ZTE TXTM8 3G

I have the MessengerII (which is the version before this one) and the main reason I have to replace the phone is because I literally wore out about 1/4 of the keys to the point where they do not work or I have to hold them down and the eventually work. I've only had the other phone for less than 6 months and I know I text a lot (around 300 texts a day) but 6 month life for a keyboard is rather sad, does this phone have a better more robust keyboard?

Also is the processor faster? The other phone was decent at speed, but pretty laggy when loading apps and what not.