ZTE Anthem 4G review

High-ranking call quality but low-end everywhere else

ZTE Anthem 4G
ZTE Anthem 4G

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Messaging

Standard SMS messaging is very straightforward on the Anthem 4G, with the ability to type or swype messages. You can easily attach photos, videos, slideshows, audio, contacts and more.

ZTE Anthem 4G review

The built-in Messages app presents your conversations in a voice balloon style that might be too cute for some, but it handles the job just fine and was quick and responsive in all of our tests.

Internet

The reason most people will be attracted to this camera is the 4G LTE connection, which gave us results of roughly 950 kbps downloading, and 200 kbps uploading, with a 172 ms ping.

ZTE Anthem 4G review

In higher coverage areas with four bars of Metro PCS service, we still only got a 127 ms ping, with 2424 kbps and 4272 kbps.

Not exactly speedy, but the Metro PCS coverage is also fairly weak in our area, which didn't help matters much. When we hooked up to WiFi, the phone did get some blistering speeds, but the 4G LTE coverage disappointed us.