Why are people dissing this phone so much

[Guest BigOmar]

Is it me or have you guys noticed that this phone has attracted a lot of haters out there from many of the high end Android handset users and some Apple fanboys.I have been reading comments on Youtube,IRC and other outlets and have come across this recently.I don't know how widespread it is as it could just be something I have personally experienced.

anybody else agree with me?

[Guest shakerist]

People may be feeling insecure, this is because the san fransisco has got good value for money and so people feel ripped off and so they hatin the phone. Obviously its not as good as the glaxy s or other high end android but it packs a good punch for £100, once we get a stable froyo i think this would be better than a wildire (apart from the camera). But I have not seen anyone hating it.

also it might be the name lol "San Fransico" it would have been better with some code like the Z800iZ5834583 . lol and they got a london and lisbon, god what is wrong with these people

[Guest Richard_Arkless]

People who are hating have to realise that this is for the normal everyday person who wants a powerful enough phone that can run the current android os (and 2.2 in this case) but dont want/cant afford to pay the high price tag that you get from a htc or motorola, etc and the only way to reduce the price would be to use lower quality material

If you want a high quality product then you have to pay the high price tag

[Guest Azurren]

A few reasons:

1. People buying more expensive / similar devices would be pretty P'ed off after seeing this phone

2. Poor Quality control means many people have revived faulty devices

3. Orange.. Enough said

4. There is enough praise on this forum alone to sink a battleship! People are bound to expect to much

5. It's an android handset.. Half the world now hate the handset and you (Apple Fanboys)

6. The price point appeals to immature trolls..

[Guest xzyk]

At the last count I have 49 mobiles (I know i need to get a life right ?). These include the IPhone 3Gs, HTC Desire and Samsung i9000. I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt that in my opinion this phone is the best value for money I have ever purchased. As has been commented, poor quality control at the Orange/ZTE end has resulted in some people receiving less-than-perfect units, but, from what I've read on many forums, many people are more than satisfied with their purchases. IPhone fan-boys will always hate anything else that is not Apple made, it is the same in the laptop/PC world, the same goes for the on-going debate about Windows vs Linux distros.

I think at the end of it all, if you buy one and like it than enough said. I repeat, this has been the only phone (including the high-end ones mentioned above) where I felt extremely satisfied with my purchase and didn't feel like I was paying more than the unit is actually worth.

Edited October 30, 2010 by xzyk

[Guest oh!dougal]

A few reasons:

1. People buying more expensive / similar devices would be pretty P'ed off after seeing this phone

2. Poor Quality control means many people have revived faulty devices

3. Orange.. Enough said

4. There is enough praise on this forum alone to sink a battleship! People are bound to expect to much

5. It's an android handset.. Half the world now hate the handset and you (Apple Fanboys)

6. The price point appeals to immature trolls..

Yes to all that. But ...

The phone isn't perfect. (Yet!)

HOWEVER its pretty damn good, and terrific value for money.

But if people are expecting it to do everything perfectly, and have a hardware accessory ecosystem in place, at launch ... well that's their problem.

Unrealistic expectations (like what you can hope to do on one battery-ful of charge) are an obvious problem.

And I can understand a certain disappointment if anyone thought they were buying a better iPod Touch. The audio/video side isn't strong. It ain't a better iPod Touch - except as a phone and using mobile data ...

It isn't an iPhone competitor. It isn't as tightly smoothly integrated as an iPhone.

Its not as 'corporate'. (Apple, corporate? - who'd have thought it!)

But its a lot more hackable and 'open'. Even anti-corporate.

And it certainly doesn't cost like an iPhone.

I'm happy.

But I'll be happier still if I can get BBC iPlayer on the SF ! :)

Edited October 30, 2010 by oh!dougal

[Guest ddotpatel]

I'm happy.

But I'll be happier still if I can get BBC iPlayer on the SF ! :)

Tried myplayer?

[Guest flyingscotno1]

I'm a Desire user who bought a SF for my Mum (although she doesn't know it yet but I doubt she reads Modaco!).

The Desire is a fantastic device, responsive, quick and the HTC sense helps.

This isn't quite as good as a Desire, isn't as slick, needs more setting up (I'm onto R4 with HTC keyboard). However the Desire is what £275-300 more? That is worth it for me as I use the phone and camera a good bit and do a lot of internet and do use the flash too. However I'd be more than happy with a SF running a custom ROM, not quite as good but bangs for buck and a good effort!

[Guest Stuart_f]

But I'll be happier still if I can get BBC iPlayer on the SF ! :)

Beebplayer works perfectly for me.

[Guest Azurren]

I'm a Desire user who bought a SF for my Mum (although she doesn't know it yet but I doubt she reads Modaco!).

The Desire is a fantastic device, responsive, quick and the HTC sense helps.

This isn't quite as good as a Desire, isn't as slick, needs more setting up (I'm onto R4 with HTC keyboard). However the Desire is what £275-300 more? That is worth it for me as I use the phone and camera a good bit and do a lot of internet and do use the flash too. However I'd be more than happy with a SF running a custom ROM, not quite as good but bangs for buck and a good effort!

For the price of a desire you could get:

A cheap phone (For tethering, calling and SmS)

A netbook (For flash and internet)

And a pretty decent digital camera

For the price of the SF you couldn't even afford a netbook yet alone a digital camera and a cheap phone.

Price/Performance the SF wins hands down. The Desire (While very nice) is at the other end of the scale

Edited October 30, 2010 by Azurren

[Guest geegeethatsme]

There does appear to be a very clear value for money dimension to all this. Pound for pound, a flashable, near-latest version OS smartphone that uses open-source apps, and is a quarter or a third of the price of higher end devices, is going to divide opinion. Yes, the quality of some of the components and build states is suspect, but the SF does highlight the premium being paid in the RRP of HTCs, Samsungs and iPhones for the 'brand'. Those who have opted for that route must feel a bit aggrieved and may feel the need to diss the SF, but are we bovvered? As a long term Linux user, accessible and affordable Android devices that encourage and nurture the open-source community are good news, not least in establishing a genuinely competitive OS environment from which all users will benefit.

[Guest shakerist]

Easiest way to put it :

£99 Nuff said

sorry for double post but I had to :)

Edited October 30, 2010 by shakerist

[Guest qylin]

I think the quality-prize ratio of SF is higher than HTC's.

By the way, the Chinese Gov. has made some policy to support export that ZTE may get tax refund from selling one SF abroad.

And, you know, the labor cost is lower than most countries.

To sum up, SF's quality is not that low, at least much better than the estimation of those whose has a certain prejudice against "Made in China". The customers would prove it is worthy.

People who are hating have to realise that this is for the normal everyday person who wants a powerful enough phone that can run the current android os (and 2.2 in this case) but dont want/cant afford to pay the high price tag that you get from a htc or motorola, etc and the only way to reduce the price would be to use lower quality material

If you want a high quality product then you have to pay the high price tag

Edited October 30, 2010 by qylin

[Guest El Nino9]

I love htc phones.

i started off with the G1, got a magic as a gift. got a hero, the desire and now i got the Desire HD, desire z comes in December for xmas :)

but between that i got myself some budget end phones because i like to do geeky stuff to the phones. i have the pulse which i got for £75 and i ordered the ZTE device.

a) i dont like people hating on HTC, reason being they make awesome phones for high end market and they have clearly outlined that.

they are the maybac of the Mercedes group where as the orange san fransisco is a smart car

:) the zte blade is awesome value for money. and hands down much better than my hero. i can try port sense to it from the hero i guess but i dont want to. the phone does what i want it to do. saying its like a smart car is what i mean. does the job i want. a smart car gets you from a to b. the zte blade/san fransisco gives you an android experience which an amazing CPU and screen behind it. angry birds doesn't struggling on this, it struggles on my hero because the GPU is rubbish, i have to use froyodvillian to solve that.

so over all no hating to this phone. its all mighty and powerful

a better comparison would be F1

orange san fransisco can be red bull

HTC and the rest can be the big boys

sometimes you win some sometimes you lose

[Guest flyingscotno1]

For the price of a desire you could get:

A cheap phone (For tethering, calling and SmS)

A netbook (For flash and internet)

And a pretty decent digital camera

For the price of the SF you couldn't even afford a netbook yet alone a digital camera and a cheap phone.

Price/Performance the SF wins hands down. The Desire (While very nice) is at the other end of the scale

Exactly which is barmy people are knocking it. The Desire meets my work needs- I need a good camera, good flash internet and a phone / data functions at work. The Desire does all that at a reasonable price (on a contract).

However a light user might not need this and therefore the SF is excellent. The SF is great for the money and I don't understand why people with high end phones would knock it- it sits in a market segment quite happily.

[Guest bear807]

like many people im a technology geek myself i like to buy some cheap phones as subsitute second phone. Pesronally i have never use any andriod device at all, i have been using iphone for past 3 generation (don't get me wrong im not a fanboy) i still have nokia and se purchase but only as a second phone. This phone was so highly praise becausce of its spec/price ratio, i decide to have it a go. After i get my sf for £69.99, (not even £99) i can tell you by far this is the most value phone i have purchase after having like 60 phones? it might not have the top spec, is not as smooth as my dad i9000, but who cares for 1/3 or 1/4 price you get 60-70% of what an high-end phone function, what can you ask for more? People who hate it probably because of the name and those who buy similar specs like hero or legend is piss because sf has better hardwware :) . As regular i sometimes do reviews on phones, so i decide to do one for sf for a chinese forum and the response is overwhelming there are at least 100 people who cant wait to buy them home even paying at a high price like £130-150, some of the users who already receive their phones are very happy with it.

[Guest bagge]

I think the quality-prize ratio of SF is higher than HTC's.

By the way, the Chinese Gov. has made some policy to support export that ZTE may get tax refund from selling one SF abroad.

And, you know, the labor cost is lower than most countries.

To sum up, SF's quality is not that low, at least much better than the estimation of those whose has a certain prejudice against "Made in China". The customers would prove it is worthy.

I think this is spot on. Its price/performance ratio cant be beat. When first reading about it I was just waiting for some reviews to knock it down, there had to be some catch, but there wasnt (camera aside maybe). And the build quality does indeed feel solid, I'm sure it could have been built even better, but considering the materials its made of its not bad at all.

You can do a bit of hating on the name though I guess, would have been smarter to just keep it ZTE Blade. :)

[Guest mELIANTE]

high price like £130-150, some of the users who already receive their phones are very happy with it.

I bought it for 130£ from a member on this forum and I'm extremely happy with it. Even that price I don't consider high for a phone with these specs. Not here in Portugal at least. With 130£/150€ you wouldn't buy anything close to this phone around here.

[Guest harmohn]

Well I've got an N1 and an SF and im having just as much fun running and hacking the SF as i am with the nexus.

Its an excellent device for the reasons others have mentioned here; haters are just pissed that they shelled out more on an alternate device :)

[Guest Frankish]

I have a Desire but have followed this forum for the San Fran since they came out. I'm itching to buy one just because of the good things i have heard. :) I would keep the Desire too though.

[Guest Jason Wang]

I think the quality-prize ratio of SF is higher than HTC's.

By the way, the Chinese Gov. has made some policy to support export that ZTE may get tax refund from selling one SF abroad.

And, you know, the labor cost is lower than most countries.

To sum up, SF's quality is not that low, at least much better than the estimation of those whose has a certain prejudice against "Made in China". The customers would prove it is worthy.

I do agree with you! I am going to buy one with the help of a friend in Newcastle.

[Guest sedj]

As has been said you get what you pay for, my only problem with this is how long you expect the phone to last?

Its good buying cheap but if it fails 13month down the line its £99 quid down the toilet?

This phone has been out a month or 2 and no one can predict how it will survive, if you have a ton to burn no problem but those that dont may look elsewhere.

[Guest ausroo]

I don't know why people would hate on ZTE Blade. It's exceptional value.

I have an SGS and I love it. I also consider it good value. But how can you argue with the value of the ZTE Blade? I'll be getting one for someone who loves my SGS but can't afford it.

[Guest booster22]

People arnt dissing this phone, its getting good reviews all across the net. most people who get one are more than happy.

If your talking about the odd guy who comes into a forum to state his phone is better, well you get that on any consumer product. just get yourself to the toaster forums to prove my case.

True theres the odd one thats failed, but every product has this, and orange have a good return policy.

My battery lasts a good day and a bit with moderate use.

Easy to unlock and deorange

phones 3 or 4 times the price are better, sure. but some of us dont want to spend that kind of dosh on a phone, we have families , nappies and new curtains for the spare room to spend our money on.

This is the best 99 quid smartphone on the market.

[Guest AndyHibberd]

This is the best 99 quid smartphone on the market.

This is the best 69 quid smartphone on the market

FTFY

(£30 off for orange customers, obv 79 with the 10 topup)

Sometimes I remember how little the SF cost me and I smile on the inside whilst staring at my friend's cracked screen iphone4 on a 24 month soulcrushing plan.

Andy