ZTE Blade / Orange San Francisco

witnessmenow

There is a thread talking about unlocking this but i thought it deserved its own one.

The ZTE Blade or the Orange San francisco is about the cheapest (decent) android phone you can buy costing about £99 PAYG. The surprising thing although it defently a budget priced phone, the spec is actually quite good, the 3.5" Amoled capacitive screen being the main selling point. In a nutshell its only downfall its poor camera (It has no flash and it's not great other than that either) - See a full review here

So I got mine there at the weekend, its my first Android and I have to say I love it!

Buying the phone: The phone is sold exclusively by Orange in the UK and is currently not being sold by any Irish Carriers. So your only option for buying the phone is knowing someone in the UK or going to the North. As its a PAYG you can basically just walk into the shop and pick it up. They cost £99 plus a mandatory £10 top up. Orange offer a Student Discount of 10%. They are also on ebay but are priced around €170 or so.

Unlocking the phone: A Free Unlock code can be got here. Put your IMEI in, select ZTE, leave the default model as ZTE BLUEBELT

Thanks to slowlydownwards for the link!

Protecting the phone: There isnt actually any dedicated screen protectors or cases for the San Fran, but fear not. Nokia E71 cases fit very well, but will require a some small modification for the usb port and the camera is slightly blocked. Screen protectors for the Samsung i900 Omina area perfect fit.

Modding the Phone (probably not the right phrase) One the first things I did with mine is installed a custom rom to get rid of the Orange bloatware. Here are the steps I followed.

First thing i did was install the USB drivers

Next thing I did was install the ClockworkMod

And finally installed the r4 custom rom by modaco

at this stage you could alternatively install Froyo

Performance Improvements: Installing "Launcher Pro" (DL form market) made a huge difference to the smoothness of the whole experience.

I also upped my VM heap size to 32MB, apparently its better for those hungry hungry apps. Tool can be got here

Other Tips: SIP applications seem to have an issue with using the earpiece speaker (Fring, Linphone and Sipdroid all suffered the same issue, sound coming form loud speaker), but i found a patched version of sipdroid that works as it should. Link here or try this:




Some of the bad things: Dont have a lot to complain about, but i'm a bit disappointed with game performance. Angry birds runs much smoother on my 2g ipod touch.


If anyone has anything to ask about feel free and I'll do my best to answer.

ronano

thanks for the review,very well done. I'm half considering buying one but i've got a love for my htc g1 even if its old.

Whats the battery like

Brian

witnessmenow wrote: »

Some of the bad things: Dont have a lot to complain about, but i'm a bit disappointed with game performance. Angry birds runs much smoother on my 2g ipod touch.

The iPod touch has a faster CPU/GPU and less than half the screen resolution, so those are probably the main reasons. Installing Froyo should speed things up noticeably.

My review of the Blade: http://www.androidpolice.com/2010/10/28/zte-blade-orange-san-francisco-review-two-thirds-of-a-nexus-one-for-one-third-the-price/

TakeTheVeil

Also there is suggestions that putting the Froyo rom on it unlocks it too.

The Froyo rom from MoDaCo does unlock it but once you switch back to 2.1 (or perhaps future updates) it will return to being locked.

Froyo helped with the smoothness of Angry Birds. The only time is stutters is when there's a large about objects on screen (zooming out helps with that).

Only annoyances for me was the WiFi not reconnecting after a screen lock but I found an app that can fix that.

Fantastic phone for the price

jimrad

Hi taketheveil..
What was the app you used for WiFi not reconnecting after a screen lock?
Cheers..
Jim

witnessmenow

ronano wrote: »

thanks for the review,very well done. I'm half considering buying one but i've got a love for my htc g1 even if its old.

Whats the battery like

No problem, I just wanted to post up the info as i spent a decent amount of time trawling through forums and didn't see teh point in anyone else having to do that!

Battery is fine, Its not somethign you'll be able to leave for days without a charge though. I've only had it since Friday but it has laster the day every day and I've been using it moderately heavily. Wednesday was the closest it came to running out of battery as I was listening to the TodayFM app for a 3-4 hours. I dont have screen brightness down or anything like that

Baza210 wrote: »

The iPod touch has a faster CPU/GPU and less than half the screen resolution, so those are probably the main reasons. Installing Froyo should speed things up noticeably.

My review of the Blade: http://www.androidpolice.com/2010/10/28/zte-blade-orange-san-francisco-review-two-thirds-of-a-nexus-one-for-one-third-the-price/

Probably helps that AB was initally built for the iphone, android may be a weaker port. if they move froyo to the Beta stage I'll jump, but seeing as i use the phone for work stability is an issue for me!

Great review btw.

mac09

Very informative and well constructed post. I have also been thinking of getting this phone and during the research process have arrived at some of the sites you link to.

Couple of questions for you.

1. Did you root the phone to remove the orange bloatware?

2. What network are you with at the moment. Im wondering if meteor's text and internet bundel for €20 will be adequate. I dont see 250mb lasting very long really.

Cheers for any reply

witnessmenow

I didnt specifically root it no. the R4 mod comes with a "Superuser" app, when i was running the vm heap resizer it automatically opened with this app.

I'm with meteor. (I should post up my APN details actually)

It should be ok actually. Unless there is something wrong with my metoer account I have 985mb left out of my 1gb bundle. The phone is constantly syncing with gmail and gtalk and I downloaded at least a couple of small apps. When i'm at work or at home its connected to Wi-fi. I have the phone 7 days today, but my data plan started on the 5th of nov.

TakeTheVeil

jimrad wrote: »

Hi taketheveil..
What was the app you used for WiFi not reconnecting after a screen lock?
Cheers..
Jim

Its called Blade WiFi Fix. Free on the market

ooter

sounds a decent phone,i'll be in the UK next saturday,might pick one of these up for an xmas present for the missus..

slowlydownwards

According to this, free unlock codes here.

emo72

slowlydownwards wrote: »

According to this, free unlock codes here.

it worked for me:D thank you slowlydownwards.

slowlydownwards

emo72 wrote: »

it worked

A while back there was a thread on modaco on car docks for blade. The one mentioned in the post is great value at £3.99, but that e-shop wants £16.45 for delivery to eire. :mad: Anyone spotted any better deals on this?

witnessmenow

Try ebay. This looks like it would do the job. Comes with a case that might fit too :pac:

slowlydownwards

Thanks OP, spider-pig spider-foot looks the business.

Couple of questions:

Did you get the stock browser going over 3G? Haven't had any luck with it yet (mcr r3, mcr r4, froyo alpha and currently seb's r5). Any other browser from the market works fine over 3G.

Any idea how to get the blade (running any of the 2.1 based roms above) to see AdHoc networks? Google returns a lot of results on this, but I haven't had any luck with it yet. Many thanks!

witnessmenow

slowlydownwards wrote: »

Thanks OP, spider-pig spider-foot looks the business.

Couple of questions:

Did you get the stock browser going over 3G? Haven't had any luck with it yet (mcr r3, mcr r4, froyo alpha and currently seb's r5). Any other browser from the market works fine over 3G.

Any idea how to get the blade (running any of the 2.1 based roms above) to see AdHoc networks? Google returns a lot of results on this, but I haven't had any luck with it yet. Many thanks!

I didnt know what you were talking about there for a second :P

Thats strange, mine works ok. I don't see anything in the browser settings that would effect it either. which provider are you with it?

I got my metoer settings from here

I dont know do mms work, never tried.

Quick question for people, does anyone know if orange will mind me buying more than one phone at a time? Two people have asked me to pick them up one when im over in the uk in a couple of weeks.

ooter

slowlydownwards wrote: »

According to this, free unlock codes here.

there's no orange san francisco option..

witnessmenow

ooter wrote: »

there's no orange san francisco option..

From first link:

Put your IMEI in, select ZTE, leave the default model as ZTE BLUEBELT, pop in the not-a-robot code. In the box above the IMEI you'll receive your code.

For the craic i tried my IMEI and it generated the same code i got off ebay

emo72

ooter wrote: »

there's no orange san francisco option..

and i can also confirm it works. ahhhh the glory of boards, solves all lifes little problems:D

ooter

witnessmenow wrote: »

From first link:



For the craic i tried my IMEI and it generated the same code i got off ebay

Ah right,my mistake,I only opened the 2nd link.
Thanks

slowlydownwards

Just a little alert to another froyo (android 2.2) build.

witnessmenow

Things seem to be picking up on the Zte Blade scene ok, with the release of it to the french market.

I'm so so tempted to go with Froyo, but im scared!

I'd nearly buy a second one :P

bruschi

picked up this phone on the back of recommendations on here. just de-oranged it now and it looks the biz. first android phone so was a bit wary of fastboot and clockwork things etc, but there is a good thread on that modaco site that goes through a step by step drive through to get everything done.

TakeTheVeil

@witnessmenow

Definitely go for 2.2. Like Bruschi said, there are very good guides on MoDaCo on how to do it, and its difficult enough to feck it up. 2.2 with launcher pro makes its a very smooth android phone

witnessmenow

Its not the install Im scared about at all, its the unstability!

I'll see how things are looking at the weekend and make my decision then!

TakeTheVeil

I found it much more stable that the stock 2.1 was for me. The only unstablity i found on 2.2 is that the touch screen has become unresponsive 3 times over the last month which means you have to whip out the battery to reboot. Thats the only thing I can think of.

RichyX

TakeTheVeil wrote: »

I found it much more stable that the stock 2.1 was for me. The only unstablity i found on 2.2 is that the touch screen has become unresponsive 3 times over the last month which means you have to whip out the battery to reboot. Thats the only thing I can think of.

Any improvement in battery life?

witnessmenow

Used the GPS yesterday for a 2hr 15 min journey and battery was almost completely dead when i got there!

Car charger is essential for sat nav it would seem.

TakeTheVeil

The battery improved after the first few weeks. Think it was just a case of battery warm up though.

BatteryFu (turns off wifi, 3G, etc when screen is off) and SetCPU (set Max and Min mhz of CPU) helped me a lot with battery life too.

witnessmenow

So i stuck Froyo on my blade this evening, and it seems really good!

Seems to make a big difference to speed of everything

slowlydownwards

witnessmenow wrote: »

So i stuck Froyo on my blade this evening, and it seems really good!

Seems to make a big difference to speed of everything

+1

Which one did you install? The latest build by fibblesan seems most stable / complete. Wish he kept it bit leaner, not that I'm complaining or anything. Its easy to slim it down, as described in his first post.

witnessmenow

Yeah thats the one i used.

Even typing has gotten way better.

ooter

got one of these yesterday in liverpool.1 thing i've noticed is that the internet is very slow on it,painfully slow in fact.anyone know the reason for this and if there's anything i can do to fix it?

shadowninty

Any good sites to get this off (live in Cork - NI not an option )?

witnessmenow

Its been two days since I installed Froyo, as I've said performace difference is huge! But it hasnt been without its downsides:

It has crashed twice (Touch unresponsive, pull out battery job to restart it)

I have that wifi issue everyone talks about (doesnt reconnect after sleep, downloaded blade wifi thing, seems to be doing the job)

I dont know would i be able to go back to 2.1 though!

ronano

I've got a htc g1 and im considering buying this phone,any reason why i should stay with the g1?

Colibri

shadowninty wrote: »

Any good sites to get this off (live in Cork - NI not an option )?

Besides getting one shipped over from the UK or going up North, I think we're outta luck pal

Fnz

Cheers for the helpful thread, Witness. Picked up the phone in Newry yesterday with the £20 mandatory top up.

Before I mess around with the unlocking and the rooting the warranty-voiding... what features should I make sure are functioning correctly? I can connect to the internet over wifi, so that's grand.

EDIT: Aha! Found the thread I was looking for. [Link]

emo72

Fnz wrote: »

Cheers for the helpful thread, Witness. Picked up the phone in Newry yesterday with the £20 mandatory top up.

Before I mess around with the unlocking and the rooting the warranty-voiding... what features should I make sure are functioning correctly? I can connect to the internet over wifi, so that's grand.

EDIT: Aha! Found the thread I was looking for. [Link]

10 pound mandatory top up when i bought it

99 + 10 credit

Fnz

Hmm, there seems to be a background static noise constantly present during calls. It also comes out when I use the voice recorder app. I'm coming from a cheapy Nokia 2310, so don't feel my standards are unreasonably high.

It's borderline irritating.

emo72 wrote: »

10 pound mandatory top up when i bought it

99 + 10 credit

Yeah, their policy changed recently. The guy who was dealing with me suggested it may be due to an increase number of people unlocking the phones for use on other networks. :pac:

A £10 mandatory top up still applies to some of their handsets. The San Francisco is one of the ones that have been 'bumped up', unfortunately.

Can't honestly blame them tbh.

bd250110

Orange vary their top-up's periodically, depending on a number of things. One thing is they look at demand for the handset, as well as the prices other retailers on the high-street charge for handsets. The box-breakers (you guys! ) also are a factor.

Bear in mind that the top-up amounts change frequently (generally Tuesday or Thursday). For what it's worth Orange/ZTE handsets tend to be very reliable, generally not the prettiest or made from the most expensive materials but I would take an ZTE over an LG any day.

Finally, at the minute Orange are doing Christmas gift boxes with all PAYG handsets over £30. Not sure what's in them this year though.

witnessmenow

Fnz wrote: »

Hmm, there seems to be a background static noise constantly present during calls. It also comes out when I use the voice recorder app. I'm coming from a cheapy Nokia 2310, so don't feel my standards are unreasonably high.

It's borderline irritating.



Yeah, their policy changed recently. The guy who was dealing with me suggested it may be due to an increase number of people unlocking the phones for use on other networks. :pac:

A £10 mandatory top up still applies to some of their handsets. The San Francisco is one of the ones that have been 'bumped up', unfortunately.

Can't honestly blame them tbh.

Sounds faulty, Mine is perfect call quality.

Damn I'm buying at least two this weekend

t0mm13b

Newry: can you tell us what shop/street was it in? Speaking of Newry, am I right in thinking that's the place before you ever get to belfast?

Excuse my question as I've never been to the north!

There is a Newry way up further up North... http://maps.google.ie/maps?hl=en&q=Newry&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Newry,+United+Kingdom&gl=ie&ei=oLftTO6EAYmChQeGkYTxCg&oi=geocode_result&ved=0CBwQ8gEwAA&ll=54.154795,-6.335678&spn=0.15521,0.441513&t=h&z=11

justsomebloke

t0mm13b wrote: »

Newry: can you tell us what shop/street was it in? Speaking of Newry, am I right in thinking that's the place before you ever get to belfast?

Excuse my question as I've never been to the north!

There is a Newry way up further up North... http://maps.google.ie/maps?hl=en&q=Newry&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Newry,+United+Kingdom&gl=ie&ei=oLftTO6EAYmChQeGkYTxCg&oi=geocode_result&ved=0CBwQ8gEwAA&ll=54.154795,-6.335678&spn=0.15521,0.441513&t=h&z=11

The orange shop in newry is in the buttercrane shopping centre

http://buttercraneshopping.co.uk/findus/

t0mm13b

@Joe_The_Santa: Ahh cheers for that.... w00t

slowlydownwards

Me likes the new lightened froyo!

t0mm13b

How much is the SF RAM? I am seeing on another forum - that there's an AMOLED version which comes with 512Mb RAM, and the LCD version which comes with 150Mb RAM....

Any confirmation on this? ???

shadowninty

t0mm13b wrote: »

How much is the SF RAM? I am seeing on another forum - that there's an AMOLED version which comes with 512Mb RAM, and the LCD version which comes with 150Mb RAM....

Any confirmation on this? ???

There is an LCD version with 256mb RAM (100mb reserved for OS = 150mb)

t0mm13b

shadowninty wrote: »

There is an LCD version with 256mb RAM (100mb reserved for OS = 150mb)

Ok, thanks for that, which is it that comes with Orange? Is it the AMOLED version or the LCD version?

Brian

AMOLED. The LCD version is the Chinese model.

t0mm13b

Baza210 wrote: »

AMOLED. The LCD version is the Chinese model.

Interesting because on Orange's website in respect to the San Francisco, and on other boards, it is defined as LCD....???!!! unless there's a mistake somewhere....