Well, it starts by providing an on-line payment system that is designed for top-ups to ones account if one gets near the credit limit. Rafter getting through to the final page, it won't accept debit card details. If you ring support you then enter a labyrinth of decision trees which lead to the inevitable call centre. That is actually the worst call centre in existence, believe me it's much worse than the Orange call centre. Trained monkeys could do better.
They don't actually know what the web is or how their own payment system works.
I have an OSF and an OMC, both bought from Argos and unlocked, and now running CM7. The Skate (OMC) is a far superior phone and actually runs CM7 better than the Blade. Both are rock-solid in that they will run for weeks without problems, but battery life seems a lot better on the Skate, and of course it's faster and has a lovely big screen.
Blade is running Xmas day KANG, o/c to 729MHz Skate is running CyanogenMod-7-11132011-NIGHTLY-Skate, o/c to 960MHz
Does everything work - like personal hotspot tethering, bluetooth, 3G, market? That's my main fear - that something important (to me) will turn out dodgey.
That is a useful reference point - thanks. And with overclocking :)
I've lost my Virgin broadband twice in the last few weeks and each time I started tethering on the Blade as a wifi hotspot and connected my laptop to it to get to the internet. An hour's surfing used less than 6MB of my monthly allowance of
1GB.
3G and Market work fine but I don't use bluetooth so can't personally say, but I haven't read anything in the forums to say that it doesn't work. Battery on both is fine - about 48 hours between charges (tethering is expensive though!). I use the kindle app a lot on the skate.
There are several other very good ROMs for the Skate : I tried and liked Atomic.
formatting link
doubt you will get a skate at Argos now - someone posted this just this morning: "Using
formatting link
there's 2 left in Harwich (CO12 4EN), 1 left in Ramsgate (CT11 9AG) and 1 left in Kings Lynn (PE30 1DL). If you type in your postcode and what you're looking for on the website it can check up to 100 stores nearest to you, so hope that helps."
Orange shops should be able to help though.
BTW my son has a Samsung Galaxy S running the stock ROM (he's afraid to put CM7 on it, though it is rooted) and his GPS doesn't work!
Done the deed. Decided I wanted a decent solid phone, so was getting close to going for the iPhone 4S on Three's One plan (all you can eat data).
Then I did a bit more reading around, and noticed the Samsung Galaxy S2 has similar hardware specs to the iPhone (plus more RAM plus being able to replace the battery and add an SD card).
Noticing that that device had no upfront cost on the One plan, but the iPhone 4S was £189, I went in and tried one and got one on the spot.
I must say, I am deeply impressed. Light, bloody fast, "just works" with linux (including USB tethering, so saving laptop and mobile battery on train). In fact the tether mode seems to work more reliably than teh Three MIFI.
All in all, it's now clear that Android was thr right choice for me. Little things like installing a WIFI signal scanner that the Ghost of Steve says is forbidden.
've tried MeDroid which is reasonable usable (a few glitches in camera, gallery very flaky, and the odd FC in maps) amost usable on a day to day basis ...
I have the 300 minutes plan @ 10 pounds a month on a 12-mont contract. SIM only. Gives 1Gb data but no tethering. Add a 5 pound a month Internet max bundle and that gives another 2Gb of data and allows tethering.
Buy through Quidco and get 50 something pounds cash back so works out at a little over ten pounds a month for the first year.
If that is the total cost - £600 for the phone and 24 months all you can eat Broadband - that looks pretty good as the SIM only deal is £300 over 12 months. Knock of £140 for two lots of £79 SIM only 1Gb month and it looks even better.
>>>>>>>> Looking at taking out 12 month SIM only Mobile Broadband deal and
Depends how you define equivalent, but an Orange Monte Carlo from Argos at £89 will do everything that an SGS2 will do. It's a bit slower (most OMCs will o/c to 960 MHz) and has less memory but it meets the Android spec. I got the impression the OP was primarily interested in tethering - I tether my IBM Thinkpad through the OMC all the time. It is great value for money.
>>>>>>>>>> Looking at taking out 12 month SIM only Mobile Broadband deal and
I think the OP was primarily looking for a leading edge smart phone and trying to decide if there was an Android phone which offered better price performance than an iPhone (see title of thread).
In my case I am trying to cost justify buying a sexy new spanky phone, and the ability to tether on an 'all you can eat' tarrif is a positive inducement.
If I just wanted Mobile Broadband I would use my existing dongle with a SIM with a 12Gb/12month deal.
However I can save that money if I can get Mobile Broadband effectively 'thrown in for free' with a new phone.
Also, I note that it is an Orange phone. So we have another issue apart from the lower performance (haven't checked screen, ports etc.) - Orange isn't my 3G network of choice, having gone down hill a lot in the last 10 - 15 years from when it offered the best deals and customer service. You are also unlikely to experience the joys(?) of Ice Cream Sandwich on the OMC.
So IMHO if you are looking for a 5 Series BMW you can say that a Ford Focus does much the same job for a lot less money, albeit more slowly and with a much more limited capacity. It can even be 'overclocked' a bit :-) However it doesn't really meet the original requirement.
>>>>>>>>>>>> Looking at taking out 12 month SIM only Mobile Broadband deal and
Yes, it's an Orange phone, as the name implies ;-) However, as a long-time VirginMobile user the first thing I did was unlock the OMC and install ClockworkMod 7. That was my intention when I bought it.
I've already run ICS on it (ClockworkMod 9) but have reverted to 7 until 9 is more stable. I'm sure when it is stable that CWM9 will be better than most stock ROMs (as 7 is now). The beauty of paying under £100 for a phone is that I don't mind playing with it and trying all the custom ROMs. I wouldn't do that with a £500 phone.
So yes, there is "an Android phone which offers better price performance than an iPhone (see title of thread)." - in fact there are many. IMHO of course!
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here.
All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.