TracFone ZTE Valet Android Cell Phone with Triple Minutes for Life

I ordered the phone after I checked on line on YOUR website if it would work in our zip code, but Tracfone informed me that I could not register this phone here. So I returned it. Please check with Tracfone before buying online on your website because the info is NOT correct.

As a low end smart phone the Valet actually worked reasonably well overall. My biggest gripe is that the screen goes dark and the only way to recover is to remove the battery. This was happening multiple times a day. Very undependable phone. Tried to contact ZTE via their web site and heard nothing back. This seems to be a common issue with this phone. Replaced the Valet with an LG Optimus Fuel, which I would highly recommend. I have had it for a couple of months and so far it has been a very good phone. Very responsive, Android Kitkat. Still a low end smart phone, but it does what I want it to when I need it to! Hasn't crashed once.

i bought this phone two years ago to use to control my home security system (iris from lowes). when the app would not work, i contacted the iris developer and asked for help. after several updates the app still did not work. I took the phone back to best buy and asked them to check it. they demonstrated that the app worked on another phone but could not get the zte valet to work the app. best buy exchanged my phone assuming that it was just a defective model. the new phone did not run the app either. for another year i struggled to find out why the app would not work. finally i bought another phone to test for myself. the app worked fine on the new phone. the zte valet phone is purposely limited in functionality and should be avoided.

This product is easy to function. It's a great phone for those learning the android program. The options that the phone carries are excellent. The fact that it comes with a (small but good) disc also makes it desirable for those new to phones who are learning it's expandable capabilities as well.

Generally speaking, this is a 3-star phone at best. It's not because of the low-end specs you'd expect at its discount price point -- 3G, 3.5" screen, 1 GHz single-core processor, blurry 3 megapixel camera with no autofocus -- all of which are fine with me. Actually, having Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and 4 GB of internal storage is kind of impressive. But a couple things are broken out of the box. The touch screen is insensitive and inconsistent, sometimes registering your fingers and sometimes not. The Wi-Fi is weak, barely able to see the router in your own living room. Apps and the camera sometimes crash, requiring a reboot to get them working again. There's also this quirk that causes it to randomly add extra home screens that I have to delete every few days. Annoying. Then after a while, stuff starts to break for real. At some point it starts spontaneously forgetting your settings (sounds, ringtones, vibration, screen rotation). Then the in-call menu starts being unstable, making it impossible to use the dialpad or speakerphone, or even hang up. For me, the final nail in the coffin (literally) came at the 8-month mark -- I stopped being able to speak into the phone. No matter who calls who, I can hear the other person but they can't hear me. So as far as being a phone, this one couldn't even make it to the 1-year mark. Pathetic. If you're thinking of the other three Tracfone models, keep in mind that two of them are even worse: -The Samsung Galaxy Centura ($130) has decent specs (Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, 1 GHz processor, more memory) but everyone says it's prone to randomly crashing, freezing, and forgetting what time it is. -The Huawei Glory ($100), which is even more broken. See any review for details. -The third one is the LG Optimus Dynamic II -- the only one that's worth even looking at. I replaced my Valet with it and am happy so far.