Friday, October 07, 2011

Initial Thoughts: Tracfone Samsung t404g review

I've now spent a couple of days with the Samsung t404g.  I bought it for its slide out keyboard and decent battery life.
Pros:
  • I love the slide out keyboard.  It is so much easier to enter contact information, calendar events, and text messages.  
  • I like the interface.  It is much more intuitive than my old Motorola phone.  
  • The camera takes OK pictures. 
  • There's a java facebook app that runs on it.  (I don't plan to use it much, too expensive in minutes, but it might come in handy on trips.)
  • It takes a microSDHC card.  I can copy pictures onto and off of the phone
  • You can add your own ring tones (I think).  The file has to be less than 300k though.  (I haven't actually tried this, but the functionality appears to be there.)
  • Battery life appears OK.  I charged it when I got it 5 days ago, and I'm charging it again now.  It got down to 1 bar on the battery.  I'm optimistic that battery life will be longer from here on out since I've used it a lot more than usual entering contacts, trying all the options out, and playing game.
  • MP3s sound fine to me on it. (Warning: I am not an audiophile.)
  • It has limited photo editing functionality.
Cons:
  • The Browser button is the same as one of the navigation buttons.  I haven't hit it accidentally yet though.
  • It really is bigger and heavier than my old phone.  The size given for it on Tracfone's website is with the slider closed.  It still fits in my front pocket though.
  • Camera has definite low light issues (blurry inside), but I'm not expecting much from a cell phone camera that doesn't have a flash
  • It only comes with one game: a game that is like a cross between snake and bejeweled. (I don't usually play games on my cell phone, but I know some people like to.)
  • No headphone jack.  It does support bluetooth. (haven't tried it)
  • It made the image on my CRT computer monitor wiggle occasionally when I set the phone nearby.
I'm happy so far with my phone purchase.

Here's a few pictures of it with the Motorola w376g and an ipod touch for size comparison (the 404g is the one in the middle).




Here's picture it took.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

How's the web browsing?

rcstanley said...

I haven't used web browsing much. I've used gmail and google maps on it just to try it. My opinion is it is OK for emergencies or while on vacation to keep up with what is going on. I would not want it to be my primary browser since it is slower and kind of expensive.

Anonymous said...

Please comment on the size of the keys. Looking for something easy to use - not too small.

rcstanley said...

Key size is fine for me, but I'm not a fast texter. I don't typo much and don't hit two keys at once. Walmart sometimes has this model on display, so you might be able to see one there.

Anonymous said...

Very difficult if not impossible to access yahoo e-mail. Browsing is slow and expensive. Not getting to my e-mail is very disappointing.