topic Re: I'm getting a new Tracfone. in Electronics

I'm getting a new Tracfone.

gardenman — Fri, 21 Aug 2020 13:05:26 GMT

I've been looking at new Tracfones and saw that the Moto G7 Optimo Maxx with a pair of Bluetooth earbuds was on sale for $89.95 at the Southern channel so I've ordered that and it should be here around the 31st. The folks at TracfoneReveiwer.com say it's the best of the Android Tracfones out there, and at that price with a full year's service, it was too good to pass up. I don't expect much from the earbuds, but maybe they'll surprise me. If nothing else, they'll be good to wear when out as I won't worry too much about losing one or both. Getting just the phone and the service at that price is pretty good though.

I'd been debating between the LG Premiere Pro Plus ($99.95) the Moto G 7 Optimo Maxx (typically $119.95) and the Samsung A20 ($149.95) but when the Optimo Maxx hit $89.95 it sealed the deal. It's got the best rating overall by the folks at TracfoneReveiwer who have never led me astray. YouTubers who have bought it seem to like it just fine. I like the dual cameras on the LG and Samsung, but that's not really a make or break issue for me. I liked the idea of the Samsung working well with the Samsung smartwatches, but I don't have a Samsung smartwatch and may not get one, so that's kind of a wash also. And the Samsung smartwatches work with Android phones, so it shouldn't be a big deal.

The Moto has 32 GBs of internal memory with about half available after the preinstalled apps. It has 3gbs of RAM, Android 9, though some users are being upgraded to 10. The screen is 6.2" compared to 6.4" on the Samsung, but two-tenths of an inch isn't worth the extra $60 to me. I like my old LG Premier Pro, but it's time to upgrade.

Now I wait around for it to come, get it activated, transfer everything over, and start to learn all about the new phone. (Lots of camera features on the Moto that will be fun to play with.) My old service expires in late September and the old phone had mysteriously stopped making/receiving calls after a recent upgrade until I rebooted it, so it's time for an upgrade to a faster phone with double the storage (going from 16GBs to 32GBs.)

I'd looked at a lot of the unlocked phones on the market, but by the time you buy the phone, add the service, you're paying a lot more and getting essentially the same thing. So, this was the best option for me. It would cost $50 to just add another year's service so for an extra $40 I get a bigger, better phone.

Re: I'm getting a new Tracfone.

software — Fri, 21 Aug 2020 14:57:50 GMT

Moto is a good brand, been around a while, known for good quality.

The best phone I ever had was a Sony Xperian. That is one sweet phone, until it would no longer take a charge due to a defect in the outlet inside the phone, which could not be repaired. Some phone, huh? But when it worked, it was awesome.

Do you know why the markdown, is Moto coming out with the next generation? Not that it matters.

I've had a couple of Samsung Galaxy's. It was top of the line when it first started to compete, and beat, the iPhone. It's still one of the best Androids out there. As with any phone, if you want an excellent product, you have to pay an excellent price. I'm tired of lowballing, looking for sales, getting excited about $100 or less. I use my phone A LOT. Not just as a phone. I hope when I'm ready to upgrade again, I can go with something a bit better than what I've had.

Here's something from CNET, my go to for information.

I'm sure you will enjoy your purchase, let us know.

Removed link to other retailers

Re: I'm getting a new Tracfone.

gardenman — Fri, 21 Aug 2020 14:37:32 GMT

Why the markdown? The prices on the shopping channels fluctuate a lot on a regular basis on the Tracfones. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to it. I started checking the prices each day this month and waited until one of the three phones I was watching went down in price. If none did I was going to get one at the end of the month and likely would have settled for the LG since it was $20 cheaper. Now the Moto G7 Optimo Maxx is $10 cheaper than the LG so that made my decision even easier.

It's a pretty neat phone with a 5,000 mah battery and does everything I need a phone to do. The extra camera features on it are nice also. You can go fully manual on the settings if you want. It's got user adjustable focus. Simply touch what you want in focus on the screen and it'll find it. You can have it ignore every color but one on the screen and take a black and white photo with just the color of the thing you touched in color. It has face smoothing/contouring/beauty settings. It has Google Lens which lets you take a photo of something and Google will figure out what it is and tell you all about it, even showing you where you can buy it. It has a self-timer. It lets you take slow motion or elapsed time video. (As you can tell I've been reading the online manual.) If you're shooting a video and you're not happy with the lighting you can touch the torch icon and it'll turn on the flashlight on the back of the phone to help light the subject. You can go auto on the flash, or lock it on or off.

It's a pretty neat little gadget. I like the idea of Google Lens a lot. If you see something you like, you simply take a picture of it and Google tells you all about it. That could be very handy if I'm plant shopping and stumble upon a plant I don't know.

I'll see how I like it when it gets here (expected on/around the 31st) but everything I've read about it and the reviews sound good. I'm not a big fan of the cheap cases they include with the phones. I find the cases tend to start to fall apart at the corners pretty quickly, but the case I'm using on my LG is also available for the Moto, so I've ordered one of those for the Moto ($6.95) that will be here before the phone. I'll swap my micro-sd card over to the Moto, charge it up and then do the transfer, and I should be good to go for another year or so.

Tracfone doesn't offer any 5G phones just yet and the relatively few 5G phones out there tend to be the very expensive flagship phones, so it'll likely be another year (maybe more) before that feature works its way down to the more affordable (at least to me) phones. When that happens I'll upgrade from the Moto, but for the foreseeable future, the Moto looks like it'll do everything I need it to do. And at $89.95 for a year's use, that's not so bad.

Re: I'm getting a new Tracfone.

Ainhisg — Fri, 21 Aug 2020 15:19:35 GMT

Wow! I'm so glad you posted this! Thank you! I have the Moto G6, and it's been my most favorite Tracfone ever! I don't even need a new phone or a plan; my service doesn't expire until May of next year, but this is a heck of a buy, and my G6 will be two years old in November. ETA: I have a Spigen case on my G6, and Spigen makes a case for the G7, but it's not a hybrid case (soft inner liner, hard outer shell), which I am bummed about. Which case did you buy, @gardenman ?

Re: I'm getting a new Tracfone.

gardenman — Fri, 21 Aug 2020 15:41:57 GMT

@Ainhisg wrote:
Wow! I'm so glad you posted this! Thank you! I have the Moto G6, and it's been my most favorite Tracfone ever! I don't even need a new phone or a plan; my service doesn't expire until May of next year, but this is a heck of a buy, and my G6 will be two years old in November. ETA: I have a Spigen case on my G6, and Spigen makes a case for the G7, but it's not a hybrid case (soft inner liner, hard outer shell), which I am bummed about. Which case did you buy, @gardenman ?

I looked at the Spigen case and saw it was well-reviewed, but then I saw that the SYONER case that I have for my LG was also available, and given my experience with that case I opted for it. It's a bright neon green and black colored case which isn't my favorite (easy to see though) but it's nicely grippy, fits well (at least on my LG) and I've dropped the LG a few times without it dinging the phone at all, so I went with what I knew. It's a little harder of a case than I'd prefer, but it works. There were a couple of others I looked at also. Casemart had one with a metal ring preattached to the back of the case that could serve as a stand also that was pretty neat. There are almost too many options for cases and most have hundreds/thousands of five-star reviews so I'm not sure you can go too far wrong with any of them.

It is a good deal on the phone. I'd been checking the phones here and there every day in August to see if one of my three contenders would get marked down and the Moto did, so I bought it. The phone pricing on both channels is very fluid. Getting the phone, charger, earbuds (kind of iffy about them, but how bad can they be?) and a year's service at that price is hard to beat. Now I've just got to wait for it to get here.

Re: I'm getting a new Tracfone.

Nuttmeg — Fri, 21 Aug 2020 16:14:35 GMT

@software

You answered your own question. A high end smartphone is expensive. The Note 20 Ultra gets high marks until Apple brings the IPhone 12 Pro Max to. market.

Samsung is giving customers three Android updates with an S10, S20, Note 10, Note 20 and any new phones in these series .

The A51 and 71 series phones maybe includes in these upgrades.

I have been able to find the Android update schedule and security patches online.

Re: I'm getting a new Tracfone.

Ainhisg — Fri, 21 Aug 2020 16:07:58 GMT

@gardenman , if it's anything like the G6, I think you will love it. The turbo charge charges it in less than 30 minutes--I mean truly turbo. The fingerprint sensor is wonderful, you wave your hand over the front, and you can see the date, time, if you've gotten a text, etc., the moto actions are fun although I've found the Google Lens to not be so accurate in identifying what I've taken a photo of but maybe that's just the subject matter. Anyway, thanks again for posting, and even though a new one with Android 10 may be coming down the pike soon, this one is a newer model than the one I have so will be an improvement, and you can't beat the price.

Re: I'm getting a new Tracfone.

gardenman — Fri, 21 Aug 2020 17:01:33 GMT

This phone will do everything I need a phone to do and does them well. When you jump up to the flagship phones you're still using the same apps you're just paying a lot more to use them. If I can buy an $89.95 phone that does everything I need a phone to do, why spend $1400 for a phone? If this phone breaks, gets lost, or stolen, I'm just out $89.95. I wouldn't be happy about it, but it would bother me a lot less than if I'd spent $1400 on it. This phone even records 4k video at 60fps in HDR (I think. I know it has HDR for photos I'll have to see if it also records videos in HDR. It does shoot videos in 4k at 60 fps though.)

The value in lower end phones these days is amazing. It's got an eight core snapdragon cpu, 3gbs RAM, 32gbs internal storage, can accept up to a 512 gb micro sd card. For perspective, my first desktop computer had a 1.2gb hard drive and cost $2,000. The flagship phones have 5g, and fancier cameras, but at a much higher cost. This phone with the service is costing me less than $8 a month. I'm very happy about that. It won't impress the phone snobs who always want the latest and greatest, but it does what I need it to do. But then, I've always been more of a Timex rather than a Rolex kind of guy. Both watches tell the same time, but one is a whole lot cheaper.

Re: I'm getting a new Tracfone.

gardenman — Sat, 22 Aug 2020 18:23:16 GMT

The new phone has shipped and is coming UPS ground and expected to be here by the 27th now.

Re: I'm getting a new Tracfone.

cowboy sam — Sat, 22 Aug 2020 19:09:05 GMT

@gardenman

I also bought the same moto g7 back in June at the same price,place w/free s&H total after state tax it came to $99.00 but you got a bonus gift with yours..the earphones

Mine has also upgraded its self, etc 2 or 3 times already!

I don't use the finger print or face reg. tho...

Love mine and haven't had any problems with mine at all!

Let us know when you get it!

Re: I'm getting a new Tracfone.

Ainhisg — Sat, 22 Aug 2020 19:22:15 GMT

Mine will be here on the 27th, too! @cowboy sam , you should consider setting up the fingerprint sensor. I will never have another phone that doesn't have it. It is wonderful!!!

Re: I'm getting a new Tracfone.

gardenman — Sat, 22 Aug 2020 19:39:02 GMT

I'm looking forward to it coming. I'm planning to use both the fingerprint sensor and the facial recognition to unlock it. I've read the manual through twice now. I've watched a few YouTube videos on it. I'm intrigued to play with the camera and it's ability to record video in 4K. The slow motion and time lapse features look neat also. Video stabilization is a nice feature too. I'll have to play around with the Moto touch features to decide which I want activated. It's pretty impressive how many high-end features are finding their way into lower cost phones. I may end up buying a larger capacity micro sd card for it. Mine is just 32gbs, and 4K footage will fill that fairly quickly.

Re: I'm getting a new Tracfone.

hckynut — Sat, 22 Aug 2020 21:33:32 GMT

Hey there @gardenman ,

All those features sound like something that would be fun for me fool around with too. You're right with that 4k taking up space. My hour HD programming I save takes up almost 3 times the space on my hard drives as SD. No 4k yet I can record to save.

Sounds like you are gonna have some fun soon. Tell me all about it and I may buy this one when mine expires just to play with the gadgets on it. Can't even remember the last time I even turned on my cell, but with toys?

hckynut 🏒

Re: I'm getting a new Tracfone.

glb613 — Sun, 23 Aug 2020 09:51:39 GMT

I have an iPhone 6 so you know I don't upgrade often. I got a phone plan because I use to travel a lot, not this year thanks to the pandemic, and needed a phone service which has an international plan. I don't believe tracfones do. Plus, I don't like Android phones and they aren't compatible with the rest of my devices.

I have cellular phone service for my cordless phone bundled with my iPhone. I hear better using my old cordless handset and I can plug it into the base. The cost for both services is cheaper by half than when I had a cell phone plan plus a landline. There are reasons for not having a Tracfone.

Re: I'm getting a new Tracfone.

gardenman — Sun, 23 Aug 2020 12:05:46 GMT

@glb613

I agree they're not for everyone, but for me, a Tracfone is the best option. Everyone has to evaluate their own situation and do what's best for them. I'm not on the phone for hours a day so the limits of a Tracfone aren't a big deal for me. They do what I need a phone to do and only cost me about $8 a month.

I'm not in the Apple ecosystem, but my Tracfone automatically uploads my photos and videos to my Amazon Prime cloud, and my Google cloud. I can manually move them to my Microsoft cloud also. (There may be a way to do that automatically, but I haven't poked around enough to find out.) My calendar and contacts sync across all my devices (desktop computer, Chromebook, Fire Tablets, and phone.) The Google/Microsoft/Amazon synchronization is pretty solid these days. Sometimes while I'm debating whether to keep a photo or not, it's already moved to one or both of the clouds. I get pop-ups reminding me of things on my calendar on every device.

Re: I'm getting a new Tracfone.

Ainhisg — Sun, 23 Aug 2020 12:47:27 GMT

Just popping in to tell anyone interested in this phone that retailmenot .com is offering an 18% rebate at HSN! That's $16.20 making the phone cost $73.79 before taxes. The day I bought it, the rebate was 5%, and I thought that was pretty good. lol Too bad I didn't wait one more day. Oh, well.

As an aside, I find it puzzling that someone would post on this thread why Tracfone is not right for them. Uh...okay. But for a lot of us, Tracfone is perfect. My husband nor I are heavy phone users, and at $8 a month, a cheaper plan can't be found. As it is, we both have tons of minutes, texts, and data. And Tracfone keeps adding better budget phones making it a win-win especially if a person buys a package deal through QVC or HSN. Read the reviews of the Moto G7 power on Amazon or on CNET and other websites, and it gets stellar reviews.

I have a MacBook Pro and a 5th generation iPad mini. I love, love, LOVE Apple products! If QVC/HSN/Tracfone could/would ever offer a package deal on a bigger iPhone, even though it would cost more, I would be all-in. As it is, since I'm not a heavy phone user, the bigger/newer Android phones are 100% okay in my book and will do most of what flagship phones will do at practically no cost.

Re: I'm getting a new Tracfone.

gardenman — Sun, 23 Aug 2020 13:19:08 GMT

Just a note about the phone case. My new one came yesterday and assuming it fits the phone, it's the same width as the one on my LG Premier Pro and about 3/8" longer, so the new phone won't be drastically bigger than my old one. Going from a 5.3" display to a 6.2" display doesn't apparently add that much length to the new phone since the measurement is diagonal. The new phone has a smaller chin and forehead (black areas at the top and bottom of the screen) so the larger screen size doesn't require a lot of extra length in the phone body. It'll be interesting to compare the screens alongside of each other.

Re: I'm getting a new Tracfone.

Nuttmeg — Sun, 23 Aug 2020 18:27:25 GMT

@Ainhisg wrote:
Just popping in to tell anyone interested in this phone that retailmenot .com is offering an 18% rebate at HSN! That's $16.20 making the phone cost $73.79 before taxes. The day I bought it, the rebate was 5%, and I thought that was pretty good. lol Too bad I didn't wait one more day. Oh, well.

As an aside, I find it puzzling that someone would post on this thread why Tracfone is not right for them. Uh...okay. But for a lot of us, Tracfone is perfect. My husband nor I are heavy phone users, and at $8 a month, a cheaper plan can't be found. As it is, we both have tons of minutes, texts, and data. And Tracfone keeps adding better budget phones making it a win-win especially if a person buys a package deal through QVC or HSN. Read the reviews of the Moto G7 power on Amazon or on CNET and other websites, and it gets stellar reviews.

I have a MacBook Pro and a 5th generation iPad mini. I love, love, LOVE Apple products! If QVC/HSN/Tracfone could/would ever offer a package deal on a bigger iPhone, even though it would cost more, I would be all-in. As it is, since I'm not a heavy phone user, the bigger/newer Android phones are 100% okay in my book and will do most of what flagship phones will do at practically no cost.

@Ainhisg

I do not know anything about a IPhone/Tracfone bundle.

You can buy an IPhone from Apple to run on the Verizon network.

Stetson Doggett reviews most cellular companies. Verizon has a new prepaid phone plan. The company has a separate network Visible.

Re: I'm getting a new Tracfone.

glb613 — Mon, 24 Aug 2020 10:03:35 GMT

@Ainhisg wrote:
Just popping in to tell anyone interested in this phone that retailmenot .com is offering an 18% rebate at HSN! That's $16.20 making the phone cost $73.79 before taxes. The day I bought it, the rebate was 5%, and I thought that was pretty good. lol Too bad I didn't wait one more day. Oh, well.

As an aside, I find it puzzling that someone would post on this thread why Tracfone is not right for them. Uh...okay. But for a lot of us, Tracfone is perfect. My husband nor I are heavy phone users, and at $8 a month, a cheaper plan can't be found. As it is, we both have tons of minutes, texts, and data. And Tracfone keeps adding better budget phones making it a win-win especially if a person buys a package deal through QVC or HSN. Read the reviews of the Moto G7 power on Amazon or on CNET and other websites, and it gets stellar reviews.

I have a MacBook Pro and a 5th generation iPad mini. I love, love, LOVE Apple products! If QVC/HSN/Tracfone could/would ever offer a package deal on a bigger iPhone, even though it would cost more, I would be all-in. As it is, since I'm not a heavy phone user, the bigger/newer Android phones are 100% okay in my book and will do most of what flagship phones will do at practically no cost.

If you're talking about me and my post, I was answering gardenman's question why anyone would have a phone plan. Not that it's any of your business why I post what I do.

Re: I'm getting a new Tracfone.

bargainsgirl — Sun, 23 Aug 2020 22:02:24 GMT

I bought this phone about a month ago from HSN for $99 and free shipping. It's a great phone. I did order a better case for it from Amazon. I think you will be very happy. The battery life is outstanding!!