They’re also currently offering free shipping on all phones and packages of $19.99 or more. And bonus code 23444 will then save you $3 more on the package, bringing your total down to $16.99.

If you are looking for a 600g, or even if you already have one but are just looking for backup, this is a great way to get one on the cheap. Click here to hop over to TracFone’s site and enter your zip code. Then look for the following banner to add to your cart:

Free LG 600g with regular-priced 60-minute card

It is available for both Net10 and TracFone and many retailers such as Target, Walgreens, and Walmart. Recently, the best price that I’ve found is to order directly from TracFone or Net10, where you can use discount codes and receive free shipping. I’ve created a separate page explaining the current best deal for each provider, as follows:

• Find the best price on the LG 600g for TracFone
• Find the best price on the LG 600g for Net10

How good is the coverage of Tracfone and Net10 phones? I see their coverage maps, but that does not mean anything.

One of the best features of TracFone, in my opinion, is that you get the advantage of using the best networks, without having to pay the higher price (typically) charged by those network providers. In the case of this LG 600g, and all GSM TracFones (any TracFone model with a SIM card, basically), you will get coverage wherever there is a signal from ATT (formerly Cingular) or T-Mobile. Will the bluetooth work with my the navigation system built in to my car?

Can I transfer my number from a non-TracFone carrier to this new phone?

Yes. You will be best served by calling TracFone BEFORE you activate the phone. If you’ve already activated the phone, and now have decided that you want to port in your number, you’ll have to get in touch with TracFone to request a new SIM card. Either way, you’ll need to call TracFone at 1-800-867-7183, and you should expect the process to take several days to complete.

Can I transfer photos to my computer?

Yes, you can transfer photos to a computer using bluetooth, if your computer is equipped with bluetooth. Close to a year ago I picked up a “Bluetooth USB Dongle” for under $10, with the intention of using it to pair to a BT headset for use with Skype. But, I never got around to installing it until tonight. When I did, I was able to connect my LG 600G via Bluetooth to my computer, and transfer pictures and audio recordings FROM the phone to the computer, as well as sending pictures TO the phone.

Can I use Bluetooth to connect this phone to my car’s navigation (GPS) system?

Yes. This phone has been successfully connected with a wide variety of both built-in and add-on GPS systems. The specific steps necessary to connect will vary based on the GPS system. For more instructions, please refer to your GPS owners manual or, if applicable, your car dealer for further assistance.

Can I use my GPS system to dial through the 600g?

No. I’ve called Tracfone about this, and they say that it isn’t a capability. They said that the phone cannot be used to make calls by Bluetooth, only receive calls hands-free. To make calls, you will need to dial using the phone, then switch to the Bluetooth to speak on the call.

Does this phone have voice dialing built in?

No, it unfortunately does not. Please read this post from my blog for more info on TracFone models that offer voice dialing.
Can I transfer my number from a previous phone to my new LG 600g?

How much does it cost to text with this phone?

You will be charged .3 units for every text message you send OR receive. Multimedia messages (such as pictures) are more expensive, and the cost varies depending on the size. Most pictures messages cost 1 or 1.5 units to send or receive.

Can I use the phone to send messages with AOL Instant Messenger?

Yes, kind of. For AIM there is a setting called mobile IM… if you set this up with your tracfone number you get IMs like text messages, it costs the same. You can reply to these and when you get an IM. Each screen name has a distinct six digit number, which you can save for later texting straight to the IM… I hope this is useful.

Can I transfer my contact list from my previous phone?

Possibly. If your contact list from your old phone was saved on a SIM card, you can use a SIM card reader to pull the list from your old SIM to the computer, and then use the reader to copy the list to your new SIM card. I wrote a post about it here.

Can I use Bluetooth to transfer contacts to my 600g?

Yes, but you have to have the contacts in .vcf files first. Contact lists from Yahoo mail, among other mail programs, can be exported to .vcf files for free. Once you have the .vcf files and have Bluetooth on, visible, and contact allowed on the paired devices, you should be able to use the “Wireless File Transfer” from the Bluetooth on the computer. The info should automatically be stored in the contact list on the LG.

Can you set different ringtones for different people?

Yes, you can set ringtones for specific contacts (or by “groups” if you prefer). In order to do this, the contact must be saved in the phone memory, not on the SIM card. Go to My Stuff / Audio & Ringtones / select the ringtone / select the sub menu on the lower right / and you should see a SET AS… Choose ‘Contact’. The menu then takes you to the Contact List, choose the contact you want the ringtone associated with.

Can you set text message ringtones?

There are four different tones to choose from for a new text message alert. As far as I can see, you cannot add your own tones to be used as text message tones.

Can you take a picture, and set it as your wallpaper?

Yes.

How many photos can I fit on the LG 600g?

This phone has 4MB (4096Kb) of built-in memory. Some of this memory (maybe 1800 kb) is devoted to the ringtones, wallpapers, and, I think, games that come pre-installed. That leaves over 2000 kb available for your use. For reference, a photo on the highest resolution and highest quality level consumes 20 kb. So this works out to 100+ photos. Also, you can transfer the photos to your computer via bluetooth, so you won’t have to store them all on the phone forever.

Can I hook up the LG-600g via Bluetooth or USB cable to my laptop, and be able to use the laptop’s modem to dial into my internet service?

I don’t believe that this phone will function as a modem for your laptop. As far as I know, a vast majority of phones, both contract and prepaid, are restricted in a way that prevents this type of functionality, at the request of the network carriers. They would rather charge you extra for “data” packages than to allow you to use the existing technology with regular voice minutes. But, i could be wrong.

How do I turn on the speaker phone?

The speaker phone can be turned on only during a call. When a call is active, push the right soft key which is the “options” menu. The first choice under that menu activates the speaker phone.

My computer doesn’t have Bluetooth; how can I connect my phone to the computer?

You can buy a small device called a Bluetooth dongle. Here’s an example of a USB Bluetooth dongle for under $10 from buy.com - it looks very similar to what I have on my Vista PC.
http://www.buy.com/prod/eforcity-usb-bluetooth-dongle-adapter-10m-version2-0-edr/q/loc/111/205880018.html

Also, Ebay, Fry’s, and MicroCenter all have them for under $10. Any of these dongles should come with software, but if not, search download.com for “Bluetooth manager software” (free).

I’m trying to set up a Bluetooth connection. What passcode should I use?

For me it didn’t matter what code I put in, as long as I entered the same code for both the 600g and the other device when prompted for the respective codes. My first suggestion is to do something like 0000, and see if your computer then asks for you to put in a code as well. If so, try 0000 on the computer as well. If that doesn’t work, I think that 1234 is a common default code as well, so try that.

How do I assign a picture to a contact?

Go to My Stuff / Graphics / choose the pic you want to associate with a contact / press the right soft key to enter the sub menu for that pic / there is a option to SET AS… The choices are: SET AS.. Wallpaper or Contact. Choose ‘Contact’. The menu then takes you to the Contact List, choose the contact you want the picture associated with. Then you are taken to that Contact’s Edit page, scroll down to the picture viewing box and after a few seconds for the picture to load, you should see the picture you’ve chosen.
How do I assign a ringtone to a contact?

Why is the owners’ manual so terrible?

For some reason TracFone decided not to include the actual manual in the package. However, you can find a digital version here:
http://www.tracfone.com/images/en/phones/TFLG600G/manual.pdf

How exactly were you able to take the mp3 files and make them into ringtones?

It takes a few steps. I wrote the following article to explain it all here: Create Free Ringtones for your LG 600G

Any other questions, answers, or comments? If so, please post them in the comments section below, and I’ll do my best to follow up and, if appropriate, update the FAQ list above to include your addition. Thanks!

This phone may be perfect for some users, but the w376g might be a better choice for others

This is a follow up to my previous posts about this phone. So, if you haven’t yet read the first two portions of the review, you might want to check them out by clicking on the links: Part 1 or Part 2. Also, this phone is now available for $46.99 from TracFone. Click here for more details.

Earlier, I discussed the camera and web browser. Rounding out the “entertainment” section of this review are the games. A version of Sudoku and an interesting game called “Reversi” are included on the LG 600G. One cool thing about the Reversi game is that it has the option of two-player, head-to-head play. So it could be fun for you and a friend to pass time occasionally.

The bluetooth feature also makes available another interesting option on this phone – it is possible to download games from the internet to your computer, then transfer the game files to the LG600 via bluetooth. I tested this out with a free version of Tetris, and was surprised at how easy it was. I probably won’t use this feature again until I learn a little more about the potential risks (I don’t want to ruin my phone by installing malicious software). But it’s nice to know the feature is there.

One feature that isn’t available on this phone, though, is an FM radio. It’s an option on the w376g, but not on this one. I won’t miss it much, but others might.

LG 600g

Before reading any further in this review, you may want to click on the picture above for more technical details about this phone.

Finally, there are a few more organizational tools that some people might like. I like to stay organized, but at the same time travel as light as possible, so I really like having these features. The calendar offers the option of setting appointments (up to 100 storage slots) and adding daily tasks (up to 50 total). The alarm clock is another nice feature, with the option of setting different tones for different alarms. Both the appointments and the alarms can be set to repeat in various patterns.

The phone book has a very large capacity of one thousand entries. Within each entry are fields for mobile phone, home phone, email address, group, picture, ringtone, anniversary (I’m assuming this is a poorly translated reference to birthday), and memo. I should point out, though, that the picture assigned to a particular contact will be displayed as the caller ID only on the INTERNAL screen, but not the external screen. Still, though, I think the phone book on this model is very robust.

Rounding out the list of tools is a notepad feature, calculator, tip calculator, world clock (tells the time of various cities around the world), stop watch, and unit converter. I won’t take the time to explain these items further, as they are pretty self-explanatory.

Finally, here are a couple of other random tidbits that I could have included in the previous sections of this review, but I didn’t discover until after the relevant portions were posted:

• The alarm function continues to work even when the phone is turned off. This really seems to be a handy feature to me – if you set the alarm for something, it must be important, right? So it should work even if you forget to turn on your phone.
• The ringtones could be a little louder for my taste. It seems that the Motorola w376g ringtones are quite a bit louder. Further, the LG 600G has no “Vibrate & Ring” mode. You must choose either vibrate, or ring, but not both. This doesn’t make much sense to me.
• The voice recorder can record up to 10 minute segments. I was able to record a 9+ minute segment and then transfer it to my computer using bluetooth (in under a minute). It’s not CD quality by any means, but for dictating notes or reminders, it worked really well. You even have the option of renaming the file after it’s saved on the phone.
• The battery life for me, on fairly heavy use including a some bluetooth, is coming in around 3 days.
• Also worth mentioning here: this phone is also available for Net10, as I discussed here.

Overall, I am pretty happy with this phone as an all-around device. I guess the biggest compliment I can give it is this: for almost 4 years, I’ve held on to my trusty Nokia 1100 and passed up many opportunities to upgrade to new phones that I tested. Of all those phones to have come out since the 1100, this is the first time that I have very seriously considered replacing the old blue Nokia. And I think I will end up making this my “primary” phone.

But, there are some pretty important negatives that might make the LG 600G a bad deal for people who use their phones differently than I do. Here is a rundown of the positives and negatives about this phone. 

The Negatives:

• Sound quality is inferior to the recent round of Motorolas (w175, w260, w376g)
• Doesn’t ring as loudly as I would like
• The viewing angle of the screen is limited (image is distorted if viewed from too great of an angle)
• The charging and headset cables are not universal – must buy cables specifically for this model.
• Cost – at the time of this writing, $47 for the LG 600G vs. $27 for the w376g
• Web browser is restricted to what TracFone offers (same as w376g)
• Mp3 ringtones cannot be downloaded from TracFone
• No FM radio

The Positives:

• Very attractive design
• Lighter and sleeker than the w376g
• Excellent signal reception
• External display
• Bluetooth can transfer files to and from other BT devices
• Camera works well for my needs
• Hands-free speaker phone
• Phone book is flexible and stores up to 1000 entries
• Double Minutes for the life of this phone upon activation (same as w376g)
• Flexibility to create your own ringtones in a couple of different ways
• T9 predictive text editor (much better than the iTap offered by Motorola models
• Good organizational tools such as calendar and alarms

Summary:
As you can see, there are plenty of positives AND negatives abou this phone. Because of that, I can’t give it a whole-hearted recommendation because it all depends on how you use your phone. If you’ll use your phone only as a phone, and don’t care about custom ringtones, transferring pictures to your computer, or texting, I recommend the w376g because of its superior sound quality and lower cost.

But if you want the T9 editor for texting, if you’ll take a lot of pictures that you’ll want to get off your phone, if you want to create custom ringtones, if you’ll make great use of the organizational features, or if you just plain love the look of the LG, then this phone may be for you. I fall into the latter category. When I initially bought the phone, I had planned on testing it for a while and then selling it on eBay to recover some of my cost. After carrying it around for a few weeks, though, I don’t think I can part with it.

Next, I need to add something about this phone regarding Part 1 of the review: I didn’t point out in my discussion of the external features of the phone that the LG 600 has a single port that functions as the connector for the charger, a wired headset, and USB data cable. Only the wall charger is included in the package, and I didn’t buy any of the other attachments to test them separately.

However, it is a pet peeve of mine that the various phone manufacturers insist on having different connections. It would be much better for the consumer if all phones, regardless of the maker, used the same headset plug, USB cable, and charger connector. However, LG requires that we buy more accessories because whatever we may have had for previous phones won’t work with this model. This probably won’t affect me personally, since I’ll never use any of those other accessories that have to be purchased separately – I’m happy with the Bluetooth for a headset and data transfer. But, I wanted to point out that, in my opinion, this business practice of “proprietary” connectors is unfavorable to us consumers.

Now on to a topic that many TracFone users are excited about – Bluetooth. I am very happy to confirm that the LG 600G’s bluetooth is far more functional than the w376g. Whereas the bluetooth on the w376g is basically good only for pairing with a headset or other audio device, the LG can connect to bluetooth-enabled computers and some other bluetooth phones/PDA’s in addition to headsets. With the 600g, I was also able to connect to my computer’s bluetooth feature and transfer files both to and from the phone.

This is important for a couple of reasons – first, you can take pictures with your phone and transfer them to a computer without using any airtime. Second, and perhaps more importantly to some, you can transfer audio files and pictures from your computer and use them as ringtones and wallpapers on your phone.

LG 600g

I haven’t done a lot of work with it, but I quickly used a couple of free computer programs to crop and convert an mp3 file to a .amr file, which could be used on the 600g as a ringtone. I then transferred the file using bluetooth, and set it as my ringtone. It may require some tweaking to get better sound quality, but at least I know that the bluetooth file transfer works well. I was also able to VERY easily transfer a .mid file (polyphonic, not mp3) and set it as my ringtone, and I was quite pleased with the results.

In addition to making your own ringtone files, the ability to transfer via bluetooth opens up a variety of choices for acquiring custom ringers. Among them, I believe that you should be able to swap ringtones with other bluetooth phones, although I haven’t yet had the chance to test this. There are also a number of websites that offer tones for download, which you can save to your computer and then transmit via bluetooth to the LG 600G.

Another method that you might want to use to create a ringtone is using the record feature of the phone to record the audio of your choice. You can then save this recording and set as the ringtone.

It’s a good thing that these alternatives work, because TracFone wouldn’t let me buy any mp3 ringtones from them, either using my computer on the web or using the phone’s web browser. I can’t figure out why this would be the case. But regardless of the reason, it looks like the bluetooth transfer will end up being a much cheaper way to get ringtones for this phone, and provide unlimited options as well.

One thing I WAS able to download from TracFone is a wallpaper graphic. I did it just to test the download function, though - I highly doubt I’ll ever again pay for a wallpaper download since this phone makes it so easy just to go out to any internet page, save an image to your hard drive, and send the image to your phone via bluetooth.

Now on to another fun feature of this phone – the camera. I have never had a camera phone before, so my expectations probably weren’t all that high, but I was happy with the pics produced by this phone. Within the options menu of the camera, you have a lot of options: resolution (320X240 or 640×480), pic quality, multi shot mode, self-timer, and white balance. Also, when in camera mode, the arrows control the zoom (only available on the 320X240 setting) and make the image lighter or darker. Another unusual feature on this model is that the camera can be turned on while the clamshell is closed, by holding in the down arrow key on the side of the phone. In that case, the external screen becomes the viewfinder. This might be helpful to some, and cause problems for others if you end up accidentally taking pictures of the inside of your pocket or purse.

Here’s a pic that I took with the camera, on the LOWER of the two resolution settings:

Image taken with LG600G camera

Another “extra” feature available on this phone is the web browser. However, similar to the w376g, the function is pretty restricted because it can only access content from TracFone’s mobile web site. This includes some headlines, sports scores, and weather updates, as well as TracFone’s storefront selling ringtones and wallpaper images. Any other mobile websites, though, such as Google, Gmail, ESPN, and other mainstream sites are off limits. I tried, but was unable to download the mobile mail tools for either Yahoo or Gmail. It’s unfortunate for us that TracFone insists on limiting access like this, because in my opinion little more web browsing freedom might appeal to the same type of people that will be drawn to this phone.

Well, that’s it for this section of the review. There’s still one more portion of the review left. On that post, I cover the games and productivity tools, share my final thoughts on this model, and spell out a little more advice on choosing between this phone and the w376g. You can click on LG 600g review part 3 to see the conclusion of my review series.

[Edit: this phone is now available, with a free accessory kit, for $46.99 from TracFone. Click here for more details. The Net10 version is available for 54.99, and includes 300 free minutes on activation as well as the free accessory kit. For more details on how to get the Net10 version, click here.]

This is the second bluetooth-equipped TracFone, after the Motorola w376g. Both phones debuted in the summer of 2008, and I bought both so that I could review them for my blog. I wanted to write my reviews in great detail, so I’ll be breaking this review into three parts. You can click on the following links for the other parts of my review:

LG 600g review part 2

LG 600g review part 3

Now, on to the beginning of the review. First, let’s go over the features that set this apart from other TracFone models:

• Flip Phone design
• VGA Camera
• Bluetooth Capability
• Handsfree speaker
• Phonebook with up to 1000 entries
• External display
• Double Minutes for the life of this phone upon activation

LG 600g

Before reading any further in this review, I suggest you click on the picture above for more technical details about this phone.

There are a handful of other features that may be important to some, and I’m skimming over them initially. Basically, though, this phone pretty much includes all the features of previous TracFone models, as well as those listed above. I’ll get to all of the extras later on in the review, too.

Appearance

Much like the Motorola w376g, the appearance of this phone is far better than any of the older TracFone models. I really like how this phone looks. I personally prefer it over the w376g, but that definitely is a matter of your personal taste. The LG 600G is slightly wider, and maybe 3/8″ shorter, than the w376g. They are about the same thickness, and the Motorola is slightly heavier. The color, shape, and external screen on the 600G are the biggest differences in the appearance. The Motorola is silver and rather narrow looking, while the LG is a glossy black design with smooth, rounded corners and edges.

Another nice feature is the external screen, which allows you do view the status of your phone without flipping it open. This small screen displays a lot of info in a small space, including date, time, signal strength, battery meter, new message indicator, and ringer volume level.

As I said above, I am really impressed with the visual appeal of this phone. In my review of the w376g, I wrote “…this phone looks less like a TracFone handset than any other model offered by the company.” Well, that distinction for the w376g didn’t last long, as the 600G surpasses that model attractiveness, in my opinion. And, it’s important to some to know that you won’t find the word “TracFone” anywhere on the outside of the device. (When the 600G is flipped open, however, you’ll see the TracFone logo below the main screen).

Functionality

Speaking of the screen, I found that the internal display to be nice, but not equal to the screen on the w376g. The reason is that, when viewed from an angle slightly above or below “straight on,” the colors tend to become distorted. This is similar to earlier LCD or rear-projection TVs, where if you stood too far to either side the colors would be skewed. I would estimate that, on this phone, there is a range of 20 degrees either up or down where the colors are perfect, and another 20 degrees in each direction beyond that where the image is still viewable. If you “tilt” this phone any more beyond that, you’ll still be able to read the text but the wallpaper will look pretty distorted. This isn’t a big deal in my opinion, but it’s something I wanted to point out.

Regarding the keypad, I found it to be good, but not great on the 600G. I actually slightly preferred the numeric keypad on the Motorola. Whereas the Motorola has raised ridges separating the number keys, the 600G offers glossy, rounded keys. However, the arrow pad and the clearly marked “OK” and “clear” keys on the 600G definitely worked better for me than the equivalent keys on the w376g. So I consider it a toss up in terms of the usability of these two keypads.

But in terms of the ease of texting I have to give a slight advantage to the Motorola for a reason that might at first seem like a disadvantage. As I pointed out earlier, the Motorola is a little heavier. This actually seems to work better for me when I do one-handed texting and other uses of the phone, since the w376g seems to balance more steadily in my hand.

However, the major weakness of the w376g in terms of texting is the use of the iTAP predictive text system, compared to the T9 system employed by the LG handsets as well as older Nokia TracFones. If you’ve never used either of these, or have always used iTap, you might not notice a difference. But if you’ve used T9 a lot, you’ll definitely prefer it to iTAP. So in that area, the advantage goes to the LG.

Before I move on, I’ll offer one more complaint about the keypad on the 600G. Just like the w376g, the 600G has the single-touch web browser key. This may be a problem for some because, if you accidentally press the browser button, the browser application will open and begin deducting units (on both this phone and the w376g). However, it is not as big of a deal on the 600G since the button only functions if you are at the home screen when you press the browser key. Further, if you do accidentally start the browser, the option to “cancel” is clearly available on the screen. Both of these last two points are improvements over the w376g. (I should point out, though, that the quickest way to quit the web browser with either phone is to snap the phone closed immediately. This will close the browser and keep it from deducting minutes unexpectedly.)

Now let’s get to the main purpose of a phone - talking. The sound quality on this phone is adequate, but not great. I compared the 600G with the w376g by calling some people first with one phone, then the other. In my testing, the Motorola produced clean, crisp audio compared to the LG, both for me and for the person on the other end of the line.

The LG was not bad, but in my opinion definitely ranked lower than the Motorola. The sound of the 600G seemed to pretty accurately represent the voice of both parties, and did so at an adequate volume, yet it sounded somewhat muffled - almost as if I were holding a thin layer of cloth between my ear and the phone.

Another area where I had difficulty was that the receiver on the 600G seems very sensitive to wind noise. I encountered this problem outdoors, obviously. But, more surprisingly, I also noticed it when having a regular conversation indoors. It seems that the microphone on the LG phone picked up the movement of air from my breathing. I’m a pretty healthy, physically fit person and I wasn’t breathing heavily or anything, so this really confused me. I’ve never had such a problem with any other phone, and it was pretty annoying that I could hear the noise created by my own breath. After a few minutes of use I was able to adjust the position of the phone to fix the problem, but it was still annoying.

Another point you may want to consider is that the 600G scored very well in the area of signal reception. Wherever there I found even the faintest network signal, this LG picked it up and was able to make and receive calls. It may even be a little better than the w376g. I give it two thumbs up in this area.

Now, after reading the last few paragraphs, you might be convinced that this phone is a loser. I don’t want to give that impression, though - if you plan to use your new phone only as a basic voice phone the vast majority of the time, then I would suggest that the Motorola w376g is probably going to be a better purchase for you - especially at roughly half the price. But if you are interested in other features, stay tuned for future installments of this review. This phone does have some great redeeming qualities beyond sound quality, but they’re not the sort of things that all TracFone customers will make use of. So if you’re deciding between these two phones you’ll have to make your choice carefully. Below is a list of the topics covered in parts 2 and 3 of this review:

• Bluetooth connectivity
• Ringtones and Wallpapers
• Camera/Voice Recorder
• Web Browser
• Games
• Calendar/Organizer
• Phone Book

If you want to continue reading about this model, you can click on the following link to read my LG 600g review part 2.