We have been using Tracfone for a family member who only uses the cell phone occasionally. Tracfone has been a perfect phone for this level of use. 1 year service is around $100 and you can roll over unused minutes year to year. The minutes do not expire as long as the service is extended before the expiration date. I purchased a LG800G phone to replace an 6 year old phone that stopped working.
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To transfer the old number and minutes
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1. Before activating and transferring the old phone number and left over minutes, the new phone needs to be charged.
2. You can activate the phone on-line (if you have an on-line account with Tracphone AND if your old phone is operational). To do so go to Tracfone home page and choose "Activate Phone" link at the top of the home screen, and then selecting "Transfer my number and service from one TracFone to another". Since the old phone was not working I called the service representative 1-800-867-7183.
3. To do the transfer you will need the IMEI number (also known as the serial number) of the old phone, the SIM card number of the old phone, and the old phone number. You will also need the serial number of the new phone which is printed on your activation card.
4. I had no issues getting full credit for all the old minutes. To activate the phone the operator had to give me five long series of numbers and even though the call center was in India I had no trouble understanding the accent and found the operator pleasant and easy to work with. The first procedure she performed gave me credit for half of the minutes on the old phone, and then without me having to ask she said she needed to do several more steps to get me the balance of minutes. I had to turn off and turn on the phone twice to see minutes added in two steps.
5. The new phone added 10 units and 60 days of service to the minutes and service time left on the old phone.
6. The software version I received on the phone purchased in February 2013 is V10e. The older version of the software had problems (specifically version V10d).
You can check what version of the software you have by clicking on a blue square with 4 dots on the main screen. Then tapping on the following: Settings - Phone - scroll down to Information - Device Information - S/W version.
If you have V10e or later you are all set. If you have V10d you have an older problematic version and should upgrade.
I went to LG web site, found support page, and entered 800G. I found a page where there are steps to install software that performs an upgrade for the the phone. The instructions say "If your phone needs to upgrade, the "Start Updating " button will be enabled.
I did not test this because my phone is on the latest version already, but I wanted to see if LG had a page for updates and I found it.
This is a link to
LG 800G software software updates.
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What I like about the phone
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1. I found the touch screen to be responsive, although it requires a little more pressure than the touch screens of my Android devices
2. The screen is bright and easy to see. The phone size is 4" (length) by 2.25" (width) by 0.375" (thickness). Screen size 1.75" (width) by 2.25" (length). 3" diameter. It weighs 3.1 oz.
3. This phone will be used by someone whose vision is not very good, and I was pleasantly surprised by many font size choices and how well the font scaled up without losing the usability of the menus and prompts.
I am attaching a collage of five photos. Photo #1 shows font options, Photo #2 shows a screen with font size set to medium size, Photo #3 shows a screen with large font.
4. The price of this phone is hard to beat. This phone provided triple minutes for the life of the phone. That means when combined with 1 year service/400 minutes it is 1200 minutes for $90 (current price on Amazon including shipping), which is 7.5 cents per minute. Or for someone who uses a phone less than 400 minutes a year (which is the case in our family), then it is $7.50 a month for the security of having an emergency phone.
5. The phone has a small set of useful apps: a calculator, a notepad, an mp3 player, and few others. Using these apps does not use minutes. If you use the browser then the minutes are used as soon as you connect and stop when you disconnect.
6. A charging connector is a standard micro USB connector. I have been able to charge this phone using my own cables, so if you already have a car charger or an external battery that uses a standard USB connector you don't need to buy anything special to use it them with this phone. The charging port on LG800G is on the left side of the phone and is covered by a small panel which you need to lift up and turn 90 degrees to expose the connector.
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Customization I have made
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(1) I increased the screen time out. This is done by hitting a blue squares with 4 dots (also known as the Menu icon) and then selecting 'Settings'. From the 'Settings' screen select 'Phone' and then 'Auto-lock'. You can choose a time between 10 sec and 60 sections or 'Never'. If you select 'Never' the screen will dim but will not lock. The downside of 'Never' that if something in your purse accidentally presses on the screen you could be dialling or starting up a browser without meaning to do so.
(2) I removed the browser from the main screen to the apps bar (so it would not be hit accidentally start using minutes). And added "Profiles" to the main screen, which allows to change the phone into silent or flight mode quickly.
(3) I populated the contacts, and then added several numbers to the speed dial. Once the speed dial is set you will be able to access it by clicking the phone icon on the main screen, and then hold down the number of your speed dial. Speed dial #1 is your voice mail. Note that when you access your voice mail you get charged minutes. Speed dials also appear as individual buttons on the screen on the second page. To get to the second page you need to swipe your finger across the main screen right to left.
(4) I changed the font of the display. This option is accessible by hitting the Menu icon, then 'Settings', then 'Display', then 'Font'.
(5) I changed the ring tone. To get to this setting you need to go to the second page of Settings. Start with Menu, then Settings, then slide your finger right to left to flip the page, select 'My stuff', then 'Sounds'. The phone comes with 12 choices for rings tones.
(6) You can activate and deactivate sounds by using the volume button. To do so you need to press and hold the lower portion of the volume button. You will get a brief message on the screen "Silent activated". If you press it again you will deactivate silence and get "Silent deactivated" message.
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Adding SD Memory Card
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The phone is operational without adding an SD memory card. The phone comes with some (relatively small) amount of internal memory. Information about your contacts, calendar, tasks & notes are stored in internal memory. If you are planning to take photos or videos, or listen to music, you should add an SD memory card. Note that you contacts, calendar, and tasks will continue to be stored the internal memory. I purchased this SD memory
Sandisk 4GB MicroSDHC.
1. SD memory card slot is located under the battery. This means that you first need to remove the cover by sliding it down. The first time I had to remove the cover it was a bit difficult, as the cover is very slippery and has no groves to hang on to. I finally was able to do by using the grippy material used to open cans. Photo #4 shows me removing the battery cover. It generated enough friction that the cover finally slid off. After removing the cover, you need to remove the battery.
2. The memory card slot is on the left side of the white SIM card. The gold bars on the card face should down towards the gold bars on the phone. The memory card goes under the metal holder.
You need to lift the metal holder, place the memory card, and then lower the card holder, and push it down until it snaps in place. Note that lifting the holder for the first time
requires some force, I used a tiny screwdriver to give me leverage to push it up. Photo #5 show the holder up, so you can see what you need to do to insert the memory card.
3. After the memory card is in place, you need to replace the battery and the phone cover, and power up the phone.
4. Now, you need to set your default memory to external, and tell the camera, the video recorder, and the voice recorder to use external memory rather than the internal memory like before.
5. To set the default memory:
- Tap the following sequence MENU - Settings - Phone - Memory Info - Primary storage settings
- Tap on External memory (red check will appear)
- There will be a FORMAT button at the bottom of the screen, tap on it
- The phone will ask for a security code, enter 0000. Once you enter the security code, OK button will appear on the bottom of the screen. Click ok. Format takes about 1 second.
6. To set the camera:
- Tap Camera icon on the main screen holding the phone vertically, turn the phone to horizonal position, as you turn you will see camera control setting appear on the screen.
Tap the gear icon which is on the lower left side of the screen.
The memory setting is on the second screen of camera settings, so you need to tap the slider on the right hand side (it will say 1/3, first page out of three) once you tap it will change to 2/3.
On the top row you will see a square called 'select storage'. By default it will look like a cell phone, once you tap it will look like a memory card.
Hit OK to save your change
Here is a video that shows how to change camera and video camera settings:
7. To change the video camera:
- Tap Camera icon on the main screen holding the phone vertically, turn the phone to horizon position, as you turn the camera controls will appear
- Tap the gear looking icon on the botton left
- Now you need to switch from camera to video, which is done by sliding your finger from camera to video camera icon on the right hand side slider
- If you do it correctly, you will see a red button appear where the video camera is. If you do it incorrectly, you will take a photo. It took me a few tries to get the pressure and location of where my finger slides correctly.
- The storage setting is on the second page of the video camera, so you need to page down on the slider by tapping on 1/2.
- Tap on 'Select storage' icon, and make sure you see a memory card, rather than the cell phone icon.
- Click OK to save your change
8. To change the voice recorder
- Voice recorder is on the second page of Settings. To get there select Menu - slide you finger right to left to page - tap on Voice recorder.
- The top option is 'Storage', tap on it to change cell phone icon to memory card icon.
- Click ok to save your change
Overall, the phone feels nice, the screen is easy to read, when I made a few "test" phone calls I was told that I sound very clear. The thing that I like least about the phone is that its speaker phone is not loud enough to hear well without putting the phone next to your ear. So I would not really consider it to be a speaker phone. Other than that I am quite pleased with this phone.
You can find it on Amazon by following this link.
Ali Julia review ★★★★★
Update: I found a
nice tutorial for LG 800G
