Orange San Francisco II Full Review

[ripper497]

does it have GPS?

[Spac8]

Please, please, please, if you get one of these, do not leave the Bastardized Orange version of Android on it. I have a Generation 1 Orange SF that ran Oranges version of 2.1 Froyo. I took the jerky and glitchy-ness at part and parcel of the cheapo price of the phone. It always ran pretty badly. I put 2.3 Gingerbread on it last night and I love my phone again! It's 1,000,000x better and runs like a beast. Stable as hell and as quick as phones well above the price! And that's a early 2010!

[Lankyman222]

can its be upgraded to 3.0 honeycomb

or even ice cream sandwich

[5eaMonkey]

@Lankyman222 Yes to ICS, however only alpha, google for cm9 zte blade and go to the Modaco page. Honey comb: not really working

[jacobmarkbailey1]

do a review on the tmobile vivaity please?:')

[IIspartanXX]

other than the android 2.3 on the device i still think my San Francisco 1 is better

[iloveyouhoneybunxoxo]

Is this heat or pressure touching?

[pedrojogador9]

i like more mine san francisco I

[TheChocomushroom]

is it resistive scrren ore capacitive



[PyaarMillGayya2]

its gd for its price

[ToonFightFan]

@PyaarMillGayya2

for this price you could buy an iphone, maybe even iphone 3g which is much better.

[gavinpow77]

Is this handset any better than the original ZTE Blade? I have to say, I have/had-will have one and I'm sorely disappointed. I went to a funeral today and turned it off. I came out, turned it on and its screen failed - giving only a milky blue light. To be fair, Orange are replacing it, but I honestly wouldn't recommend the ZTE Blade first gen. It often reminds me of a a 90s PC trying to run Windows XP. Android is too heavy for its capabilities. Often, it was so sluggish it struggled with texts.

[neilbazza123]

do you get free facebook with this phone through the market place or do you just need to use the internet ?

[gavinpow77]

@neilbazza123 Like any Android handset, it has a link to the 'marketplace', where you can download and use apps for social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, bebo etc. All are free on completion of a google.mail account when you set up your phone.

[scofer1873]

Does the phone have threaded text messaging? Like the iPhone?

[damiensturdy]

@scofer1873 There's an ANDROID app for that. :-)

[gavinpow77]

@scofer1873 If by threaded you mean texts saved by caller, yes. You can see a text stream by viewing the name of a caller. I struggled with this when I first got the phone. I was used to just having the 'texts' area, where each was an individual deposit.

[TheShellshockkk]

Does somebody know when it is available in belgium?

[ExclusiveTechCast]

@TheShellshockkk It will most likely market as the ZTE Blade/Skate (I'm really not sure if its the blade or skate) Orange just renamed it to San Francisco just because there dicks, It should be available there.

[thesniper321]

@ExclusiveTechCast

zte blade s

[SirBorisWillaby]

Apart from the gingerbread upgrade is there any massive improvement on the original cos i had the original san francisco and I prefer the design but I don't know whether I should get the original again or the SF II????

[TheDjsubterrain]

@SirBorisWillaby New SFII has 5MP camera as opposed to the original's 3MP, 800MHz CPU as opposed to original's 600MHz CPU. Those are the 2 main differences, the T-Mobile Vivacity is the same handset as the SFII, only with a different chasis (One which looks remarkably similar to the iPhone and I suspect they might see them in court). I've got the SFII and I'm very happy with it so far but then I have changed the TPT partitions and installed a custom rom which got rid of all the Orange crap

[Warcraftbot]

Does this phone have multitouch as in can you play games which require two fingers on the screen at the same time?

[thesniper321]

@Warcraftbot

are you serious?

[xdabombx01]

I don't know which phone to get, that phone or the blackberry 8250 which one Is better

[gamereviews5675]

is this better than the first orange san fransisco?

[CalenderJuiceSheena]

Very impressive features for a budget handset. Nice review.

[jackal3311]

Great review Dave, been impatient to see it. I don't know if it's just me but the phone seems a lot less snappier than SF1 even with stock rom. At the moment I have the cyanogenmod rom on it and the operating system is mega smooth, no stuttering. The design and build quality of SF1 seems somewhat better as well.

[fireworks368]

The original one was better in my opinion.

[GadgetGuru32]

Yes you can, but most of the time you will be holding it portrait I imagine.

[MrPufpastry]

Can you not put the keyboard landscape?

[mronthego247]

for watching.............videos

[GadgetGuru32]

@smallsmallness it has a few custom roms on modaco already, as for flash it can run a hacked arm6 version but it's slow.

[groovyshazxx]

does skype work for you? im using skype through my hp touchpad & when i used Tango (front video works) but then after couple seconds it goes black? have you experienced this..

& have you seen any screen protectors?

[smallsmallness]

FUCK! I BOUGHT THE ORIGINAL

[emdblues]

dave, how do you reduce the ammount of dust in your studio - a lot of monitors and other gadgets?

I have to clean my desk at home every 3 days, especially monitor. dont know where that dust is comin from :)

[davomrmac]

@emdblues I just dust a lot.

[eddiegurrero98]

@davomrmac what is the difference between the first and the second one

[davomrmac]

@emdblues Plus I don't live in the studio, so it gets less dust.

[smallsmallness]

@davomrmac

does it support flash and custom roms?

[MegaRatt44]

Nice toys:D

[GadgetGuru32]

@unlokia because it's only hvga,  that has no place in today's market.

[kodax86]

Vivacity or SFII?

[vickykc83]

@kodax86 , depends on which you like the look of as they are identical inside. I personally like SE's so I loved the styling of the SFII, and bought one of those. The vivacity looks quite nice, though :)

[unlokia]

Why would anyone buy this, when for the same £99, you can buy the Sony Ericsson "Live with Walkman" (wt19i), with 1Ghz ARM7 processor, 512Mb ram, 720p recording, ASTOUNDINGLY good sound & Walkman speakers. This phone looks pants, in comparison.

Check the Sony Ericsson "Live with Walkman" video on my channel.

[ku42]

@unlokia I love Ericsson

[KJohnStevens]

Orange is the worst and 3

[LDStarling]

@KJohnStevens 5000 texts 5000 mins Unlimited internet for £30/month, 3 isn't THAT bad...

[robiuk666]

Search for Germans... ROTFL!!!

[GadgetGuru32]

What's with the hate from Apple users whenever Dave reviews a droid? Nice vid as usual mate.

[Chytin]

Nice Google Advertorial again Dave.

[nautbijker]

Nice review Dave :)

[LeeGee1983]

That orange launcher is rubbish tho, launcher pro will make it much smoother. Good review Dave was wandering about this phone. Not as good as the original with that rubberised back cover and of course that OLED display it had!

[robertdevald]

Would you recommend the S/\MSUNG Focus S over this? With the OS included?

[MrDannybs09]

@robertdevald The Samsung Focus S is a much higher device. Comparing the two is not logical :)

[robertdevald]

@MrDannybs09 I know, but still, this seems like a better value for the money if you know what I mean. This does basically everything the Fucus S does (more sluggish, laggy and slow) but for a lower price. I still have to mention though that at this moment the S/\MSUNG Focus S is my favourite phone.

[MrDannybs09]

@robertdevald Haha no problem :) Android is a lot different to Windows Phone 7 you know? But either way your decision :) good luck with choosing :)

[shmav52]

Ecartman12 you bell end

[MrSpichka007]

@davomrmac we want 2 minutes of tech !!!!

[ecartman12]

Sorry Dave but I think there were a few missed opportunities in this review. I think you could of showed us how games run on this handset and also I asked you on the unboxing if you could install a third party launcher on this and show us how it performs with a launcher like launcher pro. That would of got rid of pretty much all the lag when you are swiping between screens. The review was good but I would of liked to see more things in the review. However you still get a thumbs up from me. :)

[SaiE8]

For £100 its a bargain, but the previous san fransico sold allot because developers found it a cheap affordable phone to mod, if you strip away the orange bloatware the san fransico phone i.e custom rom, it becomes pretty snappy, camera is is meh.

[JohnButterballz]

I love your reviews Dave :D

[therealJQB321]

@ecartman12 Dude, get a life :P

[MrLuisgr8]

@therealJQB321 LOL

[BewareOfTheRabbit]

Dave do you always shoot your videos at 9:00am? Great video!!!

[TechnomTigerGeek]

this looks SO cheap and a rip off of the Sony Xperia phones

[Jonty1512]

Great video Dave great to see you reviewing some of the lower end Android phones. Any chance on seeing a videos of the equivalent (£100) Samsung / LG / Sony Ericsson Android offerings? To do some like for like comparisons would be great.

[mrbeady9]

Just wondering why do you call it handset? It's a phone.

[sakero88]

nice review

[Audi123000]

Dave i want to apologize for my behaviour on you because of the iPhone 4S in your Galaxy Nexus full review

[94mcliam]

I like andriod, but this phone is terrible compared to other devices.

[xXukrainianizationXx]

great review........ im thinking of getting the phone soon - first time android buyer