Google Latitude on low spec smartphone

My wife wants a "smartphone" but not up to full spec.

Looking at:-

http://shop.orange.co.uk/mobile-phones/san-francisco...

price looks right but will need a package for data.

Tried an Orange shop yesterday but did not understand what they were saying. Bolt on £7.50 per month but unable to use Google Maps; salesman said that package used to but now stopped.

Reason that interest in Google maps is so that my wife and I can use Google Latitude to track each other.

Accept that maybe have to pay for better contract but very reluctant to go over £15 per month, two year contract, including texts, minutes and data.

Any advice please?

Buy a 'smartphone' outright and get a SIM only contract with data..

Nokia provide street maps which you can download to their smart phones. This provides map data without the need for a mobile connection - in many countries.

HTC have something similar.

What's wrong with the traditional "Hi darling I am on the train..." ?

The advantage of Latitude is that both parties can see where each is; there are circumstances where this can be vital.

If I am on the train I would rarely phone to advise. However if I am incapable of speaking, due to a medical emergency, my wife could see where I am and make her way there. This happened last year and it took a long while to get her to me as she did not know the area I was in, I tend to go off local areas a lot, and she was getting instructions from a third party who did not know the area where she was nor the area I was in, as they where just driving through; causing both of us some concern until reunited.

I have to say that most of the time this would be more of a convenience rather than vital as we often meet up at places neither have visited before.

I have Mapdroid on my HTC but it does not send my location to another phone.

The San Francisco is easily unlocked and can be done for free. Just buy it pay as you go and then go for whichever sim only deal you prefer.

Some of us just prefer our wives NOT to know where we are

I got a Samsung Europa I5500 from carphone warehouse for £10 a month. It includes 100 mins 100 texts and 500MB of data. Is loads for me. Runs Android so does google maps with ease, and latitude.

Worth a look if you don't want to spend too much like I didn't.....

[edit] fwiw, it's not that low spec either. Is quite good all things considered.

Edited by deleted (Sat 28-May-11 17:46:14)

Thank you for the info.

Does it have the "smartphone" mini USB charger socket; means that we could both use the same charger when on holiday?

Yes, it has a "smartphone" mini usb charger - I could not honestly say it is the same as another "smartphone" mini usb socket as I don't have another one to check it with. But it did come with 2 cables. One the plug type for mains socket and the other was a usb data/charging cable which charges from the PC and Laptop no problem.

I do have to advise of shocking battery life though. I upgraded the phone, unofficially, to FROYO and now get a couple of days out of the battery. In itself for me this is not an issue since I can plug it in to charge over night. I also do use it heavily for gps, web, apps etc etc. If you turn off all the extras like gps, mobile data etc, the battery does last longer. 3-4 days between charges.

Sorry to keep asking questions.

I see that it comes with a micro SD card.

Can it take a 32GB SD card? My wife has a 20GB Ipod which is bursting so would like 32GB to expand into.

No idea. It's a phone, not an iPod. I use it as a phone, an occasional GPS and even more occasionally a camera.

Go and Google it, or go to the Samsung web site and look it up.

Sorry if that sounds a bit, well, whatever, but I don't know, nor do I really care. The phone is NOT really all that useful as a jukebox video playing multimedia machine. If you want to put gigabytes of music onto something then get a bigger mp3 player.

Sorry if you thought my question was too much.

I had already Googled/looked it up and it said 16GB SD card but so have other devices that have run larger cards.

We do not need video just MP3 at reasonable quality (128 bit) but with a large capacity; real audio is reserved for our full hi-fi at home.

The Orange San Francisco is a ZTE Blade; I;ve been using one for a few months, as have a few other folks at work (they've Froyo'd theirs, mine is factory 2.1, there are unconfirmed reports of official Orange Froyo later in the year).

I've seen no documented size restrictions from Orange wrt SD cards; I have 16GB and it works fine. Afaik no one at work has 32GB.

There are lots of positive reviews around so I'll focus on the snags I've observed.

As already noted, with default firmware the battery life can be poor, especially with GPS on (which seems important to you?). Charging off the supplied mains charger via micro USB is reasonably fast, charging from PC or car adapter via USB barely keeps up with the drain from the phone, especially with GPS on. I'm told the cables can be hacked to improve this? NB these are *micro* USB; to work with mini USB you will need an adapter.

The camera leaves a great deal to be desired.

The FM radio doesn't do RDS.

I had great trouble with the pseudo keyboard but that may just be me.

I wasn't impressed by the signal handling or performance on GPRS (wanted to avoid M40 between Oxford and Banbury, not exactly middle of nowhere, GPS OK but no GPRS so no Google Maps). Have done the same route before and since with Nokias without losing signal.

There are a few paid-for navigation packages for Android but I haven't seen one with good reviews yet. Google Maps is good enough for most, but doesn't suit everyone.

For the money, the Blade is amazing (~£100 PAYG or free on relatively cheap contracts).

For a smartphone, afaict it's really nothing special.

For £12 a month on a 2 year contract (200 minutes, 200 texts, 1GB data) and no up front charge you can get a real smartphone such as an HTC Desire S. E.g. at Talkmobile/CarphoneWarehouse, maybe similar deals elsewhere. If I hadn't got myself locked in for another 18 months with my Blade...

Sorry if you thought my question was too much.

No, not really too much. I just don't understand the obsession with having gigabytes of music/video/whatever on a mobile phone.

charging from PC or car adapter via USB barely keeps up with the drain from the phone, especially with GPS on

Hmm, my Galaxy charges perfectly in the car of through the PC. Mind you, I don't use it as a GPS in the car since I already have a proper GPS unit.

I had great trouble with the pseudo keyboard but that may just be me.

I doubt it. I have problems with the default keyboard but have replaced it with a "better" keyboard which seems to work. I have not tried most of the features such as handwriting or speech recognition yet though.

For £12 a month on a 2 year contract (200 minutes, 200 texts, 1GB data) and no up front charge you can get a real smartphone such as an HTC Desire

Ha, when you find that deal, be sure and tell the rest of us.

Not sure I'm following you there Simon.

In case it's not clear from my words "The Orange San Francisco is a ZTE Blade; I;ve been using one for a few months", the comments from Anon 2 June 22:55 (me) relate to the performance of the Orange San Francisco, not the Samsung Galaxy.

In case it's not clear from the reference to CPW/TalkMobile: you can allegedly get some nice-looking phones there, including the HTC Desire S and a selection of Samsung Galaxy models, "free" with a £12/month 2 year contract. As always, please check small print.

More info at http://www.talkmobile.co.uk/pay-monthly/handsets/tms...

[edit] Yes, I know you were talking about the performance of a different phone. It does not matter, since I was talking about the phone I have and it NOT having a problem with the car charger, you know, to show that not all phones are alike...

including the HTC Desire S

Err, no, it's the HTC Wildfire S Black, not the Desire. "Better" phones like that do not appear until you go up to £18 a month. If, like me, you don't want to spend more than about £10 a month then the range is a little more limited.

Not that I am complaining, but I did look at all the phones offered on all the tariffs, and settled on the one I got. Perfectly happy with it now I have upgraded it to FROYO.

Edited by deleted (Mon 06-Jun-11 07:27:38)

I got the Samsung Galaxy Apollo not a bad phone runs android 2.1 can be upgraded to 2.2
cheap around £80

Has done me well over the last 4 months.