit a square peg in a round hole". When I went to start charging the phone, I noticed that the jack on the phone was not a standard Mini-USB, though it looked close. I looked in the box and found a small breakout adapter (for headphones) and it also had a standard Mini-USB connector on it, so my assumption was that I needed to have this adapter present to plug in for syncing and/or charging.
It turns out that the jack on the bottom of the phone was meant to accept standard Mini-USB as well as the custom adapter.
So, this isn't a showstopper, but I thought folks might want to know.
2) Way too much NON-REMOVABLE demo-ware Bloat (AT&T)
I'm used to getting phones with a few "demoware" titles put on by the provider. My normal approach to these is "give em a whirl, if they're a must-have, buy em, if not uninstall them never to be heard from again"
I was happy to see a large selection of potentially very interesting titles. However, I very quickly found that I didn't really like most of them. THEN I tried uninstalling. Only one of the pre-installed demoware pieces was available in the uninstall section.
I started researching... Just go ahead and try googling for "HTC Fuze Bloat"
Yes, there is a way to work around this, but it took me about four tries to get the timing right. Essentially you have to hard reset the phone and then catch it with a soft reset just before the AT&T setup stuff starts loading.
It's ugly, and if you ever have to hard reset, you get all the garbage back. NOBODY's come up with a way to completely remove the AT&T bloat without making a custom ROM
3) Noticeably low phone volume.
I bonded my Plantronics earpiece to the phone and made a call to a friend. I can't believe how many times I had to ask her to speak up or repeat herself. She was on her standard phone at home ... I know what volume level to expect from her. I thought maybe the phone or my earpiece were turned down... NOPE. I ensured that they were both at maximum. The volume was unacceptably low through the built-in earpiece as well.
It MAY be that there is an Automatic Gain Control (AGC) that is causing the audio to be turned down (It seemed to fade in and out even with fairly decent signal strength). I dunno, this was the straw that broke the Camel's back.
Ok, I've panned it. What's good about the phone?
1) Nice built in camera
Takes a MUCH better picture in available light indoors that the Cingular 8125
2) Nice style.
If you're an iPhone person, you'd almost feel at home with this. The styling is good, the TouchFlo interface seems very modern (though I didn't play with it enough to really decide if I loved or hated it)
3) Seems well built
This may be a small phone, but it's got some weight to it that makes it feel solid and substantial
4) ROM Update Available
HTC's official web site has a ROM Update available which is supposed to fix some performance issues. I haven't installed it because I'm taking my phone back, but this may be worth looking into if you just have to have this phone.
In conclusion, This phones features and specs say that it has it all, but I found myself somewhat disappointed. I took it back to the provider and asked that we try another unit to make sure that the volume issue was not just due to a bad unit. It was the same (low-ish normal volume with WAY over-reactive Auto Gain Control causing it to be difficult to hear the other party.
This review has been edited, but I can't appear to change the rating, so take it as read that I'd currently give it three stars instead of two. I'm about to try applying a rom update provided by HTC on their main site (specific to the AT&T version of this phone). I will update with further info if I come across anything interesting.
~~UPDATE~~
After the ROM update, my issues with the Auto Gain Control making conversations difficult to hear appears to have gone away.
I can comfortably upgrade this phone to 3.5 stars, but of course, I can't because I can't change my rating.


Click Here to see more reviews about: HTC FUZE Smartphone (AT&T) - Refurbished

Click here for more information about HTC FUZE Smartphone (AT&T) - Refurbished

Read More...