Guest trentbg Posted February 15, 2011 Report Share Posted February 15, 2011 I just received my Orange San Fran from a great friend of mine in UK and it cost me 113 pounds (including shipping to the States) or $180 which is a very good price for what you get. As you all British friends know the body and the screen of the phone a way above average (especially for 99 pounds) and the best part that can be unlocked for free and upgraded to Froyo 2.2, in my case I am using the JJF9 and so far I am very pleased, maybe here is the place to say a big thank you for all the outstanding work and help from all the members in the community here. Ok, to the point, for all the future owners of SF in US, please be advised that you can only use the phone with T-mobile service (ATT uses 850mhz in most of their coverage) and there is no 3G, only EDGE (an OK speed) and GPRS (super slow) unfortunately T-mobile's 3G is over the 1700mhz and in this case we are out of luck (the SF uses 900/2100 MHz) But for the rest, no problem at all, talk, text, some internet (when there is WiFi and EDGE). So to recap, in case that you really want that great phone in the States, your options are very limited, but still it makes it a great buy, at least for me, I travel a lot over seas and the San Fran will serve me well there, I hope. Please don't hesitate to ask me any questions regarding the phone here in the US and regarding any issues you might face (hopefully not face). Cheers, Trent Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest spannerz Posted February 15, 2011 Report Share Posted February 15, 2011 (edited) I just received my Orange San Fran from a great friend of mine in UK and it cost me 113 pounds (including shipping to the States) or $180 which is a very good price for what you get. As you all British friends know the body and the screen of the phone a way above average (especially for 99 pounds) and the best part that can be unlocked for free and upgraded to Froyo 2.2, in my case I am using the JJF9 and so far I am very pleased, maybe here is the place to say a big thank you for all the outstanding work and help from all the members in the community here. Ok, to the point, for all the future owners of SF in US, please be advised that you can only use the phone with T-mobile service (ATT uses 850mhz in most of their coverage) and there is no 3G, only EDGE (an OK speed) and GPRS (super slow) unfortunately T-mobile's 3G is over the 1700mhz and in this case we are out of luck (the SF uses 900/2100 MHz) But for the rest, no problem at all, talk, text, some internet (when there is WiFi and EDGE). So to recap, in case that you really want that great phone in the States, your options are very limited, but still it makes it a great buy, at least for me, I travel a lot over seas and the San Fran will serve me well there, I hope. Please don't hesitate to ask me any questions regarding the phone here in the US and regarding any issues you might face (hopefully not face). Cheers, Trent I've been over to Tampa with my San Fran and what you said is spot on, I'm a bit of a novice using UK phones in the states and did wonder if the GSM/WCDMA option might allow more scope but I could only get GPRS or EDGE on mine. However, I was expecting limited reception capabilities so no real problem while there. In the UK I use Tesco (O2) carrier and in Tampa I roamed onto T mobile without issue (except having to pay to receive calls which we luckily don't have to pay for over here in the UK!) Fortunately for me, I managed to pickup an unsecured wifi network and could check my emails using that instead of paying the £8 per megabyte that Tesco would charge :D Edited February 15, 2011 by spannerz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Phoenix Silver Posted February 15, 2011 Report Share Posted February 15, 2011 (edited) humm it's a serious problem for me canadian providers are on 850 mhz too i think blade can use 850 mhz but it's deactivated by software perhaps we need to take a look in the kernel source ?? Edited February 15, 2011 by Phoenix Silver Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest spannerz Posted February 15, 2011 Report Share Posted February 15, 2011 (edited) humm it's a serious problem for me canadian providers are on 850 mhz too i think blade can use 850 mhz but it's deactivated by software perhaps we need to take a look in the kernel source ?? Yeah I wonder if it's in the hardware but disabled? My UK SanFran says on the back: UMTS 900/2100 MHz GSM 900/1800/1900MHz Edited February 15, 2011 by spannerz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Phoenix Silver Posted February 15, 2011 Report Share Posted February 15, 2011 just seen a video on a site "zte blade unboxed" it has the 4 bands citation "Unboxing of my brand new ZTE Blade Android handset I got from a Saunalahti .... blabla It's a GSM phone with 3G speeds (UMTS/HSDPA 850/1900/2100 MHz) and Quad-band ..." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Matty-p Posted February 15, 2011 Report Share Posted February 15, 2011 does the us not use gsm much then ? the lower frequency bands make sense cos america has loads loads more land area to cover but it must suck for speed in The city's though building penetration must be good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest admanirv Posted February 15, 2011 Report Share Posted February 15, 2011 Does anyone know if the SF is capable of using 3g etc in Australia? Cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Matty-p Posted February 15, 2011 Report Share Posted February 15, 2011 Does anyone know if the SF is capable of using 3g etc in Australia? Cheers Tell us the network name, type and the frequency Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Beaksterboy Posted February 16, 2011 Report Share Posted February 16, 2011 humm it's a serious problem for me canadian providers are on 850 mhz too i think blade can use 850 mhz but it's deactivated by software perhaps we need to take a look in the kernel source ?? Yo, I've just started to use mine here in Toronto. It's been a big hassle researching but basically the phone can only be used on Rogers or Fido and then only as 2G. To do this it uses the 2G EDGE or GPRS for data and to get it working on Fido you need to turn on data roaming too (apparently due to the strange way Fido uses Rogers network). I've got it working now and its recognised as a smart phone, and when I try and go online it gives me the page telling me to buy a data plan or day/week data pass. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Matty-p Posted February 16, 2011 Report Share Posted February 16, 2011 Yo, I've just started to use mine here in Toronto. It's been a big hassle researching but basically the phone can only be used on Rogers or Fido and then only as 2G. To do this it uses the 2G EDGE or GPRS for data and to get it working on Fido you need to turn on data roaming too (apparently due to the strange way Fido uses Rogers network). I've got it working now and its recognised as a smart phone, and when I try and go online it gives me the page telling me to buy a data plan or day/week data pass. Try use opera mobile or mini Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Phoenix Silver Posted February 16, 2011 Report Share Posted February 16, 2011 Yo, I've just started to use mine here in Toronto. It's been a big hassle researching but basically the phone can only be used on Rogers or Fido and then only as 2G. To do this it uses the 2G EDGE or GPRS for data and to get it working on Fido you need to turn on data roaming too (apparently due to the strange way Fido uses Rogers network). I've got it working now and its recognised as a smart phone, and when I try and go online it gives me the page telling me to buy a data plan or day/week data pass. i have to take a look at providers in quebec there are a lot bell, rogers, at&t, fido, virgin mobile etc... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Lew247 Posted February 16, 2011 Report Share Posted February 16, 2011 does the us not use gsm much then ? the lower frequency bands make sense cos america has loads loads more land area to cover but it must suck for speed in The city's though building penetration must be good. A lot of the US now used GSM but they use 850Mhz and 1900Mhz where in the UK and most of the world we use 900Mhz and 1800Mhz The rest of the US uses CDMA which although digital is completely differenf from GSM, and although you can get "dual mode phones" unfortunately the Blade is not one of them, it's GSM only. The 3G frequencies in the US is different as well and a lot of countries now allow 3G in the 900Mhz band as well as GSM but not in the UK because the licensing conditions for that set of frequencies do not allow it By US I mean the continent not country. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest trentbg Posted February 16, 2011 Report Share Posted February 16, 2011 Yes, unfortunately the American providers want to be different from the rest of the World and use frequencies that are not supported by large amount of phones devices from Europe, and I don't think they will change that any time soon... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Matty-p Posted February 16, 2011 Report Share Posted February 16, 2011 A lot of the US now used GSM but they use 850Mhz and 1900Mhz where in the UK and most of the world we use 900Mhz and 1800Mhz The rest of the US uses CDMA which although digital is completely differenf from GSM, and although you can get "dual mode phones" unfortunately the Blade is not one of them, it's GSM only. The 3G frequencies in the US is different as well and a lot of countries now allow 3G in the 900Mhz band as well as GSM but not in the UK because the licensing conditions for that set of frequencies do not allow it By US I mean the continent not country. actually they(ofcom) do now allow 3g around 900mhz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Matty-p Posted February 16, 2011 Report Share Posted February 16, 2011 Yes, unfortunately the American providers want to be different from the rest of the World and use frequencies that are not supported by large amount of phones devices from Europe, and I don't think they will change that any time soon... shame.. for both of us we don't get american phones that work here and likewise you don't get our phones :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Lew247 Posted February 16, 2011 Report Share Posted February 16, 2011 actually they(ofcom) do now allow 3g around 900mhz Sorry yes they allowed it on the 6th of Jan but none of the networks have plans to use it at the moment They are worried about losing gsm coverage as they'd have to cut the number of gsm frequencies used to enable 3g in their place. My bet is they are waiting the auction of the 800Mhz band next year and will hop straight in with 4g there instead of major investment in 3g at 900Mhz I should know what they are planning I used to be a network engineer for Voda, I'll have to ask around the old contacts and see what the actual plans are. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Matty-p Posted February 16, 2011 Report Share Posted February 16, 2011 Sorry yes they allowed it on the 6th of Jan but none of the networks have plans to use it at the moment They are worried about losing gsm coverage as they'd have to cut the number of gsm frequencies used to enable 3g in their place. My bet is they are waiting the auction of the 800Mhz band next year and will hop straight in with 4g there instead of major investment in 3g at 900Mhz I should know what they are planning I used to be a network engineer for Voda, I'll have to ask around the old contacts and see what the actual plans are. yea i know kinda a shame for us smartphone users in a away in away not too though to be fair. just saying that the licence does allow it cos you cited licencing reasons. yea thats what will hapen thought i bet they wont actually get thier 4g networks up till around 2014 they could still do something in the mean time i don't really want to wait 3 more years. i can see why they wouldn't but still. that 8xx will go for a fortune i guess 2.6 will go for less and be used to suplement 8xx 4g in the cities/dense usage areas due to the capacity benifit of that spectrum but still its swings and round-abouts beacause it can't really penetrate buildings very well will be interesting to see who buys it and what they do with it. cool :D vodafone did used to be good imo there not as good in comparison with outher networks now especilly in pricing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest 90180360 Posted February 16, 2011 Report Share Posted February 16, 2011 ZTE Libra Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Lew247 Posted February 16, 2011 Report Share Posted February 16, 2011 I have a feeling that is actually the blade - either with a different wireless chip/circuitry in it, or as i suspect it simply is identical but with the extra bands "unlocked by software" the sme way the 256MB ones ended up with 512MB after a software hack Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest 90180360 Posted February 16, 2011 Report Share Posted February 16, 2011 What makes you guys think that bands were locked by software?! Also it's not identical to the Blade, there are even some optical differences, check the other thread. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Phoenix Silver Posted February 16, 2011 Report Share Posted February 16, 2011 What makes you guys think that bands were locked by software?! Also it's not identical to the Blade, there are even some optical differences, check the other thread. There are a lot of users using us bands It's just a software deactivation Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest trentbg Posted February 28, 2011 Report Share Posted February 28, 2011 A quick update regarding different chargers in the US, that work and not work with SF: B&N Nook charger - works perfectly Droid X charger - works perfectly Droid 2 charger - working perfectly Palm Pre Plus - Not working correctly, it is not charging or not charging completely (the charger is 1A) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Pelemane Posted February 28, 2011 Report Share Posted February 28, 2011 just seen a video on a site "zte blade unboxed" it has the 4 bands citation "Unboxing of my brand new ZTE Blade Android handset I got from a Saunalahti .... blabla It's a GSM phone with 3G speeds (UMTS/HSDPA 850/1900/2100 MHz) and Quad-band ..." I have Saunalahti Blade and the box says: UMTS: 900/2100 GSM 900/1800/1900 No 850 here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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