[Edit 4/5/09: I've now purchased all three of these models, and I've put up a page to organize my reviews as I have time to get them published. Check out the following links for detailed pictures and reviews:
New Handsets coming soon?
It looks like TracFone will soon offer several new GSM models, from a manufacturer that has not previously produced handsets for TracFone. Not much info is available at this time, but starting a few weeks ago TracFone's coverage map showed three Samsung model numbers under the available phones. Now, those phones are also showing up in the "Activate Phones" section of the website, and this time there are pictures available too.
I haven't heard anything about what features will be available on any of these models, and I won't try to speculate at this point. But I can tell by looking at the pictures that the Samsung T101G is a candy bar-style phone, the T201G is a flip phone, and the T301G appears to offer a slider design, which would be a first for TracFone.
I haven't heard any official word on when they will be released, but I do plan to buy at least one, if not all three, when they become available and of course I'll then post detailed reviews here. For now, though, you'll have to settle for looking at the rather small pictures from TracFone's website, which I've included at the end of this post.
Before I share the pictures, though, I do have a request of you. I guess that I'm kind of an "evangelist" for TracFone, because I believe that many people could save a lot of money if they dumped their expensive wireless contracts and switched to TracFone's pay-as-you-go model. And in the current economic situation, many people need to find new ways to save money. I think I can help by explaining TracFone to people who've never considered it. But before I do that, I thought I'd ask for your input. If possible, please answer the following questions to help me figure out what people are looking for. In a few days, I'll get to work on writing an article that will help explain to people why TracFone service is a smart choice, and I'll incorporate your feedback in the process.
Here are my questions:
Finally, here are the pictures I promised. Keep in mind that I’ll do my best to review these new models here on this blog as soon as they are available:
Samsung T101G for TracFone
Samsung T201G for TracFone
Samsung T301G for TracFone
please say the t30lg model has a phone
The first question was a trip-me-up question: I use the w260, the LG 3280 and the LG 200, but your poll would only allow me to vote once on that question.
Hi Jane
Thanks for taking the time to complete the poll and to follow up with the comment. I apologize for not taking that into consideration – I was trying to get a feel for the concerns/needs of the “average” TracFone user when I set up those questions. I momentarily forgot to consider the habits of fanatics like us! Sorry ’bout that.
Your polls are nice and I really like your reviews, but I’m a Net10 user because I like being able to get 4 cents per minute voice and 2 cents text messages.
Your polls didn’t really address your Net10 followers.
Hmm, 4 cents per minute. Sounds great to me. You must be really taking advantage of the Nokia 1600 bundles, right? I apologize for not considering Net10 in this poll, but rest assured that I’ll make mention of it in the final article(s) that I come up with. I’m not sure that the average consumer who is new to Net10/TracFone will want to jump through all the hoops to get the price per minute down that low though. What do you think?
MagicFire – one other thing – is there anyway, with Net10, to purchase LESS than 150 minutes per month? To my knowledge, it’s not possible, because the lowest denomination you can get is 300 minutes, and those 300 come with 60 days of service time. So, that’s a minimum usage of 150 minutes per month, or you’ll end up paying for minutes you don’t use. Is that right, or is there something I’ve failed to consider in my calculations?
T301g does have bluetooth, according to their bluetooth section on their site. Hopefully it does have a camera. It looks strikingly familiar like T-Mobile’s SGH-T429.
ugh when will we get qwerty phones? I really want one!
I hear ya, Kyle. I don’t know if TracFone does, though. I assume it must cost TracFone something to develop new phones, and that expense is probably the reason that they haven’t developed more full-featured phones yet. Somehow, they must have come to the conclusion that it’s not worth the expense to develop a wider variety of phones.
After reading your site and many others talking about Tracfone, I wrote an article summing up all the reasons I switched and the benefits that I see up front from the switch. The article is linked below if anyone wants to check it out and feel free to use any of the information or examples that I used in your upcoming article. I look forward to reading it and cant wait to see if there is anything else I missed so that I can save more money!
http://www.gomestic.com/Consumer-Information/Tracfone.491979
Tracfone is its own worse enemy! Tracfone should stop the practice of crippling bluetooth features. Tracfone also has a reputation of offering low-end poor quality phones and teenagers consider Tracfone a joke. It should offer higher end phones such as the Motorola W385 and make it possible to download non-tracfone ringtones. In other words don’t force a person to buy ringtones from Tracfone.
Myself, I am really happy with my LG255 phone and will continue to use and recommend Tracfone others. A fancy phone doesn’t determine my self-worth and make me superior to other people.
Me, I’m waiting for a CDMA phone with bluetooth, camera and preferrably uses a micro sd card for picture storage, so I can get pictures without burning minutes. Howcum Tracfone does not give any attention to the CDMA world? Again, for the umpteenth time, Consumer Reports magazine rated Verizon the best for most all markets.
I will buy some kind of a CDMA phone before the Hurricane season stars on June 1. Last September, I, and my GSM Tracfone (AT&T was the guilty party), went through Hurricane Ike with “NO SERVICE AVAILABLE”.
There is no doubt, that AT&T can and DOES deny service to us Tracfone users. Will Verizon be better??? Hopefully, yes, but at any rate, IT COULD NOT BE ANY WORSE.
Buel – I agree, I’m definitely anticipating the release of a new CDMA model. My suspicion, though, is that TracFone earns a much higher profit off their GSM customers, because it definitely feels like they are steering their customers in that direction.
No. Their smallest “plan” is 150 minutes per month. It’s the same as a 300 minute/2 month airtime card if you don’t take advantage of the phone plus card bundle on the Net10 Web Site.
I’m not on their “plan”, so I purchase the refurbished Nokia 1600 with the 300 minute card bundle for $30 less Web Discount of $5 and code 34567 for an additional $3 discount. Free 3-day Express Shipping AND FREE $14.99 Universal Accessories kit from the Valentines Day special.
Comes out to $22 total (taxes excluded) for 600 minutes and 4 months of airtime and a FREE phone.
You could probably sell the Accessory Kit and save even more!
I hope that helps.
Been a Tracfone user 5 years and love the service.Have had a few problems with thier customer service at times, but everything has been resolved eventually.Started out with the Nokia 2610 which I thought was excellent, then when they changed networks they sent me a Moto139. Didn’t care much for the Moto,but it gets the job done.Really looking forward to the new Samsungs. Dying to try out the slider model.
Please review the T301G first. My main question is whether the phone has fully functioning bluetooth (can connect to a headset as well as a computer and other bluetooth devices) and a camera. Otherwise, I’ll just get the LG 600G (I currently have an LG 225). If the Motorola ROKR EM326G does come out on TracFone as well as Net10, then it would be nice if you did a side by side comparison of the two phones. I’ve never been fond of Motorolas because of their quality and user interface (my friend has one and constantly encounters problems) so I’m not sure if I want to risk it. P.S. in future reviews it would be cool if you post photos of your own rather than just the stock photos.
Hi Steven
My plan at the moment is to review the phones in the order they come out. If all the Samsungs are released at the same time, I will start with the most feature-rich phone, as I’m assuming that will be the model of most interest to most people. So, in that case I would start out with the T301G. And, yes, I definitely want to get my hands on the ROKR-style Motorola EM326G, whether for TracFone, Net10, or both. While I’ve seen a lot of rumors about this phone, I haven’t seen it actually showing up on any official TracFone or Net10 site yet, so I haven’t mentioned it. But I definitely have high hopes for the features that it may or may not offer. I have been VERY pleased with the voice quality on the most recent Motorolas, although I do agree with you that the menu system (and iTap) predictive text leaves a little to be desired.
Finally, your point is well-taken about posting my own pics of the phones. I will definitely plan to do that for future reviews. In fact, if I have time, I would even like to do a video review to accompany each text review. Of course, there are a lot of things that I’d like to do if I have time… lol.
Anyway, thanks for the suggestions.
Also, I’ve never transferred my number to another phone since the LG 225 is the only phone I’ve had through TracFone, so I was wondering if it really takes 3-10 business days to transfer the number.
Hi again Steven
I’ve done several transfers lately, and they all went through within an hour at the very most, and usually in 5 minutes or less. There are certain situations that could arise that might complicate things, but generally I think you should expect transfers to be worked out rather quickly. I think the 3-10 days thing is more for TracFone to cover their butts in case they mess something up, then they can point to that and say that they are still within the time stated in their official policy.
I can’t wait for this. I just noticed the three new Samsung phones on the Tracfone website as well. I’m DYING to try out that slider phone, and it really does look like the Samsung SGH-T429 model for T-Mobile. The slider phone is a first for Tracfone, so I wanna get my hands on it as soon as possible.
Thanks for keeping us up to date. I finally bought the W376g and am getting ready to transfer minutes, etc. I remember that you had a link to a special series of steps to follow, but haven’t been able to backtrack through the blog to find it. Could you put that on a response again? Thanks!
Hi Teresa
What kind of phone are you switching from? If it’s a CDMA phone (no SIM card) here’s the link:
http://thejmart.com/cdmagsm.htm
If your old phone is a GSM phone, it’s slightly different. Here’s that link:
http://thejmart.com/gsmgsm.htm
For more on the differences between CDMA and GSM phones, here’s a post I wrote a while back:
http://pbush14.wordpress.com/2008/03/16/tracfone-cdma-vs-gsm/
Thanks for your quick response. It was from the Motorola C261 to the Moto. w376g, so I followed the GSM link. Everything went pretty smoothly until I noticed that my phone number had transfered but my time and minutes had not. In checking the My Account page I found a message to follow steps to put in certain codes. Again it went well… for that part. Then I found out that I still couldn’t make/receive calls. So this time I called. In about 25 minutes the lady tech stepped me through some additional codes. Two practice calls later I was finally good to go. Wasn’t totally smooth but I got there, and in a reasonable amount of time.
I’m a fan of TracFone and have had mostly good experiences in my dealings with them. Even with a little frustration this time I was pleased with the polite and accurate help I received.
I survived “A” amd “V” before I went to TracFone. Can’t imagine going back.
tracfone is actually a really good service, the problem is that they have a tendency to offer really crappy phones that dont get service ina lot of places. They need to offer more phones like the nokia 2126, that gets reception almost anywhere. But i am excited about the new samsung models coming out soon! Hopefully the new phones meet and or exceed the quality that nokia 2126 provides.
Hi Caleb
The Nokia 2126, though it hasn’t been offered in a long time, is indeed a great phone. As far as coverage, though, that’s determined not so much by the phone as by which network that phone uses. For great explanation on this, you might want to check out my article from last year: http://pbush14.wordpress.com/2008/03/16/tracfone-cdma-vs-gsm/
pbushx2 I have been told that before how ever speaking purely from experience have had 6 other phones all through tracfone and each time returned the phone and went back to the Nokia 2126 because I could not get any signal where I live and with the 2126 I get two bars which is not much but with the 2126 its enough to make and receive crystal clear calls.
i really want that samsungT301G phone. i just gotta have it so plz get it in as soon as you can. =]
I’m really hoping that the T301G has voice activated dialing. You really need this feature to be completely hands free. This feature is missing from all the other bluetooth tracfones.
I am so excited for the new Samsung phones. I have always seen Saumsung phones as having lots of neat features such as video, and am hoping that the Samsung t301g will be no exception.
I do have a question, however. I currently have the LG 225 and when the 301 comes out would like to switch. What is the easiest way to do that? Switching SIM cards? Using the Tracfone website?
Hi Grace
You can switch your current number and remaining minutes to a new phone using the steps described here:
http://thejmart.com/gsmgsm.htm
Also, I found the pictures on the portion of the site where you go to activate a new phone.
Another thing: What Tracfone website has those pictures posted? I have only found one photo on http://www.tracfone.com in the “how to download ringtones” section of the Samsung t301g.
I have a Nokia 5180i that I bought early 2004 but didn’t turn-on until late 2008. Slow, I know, but it is an emergency phone in case my Vonage/broadband phone. I no longer have a landline.
I bought a slew of minutes that allow me to not have to update until next December.
To get back to the subject, I’m interested in the Samsung T301G, too.
I don’t understand the terminology “candy bar” or “slide” phones. Can someone explain?
And can you please the difference between the Nokia 5180i and the T301G? Thanx.
Janet,
“Candy-bar” and “slider” simply refer to the design of the phone. A candy-bar phone is shaped like a candy-bar – long and narrow, with no moving parts. A slider is usually more compact on first glance, but on closer inspection is made up of two separate pieces that slide open to reveal a keypad. A third type is a “clamshell” or “flip-phone,” which is two separate pieces connected by a hinge in the middle.
The differences between the 5180 and teh 301g are pretty significant. The T301g simply has a lot more features. Also, a big difference is the coverage. Check out this old article for an explanation of two different types of network used in the US:
http://pbush14.wordpress.com/2008/03/16/tracfone-cdma-vs-gsm/
I have just gotten a T301G. I really like it but I would like to change my tone for when I recieve messages. Can anyone help me?