Guest tdroza Posted October 12, 2010 Report Share Posted October 12, 2010 Hi all, I found out about this handset last week, and on Saturday went and got one for my girlfriend (to replace her awful HTC Touch2 WinMo phone). I'd already been reading up on here, so within a couple of hours of getting it home it was unlocked, rooted and flashed with the MCRi r3 ROM and I'm seriously impressed. It's unbelievable value for the spec. I'm now seriously considering getting another one for myself to replace my Hero. I can get £98 for my hero at fonebank.com, and can get the San Fran for £99.10 with NUS discount (and possibly some Quidco cashback on top - not sure if I can use both yet). My Hero is running the VillainROM Froyo build so has a couple of advantages over Eclair on the San Fran, but they're pretty minor. Pros of Hero: - better camera - Froyo Pros of San Fran - 10% faster CPU + more RAM - bigger screen - higher resolution - thinner/lighter handset - shiny and new ;-) For me, the main advantages of Froyo are wireless tethering (which I can get on San Fran with root and an app). UpdateAll in market (which I can get as an apk released today). Faster browser (but when I compared my Hero to San Fran, the difference was barely noticeable, and when Firefox Mobile reaches full release I'm confident that it'll beat stock froyo browser). Has anyone done a similar switch from Hero to San Fran? If so, are you happy with the change? How likely are we to see a custom Froyo ROM for the San Fran? PS: Great work by everyone on the forum here. Just proves the advantages of an active community and an open OS! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Fok@ Posted October 12, 2010 Report Share Posted October 12, 2010 I have switched from Hero to SF and I have to say it was very good decision :) Simply it's much faster and wohooo screen is amaizing :) BUT it's not that smooth atm as Hero. GO FOR IT M8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Stooby Posted October 13, 2010 Report Share Posted October 13, 2010 I've just switched from Hero (FroydVillain FroYo) to a SF (rooted and running MCRr3) and I'm pleasantly surprised how well it performs compared to the Hero. I wouldn't swap back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest jsplace Posted October 13, 2010 Report Share Posted October 13, 2010 (edited) I have a Hero with Cronos Froyo 1.3.0 and the GF has the SF with MCRr3. The screen on the SF is gorgeous compared to the hero and the extra RAM is useful, but... The Hero DEFINITELY outperforms the SF both in real world "User Experience" and in benchmark scores at equal clock settings. At the moment, until there is a proper custom ROM with full kernel optimisations etc then I would choose Hero over the SF. Battery Life is also better on the hero and the build quality is far superior. 2nd but... £99. The SF is a hell of a phone for the money and, given time and with a few devs on board I think the SF has the possibility of bettering the Hero. Its early days tho and for now I would not swap. But in the future? Very possibly :) EDIT: I AM very impressed by the SF tho and have recommended one to my son also who has just received his in the post. Edited October 13, 2010 by jsplace Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Spooke Posted October 13, 2010 Report Share Posted October 13, 2010 I moved from the Hero to SF and I am very happy with the move :), it just feels so much nicer and is a lot faster to use I'm sure we will see more custom roms once people get the kernal booting? (not sure what the problem is here) and 2.2 :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest tdroza Posted October 13, 2010 Report Share Posted October 13, 2010 Thanks for the comments everyone. I just bit the bullet and ordered one for myself. Got the NUS discount, and tried the Quidco cashback as well - will report back whether the Quidco thing works with the NUS discount as well. Given that it'll cost me at most about £10 to switch from my Hero (with the cash from fonebank), I just couldn't resist. The only thing I think I'll miss is the slightly better camera, but then I've got a compact and an SLR for "proper" pictures anyway so I only really use the phone camera for random facebook & twitter pics. The one thing left that I'd like for this handset is a easy/reliable way to change the boot animation. I can't get the USB drivers working so can't use teh 'adb push' technique that I used on my Hero, and I tried one of the boot animation changer apps from the market place but that didn't work either - apparently the SanFran doesn't use the normal /data/local/bootanimation.zip or /system/media/bootanimation.zip file format/location? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest tdroza Posted October 13, 2010 Report Share Posted October 13, 2010 ...will report back whether the Quidco thing works with the NUS discount as well. That was quick! I've just received the email from Quidco to say that they have tracked my purachase and the expected cashback is £12 - not guaranteed until it's validated, but looks like it will work. So here's what I did to get both the NUS discount and quidco... 1) Log in to quidco, search for orange, click the cashback link to be taken to the orange website. 2) In the same browser window, go here: http://shop.orange.co.uk/mobile-phones/students and enter your NUS number. 3) Search for the San Francisco under Mobile Phones > Pay as you go phones (the price will say £99, but when you add it to your basket it will come up at £89.10 4) Select your PAYG plan (I chose dolphin), and complete the checkout. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest hillmie87 Posted October 13, 2010 Report Share Posted October 13, 2010 That was quick! I've just received the email from Quidco to say that they have tracked my purachase and the expected cashback is £12 - not guaranteed until it's validated, but looks like it will work. So here's what I did to get both the NUS discount and quidco... 1) Log in to quidco, search for orange, click the cashback link to be taken to the orange website. 2) In the same browser window, go here: http://shop.orange.co.uk/mobile-phones/students and enter your NUS number. 3) Search for the San Francisco under Mobile Phones > Pay as you go phones (the price will say £99, but when you add it to your basket it will come up at £89.10 4) Select your PAYG plan (I chose dolphin), and complete the checkout. I'm pretty sure it's mentioned somewhere on quidco that cashback isn't going to work if used in conjunction with another discount code. But then again, I might be wrong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest thamoo Posted October 17, 2010 Report Share Posted October 17, 2010 I was lucky,i had a E71 about the house and recycled it for £80.I am now the owner of a sf payg and a hero thats still in contract. i like the hero and use it more than the sf,but i think things will change when more custom roms come out for the sf. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest idroid84 Posted October 17, 2010 Report Share Posted October 17, 2010 I traded Hero to little SanFran. Worth it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest blackmath Posted October 17, 2010 Report Share Posted October 17, 2010 Much better GPU for San Fran as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest clivec Posted October 17, 2010 Report Share Posted October 17, 2010 One thing worth mentioning, and i dunno if anyone else has had this problem, but i tried to install firefox on my SF the other day and it wouldn't start. Looked like it gets so far then bombs out. So don't rely on using that (unless it was just mine!!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest tdroza Posted October 17, 2010 Report Share Posted October 17, 2010 4 days in, and I'm happy with the swap from Hero to SF. Only two gripes so far: 1) The camera, but I knew it wasn't going to match the Hero so no major cause for complaint 2) The battery - struggling to get a full day out of a single charge so far. I'm hoping it's a combination of a new battery will will get to full capacity after a few more charges, and that I'm probably using it more than normal because it's my new toy. Otherwise I think it matches or beats the Hero in every other respect. I don't have any issues with the build quality, and I haven't really missed any features from Froyo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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