Telstra/Zte 165 'country phone' review...

**hoe** · 31-01-08, 01:59 PM

I have read a lot of comments on next g/zte phones, mostly unsubstantiated, so i thought i would share my experiences.....

here in w.a., there is really no choice but telstra if you want decent coverage. I had a cdma for years, but the phone died about 12 months ago and i was forced to 'upgrade' to 'next g'.

At the time, i purchased a zte 150 and corresponding car kit. In the early days, there were lots of problems with dropped calls, phones not ringing and calls going direct to messagebank etc...

a lot of these were blamed on the phones, but it would seem most problems were network related. eg. every time i drove north from kalgoorlie into leonora, where there is a gsm/next g service, i would get no signal(on the zte 150) unless i manually selected wcdma or gsm. either one would then show a full signal. this would happen for about 6 months, then all of a sudden the problem disapeared, same phone, same firmware. this would indicate that they were having problems with the network.

In the early days of next g i used to manually switch the phone to gsm while in town and to auto when in the car kit travelling. that way i got the most reliable service.

Recently with the expansion of my business i needed to buy more phones, so i decided on the telstra/zte 165, as i already had kits fitted to a couple of vehicles and a cradle replacement was all that was needed. Also the 165 has a loud ring and big buttons and suits my needs.

Performance:

The 165 has vastly superior coverage to any phone i have tried before, including cdma. That is not to say nextg is better than cdma for coverage, it is not. But the 165 with car kit, using the same antenna as my cdma phone was, has continuous coverage from kalgoorlie to menzies(check the map) and only drops out in one spot (for around 10km) between menzies and leonora. the cdma phone dropped out in 2 spots between kalgoorlie and menzies and for about 50km between menzies and leonora.

the cdma and next g services are all located on the same towers , so location is not the difference. on the other hand, if i head west or east from kalgoorlie to a minesite etc, cdma has better coverage.....

this combined with the fact that next g phones also roam to gsm, makes them far superior to cdma(for my purposes), as a lot of minesites/small towns in wa have gsm only towers.

The call drops/no ring problems seem to have disappeared as well, i have not had a single problem lately.

yes, the zte phones have a somewhat quirky menu, and the 'join me' software is buggy, but if you want a phone that works very well in country areas (particularly with a car kit), has a loud ring, big buttons and even has a 2 megapixel camera, then i can recommend the 165.

No, it's not a nokia and doesn't have lots of features, but as a phone it works very well.

Data:

I also use the 165 as a modem with my eee pc while on the road, and it works very well indeed (hspda 3.6mbps) and can get sustained download speeds around 215 kbps in some areas.

generally in Kalgoorlie i can only get around 50 kbps, due to network congestion.

**cwispy** · 31-01-08, 04:01 PM

Nice post Hoe. I'm sure someone will find this information useful.

**caebryn** · 07-07-10, 09:08 PM

Originally Posted by hoe

I have read a lot of comments on next g/zte phones, mostly unsubstantiated, so i thought i would share my experiences.....

here in w.a., there is really no choice but telstra if you want decent coverage. I had a cdma for years, but the phone died about 12 months ago and i was forced to 'upgrade' to 'next g'.

At the time, i purchased a zte 150 and corresponding car kit. In the early days, there were lots of problems with dropped calls, phones not ringing and calls going direct to messagebank etc...

a lot of these were blamed on the phones, but it would seem most problems were network related. eg. every time i drove north from kalgoorlie into leonora, where there is a gsm/next g service, i would get no signal(on the zte 150) unless i manually selected wcdma or gsm. either one would then show a full signal. this would happen for about 6 months, then all of a sudden the problem disapeared, same phone, same firmware. this would indicate that they were having problems with the network.

In the early days of next g i used to manually switch the phone to gsm while in town and to auto when in the car kit travelling. that way i got the most reliable service.

Recently with the expansion of my business i needed to buy more phones, so i decided on the telstra/zte 165, as i already had kits fitted to a couple of vehicles and a cradle replacement was all that was needed. Also the 165 has a loud ring and big buttons and suits my needs.

Performance:

The 165 has vastly superior coverage to any phone i have tried before, including cdma. That is not to say nextg is better than cdma for coverage, it is not. But the 165 with car kit, using the same antenna as my cdma phone was, has continuous coverage from kalgoorlie to menzies(check the map) and only drops out in one spot (for around 10km) between menzies and leonora. the cdma phone dropped out in 2 spots between kalgoorlie and menzies and for about 50km between menzies and leonora.

the cdma and next g services are all located on the same towers , so location is not the difference. on the other hand, if i head west or east from kalgoorlie to a minesite etc, cdma has better coverage.....

this combined with the fact that next g phones also roam to gsm, makes them far superior to cdma(for my purposes), as a lot of minesites/small towns in wa have gsm only towers.

The call drops/no ring problems seem to have disappeared as well, i have not had a single problem lately.

yes, the zte phones have a somewhat quirky menu, and the 'join me' software is buggy, but if you want a phone that works very well in country areas (particularly with a car kit), has a loud ring, big buttons and even has a 2 megapixel camera, then i can recommend the 165.

No, it's not a nokia and doesn't have lots of features, but as a phone it works very well.

Data:

I also use the 165 as a modem with my eee pc while on the road, and it works very well indeed (hspda 3.6mbps) and can get sustained download speeds around 215 kbps in some areas.

generally in Kalgoorlie i can only get around 50 kbps, due to network congestion.

**caebryn** · 07-07-10, 09:13 PM

Hi ,I too have used the 165 as a modem ,but only in Thailand with a Thai sim , also I could make and receive calls while online ,, Yes that is correct, could you please advise o any settings i need for Australia You can talk on skype if you like ,, caebryn

**mango** · 07-07-10, 10:07 PM

we use them in all the trucks, they work great, also the qld ambulance use them, well all that i been in have had them, and i been in shit loads of them.

**caebryn** · 07-07-10, 11:27 PM

can someone tell me how to use the zte165 as a modem

**Tetsuo** · 12-07-10, 07:07 AM

I can't vouch for the performance of these phones as I've never used one in the field.

However what I can say is that they are a joke when it comes to the design. The miniscule charge ports constantly break and the antenna connectors also break off the board. I've fixed about 30 ZTE's this year with these faults. The other problem is you can't buy new parts for them.

**Tradesman** · 23-07-10, 01:55 PM

in my experience Telstra provide poor aftersales service for the chinese ZTE range. mine failed after 11 months , not even half way into a 2 year contract. telstra made me pay 50% of the contract termination fee to get out of it. this is despite it was THEIR rubbish phone that did not last the span of the contract. if i chose to break the contract early i would have been happy to pay the fee.

**OleFella** · 15-08-10, 08:39 PM

I've managed to kill my 165i and apparently warranty won't touch it. Anyone know of a phone doctor who works on zte's. I'd change phones but I have a kit in both cars and I do fins them to be a brilliant phone for fringe range with a good aerial. Thanks people. By the way, I'm in SW Qld

**mango** · 15-08-10, 08:53 PM

Originally Posted by OleFella

I've managed to kill my 165i and apparently warranty won't touch it. Anyone know of a phone doctor who works on zte's. I'd change phones but I have a kit in both cars and I do fins them to be a brilliant phone for fringe range with a good aerial. Thanks people. By the way, I'm in SW Qld

try this fella he had some for sale.

**Tetsuo** · 29-08-10, 11:28 AM

Originally Posted by OleFella

I've managed to kill my 165i and apparently warranty won't touch it. Anyone know of a phone doctor who works on zte's. I'd change phones but I have a kit in both cars and I do fins them to be a brilliant phone for fringe range with a good aerial. Thanks people. By the way, I'm in SW Qld

As I said in an earlier post we fix ZTE's but we're in Adelaide. What did you break on it ?