ZTE Valet TracPhone

Looks like a good choice, especially for those who may not have used a smartphone before. Now you just need to download the Dropbox app for both the ZTE and iPad, so your photos will be auto uploaded/synced between each other when connected to WiFi.

Rangerider wrote:
Chopper,
I upgraded my old Motorola C139 to the ZTE last week and so did DW. Like you, we are not big users, occasional phone call, occasional text, and hardly any data. I had over 2000 minutes accrued on my old phone! Transfer was easy – just called Tracfone and they walked me thru it. I just needed the red card from the phone package and my phone number. It is a learning curve for us as you can imagine. So far we are happy. Our current phone numbers transferred, our eligible minutes transferred and we got 3x vs 2x for same price. Got the phone for 50 bucks at Best Buy. Guy there answered most of our questions about it before we bought it. Hope this helps.

Good review! Wifi not using data is going to save a lot also. Most other reviews give em four stars. Picking mine up from BB as soon as I get out of this stinking hip brace!

Chopper,
I upgraded my old Motorola C139 to the ZTE last week and so did DW. Like you, we are not big users, occasional phone call, occasional text, and hardly any data. I had over 2000 minutes accrued on my old phone! Transfer was easy – just called Tracfone and they walked me thru it. I just needed the red card from the phone package and my phone number. It is a learning curve for us as you can imagine. So far we are happy. Our current phone numbers transferred, our eligible minutes transferred and we got 3x vs 2x for same price. Got the phone for 50 bucks at Best Buy. Guy there answered most of our questions about it before we bought it. Hope this helps.

Thanks Tom, I was just going to reply to that. Here is the info. And that is for 90 days, not 30. By the way, Best Buy and a few others have that zte phone for half the price as Walmart.
I have absolutely no interest in text and very little interest in data as the phone has wifi, which is readily available. Straight talk plan with 100 minutes talk for $30 for only 30 days is WAY over priced for my use.

1775 wrote:
With Tracfone your data usage is using your minutes - so if you have a 60 minute card with triple minutes you are getting 60 minutes of talk, 60 minutes of text, and 60 mb of data.

From TracFone's web site:
Q: How will the triple minutes work with Android smartphones?

A: When you purchase a TracFone Android smartphone, we triple every airtime card you buy. For example, if you buy a 200 minute card, you will get 600 minutes for talk, 600 texts and 600 MB of data.

I have a TracFone and like the service. I am thinking of upgrading to one of their Android phones but can't find one in stores. I could order one but would like to check out an actual phone before buying.

With Tracfone your data usage is using your minutes - so if you have a 60 minute card with triple minutes you are getting 60 minutes of talk, 60 minutes of text, and 60 mb of data. This is fine if you don't use much data - but if you don't use much data you don't really need a smartphone. There are better no-contract plans than Tracfone. Straight Talk will give you unlimited voice, unlimited text, and unlimited data for $45 a month. If you purchase one of their phones and plan at a Walmart store look on the Straight Talk box lower left corner for CDMA-V and your phone and service provider will be Verizon through Straight Talk. There are various phones and providers through Straight Talk all indicated by the code on the lower left corner of the box - GSM is usually TMobile, CDMA-V is Verizon, CDMA-S is Sprint, and LTE can be either ATT or TMobile. PLUS Straight Talk is a subsidiary of Tracfone.

And there are even better plans - I have TMobile through a phone purchased at Walmart that gives me 100 talk minutes, unlimited Text, and unlimited data with up to 5 Gb of the data at 4G or LTE (depending on the phone) all for $30 a month. Need more minutes - $10 for another 100 in the month.

Tracfone looks appealing but you can do better for less.

My wife and I both have Tracfone ZTE Valet smartphones. We use them a lot, and they've been trouble free for us so far. The only real complaint I have about them, is the lack of a magnetometer, meaning none of the compass based apps work, including the satellite finder apps. Overall though, we've been very pleased with them, and especially the low cost of using them on the Verizon network.