Virgin Mobile taking pre-orders for ZTE Venture

March 13, 2012/Joe Pawlikowski

Pictured above is the ZTE Venture, an Android handset heading to Virgin Mobile on March 15th. It’s a hybrid candybar device, featuring both a 2.8-inch touchscreen and a full QWERTY keyboard. That gives it a BlackBerry-like feel. Another way it resembles the BlackBerry: it has a 600MHz processor, which is one of the slower ones in modern mobile usage. It’s still running Android 2.3 Gingerbread, and it’s unclear whether it will get a 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich upgrade; I’d consider the prospects unlikely, given the Venture’s underpowered nature. In any case, it will cost $99, and it’s available for pre-order on Virgin Mobile’s website. It will ship this Thursday, March 15th. Via Android Central.]]>

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6 Comments

  1. Regis H. on March 13, 2012 at 11:38 pm

    Are you kidding me? Where are the high end phones? Why do they keep releasing these low end crap phones? They all have the same specs just different casings. What about Dual Core/HDMI/FrontCamera/FlashSupport on a device thats not the issue plauged Triumph… Virgin, you will lose my business unless I see such a device released in the next month.



    • Joe on March 14, 2012 at 7:28 am

      Regis, I think the problem is in pricing. If Virgin did offer that kind of smartphone, they’d have to charge $350 or $400, maybe even more. If most of their customers aren’t willing to buy that, it might not make sense for them. It’s always tough this way for prepaid carriers.



  2. carlos cabral on March 15, 2012 at 12:09 pm

    Well guys…….at least its an andorid. Phone. That is a start



  3. Nova on March 15, 2012 at 5:17 pm

    Cool looking phone; I’m glad Virgin is stepping their game up. Does anyone know if this phone can be used sideways?



  4. Ike Denvers on March 17, 2012 at 4:57 am

    So is it made by Alcatel, ZTE or PCD? Anyone know? I didn’t think Alcatel did cdma.



  5. Jayne Wallace on April 11, 2012 at 1:37 pm

    The Venture comes from PCD/Alcatel, not ZTE