Orange San Diego Review

[Guest Shahmatt]

Forgot to say I love the review, and this does look a serious piece of kit.

Are you going by the processor speeds or benchmarks? If just the speeds remember the Maxx has two cores.

Can't find the Maxx on pay&go atm, but it's £412 sim freee at amazon, which oddly beats the £450 for the non-Maxx version at carphone on pay&go.

Hmmm yes, the Razr should have an edge I guess.

400+ pounds is pretty heavy! :-o

@ Paul. Yes thanks very much for the review. I've been thoroughly informed!

[Guest k0nrad]

Hmmm yes, the Razr should have an edge I guess.

I see what you did there! ;)

[Guest NeostarNeko]

Just wandered into the local Orange shop and wow it's good, though it's kinda small :huh:

I asked one of the numby staff if there will be a white version he said no :(

Personally I hope there will be a white one as that is when I might buy one :)

Edited June 7, 2012 by NeostarNeko

[Guest i am not a hacker]

The last con is 'No 3rd party SIM unlock'. Is that currently or permanent? So in a few months time will an unlock be most likely available to, say, T-Mobile? I can only get this if I can use it on T-Mobile and that will be in August.

[Guest Pondlife]

The last con is 'No 3rd party SIM unlock'. Is that currently or permanent? So in a few months time will an unlock be most likely available to, say, T-Mobile? I can only get this if I can use it on T-Mobile and that will be in August.

If you read more of it you'd see it already works on t-mobile

[Guest TomByrne94]

I could get the San Diego or the SGS2 both at £15.50 a month with the same contract. Which would you recommend? What other phones would you say I should get over the San Diego at the £15.50/pm price point?

[Guest tilal6991]

Sgs2 all the way. The san Diego is a great phone but no way is it good enough to top the gs2.

[Guest mo_sjo]

Could this be a reasonable upgrade from the original Nexus One? Slightly larger, similar weight, better screen (well higher resolution). I'm wondering if the CPU is likely to be faster though, 1.6ghz x86 vs 1ghz ARM?

I don't really like the huge size of the HTC One X, S3 etc. I just want something a bit faster (newer apps are bogging the N1 down these days). I also don't like the £500+ price tags!!

[Guest cjp40]

Does anyone know if Orange Signal Boost works on the San Diego, this is crucial to me due to poor signal at the office

[Guest Rem1x]

Does anyone know if Orange Signal Boost works on the San Diego, this is crucial to me due to poor signal at the office

Not by default, but what I can tell you can get it in with root. It might come with the ICS update though, who knows?

[Guest TouchyAndalou]

How do you think the ZTE Era will compare to this once it's released?

[Guest i am not a hacker]

http://www.gsmarena.com/compare.php3?idPhone1=4581&idPhone2=4588

Comparison of specs above.

The era has a better processor and gpu. It is tegra 3 with ics available from release.the screen is worse though but overall the era is better and will probably cost around £300

[Guest Josh92]

Thanks for the review, will definitely be interested depending on:

1. Free user way of unlocking (for GiffGaff :) )

2. Moddable, not convinced I'd like to stay on any standard Orange ROM, even if it is fairly bare.

3. Very interested in the SD card slot, hopefully that'll get somewhere! 16GB is good but would be nice to see it expandable, I'd imagine making backups/modding will be easier with it too. Can't see why they didn't make it usable if they've paid to add it..

How do you think the ZTE Era will compare to this once it's released?

I'd be interested to compare them too, once we know the price anyway. Seems fairly close.

[Guest juno106]

What about ZTE MIMOSA X? Does anyone knows when will MIMOSA X and ERA be release and for what price? There were rumours that they will be released at the end of May beggining of June....but still nothing.I'm waiting to see their prices......But if they don't release them very soon,I might buy HUAWEI G300 or something else.

[Guest pritsey]

Here's a question.... Way back in the sands of time, I had an Orange SPV C500. I unlocked it using software from this very site and got advice on how to remove the orange logo here too - using a sugarcube! Have you tried to remove the Orange symbol from the back of the phone at all? If so - what works? :-)

[Guest geoff1951]

Last weekend I cracked the screen on my OSF. Not happy, since I'd rooted it a while back and was running Swedish Snow - G'bread 2.3.5.

Near the end of my contract (taken out for a Nokia E-5...) I was already planning to go for something with a 4" screen, saw the OSD a few weeks back on the net, so on Tuesday I went to my local Orange shop and took the only SD they'd received in stock. VERY pleased with it. Put on Smart Keyboard, change the wallpaper, used ringdroid to use my own ringtones, and apart from the residual Orange b'ware and lack of radio it'll do me for quite a while. Half the price of the equivalent S2/HTC/iphone. A bargain.

PS. Pity about the on/off key needing a much firmer prod than the OSF.

PPS. My admiration and thanks to you guys who ferret around inside these things and work out ways to upgrade. I can't understand a fraction of what's posted on those pages.

Edited June 9, 2012 by geoff1951

[Guest Skeese]

:o

It is out of stock already on the website!

[Guest NeostarNeko]

When will they release the white version :unsure:

[Guest DarkWanderer]

Here's a question.... Way back in the sands of time, I had an Orange SPV C500. I unlocked it using software from this very site and got advice on how to remove the orange logo here too - using a sugarcube! Have you tried to remove the Orange symbol from the back of the phone at all? If so - what works? :-)

Yes I had one of those too, I believe it was a program called spv-services.exe or similar. It stopped work quite a while ago since it relied on a remote server to do the work, I think.

Also since the OSF is able to generate it's own SIM unlock code via a simple app, I wonder if the OSD might work the same trick?

[Guest iam_smithers]

When will they release the white version :unsure:

I wouldn't have thought it was going to come out in white, since it's basically the intel reference design, as is the Lava Xolo. I suspect the black version is going to be the only one available, and I'm not convinced it would look very good in white anyway.

[Guest BLADESMAN1]

The phone looks very nice - at first glance it could be a Sammy [of the US variety].

The only thing I have to say in terms of the review is that you state that this is a good price for a 'low end device' but at a penny short of £200 is this really going to fly of the shelves ?

My point is this, maybe this should be classed as a 'mid range' device or drop the price to £150 as this would make it that bit more affordable to the pre-pay customers ie the school/college kids unable to get a Contract.

However the £15 Contract price IS very reasonable.

[Guest DarkWanderer]

I could get the San Diego or the SGS2 both at £15.50 a month with the same contract. Which would you recommend? What other phones would you say I should get over the San Diego at the £15.50/pm price point?

Sgs2 all the way. The san Diego is a great phone but no way is it good enough to top the gs2.

I'm in a similar situation, the SGs2 doesn't have NFC though, surely it would be better to get a device with the latest technologies in? Since in my case I'd likely be using the phone for the duration of a 24 month contract. By which time NFC might be in wider use? Is there an ICS update for the SGs2 coming too, we know the the OSD is getting one in the not too distant future.

[Guest NeostarNeko]

erm... £15 for 2 years is NOT reasonable, look at the contracts O2 offers and you'll see what I mean

@DarkWanderer

ICS was released for the SGS2 a while ago...in April I think

Edited June 10, 2012 by NeostarNeko

[Guest fradleyp]

I loved the review and mine is being delivered on Tuesday. Basically a free phone for me as I'm paying £20 a month on my san fran anyway. No doubt it will last me 24months

here's to all you clever guys who are going to bring me ICS early, if not I'm happy to wait until the official

It'sa winner either way

[Guest DarkWanderer]

erm... £15 for 2 years is NOT reasonable, look at the contracts O2 offers and you'll see what I mean

@DarkWanderer

ICS was released for the SGS2 a while ago...in April I think

Thanks Neo re ICS. Unfortunately I have to use either Orange or TMo since there's pretty much no O2 signal here. I know prices aren't the best, but if there's no signal it doesn't matter how cheap it is :) It would also be an "Early Upgrade" for me so I don't have the bargaining chip of an upcoming ending contract.