Verizon Zte Cymbal Lte 4gb Prepaid Cell Phone Reviews

If you miss 2007-era flip phones, don't miss the ZTE Cymbal-T ($99.99). Information technology's large, it'due south weird, it's imperfect, and it's merely bachelor on TracFone. But information technology's as well the only device of its kind, a flip phone with a traditional number pad, but with total Android 5.ane.1 app compatibility. Nosotros've occasionally seen Android flips in Asia, but this is the first one we've really seen for auction in the United states. That makes it worth a look for curiosity seekers, nostalgia fiends, and smartphone newbies.

Service and Physical Features

Here'southward where you might decide to stop reading: The Cymbal-T is a TracFone exclusive, running on the Verizon Wireless LTE network. Information technology is incommunicable to unlock and will not piece of work with any other service, not even Verizon'south own. TracFone is a prepaid carrier with a circuitous system of "airtime cards," "triple minutes," and percentage discounts that brand its service unusually difficult to figure out. Its rates also tend to be a trivial higher than other prepaid carriers: for instance, 750 minutes, i,000 texts, and 1GB is $35, while Cricket'due south 1GB program is $30.

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Just let's talk virtually the phone. To start, the Cymbal-T is huge. Closed, information technology'due south 4.7 past 2.iv by 0.7 inches (HWD); open, information technology's 8.75 inches long. That'due south considering the top half contains a dim little 3.v-inch, 320-by-480 affect screen to run Android. Information technology weighs 5.82 ounces.

The three traditional Android navigation buttons take been turned into physical buttons on the bottom half of the keypad; there are besides physical buttons for the music player, email, camera, pick-upwardly, hang-up, and a mute button. The phone actually takes a lot of what's virtual about Android and makes it concrete, which is helpful for newcomers. The keypad is excellent, with large, well-divers physical keys that are hard to mis-press. As with older flip phones, there'southward as well a tiny black-and-white 128-by-64 display on the outside that shows time, engagement, point, bombardment, and caller ID information. If y'all're playing music, it shows the vocal.

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Let'due south talk about text entry. By default, messaging apps on this phone pop up a very tiny on-screen keyboard, which only operates in portrait style. Y'all can peck out words, download additional Android keyboards, or use the number pad for triple tap or a foreign hybrid predictive text, where y'all dial out words as if it's T9, merely have to tap on the resulting give-and-take on the screen. It'south non the best text entry method past whatever means, but it'south not awful.

Calls and Battery

Call quality is important, and it's surprisingly good given how far the microphone is from your mouth. The earpiece is loud, and the tone is harsh—in that location's no Hard disk drive Voice, Wi-Fi calling, or VoLTE—but it's very comprehensible. I was pleasantly surprised by how well the mic cancels background dissonance. The speakerphone works while the phone is open or closed, and it'due south loud enough to exist heard outdoors. When you holler through it, information technology doesn't sound like you're at the bottom of a well. Bluetooth and wired headsets both connect just fine.

The telephone runs on the Verizon network, although TracFone's version is conspicuously speed-limited. It also has single-band, ii.4GHz Wi-Fi, and for Internet access, I mostly used the Wi-Fi.

The telephone's issue on our video streaming battery test, 6 hours 16 minutes, isn't bad at all. You lot'll want to recharge it every ii days or so—it'south a smartphone, after all—but the small screen makes upward for the relatively tiny 1,800mAh battery.

Android and Performance

The Cymbal-T has a Snapdragon 210 processor and 1GB of RAM. It runs a pretty stock version of Android v.ane.1, although it'southward conspicuously been rewired to work with all the physical keys. The keys are used really intelligently—in the photographic camera app, for case, you can employ the physical select key as a shutter button.

The phone is a bit sluggish and benchmarks similarly to other low-terminate phones, like the Alcatel Streak , simply with i key difference. Game performance is surprisingly snappy because the screen is and then low-res, although you'll want to use games similar Temple Run that work in portrait style. Landscape games, like Angry Birds, make you plow the phone sideways, and information technology becomes unbalanced and rather hard to handle.

It'due south style too easy to use up the phone's 3.23 GB of available internal storage with apps, specially if you're also taking photos and caching music. You lot're going to accept to sock in a microSD carte—it read our 64GB card with no problem—and move apps and media to the memory card, which you tin do via the Settings app. Or, since this phone is conspicuously designed for the not-so-tech-savvy, you just don't load a lot of apps on it. If all you're trying to run is Skype to talk to the grandkids, you'll be fine.

Speaking of Skype: It's pretty much what the cameras on here are for. Technically, there's a ii-megapixel front end photographic camera and a 5-megapixel rear photographic camera. They're both very 2007—often blurry, with no low-low-cal performance to speak of. They capture 720p video at 30 frames per 2d outdoors, but frame rates drop sharply in depression light, to 15fps with the main camera and a jerky 7fps with the front end-facing camera. On the other mitt, your pictures will auto-upload to Google Photos, if you lot want—a standard Android characteristic, simply something no other flip telephone does.

Comparisons and Conclusions

Comparison other phones with the ZTE Cymbal-T isn't easy. Yes, there are flip phones out in that location similar the Jitterbug Flip , merely they don't run Android apps. There are unproblematic Android phones similar the Doro 824 , simply they don't have a difficult keypad. The Freetel Musashi and Samsung Milky way Folder are comparable—they're both Android-powered flips—but they aren't available on the United states market.

I know this review might audio a niggling harsh for a device that admittedly made the phone geek in me bleat with glee. I just want you lot to know what y'all're getting into hither. There'due south a sure niche who will flock to this phone—thosewho miss physical buttons with a vengeance and don't use apps heavily, but want to be able to bank check Facebook feeds or video conversation on the go. If that's you, the Cymbal-T is unlikely to disappoint.

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Source: https://www.pcmag.com/reviews/zte-cymbal-t