Cricket’s ZTE Sonata 4G One Month Review

My one month review of the Sonata 4G from ZTE from Cricket. Aka z740g

Battery – 1785 mAh
Processor – 1.4 GHz Dual-Core Qualcomm® MSM8230
RAM – 1 GB
ROM – 4 GB
Camera – 5 MP (backside only, No front camera)
Resolution – 480×800
OS – Android 4.1.2 (Jelly Bean)

Preface
So Cricket’s parent company got sold to AT&T and everyone who was on Cricket’s CDMA signal has to switch over to AT&T’s GSM phones. I was on the edge about moving from my Samsung Galaxy Admire II. I knew that we still had 5 months before we would have to make the switch, decided to just go right ahead and not wait until the last minute. I made the change.For more on the Cricket AT&T AIO Merger.
I shopped for the best processor, lowest cost, most storage fastest boot/reboot.

My budget (this is the budget tech review website so deal with it) was to spend between $80-$150. My total cost was $75.78 that covered the phone and my first month on the Cricket/AT&T GSM network.
First app I noticed was a task manager that none of my previous Android phones had, without me having to root the Sonata. Next thing I found is I can move apps to the SD to save storage space on the phone, and yes completely without having to root the phone.

Camera
Disappointing that I didn’t notice there was no front facing camera. but if you need a selfie, you can do a shelfie. Just set the timer (click the gear in camera mode you will see it) and set the camera to 3,5,10 seconds and back up and pose. When done, crop the image.This works well with my case that came with a stand. but again, it takes a whole lot of pictures before you get one decent photo. A BUNCH OF PHOTOS.
Screenshot_2014-09-24-21-51-56
There was much more to learn. So I had to dig into the camera and see what it is capable of.
First 10 photos came out very poor.
I even tried a few of my best tricks. Like hold the phone braced firmly against a tree or a wall or rested on a table. Still blurry.
I tried a few changes in the setting but everything by default was set up to the best settings.
The zoom… the zoom was like the first issue of android. A slider bar at the bottom of the screen. No pinch zoom.
The video camera shoots at very high resolution and the slider zoom feature is great. but clunkier and has a bad focus rate as compared to pinch zoom cell phone cameras.
Do not shoot video footage of concerts. The audio is horrendous. The audio/noise filters (maybe???) seem to try too hard to cancel noise and you are left with what sounds like a concert in a wind storm. Here is a comparison of the Sonata ZTE Z740G camera verses iPhone 4s camera.

Actual phone function
Sounds are clear. When people speak you hear everything they say and no one ever asks you to repeat yourself. No chop in audio at all.

Video play back
This phone has the clearest video I have seen as of yet. Loads all sorts of sites and I didn’t have to load any apps to the phone. No plugins needed. Just right out of the box loading every video on Reddit and Facebook I would stumble into. There is a download button on one of the video players . This lets you watch and download a lot of different videos.

Web Browser
Web browser on the ZTE Sonata is frustratingly jumpy. Pages keep loading and jumping all over the place. I suggest you install Opera or Opera mini. Either will be fine and solve this jumping issue. Forget all of the other cell phone web browser. Opera is the king of cell phone web browsers.

Video Games
Have not yet found a game that will make this phone stutter. Every game plays well.

Video display
The screen frustrates me. You have only one angle to view from. Move too high up and you lose visibility. Move too far right and the screen gets white and fonts are hard to read. Move left and screen gets super dark.

Battery life
Ehh nothing special. battery drains just as fast as all of my other phones. You get around 8 hours of battery life if you don’t touch your Sonata. Play any games or browse Reddit or Facebook, you’ll be on the charger in under an hour, completely drained in 2 hours.

Resources
Not understanding this. The ZTE Sonata seems to not handle resources very well. I don’t see anything lagging or stuttering, but looking at the task manager, the Sonata seems to always be using more than half of it’s R.A.M., even if I go through the task manager tabs to disable applications.

Reception

The phone picks up a great signal and nearly never is without a signal. but this is AT&T so we are looking at dropped calls seemingly for no reason what-so-ever.

Function
Along with dropped calls, there is a constant need to reboot. Called Cricket and they told me to just pull the sim card out and replace it. Me being a person who has been on AT&T (who owns Cricket now) a few times, I know better than to do this. You will wear out that sim card pretty quick. The main trick is to get you to do a full shut down and take the battery out for a few seconds (go ahead and leave it out for about a minute) and replace the battery then reboot. This does it for you nearly every single time. No logic in taking the sim card out at all.

Final overall
IMHO this is a decent phone. Looks and feels like a strange knock off of the Samsung Galaxy Admire II.
ZTE_Sonata
The back button is in an unusual (sort of stupid) spot, unless you are left handed. In fact a few things about this phone would be beneficial to lefties. Like the power connector. If you are right handed and use the phone for wide screen while on the charger, the cable points straight up. So you are battling the power chord.
App shortcuts keep disappearing. Constantly. but they might just be the apps that have been moved to the sd card. and this could be during updates.

Review score of ZTE Sonata:
Cost: 10/10
Camera: 3/10
Display: 3/10
Video Playback: 10/10
Battery life: 7/10
Resource life: 5/10

Total Score of the ZTE Sonata: 6/10

 

 

**update**

Programs are crashing left and right. This thing loses wifi constantly. I get notifications of apps closing like every 20 minutes. I just turn the thing off when I am at work so I am not looking at phone every 3 minutes. There was an update about the same time the Starbucks app updated and everything crashed so I think it is an overall issue with the phone and whatever default programs are on it, one of them updated and is causing complications with other apps. because it isn’t just the Starbucks app crashing.

The camera is a bit better than I expected, there are tons of settings in the menu area, from iso to saturation to contrast setting. This camera is great really.
Dark settings ISO 1600
Bright settings ISO 60
Turn everything in the “image” section down to 1/3 or a tad bit less. Adjust accordingly with location and lighting.
sonata_camera_settings
Default image save file type is .png

Mobile device and internet price

I read a post on reddit (which linked to this article) that covers a few of the topics I have covered before. This brought up an issue I am having. This issue is with my cell carrier charging me more for less.
Seriously I don’t see why so many people pretend this isn’t going on. My only guess is everyone really wants to pretend they are so wealthy, they don’t worry about stuff. Or they figure they can’t do anything about the issue so they won’t discuss it and assure someone else they notice the issue, so something can get started to solve it.
The issue. Is bandwidth limits. 4 gigs.
what can you do with 2-4 gigs a month?
Not dang thing.
Except check email.
Facebook has too many pictures. You should hit your cap before the end of the month all year round.
but the trick is, you upgrade your phone to a phone that can only use 4G and now your unlimited internet is capped at 2-4 gigs a month. and my carrier will not allow me to switch back to 3g for this phone. My cell phone provider says my phone won’t work on 3g because my cell phone is specifically made for 4g. So their website wouldn’t even let me register the phone I had until I would call and change my service plan. Since the 3g cell phone I had couldn’t use 4 g it wouldn’t let me change my plan. Imagine how those phone calls went when I was speaking to Stewy in the middle east..So now I am on a 4g plan that costs slightly more than my 3g plan was… Which was unlimited, and of course when I am in an area that doesn’t have 3g, the internet status on the phone shows that I am running at 3g or whatever is available.
Seriously. I do not see much difference between 4g and 3g. at all. Signal isn’t better. bandwidth might be a tad faster on the stats tests, but youtube still loads like hell.
Something posted on reddit on this issue.

They’re like drug dealers “here, have better stronger faster internets on your little squint device, at the same price as your home device… but you can only have so much a month, unless you pay more”.

This mentality is as if there is a limited amount of internet “sorry sir but your internet baggy is now empty, pay more and we will refill it for you, only so much per person”.

as if they are conserving something.

Truth is. If they leave their bandwidth at one current speed and not increase to faster,The more their use goes up, would reflect more customers are signing up. It’s not our fault they increased their speed.

I mean really , how fast do you need to load a 6kb m.xxx.com website?

The whole thing is a f-ing scam.

Someone seemingly fighting this battle all alone for a while now.

2009 saying same thing

2010 saying same thing

2012 saying same thing

and it seems to be coming more and more true.

Later in 2012

We’re all feeding a corporate beast in denial. To hide our sham e of being so gullible we tell ourselves we like it and need it and take it to the next level of upgrading and updating our phones and other mobile devices to the latest and greatest as soon as it comes out. That’s $400 each time. That’s two or three times a year. We want people to think we are on top of things and smart. Truth is, if we were smart we would know that these devices do nothing but waste our valuable time and ruin our eyesight doing it. Yet here we are. You on your iPad, either agreeing or disagreeing with me.

Hands On Droid Bionic


The feel of the Droid Bionic is of good quality. This phone is pretty heavy, so it’s weight is greater than what the Bionic looks like it would weight. 5.60 oz is pretty heavy for 5.02″ x 2.63″ x 0.43″ dimensions. 4.30″ screen area quite large. Compared to any other android or Iphones I have held, this thing is the big screen tv of cell phones. The 1080p 8mp camera is probably the largest bonus. Software moved smooth and fast. Response and reaction super fast. All other android phones I have held moved nothing like the Droid Bionic. I saw none of the freezing I normally see on my Android. really makes me not like my ZIO. At all.
4g fast, just like using wifi on my comcast connection at home.

Hands on Verizon Iphone

The Verizon Iphone has been released. and seeing that I am the only Android user in the office I am in, I am surround in Iphones and blackberries. Today I get my chance to have my hands on the Verizon Iphone. Signal looks very strong. The feel is no different from the AT&T Iphone 4. There used to be one person in the office that used Android phones other than myself, but she got hold of an Iphone (3rd or what ever…older than iphone 4) and Jailbroke it and hacked the crud out of it to use on the Tmobile network. I feel betrayed, wish she made a droid of it.

Verizon Iphone Picture

Signal is strong, feel is very new and kinda heavy, feels like money’s worth


Verizon Import Contacts APp

Outer casing $20 extra, probably worth way more than that, the phone looks easy to scratch, but I didn’t try and scratch my friend’s new toy.


Verizon Iphone

To start, it’s 3g.
to back up your contacts, get the app VZ contacts, it’s much easier than anything teh salesman tries to give you.

My friend was a month from upgrade but wanted the Iphone. Had been using same phone for 4 years, (some samsung or what ever ). asked to get upgrade was told he couldn’t at a discount. He told them that would be fine he will just go to AT&T across the street get the 4g Iphone and pay off his last month at Verizon and that he was not attached to that phone number.
After a bit of discussion “with the manager” the salesman “found a loop hole”. He got his Verizon Iphone for $199.
Verizon’s  Insurance from a regular phone to an Iphone changed from $4.99 to $10.99, Other fees are still the same. To his knowledge. Here is the at&T 4g

AT&T IPhone

The AT&T Iphone In the same building and this is the Iphone 4

Should be 4g but some reason says 3g, signal might be low? Can they jump networks like that? I know my blackberry on Tmobile would go edge and then go 3g,Depending on my location, nearest tower, and interference conditions. So I assume that’s is what’s going on here.

Jailbrok T-Mobile Iphone

The Tmobile Jailbroke Iphone while in the same building. All apps work Signal is fine

FYI, This Post created on my (outdated) G1 using The wordpress app fr Android.

Android G2 Phone is out now

Looks like a nice phone but the keyboard looks tiny. Specs 512 megs of ram is amazing and a 4 gig storage on board is crazy goodness. all the aps you cant install on older droid phones. plus an 8 gb mem card expandable to 32 gigs. ME WANT!

The wait is over. The T-Mobile(R) G2(TM) is here.
Get ready for a whole new type of speed, control, and access. Designed for blazing-fast 4G speeds on our new network,* the T-Mobile G2 comes loaded with Google Apps™, including Android Market™, and the new Voice Actions from Google™, which lets you control just about everything on the phone with only your voice.
• 4G speeds*
• Loaded with Google Apps
• Integrated Google Voice™
The new T-Mobile G2 is the fast way to get the information you want. Get yours today.

4g speeds on a droid.
* Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ MSM7230 mobile processor
* Slide-out QWERTY keyboard, unique Z-hinge design
* Android 2.2 OS
* 3.7” S-TFT WVGA display
* 512 MB of RAM, 4 GB of internal memory
* 8-GB SD card, expandable to 32 GB
* 5-megapixel camera with LED flash and autofocus
* 720p HD video capture
* Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n
* Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR + A2DP stereo
* 3.5-mm stereo headset
* 4.68” (L) x 2.38” (W) x .58” (H)
* Weight: 6.5 ounces
* Included battery: 1300 mAh Li-ion
* Talk time: up to 6.5 hours
* Standby time: up to 17.5 days

That keyboard is just way to tiny.