10 Best Android Running Watch

Best Android Running Watch in 2023

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Samsung T404G Cell Phone Review

A detailed review of the Samsung T404G cell phone by Net10, Tracfone, and Straight talk. We talk about all the key features ranging from playing games, to running APPs, to using the QWERTY keyboard.

This is a review for the Samsung T404G cell phone provided by Net10, Tracfone, and Straight talk (by Walmart). This phone normally ranges around $80, but you can buy it a bit cheaper when the company runs sales or if you buy it online from places like Amazon. I bought my phone from Kmart because it was marked down at a cheaper price, but at the time I really couldn't find any information about the phone. So in this very detailed review I'm going to try and cover everything there is to know about the phone from my experience with it.

Before I get started though I should point out that the Straight talk and Net10 companies are all owned by Tracfone, but you cannot switch service after you buy the phone. If you buy the T404G phone for Net10 you cannot use the same phone with the Tracfone service, or vice versa. Trust me, I called the company and asked if I could buy a Tracfone card and use it on my Net10 T404G phone and they told me that they wouldn't allow it because the phones are actually programmed differently.
Now that the basics are out of the way, let's take a look at the phone's features.

T404G Phone Key features

The phone will come with about ten free minutes of airtime, as well as a free SIM card. The phone is also a QWERTY slider phone so that when you text you can use an actual keyboard instead of the phones standard number pad. The T404G offers a 2.0 megapixel camera that can take pictures in a beautiful and clear 1600X1200 resolution quality. I was surprised that the pictures came out so clear, and ever since I discovered this I have been using my phone's camera instead of my digital camera. I tell you the truth that the pictures we took using the phone actually came out better.

The phone's camera can double as a camcorder as well to record videos. The camcorder can only record videos with a very low quality of 176X144, and it will always save the file as an Mpeg4. Not many websites will accept Mpeg4 files, so you will have to convert the videos first. My younger sister uses the phone to make fun little home movies, and I use it to record my guitar practice sessions so that I can view them later. Because we have to convert the movies before uploading them it does make it a bit difficult because I can't record a movie and edit it with windows movie maker because the program can't run Mpeg4 files. The phone also includes a voice recorder, but the built in microphone is horrible and the recording quality is almost always muffled; which also affects the sound quality in recorded videos as well. So not only is the picture quality bad, you will also have bad muffled audio for your videos. So, use the camcorder for fun, and not for anything major.

The phone also has a digital notepad, a built in MP3 player, Mobile web (no 3G, so it is a bit slow), and can also run games. The MP3 player allows you to name and create multiple playlists, fast-forward, rewind, pause, shuffle, and repeat the audio tracks. If you are listening to music or watching a video that you didn't record yourself the phone speaker's sound quality is more or less clear and can be very loud. I use the MP3 player on a daily basis and I found that it works just as good as any other, however I would still recommend using headphones for the best playback quality.

I would also like to mention that almost all Samsung phones don't have built in headphone jacks, so you have to buy a special Samsung adapter to plug in headphones. I found this to be very annoying that I had to order a special adapter for the phone instead of the phone just having a built in headphone jack. I can only assume that this was done on purpose so that Samsung could milk more money out of their customers. I did a bit of research and I found out that if you choose Tracfone as your service provider there is a special promotional code you can enter for a free accessories kit when you buy a new phone from them. This universal kit will include the headphone adapter as well as some other useful items like a car charger. There is a rumor that you can also get a free kit from Net10 as well, but I haven't personally seen it myself.

The T404G phone also comes with a built in Alarm clock that can set three different alarms for specific days and times- which I found to be extremely helpful, as well as a stop watch, a calendar, a monetary and measurement converter, a calculator, and a second countdown timer.

Now that all of the phones basic functions are out of the way I would like to talk about the games and APPS, but I will explain why they both don't always work so well. The phone comes with one simple puzzle game on the line of Zuma called Luxor quest, it is fun and entertaining and should give you about a week's worth of fun. You can buy more games from the Net10/Tracfone mobile website or other third party sites as well, but I would recommend that you only stick with very small games made by the official Net10/tracfone website. Any game larger than Luxor quest will more than likely crash on you, the same goes for APPs.

I downloaded Gangsters 2 from the Net10 mobile shop and it ran fine for the first dozen or so missions, after that the game will lock up at certain points. I found out that if you turn the sound off the game will be able to continue on without crashing, which lets me know the phone just doesn't have enough memory or power to run both the game and audio at the same time, even though the mobile shop says it can. I also tried to run Final fantasy on my phone, but that also didn't run right. The sprites would randomly flash and disappear for awhile and I couldn't see what I was doing. After awhile the sprites would come back but this continued to happen all while I was playing. I also tried running certain APPs on my phone and they had the same effect, they would run for a short time and then eventually began to flicker and crash. The good news is that the mobile game shop does run deals quite often where you can buy one game and get a second one free, so if you have 40 minutes to waste you can buy a game that you know will work right and get the second one free. That way if the free game doesn't work right you didn't waste any money on it.

The phone can connect to the internet, but it moves at about dialup speed, so grab a Snickers. I downloaded a game that was about 1Meg in size and it took me about two minutes to download it all.
The internet service will take One minute for every minute you spend online, plus additional minutes if you choose to buy games, ringtones, wallpapers, or APPS, which can quickly add up and drain all of your minutes if you don't budget your time right.

I should also warn you to be careful with the Mobile browser button, it shares with the phone's "Cancel" button, and I have gone online several times by mistake and wasted good minutes because I accidentally bumped the browser button and connected to the web without me knowing it. The phone was connected to the internet for at least two and a half hours and drained somewhere around 140 minutes from my phone. I realized that even if you see that the phone is connecting to the web and you try to stop it, the phone will still deduct one minute just for pressing the Mobile browser button. I really wish there was a function to lock, disable, or change the button, especially for parental control, but sadly you cannot. It is stuck the way it is... which now brings us to the phones design and layout.

Style, design, and customization

The phone gives you a decent amount of customization for choosing ringtones and wallpapers, as well as sound effects, and if you want you can go online to download more ringtones and wallpapers. However, you cannot have unique sounds for Text messages; you are forced to choose one out of their four preset default sound effects.

Other than the badly placed browser button, the phone layout and design isn't bad. I have no problem navigating the phone, texting, or holding the phone. It is a bit too smooth though and if you have greasy or wet hands it will slip right through your fingers because of its sleek design. I actually dropped the phone several times on the ground and the phone turned off, but still ran perfectly after I turned it back on. It has no cracks, dents, or scratches on it, which surprised me because I didn't think the phone would be so durable.

The QWERTY keyboard is actually very nice, I have had the phone for more than nine months now and it hasn't given out on me or given me any problems. The buttons on the slide out QWERTY pad are easy to press and easy to see because they light up in the dark, and even when there is a bad sun glare I can still see what I am doing on the screen. I also found that the QWERTY pad was surprisingly very durable, the buttons haven't worn down yet where they get stuck in the "pressed" position, they all still work perfectly. The default Alphanumeric phone buttons are nice as well, but I almost never use it now because the QWERTY pad is just more efficient.

The phone battery will last you pretty much all day if you don't talk on it, but I noticed if you run a lot of games, APPs, videos, or you talk a lot, you will get about six hours or less of battery life. The adapter that comes with the phone has done its job by charging the battery and hasn't died yet, so you shouldn't have to replace the stock battery or charger anytime soon.
I also found out that the phone doesn't come with a micro SD card so I had to buy a 2GB micro SD card to go with it, which I would recommend because it only has about 20 MB of default storage space and that can quickly be eaten away by the high quality photos or videos.

I also found out that the phone does not come with a built in installer, which means if you buy a data cable and you download a game or APP on your PC, you can transfer the file to the phone but it will then just sit there and will never install it because the phone won't know what to do with the program. The only way to install APPs and games to your phone is to open the phones mobile browser and download the file from the phone's mobile web.

The good news is that you can use the data cable or the phone's Bluetooth mode to send or receive MP3 files, pictures, movies, and audio files, which is a lot cheaper than getting those same files from the mobile web. If you want to watch third party movies that you downloaded, they have to be converted to the exact settings of a MPEG4 file with the screen resolution set to 176X144, otherwise it will not recognize the file as a compatible video.

Overall Thoughts

Keep in mind that this is not a Blackberry or an iPhone, so there is a lot this phone can't do. If you need a phone that can text fast and do a little more than a basic phone, then I would recommend the T404G for you. If you want to do a lot of web browsing or run large APPs and games, then steer clear because it just can't do it.

If you do choose to buy the phone I would recommend choosing the Tracfone version because it will come with Triple minutes for life. For around $30.00 you can get about 360 minutes (120 mins X 3), as well as 90 service days from Tracfone. While Net10 does not have the Triple minutes for life option, nor does it allow you to use promotional codes like Tracfone, so you will only get about 300 minutes with 60 service days for the same price.

The service with Net10 and Tracfone isn't bad, but be prepared to talk with a lot of foreigners with strong accents, and use at least 30 to 40 minutes of airtime when resolving problems with your phone/service. When I did have problems with my phone all the Technicians I talked with were always very nice, very patient, and normally assisted me with any problems I had to help resolve the issue. I have personally never had any bad experiences when calling the company regarding issues or questions I had. When it was time to activate the phone everything went smoothly and I was able to switch from my Verizon prepaid phone to my T404G Net10 phone without any problems, and the number transferred over within the hour so I didn't have to wait long to actually start making calls on it.

As for the phone service, I have never dropped calls and I always have full bars for most areas, and all of my text and picture messages have always gone through without a major delay. But keep in mind that not all areas are the same, so my phone service my vary from the service you have.

Overall I like the phones look, feel, and functions. It serves well as a good phone that can connect to the web if you need it, plays small games to waste time, has a nice and easy to use QWERTY keyboard, and has reliable service. If you want a cheap QWERTY phone then the T404G may be a very good choice to consider buying. Just make sure you watch out for that dreaded mobile browser button...