Motorola Milestone XT720 v Orange San Diego: Old v New

Orange San Diego contract deals

The Motorola Milestone XT720 is a top of the range smart phone from 2 years ago, whereas the Orange San Diego is a current mid-range Android. As you would imagine, it's not going to be much of a competition between the two, the mid-range San Diego blows the Milestone out of the water. Also, ironically the San Diego houses its own milestone as it is the first smart phone to be run by an Intel processor. More on that later. For the most part this review is going to be a feature on showing how far mobile phone technology has come in three short years.

You can still get great phone deals on both devices though.

Specifications

Back in 2009, the Motorola Milestone was wowing Android users with its 3.7 inch screen (bigger than the iPhone), its 480 x 854 pixel resolution (which is still pretty good to be fair) and the new Android 2.1 Eclair operating system. Well, we're now up to 4.1 Jelly Bean but that's not what the Orange San Diego has, it still sports the 2.3 Gingerbread system. It also has a 4 inch screen and 600 x 1024 pixel resolution. Remember, the San Diego does not represent the best that it is available, it is only twice as expensive as a budget Android. You'd have to double that cost to get the very best available right now.

Some other major differences. The Motorola Milestone came with 150MB internal storage. The San Diego has 16GB. Both can be topped up with microSD cards though. When the Milestone came out it was one of the first to have multi-touch features, allowing you to zoom by pinching your fingers on the screen. That's pretty standard these days.

The San Diego comes with an 8 megapixel camera which can record 1080p HD video. The Milestone has an 8MP camera too but only records jerky 720p HD video. The San Diego camera also has a burst mode which takes ten pictures in quick succession, which is good for photographing high speed action. This is quite rare even these days though.

One of the most significant differences is in processing power. The Milestone has a 600MHz processor, which would be bad even for budget phones now. The San Diego, however, is not typical in its processor. In fact, as mentioned, it is the first smart phone to be run by an Intel processor.

Motorola Mileston XT720 deals

Intel Processor

The San Diego's Intel processor has been clocked at 1.6GHz. That's a 1GHz of processing power more than the Milestone. That is very high for a single-core processor though, the high end Androids usually only reach around that mark with dual or even quad-core processors.

The major benefit of the Intel processor is that it makes web surfing very fast and slick. In fact, for the money, you won't get any faster web browsing. It also promises a more stable system, meaning that you're not going to get apps crashing on you.

It also means that it can do things that usually you would need a dual-core processor to do well, such as record video in 1080p and export through a HDMI port, allowing you to link it directly to your television. The only disappointment in this area is that the lens is not very good, so the quality of the shots is not as good as it might be.

There is a downside to this Intel processor though, which is that, for technical reasons too complicated to properly explain, it is incompatible with some downloadable apps. Orange says that 70% of apps will work with the Intel processor, but another way of saying that is that almost a third of them will not.

The full specs of the Milestone can be found on the Motorla website. The San Diego specifications can be found on Orange's website.

Phone Deals

So what have we learnt here, children? That even mid-range phones these days are better than the best phones from two years ago? Didn't we know that already? Yes, we probably did.

However, hopefully we have also learnt that the Motorola is still a quality phone, if a little dated now. Also, that while the San Diego's Intel processor has some impressive benefits, it also has some potentially deal-breaking downsides.

What else is there to know? Well, if you're interested in getting your hands on either of these phones then there are some great Motorola Milestone XT720 monthly contract deals and Orange San Diego deals available online.

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Orange San Francisco Review

The Orange San Francisco is a great device for those people who want a smart phone on a budget.  You're not going to get the highest processing power, the camera's not  the very best and, yes if you want to be able to play all of the latest games then this is not going to be the one for you.  However, if you want a stylish, robust and smooth smart phone then you need not look any further.

The Feel

When it comes to smart phones, one of the most important things about them is the feel.  They're so much more than just a device to make phone calls with.  You have to think about things like, how do they feel in your hand?  How responsive is the screen to your touch?  If this is wrong then it really doesn't matter how much processing power there is or how pretty it looks, you're not going to be able to get much out of the phone.

In this aspect the Orange San Francisco excels because although the price is low it really doesn't feel like it when you hold it in your hand.  It feels nice and hefty, although not heavy - it might have some weight to it but it's nice and slim and will slip nicely in to your pocket.

The screen is another great feature of this phone.  At 3.5 inches it's a nice and large screen and has a good resolution, at 480x800 pixels.  It's nice and crisp and clear. You can slide back and forth between the different pages with just a flick of the finger, the way it was designed.  It's not overly sensitive but neither does it require a heavy hand.  It is truly the goldilocks of budget android phones, it's just right.

Orange Apps

That having been said though, there are a few things that are a bit irritating about the phone.  One of these are the Orange apps which are pre-installed.  The problem is that you can't remove them and they take up quite a bit of memory so after you've had some time to accumulate some apps you may well wish that there was some way to get rid of these Orange apps if you're not using them.  And you never know, you might find them useful, but to be honest there are usually better versions of the same sort of thing that you can get for free at the android app store.

Also, the Orange home screen is not to everyone's taste, but that can easily be replaced with the standard android display so really nothing to worry about the.  The most annoying part of it is probably the game demos they've put on there which you can't remove and which you have to pay for if you want the full version.

So yeah, Orange might be concerned about not spoiling movies but it seems that they're not beyond shoe horning in a few unnecessary extras on their phones.  But we really shouldn't complain too much, it's really only a minor irritation and should not detract from the fact that for budged android phones, the Orange San Francisco is still one of the best that you can get.

Orange San Francisco Hardware

Most of the software on an android can be replaced of course (other than what we've already mentioned) so we won't spend too much more time on that.  The keyboard's okay, as are the text messaging and email facilities.  Nothing special.  But if you prefer something else you're going to have plenty of choice at the Android app store, mostly for free.  Or you might have to pay a few extra pounds for the very best but a lot of that is down to personal preference and how you want to use the phone.

When it comes to the hardware, it's hard to complain too much considering the price.  It's really not fair to compare it to the iPhone or some high-end Android like the Samsung Galaxy S.  Most importantly, as we've already mentioned, the screen is large and it's responsive so that's a major plus.

As for everything else, it works well enough.  The camera, for instance, takes pictures of perfectly reasonable quality.  Although there doesn't seem to be a flash.  We've looked pretty hard for it and we can't find it, but we may be wrong about that.  Anyone finding the flash, please send us a message of how to get to it. 

Also, the wi-fi has an a somewhat annoying habit of cutting out every time the phone goes in to standby mode.  Although that is not necessarily a feature across the range, we might have just been unlucky with this particular phone.

The battery lasts a good long while though.  As well as wi-fi it has 3G capablilities as well as GPS and there's a connection for a 3.5mm jack for headphones.

Check out the full specs on the Orange website.

Overall

This phone might be cheap but it's also serious and it's not going to fall apart any time soon.  The screen is superb and with the Android 2.1 system, although a little old, it will still play most games.  There are of course better android phones on the market, there were when it came out and there certainly are now.  Indeed, it now has a younger brother in the San Francisco II.  However if you're looking for a solid smart phone on the cheap, this is still a contender.

So check out Orange San Francisco deals if you think this might be the phone for you. 

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