Orange San Fransisco - £99 Android Phone

#21

Another happy android user :slight_smile:

#22

Where did you buy it?
How easy is it to remove all the orange shit?
How easy is it to install a custom rom with default android?
Is it really as slow with high-end 3D applications as some noobs claim?
When you say 99.10, do you mean 99 for the phone plus 10 top up?
Is the camera acceptable for stills?
How cumtastic is that screen which sounds fucking amazing (3.5", 800x480, capacitive) ?

edit:
According to some reviews on play.com, some san francisco’s are being shiped with ordinary tft lcd screens…

#23

Where did you buy it?
From the Orange store in The Arndale, Manchester.

How easy is it to remove all the orange shit?
Pretty easy, just had to install a custom ROM and before you apply the update, using Clockwork Recovery use the ‘factory restore’ menu option to remove everything.

How easy is it to install a custom rom with default android?
I used this guide here and had a working android 2.2 rom on it within 20 minutes of starting it.

Is it really as slow with high-end 3D applications as some noobs claim?
I have yet to come across an application that I lag on, when I had the orange rom installed, on some of the larger 3D games it lagged, however when I installed the custom rom it worked fine with no noticeable lag.

When you say 99.10, do you mean 99 for the phone plus 10 top up?
No, I got a discount on the phone for being a student and already having an orange payg simcard which they offered me money off, you can view the deals here.

Is the camera acceptable for stills?
For a £99 phone, yes. Take a look at a image taken with the camera.

How cumtastic is that screen which sounds fucking amazing (3.5", 800x480, capacitive) ?
Very good, large, pretty responsive, no lag when browsing websites, supports multi-touch, which allows for pinch and zoom. Plenty of room and good colours.

According to some reviews on play.com, some san francisco’s are being shiped with ordinary tft lcd screens…
This is true for all the new models because it reduces battery usage on the phone, as the back-light can be turned off. I have asked people over at modaco if they prefer the AMOLED or the TFT, and supposedly the TFT is producing better colours and reducing battery drain.

#24

Huh, sounds awesome. I may have to get one. Whats the battery life? I’m not bothered by carrying round another battery if I have to.

#25

Whats the battery life?
Pretty good, It lasts about a day, longer if you don’t rag it like I have been with playing angry birds and using 3g all the time, in which case it only lasted 7 hours.

In case anyone is interested in the TFT vs OLED see for yourself.

#26

So why are people so worried about the tft screen?

#27

I’d be more worried about the OLED screen on a cheap phone than a TFT screen on a cheap phone, purely because it is only just now that they’re getting the OLED screens right with stuff like the Super AMOLED screens, and I can’t imagine they can get a particularly high quality screen for that price.

#28

You can still order them from carphonewarehouse with AMOLED screens, if it arrives and is not AMOLED you will be able to get a refund.

Some benchmarks using various different apps:

#29

Herp derp, is there any way I can be assured that I will be getting a AMOLED screen and not TFT?

#30

I have had one of these babies in white (!!!) for a day now and I’m certainly a happy user. The 3.5" screen is sex (looks like an lcd tft but who gives a shit), android 2.1 runs smoothly on it and It handled all the games I threw at it, although I only downloaded trivial arcade games, (angry birds etc) so I think I’ll download a real intensive game and see how that runs.

As everyone has said before, the camera is a load of shit and for some reason the auto-focus is fucked up and takes about a year just to focus on something a metre away.

I think before I get attached to what I have on it, I’ll install a custom 2.2 ROM so I can run flash and get rid of all the orange bullshit, including the SIM lock.

#31

Another happy user :slight_smile:

You should try gameboid, its amazing!

#32

i still didnt get one and i feel like im missing out

#33

I know about 3 people with this phone.

A word of warning: the white looks like pure shite, and really pasticy. The grey/black one looks nicer though!

#34

yea the white one looks shit, I got the grey one and it looks pretty sweet imo, just installed the new jellyfish rom on it and <3

[me=Ollie]likes.[/me]

#35

im glad you mentioned that since i was thinking of getting white

#36

Been a happy owner since 22nd feb. Cheers Ollie! :smiley:

This is such an amazing phone.

#37

Mmn5H.png480×800

That’s 2.3 running :slight_smile:

Another reason to get one of these baby’s.

edit:
@ 700Hmz:

LAQT3.png480×800

#38

thinking of putting 2.3 on mine, i have froyo atm and its getting slow because i have so much shit on it. mine is one of the old ones so it should work.

#39

I got 6.754 mflops on the linpack benchmark, but surprisingly only got 38.8 fps with neocore all on 600Mhz.

I presume you know already that you have a gen1 device so if you’re wondering, I used this guide and downloaded the CM 7.0.3 TPT image (the top one).

I mirrored the zip file here

edit: I just realised that I already posted it :stuck_out_tongue:

#40

Fat_cookies wont shut up about how I should get 2.3…

I’ll do it later!