TracFone LG 800g Review
A photo taken with the LG 800g's 2 MP Camera
The LG 800g is TracFone's first touch screen device. It features a 2.8 inch resistive touch screen and a small, pocket-able form factor
It also has a basic 2 MP camera and a virtual QWERTY keyboard for imputing text. The micro-sd card slot makes it easy to expand the phone's memory so that you can store all of your photos, etc. But can it compete with other touch screen feature phones on the market? Let's see!
Hardware:
The LG 800g is pretty thick at 12 mm, but is light at the same time, weighing in at 3 oz. Its design is understated and minimalistic, creating a device that has a nice look to it. It is constructed primarily out of hard plastic that feels quite nice in the hand. It comes in any color you want, so long as it's black. But that's not a bad thing; the LG 800g pulls off black very nicely. Let's take a look around the device: On the left side there is the micro-usb charging port, which is protected by a flimsy plastic flap. The right side of the device sports the small volume rocker. The top houses the 3.5mm headset jack and the tiny power button. On the back is the 2 MP camera lens and below the thin battery cover is the average-sized 900mah battery. Below the battery is the SIM card slot and micro-sd card slot. On the front of the phone is the plasticy-feeling 2.8 inch touch screen with the LG logo and 3 physical buttons below. The large earpiece is right above the screen. Speaking of the screen, it is a 2.8 inch resistive touch screen with a resolution of 240x320 (that's a pixel density of 143 ppi). Using the touch screen is a pain. It's not precise and feels extremely cheap. Where the touch screen is at its worst is when using the full QWERTY keyboard. The small keys and imprecise touch screen result in a unpleasant typing and texting experience. As for the phone's physical buttons, well, there's not much to say. The power button and volume rocker are very small and have terrible tactile feedback, which makes using them a pain. On the other hand, the 3 buttons below the display (send, back, and end) have a nice feel and tactile feedback, making them a joy to use. The battery is a Lithium-Ion 900mah rated at 8 hours of talk time and 20 days of standby. The phone is very durable as well. In fact, this is the most durable phone I've ever owned (this thing is built like a tank!) I drop tested it to test the toughness, and It passed with flying colors. Call quality on the LG 800g was spectacular, callers sounding crisp on both ends of the call. The earpiece produced some nice tones and we didn't experience any dropped calls in our time with the 800g.
What's in the box:
- LG 800g
- Wall Charger
- 900mah battery
- Back cover
- Services Guide
- Activation Card
- SIM Card
Software:
The LG 800g runs a Java-based propriety operating system. It is very similar to Android in several ways. When you start the device, you are greeted by the home screen. This screen consists of nine application shortcuts that you can customize. Above these shortcuts are the connectivity icons, which are decent in size and are easy to read and look at. Swipe the screen to the left or right and you'll be brought to another home screen. This one is for your favorite contacts. At the bottom of both home screens are four non-customizable shortcuts that lead to the most used functions of the phone; phone, contacts, messages, and main menu. When you tap the main menu shortcut, you are brought to, you guessed it, the main menu! The main menu is similar to the app drawer in Android due to the fact that it lists all the applications on the device. There are a total of 23 applications that take up two pages. It has the usual TracFone stuff, like prepaid, recent calls, alarm, settings, calendar, etc. And of course it has all your usual tools like calculator, unit converter, stopwatch, and voice recorder. But it also has some other applications that you don't usually see on TracFones. The music player is one of these apps. Your music is organized into songs, albums, genres, and playlists. When you play a song, you view the cover art as well as playback controls. Sound quality through the built in speaker is loud and crisp. Another sort-of unusual app is My Stuff. This is basically a file manager and I'm glad LG included it. You can view everything that's on your internal and external memory very easily. The gallery application lets you see all the pictures and video that you have taken with the device in a nice, easy to use interface. The LG 800g includes a built-in HTML browser that is mediocre at best. The phone does not support WiFi, so you have to browse over TracFone's 2G Edge network. It is painfully slow. But the browser itself isn't all that bad; it has all the typical settings and options you would expect from a basic HTML browser but the 2G Edge speeds make it virtually unusable. The LG 800g supports Java games and apps, which are stored in the Games & Apps application. Most of them play well on the device, but there are a few that don't (Angry Birds). Two games are preinstalled (Containers Block and Castle Defense) and they play nicely as well.
Camera:
The LG 800g sports a 2 MP fixed focus camera lens. It does not have a flash, which makes photos in low light conditions awful. Even when you have ample lighting, photos taken with a camera are grainy and lack detail. Colors are a bit on the cold side and don't look very accurate. It has all the features I would I expect, such as the ability to adjust the white balance, brightness, resolution, and image quality (Super fine, fine, and normal). It also has a night mode, continuous shot mode, and self-timer. The camera has the ability to shoot video at the resolution of 176x144 (QCIF). Videos look horrible and lack any and all detail.
Conclusion:
The LG 800g is decent phone for TracFone. But when compared to other touch screen feature phones, the LG 800g just doesn't make the cut. The touch screen is terrible and the Java-based operating system is not very intuitive. But in the end, if you want a TracFone that has the triple minutes feature and has a decent calling and texting experience, along with a few extra features (Games, Camera, etc), then the LG 800g might be the TracFone for you.
*It is always possible that some specifications or facts may be incorrect. We try our best at MobileTechnology Reviews to provide accurate information, but we occasionally make mistakes. If you notice that something is wrong or incorrect, shoot us an email at [email protected] and we'll fix it!
It also has a basic 2 MP camera and a virtual QWERTY keyboard for imputing text. The micro-sd card slot makes it easy to expand the phone's memory so that you can store all of your photos, etc. But can it compete with other touch screen feature phones on the market? Let's see!
Hardware:
The LG 800g is pretty thick at 12 mm, but is light at the same time, weighing in at 3 oz. Its design is understated and minimalistic, creating a device that has a nice look to it. It is constructed primarily out of hard plastic that feels quite nice in the hand. It comes in any color you want, so long as it's black. But that's not a bad thing; the LG 800g pulls off black very nicely. Let's take a look around the device: On the left side there is the micro-usb charging port, which is protected by a flimsy plastic flap. The right side of the device sports the small volume rocker. The top houses the 3.5mm headset jack and the tiny power button. On the back is the 2 MP camera lens and below the thin battery cover is the average-sized 900mah battery. Below the battery is the SIM card slot and micro-sd card slot. On the front of the phone is the plasticy-feeling 2.8 inch touch screen with the LG logo and 3 physical buttons below. The large earpiece is right above the screen. Speaking of the screen, it is a 2.8 inch resistive touch screen with a resolution of 240x320 (that's a pixel density of 143 ppi). Using the touch screen is a pain. It's not precise and feels extremely cheap. Where the touch screen is at its worst is when using the full QWERTY keyboard. The small keys and imprecise touch screen result in a unpleasant typing and texting experience. As for the phone's physical buttons, well, there's not much to say. The power button and volume rocker are very small and have terrible tactile feedback, which makes using them a pain. On the other hand, the 3 buttons below the display (send, back, and end) have a nice feel and tactile feedback, making them a joy to use. The battery is a Lithium-Ion 900mah rated at 8 hours of talk time and 20 days of standby. The phone is very durable as well. In fact, this is the most durable phone I've ever owned (this thing is built like a tank!) I drop tested it to test the toughness, and It passed with flying colors. Call quality on the LG 800g was spectacular, callers sounding crisp on both ends of the call. The earpiece produced some nice tones and we didn't experience any dropped calls in our time with the 800g.
What's in the box:
- LG 800g
- Wall Charger
- 900mah battery
- Back cover
- Services Guide
- Activation Card
- SIM Card
Software:
The LG 800g runs a Java-based propriety operating system. It is very similar to Android in several ways. When you start the device, you are greeted by the home screen. This screen consists of nine application shortcuts that you can customize. Above these shortcuts are the connectivity icons, which are decent in size and are easy to read and look at. Swipe the screen to the left or right and you'll be brought to another home screen. This one is for your favorite contacts. At the bottom of both home screens are four non-customizable shortcuts that lead to the most used functions of the phone; phone, contacts, messages, and main menu. When you tap the main menu shortcut, you are brought to, you guessed it, the main menu! The main menu is similar to the app drawer in Android due to the fact that it lists all the applications on the device. There are a total of 23 applications that take up two pages. It has the usual TracFone stuff, like prepaid, recent calls, alarm, settings, calendar, etc. And of course it has all your usual tools like calculator, unit converter, stopwatch, and voice recorder. But it also has some other applications that you don't usually see on TracFones. The music player is one of these apps. Your music is organized into songs, albums, genres, and playlists. When you play a song, you view the cover art as well as playback controls. Sound quality through the built in speaker is loud and crisp. Another sort-of unusual app is My Stuff. This is basically a file manager and I'm glad LG included it. You can view everything that's on your internal and external memory very easily. The gallery application lets you see all the pictures and video that you have taken with the device in a nice, easy to use interface. The LG 800g includes a built-in HTML browser that is mediocre at best. The phone does not support WiFi, so you have to browse over TracFone's 2G Edge network. It is painfully slow. But the browser itself isn't all that bad; it has all the typical settings and options you would expect from a basic HTML browser but the 2G Edge speeds make it virtually unusable. The LG 800g supports Java games and apps, which are stored in the Games & Apps application. Most of them play well on the device, but there are a few that don't (Angry Birds). Two games are preinstalled (Containers Block and Castle Defense) and they play nicely as well.
Camera:
The LG 800g sports a 2 MP fixed focus camera lens. It does not have a flash, which makes photos in low light conditions awful. Even when you have ample lighting, photos taken with a camera are grainy and lack detail. Colors are a bit on the cold side and don't look very accurate. It has all the features I would I expect, such as the ability to adjust the white balance, brightness, resolution, and image quality (Super fine, fine, and normal). It also has a night mode, continuous shot mode, and self-timer. The camera has the ability to shoot video at the resolution of 176x144 (QCIF). Videos look horrible and lack any and all detail.
Conclusion:
The LG 800g is decent phone for TracFone. But when compared to other touch screen feature phones, the LG 800g just doesn't make the cut. The touch screen is terrible and the Java-based operating system is not very intuitive. But in the end, if you want a TracFone that has the triple minutes feature and has a decent calling and texting experience, along with a few extra features (Games, Camera, etc), then the LG 800g might be the TracFone for you.
*It is always possible that some specifications or facts may be incorrect. We try our best at MobileTechnology Reviews to provide accurate information, but we occasionally make mistakes. If you notice that something is wrong or incorrect, shoot us an email at [email protected] and we'll fix it!