I take my job very seriously, which is why I love to bag a bargain. I’ve been after a new smartphone for a while, and I have been keeping my eye on the price of the Orange San Francisco for the past couple of months. This is a smartphone whicn runs Google Android OS V2.2, and promised to smash the £100 barrier…
Well, it’s finally happened. Argos are now selling this phone in both white and grey for a jaw dropping £89.99! Want to see for yourself? Check it out here: Orange San Francisco £89.99.
For the geeks amongst you, I’ll point out that this handset is in fact a ZTE Blade, although it has been packaged up by Orange as the San Francisco mobile phone. In a nutshell, it is three quarters of the flagship Google Nexus One for around one quarter of the price.
Have I bought one? Absolutely, it’d have been criminal not to!
Mine is paired up with a GiffGaff pay as you go (PAYG) £10 goodybag sim. Giffgaff runs on the o2 network, and the £10 a month sim gives you 250 minutes, unlimited texts, and unlimited internet. From what I gather, unlike most/all other “unlimited” tarrifs from other providers, this really is unlimited. Usually unlimited means 500 MB or 1GB, which isn’t unlimited at all. Running on the o2 network is a real bonus, that’s who I’m with now and I find they have excellent signal in all areas of the UK.
It’s sleek, the screen is beautiful, and it’s smooth like Barry White. Did I mentiond it’s also fast like Usain Bolt? Well, it is. It has everything you’d expect, from touch screen, 3.5mm audio jack, GPS, 3.2MP camera, radio and micro SD slot with 2GB card. It can be upgraded to 32GB, but I think 2GB is enough unless you’ll be downloading loads of apps or using it as an MP3 player replacement.
P.S. It’s comes locked to the orange network but remember that Google is your friend, a quick search and some minimal tinkering and you’ll be unlocked in minutes without spending a penny.
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quote: “It can be upgraded to 32GB, but I think 2GB is enough unless you’ll be downloading loads of apps or using it as an MP3 player replacement.”
A larger card will make little difference as the apps CANNOT be run from the SD card.
Thanks for mentioning giffgaff! I just wanted to say that we don’t offer rolling 30 day contracts as we don’t have contracts. You can buy a new £10 goodybag (or any one you wish) each month in advance or queue one to start when your other finishes. It’s all PAYG so you don’t have to worry about over spending.
@Robert: That’s not strictly true. I’ve updated my phone to run android 2.2 where running apps from the SD card is a standard feature. If you run the phone as stock which many people will then yes, you’re correct. See the giffgaff community page for more detail, but note that playing with the firmware will most likely invalidate your warranty: http://community.giffgaff.com/t5/Learn-giffgaff-Top-Tips/giffgaffers-Guide-To-The-Orange-San-Francisco-ZTE-Blade/td-p/133709
@ Heather: No problem! You’re absolutely right, I’ve updated the post to reflect this.
@Everyone: I’ve updated the giffgaff link to point to my affiliate page, this gets you £5 free credit if ordering a sim card via this page, plus giffgaff will give £5 to a charity chosen by the giffgaff community between now and June 2011. Win win!