Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #14597 in Cell Phone Accessories
• Color: Black
• Brand: LG
• Model: CG225
• Released on: 2007-10-15

Features

• Prepaid flip phone provides double the amount of purchased minutes for the life of the phone
• Pay for only the calling time you use with minutes purchased from Tracfone--no annual contract required
• VGA camera for still photos, full-duplex speakerphone, SMS and MMS messaging, dual LCD screens
• Up to 3 hours of talk time, up to 192 hours (8 days) of standby time
• What's in the Box: handset, battery, travel charger, getting started guide, user manual

Amazon.com Product Description
The perfect complement to Tracfone prepaid wireless service, the sleek, lightweight LG 225 offers an affordable way to stay in touch with family and friends across town and around the globe via voice communication and text messaging. And this phone offers Double Minutes for the life of the phone. That means when you add a 60, 120 or 200-minute card, or a 1 Year of Service Airtime Card (which adds 400 minutes), you'll receive double the airtime for the same low price. Packaged within a sleek, black clamshell, the 225's VGA camera lets you take color photos, show them off on your rich color display, or send them to friends via MMS. With its full-duplex speakerphone you can talk hands-free while on-the-go.

Tracfone Service
Tracfone provides nationwide prepaid wireless service using the nation's leading cellular providers to create a national footprint covering 99 percent of the U.S. population. This gives you connectivity everywhere cellular service is available. You can use your Tracfone across the U.S. and if you move, you can relocate your wireless number with just a phone call.

You can buy bundles of minutes (which must be used within a set time limit of between 90 to 365 days) from the Tracfone web site on your home PC or directly from your phone's web browser. For example, if you purchase a block of 120 minutes of airtime, you'll need to use that within 90 days of your first use. When you buy additional airtime minutes, your Tracfone service is extended automatically by another 90 days. Tracfone also offers international long distance calling to over 60 international destinations (including Argentina, Brazil, China, Mexico, most European countries, and many more), which deducts the same amount of minutes from your phone as when you make calls to destinations within the U.S.

This phone ships with a number of handy Tracfone services, including free voice mail, free caller ID, and free call waiting. And perhaps most importantly, the integrated TracFone Airtime Balance Display shows you how much airtime you've used and how much is left, so you can control your costs. You must activate your cell phone before use either by calling the Tracfone toll-free number or going to the Tracfone web site.

Phone Features
Offering quad-band connectivity for global roaming, the LG 225 clamshell phone has a stubby antenna and dual LCD screens. The internal display measures 1.5 inches and has a 128 x 128-pixel resolution and support for 65K colors. The external monochrome screen has a fixed color background, and it measures 96 x 64 pixels. It displays date, time, battery life, signal strength, and caller ID phone number (though no photo ID). You can also view the last 20 dialed/received calls for easy redialing.

The internal phonebook can hold up to 255 contact entries (in addition to 250 contacts stored on your SIM card), and each contact has fields for three phone numbers and an email address. You can assign callers to groups and pair them with a picture for photo caller ID (viewed only on the internal screen). The phone features eight speed dial entries as well as a default voicemail speed dial.

The VGA camera has three resolution options (640 x 480, 320 x 240 and 160 x 120 pixels) and it offers a 4x digital zoom, multi-shot capability (allowing you to take 9 pictures in fast succession), brightness and white balance controls, and a self timer. You'll be able to store up to 75 photos on the phone's internal memory at the lowest resolution setting, or seven photos at the highest setting.

Support for basic text messaging and multimedia messaging (MMS) are built into the 225. When used in combination with the phone's built-in camera, MMS opens up a whole new world of messaging fun. The T9 predictive text entry technology is built into the unit, which makes it easier for people to enter words and text on handsets--a plus for mobile email and text messaging users.

Other features include:

• Tracfone Airtime Balance Display shows you how much airtime you've used and how much is left
• Multi-lingual support (English, French, Spanish)
• Personal organizer (calendar with scheduler, alarm clock, notepad)
• Calculator, world clock, unit converter, tip calculator
• Preloaded games
• WAP 2.0 browser
• Full duplex speakerphone
• 8 unique ringtones with vibrate and silent modes

Vital Statistics
The LG 225 weighs 3.26 ounces and measures 1.89 x 3.36 x 0.9 inches. Its lithium-ion battery is rated at up to 3 hours of talk time, and up to 8 days of digital standby time. It runs on the 850/900/1800/1900 MHz GSM/GPRS/EDGE frequencies.

Customer Reviews

Sturdy, but too quiet.
I have this phone with a different service, so I'm reviewing the phone itself, not the service.

The pros:
* The phone is a good size, small enough to comfortably fit in your pocket, but large enough to see what you're doing with it.
* Battery life is good - I've had it last through an hour-long phone call then a few hours of instant messaging.
* It's sturdy - after almost two years or abuse, there is not a scratch or a crack on it.

The cons:
* The volume does not go up high enough. I have good hearing, but I cannot hear the ringer on maximum volume unless I am somewhere fairly quiet. I also frequently cannot hear what people are saying to me during phone calls. The volume does not adjust based on external noise levels.
* It doesn't have bluetooth. (I don't know why Amazon lists bluetooth headsets as accessories.)
* It doesn't have a place to enter physical addresses or birthdays for your contacts.
* Finally, LG has an issue where buttons get "stuck" in one position. (For example, if you were pushing the left arrow it will sometimes continue going left after you stop pressing the button.) I do not think it is a physical issue with the buttons, but maybe an electrical or software issue. I have had this problem with this phone and also with a LG television. It doesn't happen very often, mostly when playing games.


Overall, I would say that this is a tolerable phone, but not one that I would recommend, due to the low volume. If you live/work in a very quiet area, have good hearing, and simply want a sturdy phone with a good battery, this may work for you.

Okay Phone, don't trust customer support
Okay, first off, I'll talk about the phone.

First, it's a pretty good entry level flip phone. The quad-GSM does come in handy, so you can get service just about anywhere. The pictures are okay, and the screen could be a little bigger. And real-tones are a nice touch also. However, Tracfone is notorious for locking features. The web-browser will only work on their website, and it will still charge you if you try to get to another site. You cannot get different ringtones unless you email yourself a MIDI ringtone, or get the tones from their site. And the reception is great, but note it will either run on AT&T's network, or T-Mobile's network; Tracfone doesn't have a network of it's own.

Now to customer service. It flat out SUCKS. I recently upgraded my phone to the new Motorola w376 with Bluetooth, I found out they disabled all the good features on this phone. Anyway, I tried to transfer my number and minutes over to the new phone over the website. They said it would 24-48 hours, and it's been about a week now. I called CS, they said the reason the number porting was taking so long was because one phone was a GSM phone while the other was CDMA. Total BS, both phones run off of GSM; it just sounds like they don't know what they're doing.

Overall, if you can handle the CS, by all means get a Tracfone. However, if that's one of the big selling points for you, stay away from Tracfone.

TracFone Rules!!
I've used TracFone since 2003 when I was pregnant with my first child. I've never had any problems with their service and even got clear signal on vacation 400 miles away! It has been a wonderful service for us and very inexpensive since we mostly use it for emergencies or short phone conversations.

***You can buy bundles of minutes (which must be used within a set time limit of 90 to 365 days) from the Tracfone web site on your home PC or directly from your phone's web browser.***

The above sentence is NOT true. There are no limits on your minutes only your airtime. Every 90 days I buy a 90 minute card for about $20 and all of my previous minutes roll over with it. I've even switched phones and they will swap your airtime & minutes from one phone to another.

I've found the service very easy and convenient. The few times I've had to call customer service (to switch to a new phone) they have always been thorough, informative & courtious.

I have no plans to switch service from TracFone anytime in the near future and am very pleased with their service & products.