:
ZTE Blade (Orange San Francisco)
On the surface little makes sense about the weirdly named Orange 'San Francisco'. Known outside the UK as the 'ZTE Blade', it packs a feature set to give the Wildfire nightmares. It is thinner (116 x 56.5 x 11.8 mm vs 106.8 x 60.4 x 12 mm), lighter (110g vs 118g) and more powerful (Qualcomm QCT MSM7227-1 600 MHz processor vs Qualcomm MSM 7225 528 MHz processor). It has the same 3G, WiFi and GPS functionality and both sport Android 2.1.
More importantly however it eschews the Wildfire's perfectly respectable 3.2in 240 x 320 pixel touchscreen for a whopping 3.5in AMOLED with a massive 800 x 480 pixels. In fact the only area it seems to lose out on is the camera: 3.2 megapixels with autofocus and no flash to a five megapixeler with both autofocus and flash. Most remarkable of all though is price. The Wildfire is wonderfully wallet friendly.
You won't notice this when you take the San Francisco out of its box. For such a entery level handset build quality is excellent. Squeezing the sides hard can elicit the smallest of creaks, but in truth there is little to choose between it and flagship phones like the original Google Nexus One and HTC Desire. The San Francisco also sports the same matt finish as these illustrious models so the only finger marks you collect will be on the screen.
Meanwhile everything is sensibly located with volume buttons on the right side and a headphone jack on the top. The micro USB charger port resides on the left side (arguably the bottom would have been better, but it's a small bugbear all things considered) and the micro SD and sim card slots are located under the battery cover, though thankfully not under the battery itself. So far so good.
The Orange San Francisco runs Android 2.1. Upgradable to Android 2.2 too.
Orange is famous for heavily customising the handsets on its network, but the San Francisco takes this to a new level. The wallpaper is orange, the icons are orange, and much of Android's core functionality – such as email and the Android Market Store – has been replaced by Orange's own apps. These include an Orange 'Mail' client and a custom 'Maps' app.
More positively, you'll find a fabulous handset underneath. The 800 x 400 pixel AMOLED capacitive display is unlike any display we've previously seen at this price point. Colours are vivid, text is sharp and it is extremely responsive. With 7.2Mbit HSDPA and 5.76Mbit HSUPA for uploads the San Francisco is also fitted with top of the line 3G and you're not being short changed on any of the other smartphone niceties either with the likes of 802.11g WiFi, aGPS, Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP, accelerometer and proximity sensors, a digital compass and micro SD support for up to 32GB. There's even an FM radio with RDS. Battery life? Not world shaking, but you will get a full day out of it with moderate usage.
The Orange San Francisco is a staggeringly well featured handset which simply has no peer when it comes to value for money.
+1-877-334-1782