AT&T Z431 Cell Phone - 3G, GSM, Quadband, Qualcomm Processor, QWERTY Keyboard, 2.4" Display, 2.0MP Camera, microSD Slot, Bluetooth, Web Browser, Email, GPS, MP3/MP4 Player (Pre-Paid)
66 of 68 people found the following review helpful.
By Anthony J. Rapino
I guess the first thing you have to realize is this: it's not a smart phone. It seems as though all phones are held up to smart phone standards these days, and it can be hard to filter through the reviews of people expecting an iphone when they buy a "basic" phone.
This phone does what it's supposed to. Calls are clear and easy to hear. The AT&T network is much better around my house than the Verizon network was, but I suspect that will vary from user to user. The battery life seems pretty great so far. Text messaging works as it should. All the settings are easy to change and customize.
There are a few nit picks I have:
When a text comes in, it just says "new message," but doesn't say who it's from. Not a deal breaker, but a slight annoyance as I do like to know who is sending me a message prior to opening it.
The qwerty keyboard is smaller than I'm used to, but not too bad. I imagine people with large hands would have trouble with it though. I'm getting used to it pretty quickly.
The phone feels fairly light in weight, and it looks nice. There are a bunch of internet features that I don't use because I only have the $25 a month plan, so I can't speak to their functionality. Though my gut is telling me if you're looking for a phone that works really well with aps and internet functions, you might want to look elsewhere.
One other thing I've been having trouble with (and this is more likely the AT&T service, not the phone), but I can't seem to figure out how to check my minutes usage on the phone. I've been going to the AT&T online account page to check it. The phone numbers they provide for accessing this info on the phone hasn't worked for me, though I'm not sure why. Again, I'm not deducting any stars for this since it's probably not the phone.
The camera and video on this are an afterthought, and since I have other devices for that use, I'll probably never use it with this phone. But if you're looking for a great camera phone, this isn't it.
There's also a standard headphone jack so you can use this as a mp3 player. I haven't used this feature yet, but I imagine it functions as expected.
Overall, this is a great little phone for someone looking for a cheap, basic phone. Paired with the $25 monthly gophone account (on auto-renewal), it has saved me about $35 a month from my previous plan.
EDIT (12/22/12): After a few more days of use, there are a couple other little bothersome things about this phone (some of which were mentioned by other reviewers). First, there *is* a one or two second hesitation after a text comes in, when I'm waiting for the "new message" alert to pop up so I can click it. I didn't really notice at first, but as I've texted more and more, it becomes apparent that I'm sitting there waiting for the alert to appear.
Another thing is that after you reply to a text, rather than bouncing you out to the main screen, it goes back to the message you just replied to. So then I have to back out to the main screen manually. And even though there is a "conversation" selection, I haven't figured out a way for the texts to automatically come in conversation mode. Rather, it seems it's only if you select it after the fact.
I know that seems like a lot of negatives, but really they aren't any big deal. Just some things I've noticed as I use the phone. I still consider it a 4 star phone for the price.
21 of 21 people found the following review helpful.
By Jennifer Laurent
My husband needs simplicity when it comes to mobile phones. This phone allowed him to have a full QWERTY keyboard to text our children without the need to move to a smartphone and incur extra data monthly charges.
35 of 40 people found the following review helpful.
By J. Suarez
Simple, easy to use and manageable. Some people complain about the slight lag time when executing commands or the fact that it won't display the name of the message sender. Well let me tell you, for the price you are getting a quality item. I have also noticed that it does not glitch as most of the newer ones do. If you want a reliable, simple, high tech phone then you will enjoy this one.
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