ZTE Valet terrible Wifi

[urdrwho]

My wife bought me a ZTE Valet for Christmas to replace my LG P506. I read reviews where people complained of poor Wifi but I thought that it was probably just weak router beacons. Nope, it is the ZTE.

In places where my LG gets a full set of wifi bars, the ZTE Valet receives 1 or 2 bars. At Starbucks where I sit at the outside table the LG connects just fine but the ZTE Valet can't even find the signal.

I like the phone for everything else, it is Jellybean, is responsive but I can't stand a poor wifi signal.

I have an old cheap Pandigital laying around that can connect in places the ZTE Valet can not connect.

Why would thy have made such a weak Wifi receiver. Bad mistake and this puppy is going back to the store.

 

[Rukbat]

Could also be that, due to the way they're making them, the wifi antenna isn't actually connecting to the wifi receiver. Samsung has a problem in some phones that requires bending the antenna contacts a little tighter. (It's the GPS antenna there, but the same idea.)

Or it could just be a badly designed wifi receiver.

 

[urdrwho]

From the multitude of comments about bad Wifi I think it is a poor design.

You find remarks such as ---

"The reception of Wi Fi is not strong. Requires closer setting than hoped for. "

"I have noticed that the WiFi range doesn't seem to be as good as with my other wireless devices."

"I had to reposition my wireless router into the room I most often use my ZTE in to get a signal that didn't periodically drop out."

ZTE should do a quick fix to the Valet or it will very quickly get a bad reputation for bad Wifi. After Christmas you'll have a lot of Tracfone people trying to use this thing and will find great disappointment with the Wifi.

I have a lot of accumulated Tracfone minutes from my GSM phone. I don't like the new Smartphone Tracfone scheme. Your minutes are split between talk/text/data. Before a Test was .03 minutes but the new smartphone fee would take an entire minute of your test time. Sure you get triple minutes but if like me, you aren't a big data user, I am paying for something I will never use. I'm thinking of just giving up the accumulated Tracfone minutes and going with my wife's AT&T no contract deal. She pays $25 a quarter for text/talk/no-data. I am not a big talker on my cell and I think the AT&T may work for me.

I do know that the ZTE Valet wot work for me.

Could also be that, due to the way they're making them, the wifi antenna isn't actually connecting to the wifi receiver. Samsung has a problem in some phones that requires bending the antenna contacts a little tighter. (It's the GPS antenna there, but the same idea.)

Or it could just be a badly designed wifi receiver.