Phone recommendations.

[My Name is URL]

I know we quite often get people asking for recommendations for mobile phones on here and with Christmas coming up, I though this might help people....

I have heard very good things about the Orange San Francisco phone which is an Android phone so has all of the app store etc and is very customisable.... it is £100 on Orange PAYG at the moment.

The full review (with pics etc) on Modaco can be found on this link.... http://android.modaco.com/content/zte-blade-blade-modaco-com/318802/paul-reviews-the-orange-san-francisco/

But to summarise the guys review:

In conclusion

If you hadn't guessed already... i'm pretty comprehensively blown away by the San Francisco. Even ignoring it's price, this is a device that I would be happy to own and happy to carry around as my everyday phone (in fact i've been doing just that and i've rarely missed my more 'prestigious' devices). Factor in that this phone is just £99 and it is just incredible. This is £300 cheaper than a HTC Desire. Food for thought!

A new benchmark has been set and I can't WAIT to see what handset comes out that eclipses the San Francisco on price vs performance. I have a feeling that it won't happen for a while, such is the accomplishment here.

There are two things that concern me a little. The first is that Orange will see the huge success of the San Francisco and increase the price. While the phone would still be great value at double the price, that would be a real shame considering the extent of the achievement here. The second concern is that the San Franciscos will become very hard to buy... I hope Orange ordered a lot - these are going to sell by the truckload.

This guy tries almost every Android, iPhone and Win7 device that comes out so this is high praise indeed..

 

[Vault_girl]

Oooh I've been thinking about a new phone for a bit (still on iPhone 1st gen!) and this looks goooooood.

I did find this though when looking at a few more reviews:
http://crave.cnet.co.uk/mobiles/orange-san-francisco-99-android-21-phone-has-dangerously-low-internet-cap-50000831/
Basically says Orange limit to 100MB of "free" internet a month then charge £2 per day after that and that's capped at 25MB. Trying to work out my useage to see if I would go over that. O2 have just informed me they will begin charging me "up to" £1 a day for web useage which will work out a lot more expensive as I was on a £10/month iphone web & wifi bolt on. Their website doesn't say anywhere how much they charge to make it a maximum of £1 but after aaages of searching found a forum where someone quoted £3 per meg - not great!

I love his bit where he opens the box up and shows you everything then just gets another one out which is all ready to go! very nice!
Might have to see about getting some pennies together!

 

[tek-monkey]

Bear in mind this is a PYG phone too, stick any SIM in it after you get it unlocked. I looked at a dummy one today in the Orange shop, feels OK. Get a Tesco SIM for £10/month and get 500 mins, unlimited texts and 500Mb t'interweb.

EDIT: Here is the hotukdeals thread I linked to yesterday: http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/orange-san-francisco-android-2-1-wv/763425?page=1

 

[My Name is URL]

Yes the phone sounds amazing for the money, can't do anything about the PAYG price plan unfortunately... I have heard of lots of people using the £10 per month sim only option with this phone as Tek mentions.

 

[Vault_girl]

Dammit - I may have *accidentally* stumbled into the orange shop today and *accidentally* handed over some money and *accidentally* come out with a san francisco... At the moment I can't work android and am having repeated issues getting the apps to download from android marketplace. I'm not sure if this is because of my wifi or what. It is incredibly light for what it is. Also having issues with the touchscreen but I think I'm just not pressing hard enough.

Still a lot better than my first gen iPhone! - also I cant get the home screen to change like the guy does on the video. It changes the look of the menus but I've still got the orange background. I think I just need to have a play.

I also managed to lose the clock on the main screen (though I'm down to 4 screens rather than 5 so I think I may have deleted the entire page by accident) but there was someone who uses android at the time who could fix that.
Where's the undo button when you need it?!

All in all I'm very happy with it and I'm sure I'll be happier once I get to grips with Android.

Also: with regards to the internet useage - in the booklet it says if you go over the 100MB cap you can text a certain number and you get 250MB for £5 which doesn't sound too bad to me! esp considering the "deal" I was getting from O2 on my internet.

 

[CuteStaffsGuy]

After reading this I suggested that handset to a friend who was sick of her Nokia 5800, she picked one up today and so far has had it freeze 4 or 5 times since about 5pm. I have advised her to take it back for an exchange and see how the replacement handles, I'll let you know what she says. I'm hoping she just got a duff one.

 

[Vault_girl]

What do you mean by freeze? mine has taken a while to think about some things but I've read this is due to the "orangeness" http://www.electricpig.co.uk/2010/10/28/orange-san-francisco-review/ suggests downloading launcher pro which then appears in the homescreen app. I've done this and it already seems faster.

 

[CuteStaffsGuy]

When you say a while you mean 5 seconds or more?

BTW did you get New Vegas?

 

[Vault_girl]

When you say a while you mean 5 seconds or more?

BTW did you get New Vegas?

It's only "thunk" that long where it's been trying to connect to things over the internet like downloading things from the marketplace or connecting to googlemail for the first time. The apps themselves run smoothly on mine.

And no I've not got it yet! might have to wait for it as a Christmas present. Someone I know is playing it and making me jealous though! Was mega excited when it was announced!

 

[CuteStaffsGuy]

I've passed your advice about launcher pro on to her, will see how she gets on with a new handset.

And yeah its good, it's almost exactly like F3 but a different story.

 

[My Name is URL]

I use Launcher Pro.. excellent app, well worth the money for the customisation and widgets.

 

[Vault_girl]

I'm having issues getting it to keep the wifi on. It seems to lose connection to it after a few minutes and I have to keep reconnecting (don't want to waste my 100MB when I'm at home!) I don't know if this is an "energy saving" thing or if my phone is just being a bit wacko. It doesn't seem to automatically search for the wifi and I know the wifi in my house is good because we each have laptops and iphones which wander round the house on a daily basis. The only thing I can think is that it is turning it off somehow. Thing is the widget which shows the wifi, bluetooth etc still shows the wifi as being turned on. But it's not connected any more. I'm tempted to contact orange about it but thought I'd see if it was a "common" thing with android maybe.
Ordered a screen protector today. The "new phone" protector got mostly pulled off when the phone was in my pocket and I'm really paranoid about scratching it. I've read samsung i900 screen protectors fit perfectly so it's what I have ordered.
I just got the free version of launcher pro for now (3 screens). Will have to look into the paid versions.

 

[CuteStaffsGuy]

I'm having issues getting it to keep the wifi on. It seems to lose connection to it after a few minutes

I've had the same with my Nokias, it was a power setting in hidden from view that turns of the modem when it thinks it's not using it, maybe that has something similar.

My friend got a refund on hers in the end, purely because Orange made such a big deal about not refunding her. Seems the staff in her local Orange shop aren't bound by UK consumer law.

 

[My Name is URL]

I think there is a setting that turns off wi-fi when your phone sleeps but it should switch it back on (might take a few seconds to re-connect) when you wake your phone again.

 

[My Name is URL]

Cancel that... have a look on this link

http://android.modaco.com/content/zte-blade-blade-modaco-com/318850/wifi-issue/

Any other problems, have a look at this forum:

http://android.modaco.com/category/453/zte-blade-blade-modaco-com/

 

[My Name is URL]

How are you guys getting on with your phones these days?

 

[tek-monkey]

Be interested to hear too, still thinking of getting one.

 

[My Name is URL]

Anyone who followed my advice and got the Orange San Francisco or ZTE Blade...

Free unlock and debrand on http://www.chrislowthian.co.uk/how-to-unlock-de-brand-and-root-the-zte-blade-orange-san-francisco/1824/

 

[tek-monkey]

Still thinking about one for the GF.

 

[Vault_girl]

Mine is still forgetting to keep the wifi on. The camera, like the reviewer said, it pretty poor in low light. Shame it's not got a flash.

other than that:

Went to Twycross zoo at the weekend and discovered it had a full speaking gps using google maps to direct us there. Which is very useful! (Didn't think it actually spoke). Not sure how much data this was using though :-S

I've not made many calls on it at all yet, but was on the phone to Orange earlier today and the signal kept dropping out and the line was quite crackly. I think that might be down to the signal in my house though.

Other than that I'm very happy with it. Not gonna get a PAYG phone with as many features as this for this price.
and like I said before, although it only has 100mb internet with the minimum £10 top up, you can get further internet for another £5. Not bad!

Compared to iPhone 1st gen (my previous phone) it's doing pretty darned good!