- Prepaid flip phone with unique external light-up icons that signal new messages
- Pay for only the calling time you use with minutes purchased from Tracfone–no annual contract required
- Stores up to 500 contacts, speakerphone, 2.5mm headset jack, organizer tools
- Up to 6.5 hours of talk time, up to 432 hours (18 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 Motorola W260g offers an affordable way to stay in touch with family and friends across town and around the globe via voice communication and text messaging. Offering the best of the basics for work and play, the W260g provides easy access to your text messages, a unique external display with light-up icons that signal new messages, speakerphone, 2.5mm headset jack, and up to 6.5 hours of talk time.
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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.
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Phone Features
Weighing in at an ultra-light 3.3-ounces, the super-slim W260g fits comfortably in your hand and flips open effortlessly to reveal a large and vivid full-color 128 x 128 screen and streamlined keypad. Instead of an external LCD, the W260g sports a series of unique, light-up icons that signal new messages, low battery, and other events. Most of the phone’s features and on-screen menus are controlled by a five-way center button on the handset’s backlit control pad. Use the phone’s stereo-compatible 2.5mm headset jack with your favorite stereo earphones or hands-free headset.
The W260g’s internal phonebook can hold up to 500 contacts and includes picture phonebook options, and it will display the last 10 dialed/received/missed calls. It supports 32-chord polyphonic ringtones, and you can switch it over to vibrate mode when you need to keep things silent.
This Motorola phone includes the innovative CrystalTalk technology, which automatically accounts for background noise during a call and adjusts the audio quality based on ambient noise conditions to provide the optimal conversational experience. CrystalTalk also reduces the volume of the background noise picked up by the microphone during a call, making it possible to be more easily heard over the phone while in a noisy environment.
If you need basic messaging capabilities, the W260g has you covered as support is built-in for sending and receiving SMS text messages. The iTap predictive text technology is built into the unit, which autocompletes text for you as you type on the alpha-numeric keypad and offers options for selecting the correct word.
Other features include:
- Tracfone Airtime Balance Display shows you how much airtime you’ve used and how much is left
- Organizer tools: Calendar, alarm, calculator, currency converter
- Speakerphone
- Includes 35 ringtones; compatible with 32-chord polyphonic ringtones
- Vibrating alert
- Hearing Aid Rating: M3, T3
Vital Statistics
The Motorola W260g weighs 3.17 ounces and measures 3.74 x 1.77 x 0.67 inches. Its 940 mAh lithium-ion battery is rated at up to 6.5 hours of talk time, and up to 432 hours (18 days) of standby time. It runs on the 850/1900 MHz GSM/GPRS frequencies.
My husband and I purchased the trac phone because we don’t otherwise use cell phones, have only one car, and he was going out of the country for a trip and had many places where delays or difficulties could occur. So, it was an emergency back up for us. First, it seems to me that you can buy a Trac phone cheaper just at a store. I saw an advertisement for $5 and $10 trac phones at TJ Max just the other day (didn’t check the fine print, though). Second, the phone didn’t work from the Dominican Republic, where my husband was (which maybe should have been anticipated, but wasn’t). Next, just calling to get your messages uses up valuable (as in expensive!) minutes. I know, we aren’t used to cell phones, so maybe this is obvious to others. Maybe it’s also why we don’t have cell phones to begin with. I find the minutes and subscription limit (ie, time within which you can use your minutes) really nerve wracking. You are either likely to use up your minutes completely and then not be able to use your phone without purchasing more minues, or you don’t use up the minutes in the specified time, and each minute you used cost you like over a dollar. Other than that, the phone seems to work as advertised, and it was a comfort to know my husband did have a sure way of getting a hold of us once his travel brought him into the US, though fortunately the trip went without incident and the only calls made were to validate that all was going well and to pick him up at the airport. The phone also arrived on time and I have no complaints about the vendor.
Rating: 2 / 5
The phone charges from the standard mini USB connector. “Great!” I thought. I have all sorts of USB cables at home and work. I can just charge it at my computer and not have to lug around another transformer. Not! I plugged it into my computer and “Unable to Charge” displayed on the screen. I checked the users manual … “Note: Charging the phone from a computer’s USB port is not supported.”
Drat!
Rating: 2 / 5
Hello I’m an autistic adult.
This is my review on a Motorola W260g Prepaid Phone (Tracfone).
My dad got this for our church to use for the prayer line and so far the phone work’s pretty good. The sound is nice. The ringtones are loud and annoying on the phone espicially when trying to watch spongebob at 10:30 a.m. in the morning. But overall this is great phone and is used to help our church that we go to to grow.
Get this phone if you don’t want alot of accessories on it and just want to use it for simple calls.
Happy Cell Phone Hunting!
Rating: 5 / 5
I love this little phone. It works great, was priced right, and was delivered on time. Amazon.com came through for me again.
Rating: 5 / 5
I used a Tracfone for a few years with decent results–the phone was fine in most basic ways. Recently, though, after my first problem that required customer service, I decided to cancel my service. As I’ve learned again and again in my life, a company’s true merits emerge when a problem arises and a consumer seeks reasonably fair resolution.
In my case, I just lost $100 of minutes due to Tracfone’s error, and despite my calls to 3 service reps and 2 supervisors, I received nothing more than an apology. Unethical companies like this don’t deserve my business–or yours. I should have trusted the army of web reviewers who’ve issued similar warnings, and now I find myself adding to that list. By the way, I’m moving to T-Mobile’s pre-paid plan, which I’ve found offers slightly lower rates for my particular needs and, most important for me, significantly better customer service with local reps available.
NOTE: If you check out my other Amazon reviews, you’ll notice that I usually only take time to review products and services that I especially enjoy. Like most of us, I’m too busy to do more. In this case, though, with clearly unethical behavior and lost money involved, I simply feel the need to warn others like you.
Rating: 1 / 5