Avail 2 reception is quite poor - if I return it what other GoPhone devices are recommended?

I'm on travel and had a cheap, not smartphone, Samsung GoPhone. But it had good reception.

And my iPad 2 has great AT&T reception. I get 4 or 5 bars where I'm staying all the time and great speeds.

But from the same location the Avail 2 I got on Monday has really bad reception. Most of the time I can't even send or receive text indoors unless I go to a higher floor or go outside.

I just bought it this week at Target so assume I can still return it. But if I do - what are my other smartphone options?

I would have liked to use my iPhone 5, but it is locked to my carrier in Japan. My 2nd choice would be an Android phone with good reception and a relatively recent Android OS.

Any suggestions would be appreciated. I hate to think of going through the next several months like this. I wasn't expecting great performance from a $54 cell phone. So the fact that the device itself is extremely slow I can live with. But if I can't even send or receive a text indoors - that put me out of touch.

Thanks,

Doug