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Help Poor signal reception and wifi kills my battery

D

Dendroid123

Newbie
I am in a poor signal area but I really expected more from this android. I suppose with all the fancy features the phone part has kind of gone by the wayside. I know this is a CDMA phone but all my low end LG's were also CDMA and still had a couple bars out here in the sticks. The VALET nothing !!!
The signal I got out here with the low end LG's is from a local yocal cell provider. I have the phone system set to automatic because I know I would be roaming here. STILL NOTHING !!!!! !?!?!?!?!? When I go into town and am closer to a Verizon tower then I have signal. But even near the Verizon tower I have not seen full bars of signal !?!??! Ok I'll quit harping on that.

My other issue is with WIFI. When WIFI is turned on by battery life is probably 3 hours at the most !?!??! When WIFI is off then I get many more hours. WHAT THE HECK ??? I know my old 840G is GSM but I could have the WIFI on all the time and NEVER saw any reduced battery life !! WTF !?!?
Well that's the end of my rant.
Sorry first post. Be gentle !! Ha!
Dennis
 
I just had a thought. Is the ZTE VALET even capable of receiving signals that are not 3G ???
I remember when I was using my LG phone in this area I was receiving 1X signal ?
Is the ZTE VALET capable of receiving a 1X signal ??
thanks
 
Trust me if you can return the Valet do so. I've had mine for about 6 months and its been hell. 3-6 hours max battery life, need to be within 6 feet of my router to use wifi, usage not calculated correctly, and I could write a book about the POS that this phone is.

I will NEVER deal with ZTE or Tracfone ever again. It was my first foray into android and smartphones in general and had I not bought another device I would have hated android and smartphones.

I wish you the best and hope you can either return it or have enough cash to smash the hell out of it and buy a proper device. The MOTO G is usually available for around $70 on eBay and its a great alternative :)
 
Thanks for your post bigmac. I'm starting to think along those line also. I had a LG840G and the phone worked great. Unfortunately GSM service is this part of the country is very spotty. For now I am stuck with tracfone and would like a smart phone. But if these pathetic offerings is all tracfone has I may go back to a low end LG dumb phone.
Yes I have 30 days to return it and I think I will.
Do you know anything about the Samsung Galaxy Centura S738C ?
Or the Huawei Glory ??
Are these also as bad ?
Thanks
Dennis
 
My wife has the LG840 and it works great as a phone, just cant do much else with it. As far as I know all the other tracfones you mentioned perform about the same as the valet unfortunately.

Honestly you should return the valet while you still can. I absolutely hate the phone and trying to deal with tracfone. Best Buy has the moto g on prepaid Verizon for around $90 last time I was there. I think that's your cheapest option to get a phone that you can actually use and enjoy.

I wish you the best and hopefully someone else will chime in and offer other suggestions.
 
I have had mine for about 6 weeks. I haven't found wifi to be the biggest drain, however, I have the power bar installed on home screen so everything I don't need is turned off until I need it. I took a short drive trying out GPS, that drained the battery fast.
I have battery doctor installed, it's a free download. I use the phone very little for calls and got at least the 10 day standby time with everything off except phone calls. The wifi reception is ok, but not as good as my Kindle. As near as I can tell, nobody ever gets more than a couple of bars, but phone seems to work ok. Other people with other phones using Verizon also have low bars in same location.
I'm quite happy with it, I'll be taking a road trip this weekend so I'll know more about reception issues.
My previous LG phone was ok, but I could never hear it ring. Before that I had a Samsung. That was a good basic model but only single minutes. For me Tracfone is the best option.
 
Thanks for the reply Dave61430. Yes I also have the GPS turned off for the same reason. Pretty pathetic that you have to have all these wanted features turned off for the battery to last more than a few hours ;-(
My LG231C has 3 bars of 1x in this location (I just checked it) and when it was active I could make calls from here. The Valet has NO bars and when I try to make a call it says network not available. I have the Valet cell system set for automatic because I know it would be roaming. But still the LG231C could make emergency or other calls from here but not the Valet.
I too am stuck with tracfone, unfortunately. Well if all the other smartphone offerings are just about as bad I don't know what I will do. I live in a remote area and I absolutely have to be able to make emergency calls. So I guess I'm screwed and will have to go back to the LG231C.
 
I am in a strong cell signal area and my Valet uses verizon network. Even tho it only shows maybe 2 bars at home, it works fine.

Also, the GPS doesn't drain my battery that much. I've d/ld maps on wifi at home/on trips, used it to navigate to businesses, airports (1 hour +, maybe -10-20%) and didn't even turn on mobile data. My GPS is on all the time and I use maybe 5-10% of battery during a full day.

I do think the wifi receiving is weak; it works great at home but is dependent on a strong signal source.

I had lots of minutes when i transferred from my non-smart TracFone so for me at less than $7/mo, its a real bargain.
 
thanks pa_cap for the reply.
Well I just found out that once you transfer your minutes from a dumb/regular prepaid tracfone to a smartphone tracfone you're stuck. Tracfone will take all your minutes if you try to go back. Looks like I'm stuck with the valet.
My cell signal problem still may be caused by the mom/pop cell system we have here.
This sounds stupid but if I climb a ladder and set the phone to home only I can receive the verizon tower in town 20mi away. I know the local mom/pop cell system has a very strong signal here because I can pick it up on my old LG231C. So something in the smartphone is blocking the local signal.
Don't know what to do ?!??!?
Dennis
 
Well here's an update. I know now for sure it isn't a cell reception problem with the VALET. Tracfone will not let the new androids ROAM.
Also now I have all my minutes transferred to this android, tracfone will not let me transfer them back to a prepaid phone.
Now I have a phone that works WORSE than the cheap LG231C and I am stuck with it.
THANKS A LOT TRACFONE POS !!!
 
Its not a pos. You live in a poor reception area and the Android Tracfone only uses Verizon. I believe (and repeat believe) the earlier Tracfones used whatever signal was available. If this is true, that would account for the earlier phone working better. The point is all phones have problems in certain areas and it may be that due to your location you are out of luck with Verizon. Try to find a friend with a contract phone that uses Verizon and compare. I did this when I first got this item and never saw more than two bars and indeed other Verizon users showed similar, but except for in my local hospital (where my LG wouldn't work), the Valet has always worked. Just got back from a long weekend in Mags Head, NC and reception was fine. My daughters Samsung with Verizon service showed same number of bars.
The wifi on the Samsung is definitely better. Personally I have always run out on the 3 month time limit with minutes left over. Now I'll have all 3 items left over. Everyone has to figure out their own needs and purchase accordingly, I use the phone very little.
Good luck with whatever you get and keep us updated.
 
You are absolutely right Dave. My other prepaid phone was able to connect with the local carriers tower.
I suppose the local carrier doesn't give roaming rights to tracfone.
The valet is not going to be useful as an emergency phone in out of the way places that is for sure. I was wrong about the reception being bad because on occasion I can receive the Verizon tower from town 20 miles away.
This was a PRL prefered roaming list problem ;-(
But I do like the Valet anyway. It's stock browser is better than the other phones. You just have to be fairly close to wifi.
 
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