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Earlier today, we noticed Orange was flogging its San Francisco Android smart phone for the ludicrous price of only £20 on a pay as you go deal. We were just about to mainline that information directly into your eyeballs when Orange went and pulled the deal, like an absolute rotter.
There’s a chance the deal could reappear after the phone, which is currently out of stock, once more lines Orange’s shelves. We’ve contacted Orange to find out when the San Francisco will be back in stock, and whether it will still be sold for £20, but we haven’t received a reply yet.
Originally available for £99 on pay as you go, the San Francisco was one of a bevy of Android beauties that broke the £100 barrier and brought Google’s mobile operating system to the masses. Following the £79 price reduction, it was the cheapest Android smart phone by a country mile.
The San Francisco isn’t perfect, as we pointed out in our smashing review. Orange has caked Android 2.1 Eclair in its own crudtastic icons, and the operator’s ‘free Internet’ Dolphin tariff has a stingy 100MB data allowance, which you can easily use up in a few days with a spot of manic Web browsing. But we’re willing to cut a phone some slack when it’s so inexpensive, especially since you can revert to the standard Android interface if you choose.
The phone has plenty of good points to make up for its deficiencies too. Among them are a capacitive 3.5-inch touchscreen with multi-touch support, 3G and Wi-Fi connectivity, and the feature bonanza that is Android 2.1 — even if that particular Eclair is starting to look rather stale compared to Android 2.3 Gingerbread.
For the sake of skint Android fans everywhere then, let’s hope this deal reappears sharpish. Let us know in the comments section below if you managed to snap up a San Francisco on the cheap.
