I am thinking of switching to Visible from Ting, my current phone is a Moto G6 and is not compatible with Visible so I am looking for info on the Blade X1. With a net cost of $40 after $200 gift card this phone looks to be one of their best buys. Does anyone have any pros or cons on the Blade X1? Thanks
Not sure if it will work outside visible. They seem to mess with the zte phones these days. Reports say this is locked so you'll need 2 months of service to unlock.
Someone on reddit reports overheating issues.
If you can stretch to the samsung s20 fe 5g it is a better buy. $408 plus $200 gc. More expensive though but should last. ZTE hardly ever update their phones.
If you only want to spend $40 though it is worth it.
Don't the gift card deals at Visible require a few months (6 weeks??) before they actually send the gc and active service on the account at the time they send the gc?
I'm sure the more-experienced with chime in: but in my limited experience, the gift card will arrive early during the 3rd month, and active service is required.
Thanks,
so a $200 GC is $200 -$5 -$25 -$25 = $145 for 3mo. service unless you somehow get or self refer for $5 for mo. 2 & 3.
mmfacemm may have already figured that in above $408 though.
The only way I would ever acquire one of these is if it were essentially free via swap. It's already been observed that Visible's ZTE phones are usually locked out in terms of its OS so that it will be difficult to use on other carriers. Furthermore, LTE band support is minimal - 2, 4, 5, 12, 13, 66. It's missing some AT&T bands and T-Mobile band 71. It's also missing the legacy Sprint bands, which may or may not be recycled by T-Mobile. Finally, it doesn't have any overseas band support.
If you do decide to buy this phone, make sure you leverage Rakuten, which currently is giving $30 CB on a Visible phone purchase.
Since the OP indicated he's interested in long term service with Visible, and not just acquiring a phone cheap, I think it's accurate to say that the phone cost is only $40. The service cost is a given.
I have no particular opinion about the Blade X1. But if it performs well on Visible, it seems to be a low cost entry point to Visible service.
I think Visible is finally getting the hang of how to provide low-cost phones for exactly that purpose, instead of providing close-to-free phones that don't result in actual customers. I've looked at a couple of other phones on Visible that also seem to be positioned well for that purpose-- very cheap, if you need a phone to work on Visible. Not cheap enough, or not flexible enough, to be the source for a phone to use on some other provider.
Thanks to all that provided feedback. I will stay clear of the Blade X1 mostly due to the lack of support. Android 11 has been out for well over a year and this phone still has not received the update says a lot about future support. I wish Visible allowed my Moto G6, I hate tossing a perfectly good phone away.