We'll forgive plenty in a phone that costs a mere £99 on a payas you go deal, especially if it's running Google's feature-packedAndroid operating system. But the San Francisco really tested our patience due to all the crud that Orange has covered Google's little green robot in. It's still a phone worth checking out, butyou'll have to do some tidying up before it's at its best.
Orange San Francisco
The Good
The Bad
The Bottom Line
Dreamy capacitive screen
The San Francisco looks pretty good for theprice. The buttons on the front are slightly wobbly and the chrometrim along the sides is naff, but it's slim and easy to hold, with arubbery case.
The phone's 3.5-inch capacitive touchscreen is its best hardware feature, offering good contrast and brightness. It's not quite as zippy andresponsive as that of a more expensive smart phone with a faster processor, but it'sstill very usable. Websites are readable, and multi-touch support means zooming in and out is as easy as pinching yourfingers together. The multi-touch functionality isn't as smooth as it can be on a high-end phone, but it'sstill decent, and a spectacular feature on a phone this cheap.
In our tests, battery life proved average for this kind of phone, lasting about a day and a half withnormal use. The camera performs well for the price, taking decentsnapshots in good light, despite packing only 3 megapixels. Starting up the camera and taking a shot can be a slow process, though. That's a reflection of the San Francisco's sluggish processor.
Orange-tinged Android
The best thing about the San Francisco is that Orange has slapped Android onto it. It runs version 2.1 of the operating system, which makes the San Francisco slightlybehind the times, since a new 2.2 version is already out. But you won'tmiss out on too many new features with the older version, especially since it'sunlikely that the San Francisco has the power to take advantage of 2.2's flagship feature, FlashPlayer 10.1 compatibility.
Google is packing more features into its mobile-phone software with each release. For example, GoogleMaps now offers maps and Street View photos of almost everywhere in the UK, soyou'll never get lost again. There's even a Google Maps Navigation sat-nav mode that gives you free turn-by-turn driving or walkingdirections to your destination. The only downside is that Maps, andmost of Google's services, require an Internet connection to work.
The San Francisco includes built-in Wi-Fi so you can surf the Web at home or at work.Otherwise, you'll have to look out for a tariff that doesn't have a dangerouslylow Internet cap. Even Orange'sDolphinplan, which it flogs as its 'free Internet' option forpay as you go customers, only allows 100MB of data per month. With the wondersof Android sucking down data at all hours, it can be easy to use thatamount in a couple of weeks. At least the San Francisco makes it easy to keep track of your data use, by bombarding you with messages every time it wants togo online. The downside is that a phone like thisis much more fun to use when you can surf without worrying about the cost.
Speaking of Wi-Fi, some users have spotteda bug that keeps their phones from automaticallyreconnecting to their wireless networks. In our tests, we had notrouble staying connected to our test Wi-Fi network, but it's somethingto watch out for. We hope that Orange will get stuck into fixing thisbug sharpish.
There are a couple of Android apps that could help if youdo have connection issues -- try searching the Android Market for 'Blade WifiFix'. In fact, the Android app store is your best source for hundreds ofgreat apps and games with which to trick out the San Francisco. Check out our list ofthe best Android apps to get you started.
Bay area bloatware
Like a new laptop that's caked with unwanted programs you haveto spend the first hour uninstalling, Orange has put its mark all overthe excellent Android 2.1 software on the San Francisco. It'sa real pity, because, although a couple of Orange's apps are useful,like the Orange Wednesdays app that scores you two-for-one movietickets, they're also ugly and potentially confusing.
For example, setting up an Android phone usually includescreating or logging in with a Google account. This will get yourGmail going, if you use it, as well as backing up yoursettings with Google and setting up your account with the AndroidMarket app store. On the San Francisco, Orange has barged over thisstep with its own Mobile Mail email set-up, which offers push email forany number of email services, including Gmail.
The problem is thatgoing through the set-up process for Mobile Mail doesn't configure your Googleaccount on the phone -- you'll have to do that later -- and Mobile Mailcosts a staggering £1 a week for pay as you go users. Even worse is that itlooks like Orange has ditched the default Android email program on thephone, so you have no choice but to pay the bill unless you install analternative email program from the Market or you only use Gmail,which has its own dedicated app. The wholesituation stinks.
Similarly, we're not fans of the fact that everything from thedefault home screen to the home page in the browser has beencoated with Orange's ugly icons, which look better suited to a low-resfeature-phone screen than the beautiful 3.5-inch touchscreenon this baby. The Orange App Shop, filled with overpriced crap like a£2 England-flag desktop image, is front and centre. So is Orange Maps, sat-nav software that you don't need to pay for, because you've gotGoogle Maps on-board. It wouldn't start on our sample phoneanyway.
This may sound like no big deal, but, if you're afirst-time smart-phone user tempted by the San Francisco's low price tag,messing with the Google account set-up process and hiding the best Android appsbehind sub-standard, pricey Orange alternatives could mean thedifference between a smooth smart-phone experience and a confusingmuddle. Poor show, Orange.
Once we used our yoga rage-management techniques tocalm down at this cack-handed Orangefication of Android, we set aboutfixing it. And thank our downward face dog,Orange has built in an escape hatch. Open the menu and tap the'homescreen selector' app, switch from 'Orange' to 'launcher', and -- like after acleansing colonic -- everything is better. We've never been so happy to seethe default Android home screen in all our lives. Orange icons still takeover when it comes to the normal Web browser and clock, and the email client isstill paid-for rubbish. But the default home screen is 1,000 timesbetter-looking, and it ditches the four unmovable shortcuts to poorOrange apps.
In making this switch, however, you will miss out on the one advantage that we could see in using Orange's own home screens, which is their support for landscape mode.The Android home screen only supports portrait mode. This isn't a big deal, though, andwe still think it's worth switching.
Conclusion
We'd like to give Orange a big hug for bringing us adecent-looking, powerful Android phone with a capacitive touchscreenfor under £100 on a pay as you go deal. Then we'd like to give Orange a punch inthe face for covering the phone in bloatware and messing up its email in a bidto recoup its pennies.
If you do fancy a cheaptastic phone with the latest versionof Android, 2.2, you'llhave towait until one of the networks picks up the HuaweiIdeos, or go for a slightly pricier LGOptimus One.
Edited by Charles Kloet