Visible ZTE Blade A3 Prime

[smgrinus]

Anyone using this particular phone care to share their experience with it on Visible? Things like: The avg. battery life, scrolling smoothness, signal strength, etc. I'm looking to get off of my BYOP old iPhone 6s as the battery on it is nearly dead. I just do not have a lot to spend on a phone and need a very budget option.

[beav]

I have had this phone for the last six months. I keep wifi, location/GPS, and Bluetooth off the majority of the time. Most days I can go one-two days without recharging the battery. Scrolling is fine, Signal strength is fine. I do have an isse usually one time every one to two weeks where I can't make a call (service unavailable message on the screen). If I call *228 or reboot the phone, calls generally go through immediately again. For the price of swapping a phone, you can't beat the price.

[smgrinus]

Is the Android version stuck at stock or have you gotten security updates or the latest builds recently? 

[beav]

Stock, thought out the box it has 10. I believe I have received one update in six months, not counting any updates when the phone was new out of the box. I will look and tell you the current version it is on. 

I have a couple ideas for you:

Trade in a phone besides the iPhone (sometimes you will see when even a broken iPhone has a high trade in values) and try this phone out. 

If updates are important to you then you should look at the Pixel family or certain Samsung phones. Pixels get three years of updates from time of release, and Samsung because some of them are getting up to four years of updates. https://www.droid-life.com/2021/02/22/samsung-gets-even-better-at-security-updates-now-at-least-4-ye...

Though these will cost more out of pocket.

So, how do you sweeten the pot a little more?

Are you a member of Rakuten?

If not sign up here (this is a referral code):

https://www.rakuten.com/r/RAKUTE3083?eeid=28187

Make a purchase, and you will get $20 cash back.

Then using the link on Rakuten, go to Visible and buy a phone. You will get $60 back (warning, I don't know if this applies to the swap on the A3). Note that the $60 cash back may not last, last time Visible did this in February, it was for about three days.

Let's say you choose the Pixel 4a:

Phone		336
Mastercard		-150
Rakuten referral		-20
Rakuten cash back		-60
First month Visible		25
Second month Visible with a referral code		20
Net cost		151

Or the Moto E:

Phone		139
Mastercard		-50
Rakuten referral		-20
Rakuten cash back		-60
First month Visible		25
Second month Visible with a referral code		20
Net cost		54

Plus you get the free Amazon Fire Stick. 

If you do sign up with Visible, I would appreciate it if you would use my referral code: 

36mt7h

https://www.visible.com/referral/36mt7h

[smgrinus]

I'm already on Visible but thanks for all the great info. I don't think the swap program works for current users, only new users.

[bpositive]

Phone is good for normal use but if you are looking for the LTE speed, it is little bit slower than iphones or samsung.