Orange San Diego first 24hrs

I went out and got a Orange San Diego yesterday so that I could be one of the first to own a Intel powered mobile phone; on attending the press event the other week I was pretty taken with the handset and had made my mind up pretty soon after picking up the demo handset

Here’s a quick breakdown of my observations after having it since yesterday lunchtime

Hardware

First impressions is that it’s surprisingly light considering the size but sturdy with a metal body, the rubberised back makes for a really nice feel in the hand

It takes a micro sim card so if you are an existing Orange/T-Mobile user you will need to have your card changed in store, either that or get the scissors out 😉

Great screen size and resolution not the best viewing angles but excellent for the price, it’s not that responsive for me [I have a sneaking suspicion it’s something to do with  my big sausage fingers!] when entering my pin on the unlock screen and when selecting the download button on the play store it takes several taps sometimes

Where the screen ends and the bezel starts it look like it could be a potential dust gutter which will pick up all the grime from the screen, time will tell on this one

Oh yeah NFC, forgot about that! Works as expected, no real additional features on top of what you already get.

Software

The San Diego software although only Android 2.3[.7] Gingerbread feels great on the device feeling really snappy on the transitions with that 1.6ghz processor in there. Orange have left the skinning to a minimum only really changing the stock apps appearance, this of course can all be remedied with a launcher [like ADWex] and a theme

Free 250 mb of data per month for 12 months which suits what my primary use for it as a Google Music player when I’m running

Insane boot times, I mean I never really liked to turn off my handset of a night time because it spent so long booting up now it takes seconds!

Pre installed apps to name a few; double twist; gmail; google play books; play movies; google+;maps and swipe

Gestures is a nice feature I have used before where you have like an area to draw your gesture onto it on the San Diego you can do the gesture right on the homescreen/launcher

Oh no! No electron beam screen off animation =(

Conclusion

A really nice well built handset which I can see myself using for quite a while now and will definitely be getting unlocked and using with a network that has better data deals than Orange

You can pick up a San Diego from Orange from here on PAYG or contract

Got a question? Why don’t you go over to the forum and ask