TracFone LG 600G Review Part 2
Posted on | February 10, 2009 |
This is PART 2 of my review So, if you haven’t yet read my LG 600G Review part 1, you might want to check it out by clicking here. [NOTE: You can also access part 3 of the LG 600G review by clicking here. Edit: this phone is now available for $46.99 from TracFone. Click here for more details.]
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.
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7 Responses to “TracFone LG 600G Review Part 2”
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February 10th, 2009 @ 10:48 pm
[...] LG 600g review part 2 [...]
May 21st, 2009 @ 3:18 am
I have an iMac desktop computer,less than two years old. Will I be able to download photos from a Tracfone LG600g phone?
June 1st, 2009 @ 8:50 pm
Joyce, sorry for the delayed response. I think I addressed this on my other site, but you should be fine. I don’t have a Mac so I can’t say 100%, but I’m pretty confident it will work.
November 1st, 2009 @ 8:42 pm
I contacted tracfone and they told me that I could not use the bluetooth to transfer pictures. Did you do something special to get this to work? did you have any special software on your computer?
November 15th, 2009 @ 9:37 pm
I have a piece of hardware called a “bluetooth dongle.” It plugs in to a USB port. My ‘dongle’ cost $3 and came with software to make it work.
January 15th, 2010 @ 1:56 pm
A little more detail on how I connected my Tracfone LG600G to my Thinkpad T61p with Vista via Bluetooth and downloaded photos. I turned on the T61p’s built-in Bluetooth from the dialog that comes up when Fn+F5 is pressed. Then I selected “Show Bluetooth devices” and pressed “Bluetooth settings”. On the options tab I made sure that “Allow Bluetooth devices to find this computer” was checked, then hit “Apply”. Back on the Bluetooth devices panel, I hit “Add wireless device”. At this point my LG600G lit up and asked me if it was OK to go ahead. When I pressed OK windows popped up a screen with a passcode on it (sometimes it first shows a panel where you have to select ‘device with keyboard’ or something similar). You type the PIN into the LG600G and the pairing proceeds to completion. When it has, you will see a new ‘disk’ called LG600G in Windows Explorer. In that disk there are folders for images and so on, and you can drag pictures out and onto the desktop or wherever you want to put them.
January 15th, 2010 @ 6:45 pm
Thanks for the tips, Alan!