ZTE Zephyr z752c Review

So, This is my first review, and I wanted to do it on a device that I've had a lot of experience with. Why not start with my own personal phone. Just to be clear here, I was underwhelmed with this device from the beginning mainly because when I bought it it was $80 plus tax. It's had a significant markdown though, so it might be worth it to someone out there. For $19.99 from Walmart, you do get some bang for your buck: the device has a reasonably large glass screen at about 2" x 4" , and in general it's well constructed. It has a rubber-coated plastic backing that feels really nice in your hand, and it looks like it should sell for much more than $20. Sadly, that's about where it ends.

The box runs Android 4.4. Personally, I've been a long time Kitkat fanboy. I love the way the OS runs, and how accessible and intuitive it is (usually). That is not the case with this phone. The operating system running on this phone is the carrier version (which is standard; all carriers run their own versions), and I usually adore the OSes that ZTE put out. But this OS is a mess, and the UI is very sub-par in my opinion. I much preferred the UI on the LG Optimus Fuel. It wasn't as stylish, but it had a much MUCH better feel. The lower level stuff is a mess; I can't stand the filesystem on this phone, and there are so many inconsistencies. Files that you've saved WILL disappear, and reappear in new directories, there is NO OS support for the SD card, and the OS generates a LOT of clutter. This device contains a severely butchered port of the Kitkat operating system.

The "big selling points" this device has is mainly its hardware. It DOES sport a dual-core processor running at 1.2 GHz per core (Like the Optimus Fuel), and a "full" gigabyte of RAM (the Optimus Fuel has 512 MB), and they both support a resolution of 480p. So basically, the only downsides to having an Optimus is the memory is cut in half, and I think (I just THINK) that the Optimus has a resistive touch screen. Here is the price of the Optimus now.

*909 MB is what the device runs, but the system takes up over 70% of all available memory.

**Also read about the ZTE's GPU Here.

Like I said earlier, I've had this device for about a year and it's not rooted. Why? I don't really know. I couldn't find any help online, and everything I've done has been an utter failure. There were some instance in which I'd use KingRoot and I'd get "root" until the device rebooted. Sometimes the root wouldn't even stick even though the device was booted. Every time I got a successful root the device started acting strange too. It became very sluggish to the point where I'd need a reboot. And I actually figured out why this happens: every time "su" is called by the shell, the system throws a segmentation fault. That's as far as I've gotten though.