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Orange San Diego Intel-based Android phone
First Atom-powered smart talker
Core values
Combine the San Diego’s screen size and resolution and you end up with a pixels-per-inch count of 297. That’s close to the Samsung Galaxy S3’s 306ppi and not a million miles shy of the iPhone’s 330ppi. For an LCD panel it’s pretty bright too, almost up with the Xperia P with its extra WhiteMagic pixels.
AnTuTu and Sun Spider tests
Performance is on a par with 1 and 1.2GHz dual-core ARM handsets and the AnTuTu score of 5600 reflects this. However the SunSpider browser test returned a superb figure of 1417. That’s a hundred points lower and better than the Samsung Galaxy S3 and a massive 5000 points better than my HTC Desire HD. The San Diego really does render web pages very quickly.
Another area where the San Diego impressed was the speed and sensitivity of the GPS system. I managed near enough instant satellite lock even in indoor locations where my Desire HD and a friend’s iPhone 4S couldn’t even find a signal. Unusually at this price, the San Diego is capable of playing 1080p video but you won’t be loading it up with HD files. With no Micro SD slot you are stuck with the built-in 16GB which actually means 2GB for apps and 11GB for files. On the subject of slots the San Diego uses a micro Sim.
Browser and Swype keyboard
I’m not going to drone on about the ugly Orange launcher or preloaded Orange software because there’s enough system storage to not have to worry about the latter and any good third-party launcher can be used to replace the former. Sadly, the San Diego lacks Orange’s handy HD Voice cellular-over-Wi-Fi app but you do get active noise-cancellation.
The camera is an 8Mp unit but generates a rather blurry and washed-out end product though you do get a flash. There are also plenty of shooting modes including a burst option and the camera launches quickly from a push of the external button which can operate both the rear and front cameras. Video can be shot at 1080p and doesn’t look too bad.