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Orange San Diego review: Intel does phones, finally
The first generation of Intel-powered Android phones has arrived, and while the chip maker doesn't appear to be claiming that its initial efforts are world-beaters, we've been promised a chipset that prioritizes what people want most: capable web browsing, strong camera performance and robust battery life. Although we've sampled plenty of incremental versions of this Medfield tech, Orange UK's San Diego is the first finished device to land for review. Priced at £200 ($308) it joins a large spread of wallet-friendly, entry-level smartphones in Orange's lineup. With a (1024 x 600) 4-inch LCD, 8-megapixel camera with flash, micro-HDMI port and 1GB of RAM, it looks to be a respectable, if middle-of-the-road, Android device. But the focus here lays with the 1.6GHz Intel Atom Z2460 CPU and whether it delivers on those performance and battery life promises. Does Intel have a handle on mobile processors? Is the San Diego, near-identical to Intel's own reference model, going to be attractive enough for buyers? You'll find our verdict after the break.%Gallery-158096%
Orange San Diego Medfield phone: a closer look at Computex 2012 (update: video)
Well what do we have here? Yes, it's the Orange San Diego we first saw at Mobile World Congress and it's going on sale in the UK today for £200. This isn't just yet another Android smartphone, but one of the first Medfield-based handsets on the market. We caught this pre-production unit chilling out at the Intel booth here at Computex 2012 and decided to go up close and personal. First impressions? It's thin, light and feels great in the hand thanks to a pleasant soft-touch back. The Gigabyte-made device packs a 4-inch glass-capacitive 1024x600-pixel LCD (that's 300dpi), an 8-megapixel autofocus camera with LED flash, a 1.6GHz Intel Atom Z2460 CPU, 1GB of RAM and 16GB of built-in storage. While the screen looks decent enough, it falls somewhere in the middle of the pack in terms of viewing angles. The phone features Android 2.3.7 (Gingerbread) and runs most apps from the Google Play store directly via an emulation layer. Performance matched prior benchmarks and was on-par with current mid-range ARM-based Android handsets -- the experience was mostly smooth, but we noticed some lag when scrolling and zooming pages in the web browser. Battery life remains the major outstanding question when it comes to Medfield handsets, so expect more details once we have our very own review unit. In the meantime, check out the gallery below and hit the break for our hands-on video.%Gallery-157275%
Orange San Diego: Intel's Medfield phone gets benchmarked
While we've been pleasantly surprised by some favorable browser scores, we couldn't help sneaking another peek at the phone's (second) launch -- this time right in the center of London. We took the Orange Santa Clara San Diego for a spin on our latest benchmarks. See how Intel's new mobile processor fares against much pricier competition right after the break.
Orange San Diego revealed: Intel-powered phone to reach UK on June 6th for £200
Orange took its time to decide, but now it's settled. The first European Intel-equipped smartphone is the San Diego, replacing the Santa Clara codename assigned to it since February's Mobile World Congress. It will launch on pay-as-you-go at £200, including £10 of credit -- although Orange tell us this will be an introductory price. On contract, prices will start at £15.50 per month for two years and Brits will be able to pick one up from June 6th. We're getting the full run-through from Orange UK and Intel, but we're itching to run our new benchmarks on the Medfield phone as soon as they let us at it. And that pesky Gingerbread OS? We've been told to expect Ice Cream Sandwich closer to the end of Q3. But with just the single carrier, we're hoping testing time could be shaved off significantly.
Orange's Santa Clara Medfield phone gets benchmarked, well, the browser does
Wondering how those Medfield handsets stack up to their ARM-powered competition? Well, we can't promise a full suite of benchmarks just yet, but we do have a peek at a pair of browser-centric tests. The German Caschys Blog managed to get a hold of Orange's upcoming Santa Clara device at CeBit and ran Qualcomm's Vellamo and Rightware's BrowserMark on the Atom handset. In both metrics the Z2460 more than holds its own, scoring an 89,180 on the web-based BrowserMark -- putting it just ahead of the iPhone 4S which clocks in at 87,801, but well behind the Galaxy Nexus' 98,272. Things look just as promising on the slightly more hardware-intensive Vellamo where it trounced the latest Nexus and was hot on the heels of the Xiaomi Mi-One Plus and Transformer Prime. Of course, neither of these tests really tax the CPU or measure 3D graphics performance. We're not even sure what the clock speed on chip inside the handset is. We were originally led to believe 1.6GHz, though, Caschy is reporting the model he manhandled was running at just 1.4GHz. Then, there's perhaps the biggest question of all -- battery life. For that, we'll just have to wait and see.
Orange Santa Clara packs Intel power, we go hands-on at MWC 2012 (video)
Hot on the heels of Intel's big event, we've finally got our hands on Orange's Medfield smartphone. The Santa Clara is powered by the Intel Atom Z2460 processor, clocked at 1.6GHz. It does have 2011's Gingerbread kind of Android, but Orange is promising to bring ICS to the phone soon after launch -- in fact an Intel spokesperson told us that it's already had Android 4.0 running on these devices. There's a few differences between this and the Xolo X900 by Lava -- so we've given it a judicious investigation at Intel's big launch party. You'll find our hands-on video and impressions right after the break.
Orange announces first Intel-powered Android phone for Europe, codenamed Santa Clara
Orange will be the first to offer a Medfield-powered Android phone in Europe. Codenamed Santa Clara, and arriving some time this summer, it looks pretty similar to Intel's reference model -- in both design and specs. The phone totes a 4-inch 600 x 1024 display, with a solid 8-megapixel camera capable of 1080p video and burst capture of up to 10 shots within a second. The Santa Clara (the final name is likely to manifest itself somewhere between now and its eventual release) runs on Intel's Atom Z2460 processor, clocked at 1.6GHz. This should be more than enough to smoothly steer Android Gingerbread, with Orange vowing to bring ICS soon after launch. The device can handle HSPA speeds of 21.1Mbps down and 5.6Mbps up, while HDMI-out gets its own dedicated port. Other features include Orange's own mobile wallet service through NFC, with HD voice call and gesture navigation built in. The phone network is also pushing Intel's Medfield processor credentials, with its low power performance of up to 14 days on standby or eight hours of 3G calls. The European carrier has also told us that despite these respectable middleweight specifications, the phone will remain "aggressively priced" -- not dissimilar to its previously town-themed iterations. We hope to get some hands-on time with the device very soon, but until then, you can glean a closer look at the gallery below.
