Straight Talk Prepaid Wireless - First Look

Earlier this month, Straight Talk Prepaid cell phones hit the market with the offer of 1000 minutes plus 1000 text or multimedia messages plus 30 MB of data in a 30-day plan for $30.  Not a bad deal!  Even better, they have now added a $45 unlimited plan.

Straight Talk is a partnership between TracFone, Verizon, and WalMart.  The plan is administered by TracFone, runs on the Verizon network, and the phones are currently sold exclusively at select Wal Mart stores and walmart.com, and on the Straight Talk website where you can enter your zip code to see if the service is available in your area.  If no stores near you carry the phones, you can order one online and have it shipped to your door or to your favorite Wal Mart store.  

One advantage of ordering from the Straight Talk website is that you can order a phone bundled with the airtime card that you will need to activate the phone.  Or you can always order the phone "naked" and activate it online.

Note that by studying the coverage maps, it's clear that Straight Talk is not available on the entire Verizon network.  Straight Talk has updated their coverage map now, but definitely look at the coverage map on straighttalk.com to make sure it will work in your area.  

(I've now had a chance to do a Straight Talk Prepaid coverage area test, and in Southwest Missouri at least, the phone seems to work on the full Verizon network)

Curiosity overcame me, so I went ahead and ordered a Straight Talk Motorola W385 on walmart.com and had it shipped to my house.  I'm working on a full review, but here's a quick first look at what I've found so far.

• Although Straight Talk is administered by TracFone, most everything works differently.
• Your account balances do not rollover.  When you add a new card or refill online, it's all reset to 30 days, 1000 minutes, 1000 messages, and 30MB.  So it's use it or lose it.  Of course, that's a non-issue if you do the $45 unlimited plan.
• They have an auto-refill option where they will charge your credit card and reset your balances every 30 days, which is kind of like a postpaid contract plan except that you can cancel any time with no penalty or fee.
• They added $2.58 in taxes and fees when I paid the $30 for my first 30 days. 
• You don't get any free time with the phone.  You have to either activate it with an airtime card or pay for your first 30 days with a credit card during the activation process. 
• You can't see your remaining balance on the phone.  You have to use straighttalk.com or call the 800 number. 
• The browser is not limited to only certain sites like with TracFone.  I was able to browse www.fone-review.com and any other site that I tried.  You'll want to access the mobile version of your favorite sites, though, because Straight Talk still uses the same Openwave browser as TracFone. 

  

• You are not charged based on the time the browser is open, but rather on how much data is transferred.  So once a page is downloaded, you can read it at your leisure. 
• I was able to successfully copy pictures from my computer to the W385 and from the W385 to my computer with the bluetooth connection.  
• I was able to send and receive pictures to and from another phone in MMS messages and also to and from my gmail account using my computer.
• I had on hand a usb cable with the right connectors to connect the W385 to my computer.  My computer downloaded some drivers from Windows update, and the phone will now charge through the usb port on my computer.  The phone does not, however, show up as a drive on my computer where I can transfer files back and forth.   I don't know if this is because TracFone has crippled the usb on the phone, or if I just don't have the right drivers.
• The W385 does not have a removable memory card. 
• The packaging and walmart.com say that the W385 has a VGA Video Camera, but the camera only takes pictures.  I can't find any way to make it take video, and I can't find any other references anywhere to this phone having video capabilities.    
• Part of the fine print on the back of the box says, "TracFone is selling this phone to you at a discount in exchange for your agreement that it will only be used on Straight Talk's wireless service."   Another part says, "This phone will only operate with the Straight Talk service plan...".

 Straight Talk claims to be "Everything you need in a cell phone without a contract", and although "everything" is a broad term, I must say I'm impressed with Straight Talk so far.  Nothing feels prepaid about it, things work like I expect them to work for the most part, and the price is definitely right for those who are at least moderately heavy cell phone users.  The $45 unlimited price is definitely right for heavy users!   Just pay attention to the coverage area and be aware that your account balances don't carry over on the $30 plan.

I'll keep plugging away on my full review, but in the meantime you can learn more about the service at www.straighttalk.com.

If you have found the information on Fone-Review more helpful than the sales clerk at your average big box retailer, please help me to continue helping everyone!

Comments

[Christina]

Thanks for the review! I just recently heard about StraightTalk and ordered a phone, which I expect to be here by mid week.
I have a question for you, can you send emails via the phone? I know with Tracfone and Net10 I can't.

~Christina

[Wineaux]

Yes, but can you tether...

[Keith Tyndall]

Wineaux - Tethering is not something I have ever had a reason to do, and I'm not 100% sure on how to do it. If you could send me instructions on how you would tether this phone, I'll be glad to try it out.

Christina - I was able to take a picture with the phone and send the picture to an email address. I was also able send emails to the phone. So yes, the W385 is definitely capable of sending and receiving emails.

[Christina]

Looks like my last comment didn't stick. Anyway...Thank you for the info!
I have another question, if I read correctly this service is connected with Verizon, so I was wondering if mobile to mobile would work? It's just wishful thinking! lol

[Christina]

Well I got my Straight Talk phone on Thursday and registered it right away. It took a few hours for my phone number to be switched over to the new phone. Then I received a call from Straight Talk letting me know it was done and I could activate my phone, which I did. So far so good!
So far the only issue I'm having with the phone is not being able to connect to the internet. I need to call them and have that resolved.

[amigian]

Looking into this service and i have a question about coverage/networks. Does Verizon Wireless prepaid have different coverage than a contract phone? From what i've read that is what it sounds like. I called Verizon Wireless and was told there is no difference. Please help me understand. I'm so confused. (P.S. Love the site and reviews. Has helped me a lot. Thanks.)

[Keith Tyndall]

Christina - I have tested mobile to mobile with a Verizon phone, and the minutes do get deducted from the Straight Talk phone. I don't know yet if minutes were charged to the Verizon phone because my friend is still trying to track that down.

Amigian - The coverage maps for Verizon Wireless contract and prepaid plans look basically the same to me. Remember that Straight Talk is different, even though it runs on the Verizon network. The Straight Talk coverage area is somewhat more limited than the Verizon Wireless prepaid plan. How much more limited is still a question since many people are finding that their Straight Talk phone works in areas that don't show coverage on the Straight Talk coverage map.

Wineaux - I have seen some reports of tethering working with Straight Talk, but I haven't tested it myself.

[Christina]

I just bought a mini usb cable ($3.99) and now I'm charging my phone on my laptop! :)
I still haven't called StraightTalk about not being able to go online via the phone.

[Christina]

Oh by the way, I see Straight Talk now has a $45 unlimited plan.

[Diana]

Our experience with this Tracfone spin-off Straight Talk has been the cause of my latest nervous breakdown.....just kidding. But in all seriousness, it HAS been an incredibly frustrating experience...to say the least. Although we like the phone and the plan is perfect for our 16 year old, their customer service is completely unreliable and inefficient. Like Tracfone, Straight Talk's customer service is outsourced to a foreign country....nuff said? If not, I'll elaborate. Although the reps are nice enough, they provide canned, robotic responses that rarely answer your question...as they rapidly type away at their computers telling you they're updating their system. However, each time you call back to follow up on an unresolved issue, you have to start all over again like they're hearing of this issue for the first time. It's as if all that data they were entering during your last call is mysteriously wiped from their hard drive the minute you hang up the phone. Further, we get a different answer for the same question depending on who we speak with, and, you're kept on the phone for an insane amount of time for what seems like it should be the simplest of tasks. Further, if they tell you the issue needs to be escalated to their corporate office and proceed to provide you with a reference # and tell you it will be 24/48 hours to remedy the problem........DON'T COUNT ON IT! It took us a full week to get one issue resolved, and in that week we had no use of our phone and were ultimately provided with FIVE different reference numbers.....for the SAME issue.....NO LIE! See what I mean? In a nutshell, they don't know the product well enough to provide reliable support for it AND their customer service departments mode of operation is completely inefficient....and INCREDIBLY FRUSTRATING!

[Christina]

Wow, that does sound frustrating! The only issue I've had with Straight Talk is not being to use the internet. I can send emails and pictures,etc. but connecting the browser keeps giving me an error message. I keep saying I'll call about it, but haven't had the time.
I know when I called to activate the phone, the person although nice did seem scripted.
I'll be paying for my next month of service soon, I'll post again on how well that goes. It'll be the first time since getting the phone.

[Terrie]

I've had a great experience with my ST unlimited Razr. I've had my phone for over two weeks. I live at least 30 minute from any city here in Texas and I've never been dropped and get a great signal. I did call customer service twice before I got the phone to ask a couple of questions with no wait or problems. I activated my phone in mins online with no problem. My web browser works great. I ordered my phone from Wal-Mart online knowing that if I had a problem I could take the phone back to a local store with no problem ... Wal-Mart is great about taking returned product back. I was worried that I wouldn’t get any service here in the boonies so before I activated the phone I charged the phone and traveled around on these back roads with it to see how the signal was. I am going to use this phone to replace my landline now that I know it works well. I’m a very happy Straight Talk customer.

[Christina]

Terrie, That's awesome! I might take the time to call ST today and see about my browser connecting. I'm totally happy with my ST phone, I use it mainly for text messages and love how it tells me the message has been delivered (to verizon phones) and also if the message didn't go through, it continues to try and then lets me know that it sent.
:)

[Christina]

Okay, I just called and talked with someone from ST about my not being able to connect to the internet. The woman told me, "All Ported Numbers are having this issue" She said they're aware of the issue and are working on it. So I guess I wait...? lol It's not a huge issue to me, but still I would love to be able to use the browser. This is the first time I've had a phone where I supposedly can go online and I'd love to do that.

[amigian]

Just wanted to add my 2 cents about customer service. Or should i say lack there of. I am a Net10 customer and have had nothing but problems with customer service. From not being able to understand them to them having no clue of what they are doing. Just confirming the same frustrations that Diana has expressed. So i am not going to go into detail. Because TracFone/Net10/Straight Talk customer service is SO BAD i will no longer be a customer of theirs!!! 'Nuff Said!

[Christina]

I've had Tracfone, Net10 and now ST. I love
them all! I've gone from one to the other because the plans seem to get better. I agree the customer service could use some help, but it's not bad enough for me to not want ST. Lots cheaper and no contract is well worth it! :)

[Christina]

So, about 3 hrs ago, I added another month to my phone and my account shows that I have the new months minutes,texts & data and the remainder from last months is there as well! I even have 57MB data! lol Might be a glitch...we'll see.

[Christina]

I just now checked my ST Balance and it's still the same, with the rollover mins, txt and data.

[Terrie]

I just renewed my unlimited plan and I too have rollover data ... I'm showing over 55 mbs.

[Roddy]

@ Christina the w385 can do tehthering on straight talk with a usb cable, once u get the drivers it will show up as a modem in windows and u can put what ever info in the filed and it will connect and work but it is not that fast

[joe tator]

HI , thanks for the straight talk info, i am thinking of switching my cell plan & home plan to ST UNLIMITED PLAN .will i be able to do that using one(1) cell phone with my two(2) numbers, i dont want to give up any of the numbers.

thanks you guys....joe

[Keith]

Thanks for the review of StraightTalk! Information about the service is sparse since it's so new, so your review is really helpful.

I recently switched to StraightTalk. The service has been great so far, but be careful when you enroll in their auto-refill program, as it will not wait until the end of the service you have already paid for to refill your account. Instead, it immediately pays for another month of service and wipes out any minutes/days of use you had already paid for. This is not intuitive at all and caused me to waste almost a whole month's payment. When I called to complain, there was nothing they would do about it.

[STuser101]

I have the razr ST phone and im having problems with it i was wondering if i carry it back to walmart if when i get the new phone if i could keep my old # and minutes and just refill on my old date?

[Kevin]

I have been using my Straight Talk W385 for a little over a week and in general am happy with it. Porting my existing number from Net10 took only a few hours, but I had to take it upon myself to call Straight Talk, whereas when I registered I was told I would receive an e-mail when I was good to go (which never happened). The camera is poor and there is no video as was stated on the box, but I don't really care about those features.

What frustrates me is the lack of documentation provided for the phone. I downloaded a W385 user guide from Motorola, but some of the features appear to be disabled on the phone. I was able to download the driver so that I could charge the phone on my computers USB, (http://developer.motorola.com/docstools/USB_Drivers/) [free registration required].

Two questions: Does anyone know where I can find the software to allow my computer to recognize my phone so that I might be able to move some data, photos, etc?
And has anyone figured out how to stop getting a delivery receipt when sending a text message? I find that quite annoying.

Overall I am quite happy with the phone despite its little quirks as I find it to be good value.

[ttfitz]

Kevin - I was able to get the Motorola Phone Tools 4.0 to recognize the phone and let me copy contacts to/from the Windows address book, and to download pictures from the phone.

Search Google for "Motorola Phone Tools" to find places to buy. I got mine from Amazon.

[Mindy]

Does anyone know what the straight talk "address" is to send text messages to an ST phone from a PC? I can't seem to find it. Thanks.

[ttfitz]

Mindy - I believe it is 10digitnumber@vtext.com.

[Jordan]

I want straight talk but i want to make sure that i know what i'm getting into... from what i've heard, ST sounds great! i'm with crick right now and am satisfied except for one thing, nationwide coverage... cricket doesn't have that and i would like it alot to not have to worry about not loosing phone service if i ever travel, or not have to get a different phone to roam with... right now i'm paying for the $45 on cricket and i get unlimited. i'm wanting to switch to the $45 of ST. i switched to boost since they seem to have nationwide coverage but their texting had to download onto the internet to send... it was weird, it couldn't just send the message, it had to access the internet which waisted soo much battery. i was wondering if ST had anything weird like that... anything that sounds any different from the higher end carriers... i don't care about the costumer service... just as long as the phones or service don't do anything weird or glitchy...

just lemme know if you guys notice anything!

[ttfitz]

Jordan - From what I can tell, ST is on the Verizon network, and is just like Verizon service, without paying Verizon prices or having a contract.

So, nothing weird, just regular service.

[Christina]

I went out of state on a trip over the weekend and my phone stopped letting me send pics. No idea if leaving the state had anything to do with it, but that's when it started to happen. I'll have to give ST a call if it doesn't fix itself.

[Ginger]

It took 6 days to port my Verizon number. Service works well since activated. Web Browser not working. CS working on it. Web reviews say this may take days.

[ttfitz]

Ginger - send an email to Elston at elombillo@tracfone.com, he is very helpful with this. My wife's web browser didn't work from the start, less than a day after contacting Elston, it was working perfectly.

[Patrick]

I have had Straight Talk for the last two months, I was recently robbed at gunpoint, on of the guys who robbed me is using the phone,

Straight Talk Customer Service is THE WORST in the world, they haven't helped me out at all, I already ordered a new one it came in the mail today.Straight Talk Customer Service is THE WORST
...Straight Talk Customer sucks..........

[ccss3et]

Wow... Thanks alot ttfitz for the advice. I love SW and have been very please except for the fact that my browser wasn't working. I called tech support no less than 4 times to resolve the issue. They were never able to resolve it but Elston fixed it in less than a day. (It may have been sooner.... I didn't try it until the next day.) Well anyway thanks again.

[ttfitz]

ccss3et - Elston is the best, no doubt. When my wife's phone ran out of service before it was supposed to, regular customer service was all tough noogies, buy a new card, but Elston not only fixed things, but gave us something for our troubles.

[Brandy]

Thanks for the amazing review. I have been searching to find out whether you can get online, more than just to Tracfone's special pages, and I found out you can, so thanks!

[gayle]

I was looking at Straight Talk via Walmart, trying to decide on a phone. I selected a phone and was then instructed to enter the ZIP Code of the area where you will be using your TRACFONE the most. The response was:

Warning: The following cell phone model is not operable in the ZIP code you've entered.
Can someone explain why some phones won't work in certain zip codes. The phone was the
Straight Talk Prepaid Samsung R451C. I got the same results with a couple other phones I was considering.

[Keith Tyndall]

Gayle - Straight Talk works on the Verizon network, so if Verizon doesn't have coverage in your area, then a Straight Talk phone won't either.

On the other hand, it could just be outdated data in the Wal Mart system. Try ordering the phone directly from Straight Talk: http://www.fone-review.com/Straight_Talk

[Gayle]

Kevin,
Thanks for your reply, but I currently have a Verizon account, so that isn't the issue. Walmart shows a large variety of phones for Straight Talk, but most of them have the same message:
Warning: The following cell phone model is not operable in the ZIP code you've entered.

When you go to the Straight Talk sight, they only show 3 phones that are available. I guess the answer is, limited number of phones styles available (3).

[PulTab]

STuser101 was wondering about software to transfer files from the pc to the phone and phone to pc. I don't know if it will work for your phone since I don't have your model but I use a free program called BitPim. It is available at http://www.bitpim.org/. Hope it works for you.