San Francisco, unlocking and sims

T_T_2

cattleya wrote: »

Also, I kept my Orange PAYG phone as a back up for two reasons:
1. if I forget my OSF phone, I have my old Nokia with Orange as back up
2. Giffgaff is using O2 network and where I live /work, the range is not as good as Orange! (unfortunately). It was the same with Tesco that I was using for a while (O2 network as well) so it is not Giffgaff it is O2.

And reason 3. An established orange PAYG sim will entitle you to discounts on PAYG handsets from orange in the future. For example the OSF can be bought at a discounted price (over the phone 150) if you are an existing orange PAYG customer.

beardiedog

T_T wrote: »

If you ever have a grey sf and you aren't sure then look in Settings>>About Phone>>Build and look for build B05 or B08.

B05 - OLED (OLE)
B08 - TFT (LCD)

Mine is build B10.

T_T_2

beardiedog wrote: »

Mine is build B10.

B10 is a newer orange build version for phones bought this year. Any phones after build B08 are TFT and as such it is pretty much certain that if you bought the phone this year it will be TFT.

If you ever need to know if your phone is GEN1 or GEN2 then know that any orange branded zte blade will almost certainly be GEN1.

neil40

Just use the free unlock posted above.Sell your sim with the £10 credit on ebay & get a giffgaff sim from one of the forum members on GG to get your £5 free credit.A lot of people are saying that when you root with a custom ROM,it makes the phone perform much better.

T_T_2

neil40 wrote: »

A lot of people are saying that when you root with a custom ROM,it makes the phone perform much better.

That's correct. The orange stock ROM is 2.1 Eclair, a much older version of the Android OS. It does not allow the phone to work to full capacity so visual effects can be a bit sticky. There a many communities that offer a world of support to new OSF owners to help them root their phone and install a 2.2 (Froyo) or 2.3 (Gingerbread) Android OS.

Modaco is a great website to start with and has a regular OSF community.

But be warned, whilst the likelyhood is slim, there is still the chance that you will 'brick' your phone, rendering it useless. By rooting your phone you will be in breach of the T&C of your contract with Orange and they may not replace your phone if it develops a fault. Proceed with caution.

bingo_bango

Well I bought the white OSF and it is TFT. BTW, it was priced at £99.99 in Orange plus £20 top up, but comes up on till as £79.99.

MoDaCo has a very good guide for rooting your phone, and then applying custom ROMS. Managed to root the OSF in about 3 minutes the other night, then OH wanted it to 'play' with.
You can download an app called Ask Mr Pigfish which will tell you if the phone is Gen 1 or 2. You NEED to be sure which it is before rooting.

I will be putting it onto the latest stable Gingerbread ROM tonight. Expect to see a noticable difference, especially getting rid of the Orange carp they have loaded.

As I now have a sim from Orange with a £20 topup, I intend to sell it (likely on Ebay). Anyone had any issues with doing so?

Rusty!

Nope no issues.

I've sold pre-topped up SIMs on eBay a few times (after having them forced on me when buying a phone).

myfairrlady

I will be putting it onto the latest stable Gingerbread ROM tonight.

I am interested to know how it affects battery life. I have FLB Froyo 10 which is 2.2 and I am also considering to upgrade it to 2.3 but I dont want to end up with a ROM that makes batter die even faster. My phone barely lasts one day.

T_T_2

myfairrlady wrote: »

I am interested to know how it affects battery life. I have FLB Froyo 10 which is 2.2 and I am also considering to upgrade it to 2.3 but I dont want to end up with a ROM that makes batter die even faster. My phone barely lasts one day.

Unfortunately the blade, like most smart phones suffer from dreadful battery usage. Smartphone capability has progressed much more quickly than battery technology so something had to give.

I've ran my OSF with the stock rom (2.1), Japanese Jellyfish (2.2) and CM7 stable (2.3) Out of the three I found that the 2.2 ROM gave the best compromise for battery life vs. performance but then CM7 is notoriously battery hungry so you can experiment with other 2.3 ROMS.

danmanchester

myfairrlady wrote: »

My phone barely lasts one day.

My OSF was the same - battery life of around a day or so, I'd tried a few ROMS (CM7 was the worst for reliability and battery life in my experience, might be better now) and have finally settled on Swedish Spring, my version is currently RLS4b.

Then I followed this battery calibration tip on the Modaco forums and the difference is amazing! I get 4 to 5 days before a recharge now.