By Paul Tow
Introduction
The TracFone LG 225 is a GSM flip phone with notable features including Double Minutes For Life, an external display, a camera, MMS, and (limited) web access. As with other Tracfones, the CG225 (as it is sometimes called) can be used in either English or Spanish, and depending on the SIM card, it uses either AT&T or T-Mobile as its native network.
Click here to check the latest LG 225 price on the TracFone website.
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Some notes before I begin the review. The CG225 was my first phone from Tracfone, and my third cell phone overall. My previous cell phones were the Nokia 2115i ("Shorty") and the Kyocera K127 ("Marbl"), both from Virgin Mobile. I've used the CG225 as my only phone for almost a year, and my usage has been on the AT&T network in Houston, TX and Huntsville, TX. I am a technically inclined person who enjoys simple phones, but likes to get a lot out of them.
Signal strength, call quality, and battery life
In general, the LG 225 has had rather good reception in my area, provided that I am careful to not touch the external antenna. Call quality could certainly be improved, but I don't know if that's an issue with the phone or with the AT&T network. The battery lasts for several days at a time unless I play any games. Your mileage may vary; location affects signal strength and signal strength plus usage level affects battery life. You should definitely check the coverage maps for AT&T and T-Mobile. A "P4" near the barcode indicates a phone that is native to AT&T, but a "P5" indicates T-Mobile.
Screens
An
external display is a very convenient feature to have on a flip phone. The
time, caller ID, battery life, signal strength, and ring/vibrate status are
available at a glance without the need to open the phone. That is much more
information than the LEDs on the Motorola W376g can provide, and unlike the LG 600G's external display it is always on. This is because the CG225's external
display is monochrome and thus uses very little battery power, unlike the color
display on the 600g. Unfortunately, the internal display is small (1.06" x
1.06"), low resolution (128x128 pixels), and poor (albeit usable) quality.
I was unable to get a decent photo comparing the screen quality, but the
CG225's screen is nowhere near as good as my 2nd generation iPod nano or my LG 600g..
2nd generation iPod nano, TracFone LG CG225, TracFone LG 600g.
Contacts
The CG225 can store up to 255 contacts on the phone, and up to 250 on the SIM card. Saving to the SIM limits a given contact to one number, a photo, and a group. If you want up to three numbers, an email address, and/or a note, you'll need to save to the phone. With Tracfone, SIM cards are locked to the phone and can't be taken from one phone to another. The CG225's speed dial doesn't let you assign multiple numbers from the same contact, so you can't have a button for a person's home and another button for that person's cell without splitting them into multiple contacts. Only photos taken using the CG225's camera can be assigned as photo IDs; you can't use a picture received via MMS.
Text and Multimedia Messaging
I've done quite a lot of SMS texting on the LG CG225. The interface is very responsive, and has no trouble keeping up with my fast typing. If you wish to use predictive text, it uses T9, which many prefer over the iTap found on Motorola TracFones. T9 is actually very easy to learn, especially if you use the interactive tutorial on the T9 website. The CG225 allows you to read part of an incoming message without opening it, but unfortunately it does not clearly indicate who sent it. To see the sender you have to select the message, press the green SEND key, and then very quickly press the red END key to avoid being charged for call time. Tracfone charges 0.3 units to send or receive a text message.
Unfortunately, there'S an annoying bug in this specific phone'S implementation of T9. It'S
a mystery to me how LG'S developers didn't notice that their phone capitalizes
our alphabet'S letter "s" when it comes after an apostrophe. Hopefully your recipients will understand
that you're typing on a cell phone, because it'S quite strange and makes it look like you don't know how to write. This bug's been fixed in the LG600g's T9.
In addition to regular text messaging, the CG225 also has multimedia messaging (MMS). MMS allows you to send and receive pictures, MIDI ringtones (not MP3), formatted text, and longer messages. Real music ringtones must be purchased from Tracfone (see below), and can't be received via regular MMS. From what I've read, data services like MMS will not work on phones which originally came with T-Mobile SIM cards. The CG225 can receive MMS messages from another phone or via email (your-ten-digit-number@mms.att.net). Multimedia messages cost 1 unit plus 0.5 units per minute of transfer time.
The CG225 has the ability to extract data from a text or multimedia message, such as phone numbers, email addresses, website URLs, audio, or pictures. This can come in handy, and is in fact how you make audio or pictures received by MMS available as ringtones or wallpaper.
Camera
The TracFone LG 225 is a cameraphone, and has two dedicated camera buttons (1 on the keypad, and 1 on the right side) as well as a photo library button (on the keypad). Camera options include choosing size, brightness, white balance (auto, daylight, incandescent, cloudy, or flourescent), and digital zoom (up to 4x, depending on resolution). The left and right arrow keys adjust the contrast.
The external display is monochrome, so it can't be used for taking photos with the phone closed. The camera is only VGA resolution (640x480 pixels), and lacks flash and autofocus. Storage for photos is limited to 300KB, so you can't keep many photos on the phone. It's difficult to give even a rough estimate of how many photos 300KB is, because the file sizes vary significantly based on the content of the photo, even with the same camera settings. Generally though, lower resolution photos will consume less storage.
Having
a camera available at all times is nice, but the CG225's camera leaves a lot to
be desired and is certainly no substitute for a real camera.
Sample photos from the CG225's camera
Web access, Ringtones, Graphics, & Games
While it's true that the LG CG225 has a web browser, like other Tracfones it is extremely limited. First of all, as with any other data service, you need a CG225 which came with an AT&T SIM card. If it came with a T-Mobile SIM card, it will never be able to access the web. Even if your CG225 came with an AT&T SIM, you can only visit Tracfone's website. All other websites are blocked. Browsing is both slow and expensive: 0.5 units per minute the browser is open, even if the phone isn't being used. There is a dedicated browser button that can't be reassigned, but if you accidentally press it there is time to exit without being charged.
You can use Tracfone's mobile web site to purchase TracFone ringtones (MIDI or MP3), pictures, games, and subscriptions to news, weather, sports, and entertainment right on your phone. As far as games are concerned, the CG225 comes with a puzzle game called Zoo Zoo Club. Personally, I prefer using my computer to purchase ringtones, pictures, or games, so that I don't have to pay extra just to browse Tracfone's site on my phone.
I get around the limitations of Tracfone's browser by using SMS services and by using Dial2Do to check my RSS feeds on demand. I have SMS services like Google and Facebook saved as contacts for easy access. Although it's not a perfect solution, I've found that this mostly covers what I would tend to use a mobile browser for.
Additional comments
The TracFone LG CG225 is missing some features that are important to some. It does not have Bluetooth of any sort, or an FM radio. It is not hearing aid compatible. The notepad is limited to 40 characters. It continues the cell phone industry's very anti-consumer practice of using non-standard charging connectors (as opposed to USB). The feature that I miss the most from my previous phone, a Virgin Mobile Marbl, is the ability to automatically switch to vibrate based on a schedule. I can manually switch to vibrate by pressing * for a few seconds, but it was much more convenient when I didn't need to remember. After nearly a year of usage and a lot of texting, my 6 key has become hard to trigger, but that may just be my specific phone or my own level of abuse.
The following features work as expected, so I won't go into detail about them. Voicemail, call waiting, caller ID, alarm clock, calculator, world clock, unit converter, tip calculator, speakerphone, recent calls, message lists, and standard Tracfone features such as Airtime Balance and Service display.
2nd generation iPod nano, TracFone LG CG225, TracFone LG 600g.
According to Phone Scoop, the CG225 measures 3.36" x 1.89" x 0.9" and weighs 3.27 oz.
Final thoughts
Despite the various complaints I have raised, I still consider the LG 225 a decent phone for those with simple usage. The battery life is great, the external screen very convenient, and the interface responsive. T9 for predictive text is tremendously helpful. AT&T has a large national coverage area, and as long as you don't touch the external antenna you should get acceptable signal and call quality. The camera may leave a lot to be desired, but it's nice to have available. If you decide to purchase an LG 225, the included manual is full of very useful information.
I've recently transferred to a TracFone LG 600g. If you'd like a comparison, or if you have any other questions or thoughts, you're welcome to post a comment.
Click here to check the latest LG 225 price on the TracFone website.
