Orange San Francisco (ZTE Blade) - Android 2.1 WVGA Capacitive FM SatNav £109 Part 1

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My San Francisco arrived yesterday, my first android phone. It took a couple of seconds to unlock but now I am using it on 3.

I was going to flash it to Jellyfish, but after reading some of the posts I am now not so sure. I am worried about battery life. I have looked at a comparison of 2.1 and 2.2 but I would be interested to know what people think is the big attraction for upgrading to 2.2?

I have rooted the phone and if nothing else will remove all the Orange stuff.

If you have rooted then you can try different ROMs. Downloading from MoDaCo I have used Paul's MCR 2.1 r4 (Eclair), then FLB r2 (FroYo), then Paul's 2.2 MCR r11 and I just went back to FLB 2.2 on Sunday which is currently at r8a. I have found the FLB 2.2 ROMs slightly better on battery than Paul's 2.2. However it is that long since I had 2.1 on the phone I can't remember what the battery life was. 2.2 does make the Blade much smoother than 2.1 (and particularly stock 2.1). Try the FLB r8a and see what you think but remember you can always go back.

I have not used the JJ ROMs but decided against this route on Sunday as the JJ ROMs are no longer being developed.
 
Oh just to let you know I yesterday I got ~4 hours of music play and ~5 hours with the screen on playing games/surfing from a full charge (took off the charger at 6am and phone went dead at 9pm. Not too bad really but I do reccommend you calbrate the battery - Just look at the FAQs on MoDaCo,
 
hey lads im new here and have been looking for some info regarding the sf blade, i bought the phone in november and unlocked it no problem, i put my o2 sim in and all worked but the internet, put orange sim back in and all good but wanted to use my o2 sim for my free calls so i orderd a dual sim holder made of metal to hold the orange and o2 sims when cut, it did not work and now my phone is not recognizing any sim cards i have been told that the sim holder in the phone itself may be damaged? if i take it back to the orange shop can they tell i have unlocked it? i have done a full reset of the phone by the way, many thanks:)
 
Not they can't tell if you have unlocked it. I returned a San Fran just recently and that handset was unlocked, rooted and flashed!
 
My San Francisco arrived yesterday, my first android phone. It took a couple of seconds to unlock but now I am using it on 3.

I was going to flash it to Jellyfish, but after reading some of the posts I am now not so sure. I am worried about battery life. I have looked at a comparison of 2.1 and 2.2 but I would be interested to know what people think is the big attraction for upgrading to 2.2?

I have rooted the phone and if nothing else will remove all the Orange stuff.

FLB's 8a is the best rom for battery life, and has great speed too.

When you flash it though, after you have done it, charge the phone when on, till full, then switch off, and charge again, when off, till green light, and finally switch the phone on, then off again, and give it a final charge till green light.

Then switch the phone on, to Clockwork recovery, select Advanced, and select clear battery stats, then ok it, and press the back button, and select reboot now.

That will sync the battery for the best life, as you have to do this when you flash, as the batt stats are contained in the rom, and everyones phone is slightly different.
 
If you have rooted then you can try different ROMs. Downloading from MoDaCo I have used Paul's MCR 2.1 r4 (Eclair), then FLB r2 (FroYo), then Paul's 2.2 MCR r11 and I just went back to FLB 2.2 on Sunday which is currently at r8a. I have found the FLB 2.2 ROMs slightly better on battery than Paul's 2.2. However it is that long since I had 2.1 on the phone I can't remember what the battery life was. 2.2 does make the Blade much smoother than 2.1 (and particularly stock 2.1). Try the FLB r8a and see what you think but remember you can always go back.

I have not used the JJ ROMs but decided against this route on Sunday as the JJ ROMs are no longer being developed.

Thanks for the information

I have tried to change my ROM this morning but I got stuck on Recovery Manager (0.34) using clockworkmod recovery 3.0.0.5. Recovery Manager gives this error message:

Currently installed Recovery:
Unrecognised

I have posted a question on another forum about this but until it is resolved there will be no upgrade for me.

EDIT

Just seen the fix on another thread. You get this error if the directory on the SD card containing the file has spaces. I have just removed my spaces and it now works
 
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Just bought this phone off my brother who's hardly used it.

Any quick tips on what I should download/turn on/turn off etc? (he hasnt done anything to it).

Shame the camera isnt better but you cant have everything!
 
thanks for the heads up RFox.

bought a white sf which arrived yesterday, for my wife.

sadly, shows up my hero, which was bleeding edge when I bought it.

quite a light phone, and the glossy white is just nice enough to avoid looking cheap and tacky.

flashed with flb 8a, with gingerbread blue theme. tried desire sense theme, which perhaps has the edge.

can't for the life of me remember where to put o2 wap/mms settings in.

now trying to choose whether to use LProPlus or not. might try and piece together an htc style theme using individual apps without loading lpp.

certainly a cheap way to get into android.:smashin:
 
flashed with flb 8a, with gingerbread blue theme. tried desire sense theme, which perhaps has the edge.

can't for the life of me remember where to put o2 wap/mms settings in.

Go to Settings - Wireless+Networks - Mobile Networks(its at the bottom) - GSM/UMTS options, and Access Point Names.

But you won't need to enter anything, as they are all there anyway on 8a.

Pick one of the O2 ones with the dot/circle next to it(one of the top 2 o2 ones, if you are simplicity or contract, and for pay and go, theres a prepay one, further down.
 
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Try either here!, or here!

phew, better than the gingerbread keyboard,
to warn people, the download of the files seems a bit random, so check the file isn't corrupted when you download it.
the md5 checksum didn't match either, lets hope I haven't installed a dodgey piece of code.
 
im loving this phone! there's so much to do with it... bought it as a second user phone, but i actually prefer it to my old 3gs! had the terrible battery fiasco... just wiped the lot and started fresh with rls9 and removed advanced task killer, which wasnt so much a task killer... more a battery killer!

the reception is brilliant too.. maybe its just me, iv tried a load of phones where i work, all maxing out on 2 bars... except the ip4 (worst phone for voice calls iv ever had the displeasure to use) a nokia 6300 holds the reception record with 4 bars, but this thing is on full! :cool:

really impressed by the overall speed and interface (feels much more stable than the htc legend i was using) and the tft display is pretty nice too... was worried it would be naff cf. oled... but i guess not! and like above... this phone brings a real nice introduction to those contemplating a move over to the dark side... :D
 
Apologies for not having read the whole thread, but does this phone have an oled screen or not, reviews etc I've read seem unclear on this fact. How is the phone when it comes to watching video content ?
 
The first few months of production the screens were oled but now they are TFT.
 
Poor signal strength with the SF

At home I get no signal at all from the SF except from part of one bedroom

According to 3 I live in a small patch that they say is good for outside use only reception. However my Nokia 5230 works well inside with 4 three signal bars.

Do you think I have a fault with the SF or is the Nokia just very good at picking up a signal
 
Nokia are the world masters at internal aerials (although ericsson were also very good), so I would doubt a new low cost chinese manufacturer would be as good (caveat though that zte might be making aerials for years..)

also, don't forget there's no standard for the display of signal strength, ie. one manufacturer might display full bars for a strength that others might only give half bars. some phones have debug modes where it will show the actual signal strength, as well as the base station its registered to, etc.

I'm also pondering the relatively low signal display at home compared to my htc. hth.
 
Nokia are the world masters at internal aerials (although ericsson were also very good), so I would doubt a new low cost chinese manufacturer would be as good (caveat though that zte might be making aerials for years..)

also, don't forget there's no standard for the display of signal strength, ie. one manufacturer might display full bars for a strength that others might only give half bars. some phones have debug modes where it will show the actual signal strength, as well as the base station its registered to, etc.

I'm also pondering the relatively low signal display at home compared to my htc. hth.

Thanks for the reply. This is the first phone I have had with WiFi and that is saving it from being thrown in to the metaphorical bin.

I can do almost everything I want to do on the phone using WiFi (mainly email, music, games). It also works well as a phone in most of the places I go to (except home). It is just a shame that it is just not a bit better at picking up a poor signal.
 
hmm, a shame that you aren't loving your phone, predominantely due to 3's coverage. or O2's, not sure who they use these days.

if you've spoken to them, it sounds as though they arent going to boost the coverage..

i guess 3 dont do the femtocell kit that voda do - suresignal - for better indoor coverage? perhaps ask them if they ever plan to..

I know suggesting that you change oeprator will come across a bit zta-blade fanboyish, but being constrained to nokias for the foreseeable future might be less appetising.. :0

also, the 5230, I guess, is one of their more traditional handsets, benefitting from years of development on the hardware. unlikely any smartphone today will match such a tried and tested format.
 
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hmm, a shame that you aren't loving your phone, predominantely due to 3's coverage. or O2's, not sure who they use these days.

if you've spoken to them, it sounds as though they arent going to boost the coverage..

i guess 3 dont do the femtocell kit that voda do - suresignal - for better indoor coverage? perhaps ask them if they ever plan to..

I know suggesting that you change oeprator will come across a bit zta-blade fanboyish, but being constrained to nokias for the foreseeable future might be less appetising.. :0

also, the 5230, I guess, is one of their more traditional handsets, benefitting from years of development on the hardware. unlikely any smartphone today will match such a tried and tested format.

I do like the SF, it is a very good phone and although I have only had it a few days I have already set it up to do what I want (Exchange Server emails was the most difficult, but still easy).

My principle work phone is on Orange and the SF is a second phone. So I like the 3 PAYG price plans because they suit my usage almost perfectly. Not much voice or text but good data and free Skype.

The three coverage in my area is actually very good, I just happen to live in a small pocket of a couple of streets that is not so good.

I bought the Nokia very cheaply from eBay and was surprised how good the phone is. Well made, excellent signal, a smaller but better screen than the SF, Ovi maps are very good etc. However, on the apps side it is very limited and the interface clunky. So I will not be going back to it.
 
Hoping that somebody can quickly answer a few questions please (yes I have read most of this massive thread!)

1) Do I have to sign up to gmail to get the calendar working etc - I dont want another email account but I do need a calendar/scheduler that works!

2) Sometimes turning the phone round to input text in landscape doesnt work...why?

3) Because my sim is still on a non-data contract until May I really dont want the phone to use its own connection (just want to use wireless). Ive set the phone to do this - I presume any apps that need this just wont work when Im out of wireless range?

Sorry about the newb questions but Im still trying to figure this phone out! Not sure I want to flash the rom etc because Im using this phone as a stop gap really until my contract expires. Shame the camera isnt better as Id been tempted to keep it. :)
 
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1) Do I have to sign up to gmail to get the calendar working etc - I dont want another email account but I do need a calendar/scheduler that works!

- No, the calendar works without gmail/data connections.
2) Sometimes turning the phone round to input text in landscape doesnt work...why?
Some apps, etc, don't support landscape mode.
3) Because my sim is still on a non-data contract until May I really dont want the phone to use its own connection (just want to use wireless). Ive set the phone to do this - I presume any apps that need this just wont work when Im out of wireless range?
Yeah, as long as data is disabled, they won't update, or sync unless you want them to, or use wifi.
-you can also switch off auto-sync in your settings, if you don't want them to sync over wifi either.
 
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