Hello All

I'm thinking of getting my wife a HTC Wildfire for christmas.

Has anybody got experience of them ?

Also where's the best place to get one ?

It need to be Pay as you go, don't want to go on contract.

I've seen one in Argos for 129.99 but it's locked to Vodaphone - we use O2 and want to stay with them.
Can this phone be unlocked ? and if so, where ? is it easily done by those dodgy types on market stalls ?

Thanks for any advice.

got one for my other half i have got the bigger desire got them both unlocked in under 20 mins for around £10 a pop using someone on ebay. both are great little phones but the desire is really the one to have if you can afford it. even still you wont be disappointed with the wildfire unless you compare it to the latest iphone or desire

Orange 'San Francisco' which is a rebranded ZTE 'blade'

Its an amazingly priced android phone that can be unlocked for free now. One of the hotest deals as posted on hukd (ask uncle fista )

Cannot recommend it enough as it punches way above its weight with its spec.


From play.com £99
From an orange shop £99 + £20 compulsory payg topup
Orange online £109 (includes £10 payg topup)

Already have an orange payg sim then you can get £30 knocked off online. Work for the nhs or local council and you can get £20 knocked off instore.

A phenomenal bit of kit for the money

[Edited on 3/12/10 by Mr G]

Is it better than the Wildfire ?

The camera on the san francisco is 'adequate' which is where the wildfire beats it on spec (5mp vs 3.2mp)

Screen on the San Francisco is 3.5" WVGA (800x480) capacitive OLED - which really does look fantastic. 600mhz processor, 512mb ROM, 192mb RAM, GPS, FM radio,Accelerometer, Digital Compass, etc etc.

I paid £89.99 instore and £10 of that is the orange top up (I unlocked it and slipped a 3 sim in). I'm going to use the £10 orange credit on a couple of bets via sms All the people I've shown it to have asked If I can pick them one up next time I'm near the orange shop

Roughly your getting a bit of kit thats snapping at the heels of the desire and doesn't look cheap and nasty but works out cheaper than the 'budget' wildfire

Modaco review

G

[Edited on 3/12/10 by Mr G]

The only thing the wildfire does better than the San Fransisco is the camera.
The display especially is chalk and cheese.
420x800 OLED for the san fran, 240x320 TFT for the wildfire.

Best thing would be to go to an orange shop and compare. The Wildfire is HTC's "entry level" phone.

I have a wildfire and really like it. Not as good as my mates iphone 4 but then they are not direct competitors. Cant comment on the San Francisco but does sound like it has a better screen. My wife also has a wildfire on Vodafone and hers came unlocked. Might be worth checking if the Argos Vodafone ones are definately locked or not.

HTH

Hi Mr G,
how / where do you unlock the San Fransisco for free? It looks like a great phone - I'm due a new one.

Thanks,
Donny

Wish this thread was running a few days ago my Nokia e71 gave up the ghost and Ive 7 months to go before upgrade time I'm on 3, never thought to look at the Orange PAYG's with a view to unlocking. Rang 3 and they are doing me a Iphone for £39 downside was I had to pay off my existing 7 months of contract which they did at a reduced rate of £95 quite a result I thought but I would have waited if this topic had popped up earlier.
Cheers,
Bob

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Originally posted by donny
Hi Mr G,
how / where do you unlock the San Fransisco for free? It looks like a great phone - I'm due a new one.

Thanks,
Donny

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Brilliant - thanks. My brother has the HTC Wildfire and has been raving on and on and on...looking forward to the return conversation! Function over form for me.

D

Finding one seems to be an issue currently.... I've just cracked the screen on my pimped up Touch HD and, good as it is, £40 for a new screen plus much p*ssing about doesn't seem worth it when for £100 I can get an Android phone with a capasitive screen.... but apparently I'm not alone in thinking that

The San Francisco sounds a cracking phone for the price, about time i updated my old Nokia!

Just rang my local Orange shop they have them in stock so going to have a look tonight

But will i buy one? If i do what color Grey or White? Always though white was Girly but i quite like it

White one might get a bit grubby after being answered/used out in the garage

Orange have put their own 'homescreen' on the phone which doesn't look fantastic and for some reason makes scrolling through the apps screen a little 'jerky'. Easily sorted by going into the apps page and booting up'Homescreen Selector' to change it back to the standard 'Launcher' homescreen.

This is what I love about android, if you don't like the way something works you can just change it no problem. Installing Launcher Pro lets you select from a huge amount of themes and styles (including HTC if you want that look/layout) for your homescreen.

If you don't like the keyboard no worries, install a different keyboard app. Same with sms/mms messages, don't like the way the txt app works or looks just install another.

The personalisation options are endless to get the phone exactly how you like it. Coming from a windows mobile it was like stepping out of the dark ages

Imagine was it was like for me coming from Symbian

Have you tried "Swype" keyboard ? It's a bit weird to start with, not lifting your finger from the keyboard and running your finger through the letters, but it's very intuitive

No thats one I've been meaning to take for a test drive I'm currently using the HTC_IME keyboard but still open minded about what I'll use as my default.

Oh and its a nifty little games machine as well lads, handy for when your in the car waiting for the missus to finish the weekly shop

Example

Currently £89.91 delivered (includes £10 topup) form e2save (trading division of the carphone warehouse)

LINKY

[Edited on 3/12/10 by Mr G]

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Originally posted by Mr G
Currently £89.91 delivered (includes £10 topup) form e2save

LINKY

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Yup no worries

quote:

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Originally posted by Mr G
Currently £89.91 delivered (includes £10 topup) form e2save (trading division of the carphone warehouse)

LINKY

[Edited on 3/12/10 by Mr G]

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Make sure that data is not enabled as its been mentioned that the orange apps via PAYG will eat through the £20 credit like there is no tomorrow! (Obviously for/if the orange sim goes in the phone)

Using your home Wifi obviously no problem

To use google market etc you need to have a gmail.com account (free and easy to set up on a pc/laptop). Using a googlemail.com account won't work. The stupid thing is if you try and create an account via the phones google market app it creates a googlemail.com account for you!

Took me ages trying to figure out why I couldn't download anything from the market before reading about that bug


Any probs/questions feel free to ask

Have fun!

Cheers

G

[Edited on 3/12/10 by Mr G]

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Originally posted by Mr G


Free unlock code comes from THIS site

The simple unlock procedure is detailed on modaco HERE

Certainly is a great phone @ a great price Comes 4th in the 2010 top ten of best andriod phones @ techradar LINKY

It's got great support from development forums as well. Unofficial Android froyo 2.2 already available as an upgrade from its standard 2.1 operating system which makes it absolutely fly along!

G

[Edited on 3/12/10 by Mr G]

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Originally posted by locoR1
Well that was easy unlocked in about 2 mins and very locost thanks Mr G your a star!

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