Crazy Cheap Android phone in the UK

sere83 · **Posted:** Fri Oct 01, 2010 3:44 am

Here in the UK, Orange have just released an android phone called the San Francisco. It is apparently a rebrand of a ZTE handset. The spec is...

800x480 3.5 inch capacitive AMOLED!
600Mhz Qualcomm MSM7227 ARM 11
512MB RAM!
1200Mah Battery
Android 2.1 with Froyo Coming (Apparently)
3MP Camera

Ok no cortex A8 CPU, but get this......it costs £99!!!!!!! on Pay as you go.

This is absolute madness, HTC can't even get hold of enough AMOLED displays and this pops up for less than half the price of the HTC Wildfire which has a sh*tty 320x240 tft. This is absolutely crazy. And it actually performs pretty well. This actually outspecs my htc hero which was £280 when I brought it! The display is comparable to a nexus one! check the video...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HiVtmvkHIj0

will13 · **Posted:** Fri Oct 01, 2010 4:26 am

even if the spec's come out true, pretty much no phone made by a service provider is decent (over here anyway), but at the same time, the way my Desire as been acting the last few days I'd probably take this for a backup lol

sere83 · **Posted:** Fri Oct 01, 2010 7:26 am

hahs yeah you would have thought so but this has been getting some hype around the place. Paul over at MoDoCo speaks highly off it, check the full review....

http://android.modaco.com/content/zte-b ... francisco/

Still can't believe the spec and screen for the price. I rekon it will see a price bump soon, seems too good to be true.

FEG · **Joined:** Sun Sep 30, 2007 3:07 am **Posts:** 218

Damn, this thing outspecs my new phone in everything but processor power (uses the same one) and camera (3MP rather than 5MP), although it's not quite as slick looking as mine. Do pay-as-you-go phones work in the UK the same way prepaid phones do in the US? Like, can you just go into any electronics store, buy a prepackaged phone set off the shelf at that price, then go home and activate/unlock it at your leisure? Or do you actually have to set up some sort of Orange contract to get that price? If it's the former, I might need to talk to someone about shipping one over to me...

Matt · **Posted:** Sat Oct 02, 2010 4:11 am

Orange have always had good deals on phones. I remember when I got my HTC TTyN for about £50 when it was new, everywhere else wanted £150+ even on a 2 year contract.

will13 · **Posted:** Sat Oct 02, 2010 7:39 am

T-Mobile is still the best for smartphones tho, there unlimited internet is really good, tho I did go though the 5GB in 3 days once...

Raz · **Joined:** Fri Jul 25, 2003 5:53 am **Posts:** 22200

Any one got a link/picture of what this looks like?

maderin1 · **Joined:** Sun Sep 30, 2007 2:50 pm **Posts:** 20627

video link in first post

sere83 · **Posted:** Sat Oct 02, 2010 7:30 pm

Check the MoDoCo review, has pics and videos.....

http://android.modaco.com/content/zte-b ... francisco/

I went to my local orange store yesterday and check this bad boy out. I have to say I was blown away. It literally put my 280 pounds worth of htc hero to shame. The screen is literally stunning, comparable to the desire or nexus one.

Performance was obviously not as snappy as a snapdragon or other A8 based device, bit laggy bout the same as my hero, but not to bad given it is ARM 11 based. Multitouch is on board and again was actually smoother than my hero. For 99 pounds though it really is amazing. I will probably buy one and use it as a second phone/ casual browsing device.

aaroNiGHTS · **Posted:** Sat Oct 02, 2010 7:58 pm

Looks awesome! If anyone knows where you can buy these internationally, please post a link. I'd really want to buy one! I doubt Raz will mind, he's gone away from the phone business - although if he could sell these at $200 a pop I'm sure he'd be in!

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