Orange San Francisco - Not a budget android phone for £ 99

Not so long ago, I was asked to pick up a new phone, since I have some experience in communicating with the Android platform and phones on this platform are available in a wide price range, the glance was shifted to the so-called android phones.

Having studied the Russian retail market of not expensive smartphones based on Android, I began to look closely at the LG Optimus One , but by happy browsing I came across a review hero - Orange San Francisco , priced at just £ 99 in England (about 4,500 rubles) and in terms of technical characteristics, it is almost twice as superior to all smartphones provided in our market, which cost up to 10,000 rubles.

It is about him that will be discussed in this review, welcome to habrakat.

After a deeper study of the available information on the smartphone, it became known that the smartphone is actually a Chinese product under the name ZTE Blade . Orange, like many other operators, simply orders brand-name devices from the Chinese company ZTE , redoing the firmware for themselves and adding its software.
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Orange San Francisco is available in two colors - Black & White. Many stores call the black model Gray, although in fact they sell the black one, because of this, it can be mistakenly concluded that the smartphone has three color options.

The device is sold to the European operator Orange , it seems that this is not its high price, the operator apparently plans to make a profit from contracts and not from the sale of the device, although this is also doubtful, since you can buy the code on Orange’s official website for unlock costing £ 4 (about 180 rubles), or use a bunch of websites with an unlock code generator from craftsmen, I give an example of such a generator, that is, you can get unlock done for free.

Specifications:

As can be seen from the table of technical specifications, the device is adequately equipped, the only thing that can be criticized is the battery of the device, with a capacity of 1250mAh, there is no hope for long work, but in reality, with not very active use, the smartphone works up to two days, which in general something quite not bad. If you listen to music, surf a bit on the network and play toys, then the battery charge comes to zero by night, that is, you have to power the device from the outlet every night.



If you paid attention to the type of screen, you probably noticed that the screen of the device is of two types - AMOLED and TFT , unfortunately AMOLED was delivered only in the early installments until 2011, you can buy a device with AMOLED screen today only on ebay state, and the prices for them are higher than the cost of a new smartphone with a TFT screen.

The device has three hardware buttons, at first glance it may seem that they are touch-sensitive, say, like Acer Liquid , but in fact the buttons are still hardwired. There is no search button, which, in general, I do not consider to be a flaw, the utility of the search button seems to me to be almost zero.



The camera of the device is only 3.2 megapixels with autofocus, but this does not prevent it from making enough not bad pictures, I would put it on a par with iPhone 3Gs . Of course, to print pictures of the quality of the camera is not enough, but to capture some important points, if there is no camera at hand, it can. Unfortunately, there is no hardware “camera” button.

Examples of photos taken by the camera of the smartphone:

Smartphone delivery cannot boast of a wide range, but there is almost everything you need - a 2GB microSD memory card (inserted directly into the phone), quick start guide in English, a microUSB to USB synchronization cable, a 1250mAh battery, a mediocre 3.5mm headset, charging with a plug UK (you need to buy an adapter or charge from USB), Orange's SIM card with a prepaid card of £ 10 (useless in Russia, but have seen these sell on ebay for £ 7 ), as well as a colorful advertising booklet describing the capabilities of the smartphone.



I would say that only two useful things are missing - a film-protector on the screen and a cover, but all this can be bought separately.

The assembly of the device is excellent, nothing where there is no backlash or creaking, the only thing that causes some excitement is the fastening of the back cover, if it is removed often, then it may become loose with time.

Soft part

In the standard firmware for the domestic user there are many problems and a lot of unnecessary software, firstly there is no Android Market store, instead there is an Orange App Shop , as well as Orange cards and applications for using various services provided by the operator are preinstalled. In the settings there is a Russian language, but when it is selected in Russian, only the main Android menu becomes available, USSD requests in Russian are also not processed. In short, on the native firmware it is almost impossible to use the phone, but this problem is solved by having direct hands and some free time.



I recommend immediately after purchase to flash firmware JOHN77_V5 (based on Jellyfish RLS9) , there is nothing difficult in flashing, everything is done with a thoughtful reading of the step-by-step instructions for a maximum of 30 minutes. After all the manipulations, you will have Android 2.2 Froyo as your OS.

Total pros and cons smarftona:

The biggest and fat plus is the price of the device
Excellent appearance and dimensions
Good specifications
Excellent build quality
The uniqueness of the phone, in Russia it is impossible to buy
Weak battery
Small difficulties with ordering a phone in England
After purchase requires flashing
No warranty in Russia.

Purchase Orange San Francisco

The phone can be purchased in the Orange saloon, but for this you need to be a UK resident, unfortunately all the stores in England that sell these devices for £ 99 do not send purchases directly to Russia, you have to use an intermediary to buy from them, or ask a friend to buy a phone which is in england.
www.very.co.uk ( £ 99 ) and www.play.co.uk ( £ 99 ) are examples of such stores.

Directly to any country sends only one store - www.handtec.co.uk , but it already will cost this device £ 125.99 + £ 23 delivery, for a total of about 7,000 rubles for all. If you buy through an intermediary, you can meet the amount a little more than 5,500 rubles, but you will have to study the intermediary market and wait a little longer until your phone reaches the intermediary, and the intermediary will forward it to you.

There is a third option - the good old www.ebay.co.uk , buying on ebay, you can fit in amounts from 6,000 to 7,000 rubles with delivery by mail. Also on ebay often sold already unlocked and stitched Android 2.2 phones, if you do not want to mess around with a flashing - ebay is a good place to buy.

The author of this review bought two phones at www.handtec.co.uk , and two more through www.ebay.co.uk , in all four cases, the phones arrived from England to my address in Moscow in about 2 weeks.
PS I bought all 4 of course not for myself, at the sight of this phone and after getting acquainted with the price - friends ask to buy the same for them.
PSS Since I do not have a high-quality camera, some photos from w3bsit3-dns.com and android.modaco.com were used in the review.

If you have any questions, ask them in the comments, I will try to answer any of your questions about the androidphone.