Best smartphone for £100

mrchagle

rev_henry wrote: »

None of you are getting the cheapest price. Get hold of an Orange PAYG simcard (use the OH's, or buy one for £1?), make sure its registered, then call Orange sales and say you're an existing PAYG customer and want to buy the San Francisco. You may have to try a few times but you will EVENTUALLY get it for £78.99 including a £10 top up.

That's what I did! When does the £10 get applied to the phone?

starM

I ordered mine at £78.99. Any recommendation on phone cover and screen protector?

MS

rwalton159

I ordered some stuff yesterday - waiting for delivery:

I ordered screen protectors from here (£2.25) -
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=280398195254




and this case (£1.99) - seems there isn't a proper case
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=330385988759

Parva

My son bought this yesterday and he's impressed. I have the HTC Desire (x4 the cost of the SF he purchased and even more when my contract costs are totalled up).

It does everything my Desire can do and despite the slower CPU in it it's certainly not slow! We also purchased the unlock code from the ebay seller mentioned earlier in this thread and that worked great so any sim card works now.

Downside now. There's a known issue with wifi connections (which I'm sure will be fixed at some point) and this resulted in my sons phone being knocked off of wifi and onto the 3G data connection and within minutes he had burned his £10 Orange credit.

That said, this solution appears to work for him so far :- http://android.modaco.com/content-page/318850/wifi-issue/page/260/ (see 1st post there).

Furthermore, as the phone is unlocked now (for the princely sum of £1.50) he's got a Giffgaff sim card arriving tomorrow which gives him 150 minutes talk time, unlimited texts and most importantly *unlimited* data on 3G for £10PM and all over the 02 network! I've shown him how to disable data 3G in the meantime but once he sorts the sim out it won't matter.

*Disclaimer* I realise that tethering to a PC / Laptop etc is a no and they won't let you download Gb's of torrents etc but at least it's relatively worry free.

Had I known about this phone prior to taking on a 24 month contract at £25pm for my Desire I would definitely have gone with the San Francisco. Sure, mine 'feels' better and is a bit faster when it's doing many things but his does all that mine can and he's paid £100 whereas I'm paying £25 x 24 months = £600. Ok, I've got guarenteed limits every month but using Giffgaff against my limits he gets unlimited net and I get 500Mb, if I go over I get charged very heavily. So add 24 months @ £10pm for unlimited internet that's £240 so £340 including the phone, that's almost half the price of mine, no contract to fulfill and he has a phone that can do all that mine can!

If you're going to buy a 'Smartphone' like these then you have to be prepared for the data usage they incur, they use a hell of a lot! If you're going to use it for navigation then don't ever use the 'satellite' view unless you have a huge data plan. I used 2Mb on a 10 minute walk to my local shop, imagine a 50 mile journey in a car! That said, using navigation view with satellite mode off used very little.

Just be aware of how much data these things can eat and either turn 'Mobile Data' off or install an app that monitors it and be very aware of how fast it can be used.

And back to the phone, buy it! You'll never find another phone that has the capabilities of this for that kind of money.

flyingscotno1

Parva wrote: »

It does everything my Desire can do and despite the slower CPU in it it's certainly not slow!

Had I known about this phone prior to taking on a 24 month contract at £25pm for my Desire I would definitely have gone with the San Francisco. Sure, mine 'feels' better and is a bit faster when it's doing many things but his does all that mine can and he's paid £100 whereas I'm paying £25 x 24 months = £600. Ok, I've got guarenteed limits every month but using Giffgaff against my limits he gets unlimited net and I get 500Mb, if I go over I get charged very heavily. So add 24 months @ £10pm for unlimited internet that's £240 so £340 including the phone, that's almost half the price of mine, no contract to fulfill and he has a phone that can do all that mine can!

And back to the phone, buy it! You'll never find another phone that has the capabilities of this for that kind of money.

It's a cracking phone and unbeatable at the price range.

It is a great phone for the price but there are shortcomings. I own both, and would not replace my Desire for one. It is an amazing device for the price but the Desire is more slick and is more polished. The SF takes a bit of work out the box to get it where you like it whereas the Desire is more 'out the box'.

Some apps will not work on the SF (Google Earth and I think Flash is only being supported on the snapdragon devices at the mo) too- I love the flash support and some of the HTC widgets are great at keeping me organised.

MoneyGypsy

So it turns out I missed off my house number so the card payment hadn't gone through. When I spoke to the chap on the phone he had to put the payment through again and I asked him what would happen to my quidco tracjking. He said it wouldn't work as the original payment hadn't gone through. When I said I could just do it on the web myself he said I could have the phone for £88.99 including top-up!

owitemisermusa

rev_henry wrote: »

None of you are getting the cheapest price. Get hold of an Orange PAYG simcard (use the OH's, or buy one for £1?), make sure its registered, then call Orange sales and say you're an existing PAYG customer and want to buy the San Francisco. You may have to try a few times but you will EVENTUALLY get it for £78.99 including a £10 top up. Everyone on HUKD, and myself, have bought theirs this way.

Headcoat, yes it does have GPS. It has everything, its quite incredible for the price.

mrchagle wrote: »

That's what I did! When does the £10 get applied to the phone?

starM wrote: »

I ordered mine at £78.99. Any recommendation on phone cover and screen protector?

MS

How much is an Orange PAYG sim? Don't you have to top up when you get one and would that count as the £10 top-up required for getting the SF?

Astec

Was going to try the existing customer thing, however I've got a few sim's. Which would ppl recommend from the following:

1) Sim purchased in Aug with a phone from CPW with £10 topup, credit used straight away. Been creditless and unused for 2 months. No idea if registered with orange?

2) Sim held for 2 years, no idea if registered (bought off ebay with credit included). Used for orange weds only, but has been used in the last month.

3) Sim bought a few weeks ago with phone. Never used but (should) still have £10 credit on. Again, do CPW and the like register them when they sell them?

rev_henry

mrchagle wrote: »

That's what I did! When does the £10 get applied to the phone?

I had to call up customer services to get the £10 credit sorted out.
Owit - just get a SIM from a pound shop or something. If you're prepared to wait a couple of weeks orange will send you one free (google it).

Astec - it really doesn't matter. Make sure whichever one you use is registered here:
https://www.youraccount.orange.co.uk/sss/jfn?entry=paygreg

If its not then just register it there.

movilogo

the princely sum of £1.50

Where did you unlock it from?