Just lost my HTC Desire, buying San Francisco

[Guest paxromana]

Lost my HTC Desire today, wasn't insured, had my life story (CVs etc) on it. I'm gonna miss that phone, but also have the fear of identity theft now too :D .

Aaaanyway - I can't stretch to weighing out 350 quid for a new Desire, so started looking at Wildfire and others, and came across the San Francisco/Blade.

Slightly disconcerted about the lack of 2.2 (but not that bothered either, as I didn't really notice too much when my Desire got the upgrade), but in all other areas feel quite optimistic about it. The decider has been the screen size and res when comparing to the Wildfire. I won't have Sense UI, but I can turn off all the Orange interface tweaks, I presume?

So, I know this is very vague and how long's a piece of string etc, but considering I'm only going to buy a "budget" smart phone, do we think that the San Fran is a good option? I use pretty exclusively for phone, web browsing (lots of that) and Map/Google Navigation (when I can't be arsed to fire up my TomTom).

Will I be wanting to tear my eyes from my sockets after using a Desire for so long after trying a San Fran?

[Guest Lew247]

Once your happy with flashing rom's on it you'll wonder why on earth you spent so much money on the Desire

The only thing missing on the San Francisco is flash but I've not needed it at all

The camera is a bit rubbish but takes reasonable pics if you drill out that plastic lens on the back cover.

The phone is fine with 2.1 but with all the Orange stuff on it (if it's a UK phone) it is a bit slow, so read the threads on how to remove the Orange bloatware, or even better flash it with a 2.2 rom

[Guest Matty-p]

Lost my HTC Desire today, wasn't insured, had my life story (CVs etc) on it. I'm gonna miss that phone, but also have the fear of identity theft now too :D .

Aaaanyway - I can't stretch to weighing out 350 quid for a new Desire, so started looking at Wildfire and others, and came across the San Francisco/Blade.

Slightly disconcerted about the lack of 2.2 (but not that bothered either, as I didn't really notice too much when my Desire got the upgrade), but in all other areas feel quite optimistic about it. The decider has been the screen size and res when comparing to the Wildfire. I won't have Sense UI, but I can turn off all the Orange interface tweaks, I presume?

So, I know this is very vague and how long's a piece of string etc, but considering I'm only going to buy a "budget" smart phone, do we think that the San Fran is a good option? I use pretty exclusively for phone, web browsing (lots of that) and Map/Google Navigation (when I can't be arsed to fire up my TomTom).

Will I be wanting to tear my eyes from my sockets after using a Desire for so long after trying a San Fran?

I made a sense 2.2 rom a few months ago a little out of date now tho but ill do a new version soon

OT but Lew when did you become a mod? ? Congrats anyway

[Guest unholyimp]

It's no Desire. But if your only option is the sub 150 mark then it's certainly the best choice.

The wife has a wildfire and I have the san fran running fibblesan's 2.2 rom

http://android.modaco.com/content/zte-blad...zte-blade-beta/

and I gota say it's loads better faster due to slightly faster proc. Battery life is better thanks to fibblesan.

Throw the headphones in the bin and buy a set of sennheiser ear canal jobbies and the sounds is better than my ipod nano 3g

http://www.google.co.uk/products?hl=en&amp...ved=0CDEQrQQwAA

So for 99 it's a steal

Edited January 12, 2011 by unholyimp

[Guest lilzad]

Lost my HTC Desire today, wasn't insured, had my life story (CVs etc) on it. I'm gonna miss that phone, but also have the fear of identity theft now too :D .

Aaaanyway - I can't stretch to weighing out 350 quid for a new Desire, so started looking at Wildfire and others, and came across the San Francisco/Blade.

Slightly disconcerted about the lack of 2.2 (but not that bothered either, as I didn't really notice too much when my Desire got the upgrade), but in all other areas feel quite optimistic about it. The decider has been the screen size and res when comparing to the Wildfire. I won't have Sense UI, but I can turn off all the Orange interface tweaks, I presume?

So, I know this is very vague and how long's a piece of string etc, but considering I'm only going to buy a "budget" smart phone, do we think that the San Fran is a good option? I use pretty exclusively for phone, web browsing (lots of that) and Map/Google Navigation (when I can't be arsed to fire up my TomTom).

Will I be wanting to tear my eyes from my sockets after using a Desire for so long after trying a San Fran?

um have u looked at the Motorola defy i dnt no y but that phone has caught my eye recently

[Guest gambieter]

do we think that the San Fran is a good option? I use pretty exclusively for phone, web browsing (lots of that) and Map/Google Navigation (when I can't be arsed to fire up my TomTom).

Will I be wanting to tear my eyes from my sockets after using a Desire for so long after trying a San Fran?

I have both phones (just bought the Desire and then found out about the SanFran). I use both, and although the Desire is clearly better (screen is bigger, processor snappier, feels better), the SanFran is fine in normal use. And for less than 1/3 of the price!

So if you are on a budget, the SanFran is definitely the thing to go for. All other budget phones have a small and low resolution screen, making it really feel like you lost out.

[Guest Lew247]

I actually ordered and paid for the Desire from Play.com then the day after posting they announced on their website the Desire HD was being sold 16 days later so I cancelled my order to wait for the Desire HD.

In the meantime this phone and forum came up in one of Techradar's posts, and it got me interested

very interested, in fact after reading the post, and then reading as much about the phone as I could both on the internet and here I went downtown a couple of hours later and bought one

Then about 2 hours later after reading the excellent guides on here I was running on the Mocado rom and I was really impressed with the phone

Yes I got to admit there are things about the Desire and Desire HD I'd like, such as a decent camera with a flash, but thats it nothing else and I don't regret buying this one and I will not change it unless ZTE or someone else brings out a replacement that is better than this with a faster processor but around the same price as this one or just a little higher.

btw thanks Matty-p (today well yesterday really as it's now tomorrow)

[Guest Rotmann]

Lost my HTC Desire today, wasn't insured, had my life story (CVs etc) on it. I'm gonna miss that phone, but also have the fear of identity theft now too :D .

Aaaanyway - I can't stretch to weighing out 350 quid for a new Desire, so started looking at Wildfire and others, and came across the San Francisco/Blade.

Slightly disconcerted about the lack of 2.2 (but not that bothered either, as I didn't really notice too much when my Desire got the upgrade), but in all other areas feel quite optimistic about it. The decider has been the screen size and res when comparing to the Wildfire. I won't have Sense UI, but I can turn off all the Orange interface tweaks, I presume?

So, I know this is very vague and how long's a piece of string etc, but considering I'm only going to buy a "budget" smart phone, do we think that the San Fran is a good option? I use pretty exclusively for phone, web browsing (lots of that) and Map/Google Navigation (when I can't be arsed to fire up my TomTom).

Will I be wanting to tear my eyes from my sockets after using a Desire for so long after trying a San Fran?

You'll have to get a 2.2 ROM mate, it makes the phone much more usable (for example multitouch fpr browsing stinks on 2.1). Sad that you did not have anything like Theft Aware or Watchdog on your phone, you could have recovered/wiped it easily. Someone mentioned the moto defy, it's double the price. Look for the sanfran on argos, it's for 89,99€+10€ top-up.

[Guest paxromana]

Thank you folks, what a nice forum, not a single post about what a twat you are for losing your phone and not having it insured :D, which is the norm on forums hehe.

Just two more questions and then I'll get back to you when I have the thing:

If I buy an Orange pay and go my monthly pay Orange sim card will work in it, right?

No Flash, someone said - you mean it doesn't do it at all, or just movies and stuff are too choppy? I don't mind not watching video on it (so rarely did on the Desire it's no biggie) but don't want to have problems with the occasional website that runs it. Sounds like I shall certainly be getting a 2.2 ROM from here for it - will that fix that?

Thx again folks. I shall stop asking questions and start doing real research now it seems I want one.

[Guest Azurren]

Thank you folks, what a nice forum, not a single post about what a twat you are for losing your phone and not having it insured :D, which is the norm on forums hehe.

Just two more questions and then I'll get back to you when I have the thing:

If I buy an Orange pay and go my monthly pay Orange sim card will work in it, right?

No Flash, someone said - you mean it doesn't do it at all, or just movies and stuff are too choppy? I don't mind not watching video on it (so rarely did on the Desire it's no biggie) but don't want to have problems with the occasional website that runs it. Sounds like I shall certainly be getting a 2.2 ROM from here for it - will that fix that?

Thx again folks. I shall stop asking questions and start doing real research now it seems I want one.

Yeah any orange sim will work out of the box.. Although I suggest unlocking it for free and using a network which doesn't try to scam you for mobile internet (T-Mobile or GiffGaff)

About flash: Adobe flash isn't supported and probably won't be supported on the ARM6 processor (The one in the blade). Youtube will work as it has an app, html5 videos will work and you can use a browser called "Skyfire" to convert and stream flash videos on the fly :P

[Guest paxromana]

Ah well, that'll probably be a bit of a pain but I reckon I'm gonna live with it :D . Like I say, not fussed about watching videos per se, but every once in a whie there's that website you just can't use. C'est la vie.

Thx :P

[Guest StevenHarperUK]

Ah well, that'll probably be a bit of a pain but I reckon I'm gonna live with it :D . Like I say, not fussed about watching videos per se, but every once in a whie there's that website you just can't use. C'est la vie.

Thx :P

I think earlier when someone said it has no flash - they were referring to the camera having no flash.

However good that you know the ARM6 is not supported.

[Guest strat.minger]

Just really confirming what everyone else has said really. A couple of mates have the Desire, and my OSF does everything that theres does for a fraction of the price. Yes there is no sense, but with Launcher Pro you can get close homescreen experience, and Launcher Pro Plus adds some 'Sense' like widgets into the mix as well. Like others have said the camera is fairly poor, although I did notice a vast improvement when i installed a 2.2 rom on it.

Another great benefit is the guys that hang around on these forums, I have managed to go from not knowing a thing about android, to flashing ROMS and alsorts of stuff just by reading the guides etc... that have been put up.

Yes you will probably notice a difference coming from the Desire to a OSF, but you will probably also be left wondering why the Desire is 3.5x more expensive!

Strat

[Guest tdodd]

I've had the San Francisco for over three months. For the price I have no complaints, and with the Orange crap removed I'm quite happy with the stock ROM. I prefer it to the 2.2 custom ROMs I've tried so far. At £85 for the phone and running costs which net out to bugger all on giffgaff I'm well chuffed. The weak spot is the camera, but that doesn't bother me at all.

My girfriend has the Motorola Defy. It is a nicer phone, a bit, but really in daily use there doesn't seem to be any particular advantage over the San Francisco. They both get the job done well enough. That said, the Defy does load the BBC home page 3X faster than the San Fran. That might matter to some people.

If you do fancy a Defy then the best deal I've seen is a free phone at £15 per month over 24 months with 300minutes, 300 texts and a 1GB internet bolt-on from T-Mobile. The deal is here - http://www.affordablemobiles.co.uk/contrac...amp;siteid=1300 but you might get £40 cash back by going via TopCashBack (see my sig) to place an order.

[Guest suriya83]

Lost my HTC Desire today, wasn't insured, had my life story (CVs etc) on it. I'm gonna miss that phone, but also have the fear of identity theft now too :D .

do yourself a favor for next time, buy one of this apps:

http://www.appbrain.com/app/phonelocator-pro/com.rvo.plpro

http://www.appbrain.com/app/sim-checker-pr...imcheckerdonate

or use the free ones:

http://www.appbrain.com/app/sim-checker-li...je.simchecker15

etc...

and hide it in the app drawer you use. the chances may be good that you'll get the thief's phone number

[Guest LVL91]

Hi guys/girls!

I am new on the forum, but I have been checking this out since like 2 weeks.

I just received my OSF from a guy I know from another forum.

This is my first contribution to the forum! Since I have both the Desire and OSF, I would like to explain the big differences (usingStock HTC 2.2 ROM on Desire vs. Japanese Jellyfish RLS6 on OSF):

1. The screen, although the OSF has a TFT(mine has), and the Desire an AMOLED, I actually prefer TFT. TFT is way sharper, yet AMOLED has more vivid colors. It is not just the 0.2" difference!

2. The buttons on the OSF are OK, but the buttons on the Desire feel better.

3. The camera is, well..., it was better than I thought. Making a video is a no-go. Taking pictures is fine.

4. Launcher pro with 7 screens and 3 full sized launcherpro widgets(facebook, people and calendar) is lagging very, very much. I am now having 3 homescreens with Fancy widget and smooth calendar, this works really well!

5. The quadrant test are very, very opposite. My desire has a score of about 1000~1100, while the OSF has about 400~500. The strange thing is that the Desire is way better in the first test(cpu test), then memory which seem the same. But then I/O... The OSF outruns the Desire with a big leap forward(starting the 2D/3D stuff sooner, although it also had a big arrear from the Desire because of the cpu test). It might be that Stagefright is 'on', on the Desire, since the H.264 decoding is a little to fast I believe...

6. The storage, well it seems my Desire is stuck with only a total of 147.62MB to install apps on, while the OSF has a 208.12MB free.(The HTC apps seem to take a lot of space...)

7. The memory... While I can have, at most, 200mb free on the Desire, I can have 300mb free on the OSF. (Desire has 576mb RAM, so about 162mb of extra HTC stuff running...)

8. The micro-usb connector place... That place is a bit of a weird choice. I would have placed that at the bottom of the phone.

9. No trackball, something I actually almost NEVER use on my Desire. (I did know it didn't have a trackball before buying :D)

10. No Adobe Flash player, something I actually use to watch South Park on my Desire, I didn't know the OSF was incapable because of the armv6...

So, that's 10 points, enough for now.

You may ask me anything about differences.

[Guest wbaw]

Thank you folks, what a nice forum, not a single post about what a twat you are for losing your phone and not having it insured :D, which is the norm on forums hehe.

Just two more questions and then I'll get back to you when I have the thing:

If I buy an Orange pay and go my monthly pay Orange sim card will work in it, right?

No Flash, someone said - you mean it doesn't do it at all, or just movies and stuff are too choppy? I don't mind not watching video on it (so rarely did on the Desire it's no biggie) but don't want to have problems with the occasional website that runs it. Sounds like I shall certainly be getting a 2.2 ROM from here for it - will that fix that?

Thx again folks. I shall stop asking questions and start doing real research now it seems I want one.

Your Orange sim will work fine.

There's no Adobe Flash & likely never will be, because the cpu is a generation behind the Desire, 2.2 makes no difference. You can still watch Youtube videos, etc, there's an app for that, but you wont be able to see any (parts of) websites that use flash.

There's also no camera flash & even in good light the camera is worse than the desire.

Build quality is worse, it feels much cheaper & there are some fairly common faults.

Wifi wont stay connected, the more recent 2.2 roms should make it reconnect quicker, but if you stay on the stock rom then you'll need 'blade wifi fix' to make it reconnect at all.

The screen is smaller, the newer models all have tft screens so the viewing angle isn't so good. It does have the same screen res as the desire, which is nice & the screens are pretty good, just not as outstanding as the desire's.

The buttons are noticeably less well made, harder to press & there aren't so many. There's no trackball/button/pad, no search button. Just home, menu & back.

A couple of plus points are that it's smaller & lighter than a desire, also the speaker sounds better.

Overall, it's quite a step down from the desire, but it's a quarter the price. It's like getting 2/3rds of a desire. Beats any other phone under £150 on payg.

Edited January 12, 2011 by wbaw

[Guest Lew247]

4. Launcher pro with 7 screens and 3 full sized launcherpro widgets(facebook, people and calendar) is lagging very, very much. I am now having 3 homescreens with Fancy widget and smooth calendar, this works really well!

5. The quadrant test are very, very opposite. My desire has a score of about 1000~1100, while the OSF has about 400~500. The strange thing is that the Desire is way better in the first test(cpu test), then memory which seem the same. But then I/O... The OSF outruns the Desire with a big leap forward(starting the 2D/3D stuff sooner, although it also had a big arrear from the Desire because of the cpu test). It might be that Stagefright is 'on', on the Desire, since the H.264 decoding is a little to fast I believe...

4: if you flash one of the froyo roms or indeed one of the 2.1 it gets rid of the orange rubbish and you'll find that Launcherpro flies

5:Don't worry too much about the Quadrant scores, its decieving, something to do with stagefright being broken in the OSF so it's not giving reliable scores or something

I found it interesting that you prefer the tft, I've been saying for ages that people who have never had the oled version won't be dissapointed by the tft

I'm lucky, got one of the 1st and it's oled.

[Guest gambieter]

I found it interesting that you prefer the tft, I've been saying for ages that people who have never had the oled version won't be dissapointed by the tft

I'm lucky, got one of the 1st and it's oled.

I have both at home (bought a TFT as a present), and the TFT is inferior in comparison. However, when you don't compare, the TFT is indeed fine.

[Guest BArtNimal]

4: if you flash one of the froyo roms or indeed one of the 2.1 it gets rid of the orange rubbish and you'll find that Launcherpro flies

poster said rom is JJ rls 6.

@LVL91 : try playing around with launcher pro settings (make sure it caches screens and play with memory allocation)

[Guest LVL91]

Ontopic: paxromana should get an OSF! It's an amazing device for it's price.

Offtopic: I am running JJ R6, as BArtNimal said. Thanks for the tip BArtNimal, will give it a try :D