ZTE, which makes the popular and enjoyably affordable San Francisco Android phone that’s sold here by the Orange network, has commented on the likelihood of an upgrade to Android 2.3 in the future.
In an carefully-worded statement issued to IT Pro Portal, ZTE said it is “evaluating” the possibility of an official Gingerbread release for the Android phone, but that there are currently “no plans” to actually create the upgrade as yet. Here the full quote:
“At this stage ZTE is evaluating the possibility of upgrading the Orange San Francisco (aka Blade) offering to the UK customer to the Gingerbread OS in 2H 2011. There are no plans to move forward on the Gingerbread OS in the UK as yet”
Which sounds like a polite way of trying to keep everyone happy but, ultimately, it isn’t ever going to happen.
The San Francisco is still being sold direct by Orange, which is currently doing it for £94.99 on PAYG and on contracts from £20 per month. It’s still worth getting if you need a PAYG quickie.
Motorola’s latest flagship dual-core Android monster is a massive, original powerhouse, that’s a big improvement on previous MOTOBLUR mobiles – but still isn’t a total winner.
A slim and glamorous phone from Sony Ericsson, with the sharpest display around. It’s no powerhouse and the screen’s not the biggest out there, but we don’t mind. Because it’s cute.
LG’s first glasses-free 3D phone is a heavy, fat monster, with a clever 3D effect that works rather well. As a smartphone, though, it’s heavy and underwhelming.
A very shiny thing from Sony Ericsson, with a 3.7″ screen and Android 2.3.3 inside. But is it exciting enough to win fans in today’s spec-obsessed market? Can man live on one core alone?
INQ’s Android phone is an interesting “boutique” piece of hardware, packed with unique interface customisations that go far beyond the headline Facebook integration. We like it a lot.
Afflicted.John
/ April 22, 2011Cyanogen mod is san francisco compatible. that’s the best way to get gb on there.
Gary C
/ April 22, 2011Is it fully working without any weird issues?
k0zmic
/ April 22, 2011Nope, not quite. Bits of hardware e.g. GPS don’t work.
Gary C
/ April 22, 2011Cheers. Glad my aggressive responses to people who said “I’M RUNNING IT ON MINE RIGHT NOW LOL” weren’t too out of step.
Simon
/ April 23, 2011The GPS issue is being worked on. Everything else is more or less working as expected, which is pretty amazing for a port that’s only a few months old and done completely from scratch onto a device that shipped with Eclair.
ZTE haven’t even brought Froyo out to the San Francisco yet. It honestly would not surprise me if they are planning to skip this and concentrate on Gingerbread. The ZTE guys are well aware of the community roms so it’s pretty likely to think they’ve see the CM7 port, or even tried it themselves, and made them think that Gingerbread runs fine on the blade.
For operators like Orange it’s a no brainer offering an update to Gingerbread. The San Francisco is one of the biggest selling Android devices in the UK and Orange would be silly not to offer any updates. Can you imaging how many more of these phones they would sell if they offered it with Gingerbread?
Hands0n
/ April 30, 2011Orange will not touch Gingerbread unless ZTE impose the usual Orange crippling branding upon the hardware. For a start GTalk has to go as it is in direct conflict with Orange’s own IM and specific usage rules. And then we have to have the Orange apps force-fed upon the OS such that they cannot be removed, cluttering up already scarce handset memory.
No, the only option is to go for something like CM7. Not only to take advantage of the latest and greatest Android version, but to also get rid of all that Orange stupidness.
CM7 FTW
hecatae
/ May 2, 2011looks like the Blade will be getting 2.3.4 via CyanogeMod7 soon, just a couple of issues to work out
Richard Flynn
/ May 2, 2011You can already get rid of all that Orange stupidity by using Androot to root the phone, and then buying SystemApp Remover from the Market. You need to go carefully, of course (I bricked my phone by deleting an essential app, and had to use Clockwork to flash the Japanese Jellyfish ROM again on my Gen 1 phone…).
hecatae
/ May 2, 2011why would you need to buy SystemApp Remover when Titanium Backup does the same job for free?