ZTE Blade

ZTE Blade

Manufacturer	ZTE
Carriers	Branded for multiple carrier or as ZTE Blade
First released	21 September 2010
Introductory price	£99/117,90€
Type	Slate smartphone
Dimensions	116 mm (4.6 in) H 56.5 mm (2.22 in) W 11.8 mm (0.46 in) D
Weight	130 g (4.6 oz)[1]
Operating system	Linux 2.6.29 used in Android 2.1 Éclair
CPU	Qualcomm MSM7227 600 MHz processor with Adreno 200 GPU
Memory	512 MB RAM
Storage	512 MB NAND 2 GB microSD memory card (SD 2.0 compatible) microSD slot: supports up to 32 GB
Battery	1250 mAh Internal rechargeable lithium-ion battery, 4 hours talk time and 216 hours (9 days) stand-by time
Data inputs	Multi-touch capacitive touchscreen display, 3-axis accelerometer, digital compass, proximity and ambient light sensors
Display	480 × 800 px, 3.5 in (89 mm), 267 PPI, WVGA, OLED / TFT LCD capacitive touchscreen
Rear camera	3.2 or 5.0 megapixel with auto focus
Connectivity	Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g), Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, GSM 850 900 1800 1900 MHz HSPA/WCDMA 900 2100 MHz, GPS
Other	Proximity sensor, accelerometer, FM Radio, compass, GPS, A-GPS.

The ZTE Blade (also marketed as Orange San Francisco on Orange U.K., Orange Austria, Orange Slovakia, Orange Switzerland, Mobistar and Orange Poland and also as Dell XCD35 in India), is a phone manufactured by China's ZTE Corporation for the Android platform. Unveiled by Orange UK, it went on sale on 21 September 2010, with a white variant released later.^[2]

Variants

In other countries, the ZTE Blade is available in customized versions with different cameras and touchscreen displays:

• Belarus: Velcom offers ZTE Blade unlocked with TFT display, 3.2 MPX camera and 512mb (256mb ram before october 2011) ram. It runs Android 2.2 Froyo.

• Belgium: Mobistar offers the ZTE Blade unlocked with a 3.2 megapixel camera, 512mb ram, and TFT capacitive touchscreen display under the name 'San Francisco' with no brand or manufacturer.

• Bulgaria: Globul offers a branded Globul Z3 phone with Android 2.2 and a 3.2 mp camera.

• Great Britain: White and grey versions are sold with TFT or OLED screens. The only way to check which screen the phone has is to look in Settings > About Phone > BUILD.

• Greece: Wind offers the ZTE Blade, with a 3.2 megapixel camera and TFT capacitive touchscreen display, running Android 2.1 Eclair. Update to Android 2.2 FroYo is available.^[3] Officially, it comes with 256MB RAM. However, there is a patch that reveals 256MB extra RAM that seems to be locked. So despite the fact that customers buy it from Wind with 256MB RAM, they have the ability to patch it and unlock the RAM in order to have the amount of 512MB.^[4]

• Finland: Saunalahti (Elisa) offers ZTE Blade with a 5.0 megapixel camera and TFT capacitive touchscreen display.^[5] TeliaSonera offers ZTE Blade II with a 5.0 megapixel camera and TFT capacitive touchscreen display, running Android 2.2 Froyo.^[6]

• France: Orange and Bouygues offers the ZTE Blade with a capacitive touchscreen display (LCD for Orange and AMOLED for Bouygues), 512 MB RAM and a 3.2 MP camera. It runs on Android 2.1 Eclair. SFR also distributes the ZTE Blade but under the rebranded "Android Edition by SFR STARADDICT" ^[7].

• Germany: Base, a E-Plus brand, offers the ZTE Blade under a different name. The device is called Base Lutea and has a 5.0 megapixel camera and TFT capacitive touchscreen display.^[8]

• Hungary: Magyar Telekom Nyrt, Mobil Szolgáltatások Üzletág offers the ZTE Blade with a capacitive touchscreen LCD display, 512 MB RAM and a 3.2 MP camera. It runs on Android 2.1. Due to a faulty OS image, devices with only 256 MB of available RAM were distributed until middle December 2010, but an updated OS was later released to fix such devices.^[9] Telenor will also offer the ZTE Blade.^[10]

• India: Dell offers the ZTE Blade under the name Dell XCD35, with a 3.2 megapixel camera and a TFT capacitive touchscreen display.^[11]

• Indonesia: SmartFren offers the ZTE Blade under the name SmartFren Wide, with a 3.2 megapixel auto focus camera and a TFT capacitive touchscreen display. It runs Android 2.2 Froyo, And 2 Gb memory card.

• Japan: SoftBank offers the ZTE Blade under the name SoftBank 003Z, with a 5.0 megapixel camera, running Android 2.2 Froyo.^[12]

• Lithuania: Omnitel offers the ZTE Blade, with a 5 megapixel camera and TFT capacitive touchscreen display, running Android 2.2 Froyo.^[13]

• Moldova: Orange Moldova offers the ZTE Blade with an LCD display and a 3.2 MP camera. It runs Android 2.1 Eclair.

• Netherlands, the: KPN offers the ZTE Blade with an LCD display and a 5.0 MP camera. It runs Android 2.2 Froyo.

• Philippines: Smart Communications began to offer the ZTE Blade as the Smart Netphone 701 on September 1, 2011 as a platform to launch its "Smartnet" social network.^[14] It has a TFT capacitive touchscreen, 512 mb of ram, and runs on Android 2.2 Froyo.

• Poland: PLAY offer a version with 3.2 megapixel camera. Also offered by Orange Polska as Orange San Francisco.^[15]

• Portugal: Optimus offers the ZTE Blade under the name Optimus San Francisco, with a 3.2 megapixel camera and a OLED capacitive touchscreen display. TMN offers a customized version with a 5.0 megapixel camera and a TFT screen, under the name SAPO a5. The exterior design of the device was also changed.

• Russia: Beeline offers Beeline E400 with TFT display, 3.2 MPX camera. It runs Android 2.2.^[16]

• Spain: Yoigo (76.6% belonging to TeliaSonera) offers the ZTE Blade with a 3.2 megapixel camera and TFT capacitive touchscreen display running Android 2.2 Froyo for 0€ with any contract.

• Sweden: Tele2 Comviq offers the ZTE Blade with a capacitive touchscreen LCD display, 512 MB RAM and a 3.2 MP camera. It runs on Android 2.2 Froyo and was previously offered with Eclair 2.1.^[17][18] An update to Android 2.2 FroYo is available for Telia and Comviq customers who purchased the device with 2.1.^[19] Telia is again offering the phone. A version running Android 2.1 is available in stores from ZTE Sweden without affiliation to any network.

• Switzerland: Orange and Valora offer a version with a 3.2 megapixel camera and TFT capacitive touchscreen display.^[20]

A detailed overview can be found on the linked google document.^[21]

Reviews

Reviews of the ZTE Blade have been very positive due to the amount of features offered while maintaining a low price.^[22] The screen in particular received praise, while the camera/camcorder quality was identified as one of the few downsides to the device.^[23]

Community reception

Various websites, mainly MoDaCo and xda-developers, have created a very large modifications scene around the Blade. Offering various custom ROMs (such as de-branded ROMs, for the re-branded devices) which remove all software that phone companies put on the device like applications and games, etc., or upgraded software versions (like Froyo* or Gingerbread) which do not come on the device in its stock configuration. Users who flash custom ROMs void their warranty and take risks in doing so^{[citation needed]}, however it is possible to restore the original stock ROM.

• Froyo is appearing on the Blade but with only certain carriers/re-branded devices. It is also available through custom ROM's such as Swedish Spring and a improved version, Portuguese Spring.
• Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) has also been released on the Blade through CyanogenMod 7, Complete Android Experiance and custom ROM Ginger Stir Fry which are based on a leaked Gingerbread update.

Common issues

Some users reported dust under the screen due to bad quality control tests.^{[citation needed]} This problem does not affect all phones. The dust can easily be removed by disassembling the screen. Also the blade has issues with keeping a strong wifi connection with it dropping the signal after turning the screen off although these issues have been resolved on ROMs that use the 2.6.35 Linux Kernel.

References

1. ^ "Orange newsroom". http://newsroom.orange.co.uk/2010/09/21/orange-brings-android-to-the-masses-with-the-launch-of-san-francisco/. 
2. ^ "San Francisco from Orange in white". Orange UK. http://shop.orange.co.uk/mobile-phones/San-Francisco-from-Orange-in-white. Retrieved 2010-12-06. 
3. ^ "Wind 2.2 Update". http://www.wind.com.gr/TopMenu/%CE%9A%CE%B1%CF%84%CE%B1%CF%83%CF%84%CE%AE%CE%BC%CE%B1%CF%84%CE%B1/%CE%96%CE%A4%CE%95-%CE%92lade/ZTE-Blade-%CE%9B%CE%B5%CE%B9%CF%84%CE%BF%CF%85%CF%81%CE%B3%CE%B9%CE%BA%CF%8C-%CE%91%CE%BD%CE%B1%CE%B2%CE%AC%CE%B8%CE%BC%CE%B9%CF%83%CE%B7%CF%82.aspx. 
4. ^ "Unlock the 512MB RAM". http://techblog.gr/mobile/zte-blade-512mb-ram-0593/. 
5. ^ "Saunalahti ZTE Blade". http://www.elisa.fi/ir/pressi/index.cfm?t=100&o=5120&did=16755. 
6. ^ "TeliaSonera Finland ZTE Blade". http://www.tele.fi/liittymat+ja+puhelimet/puhelimet/zte+blade. 
7. ^ "SFR STARADDICT". http://www.sfr.fr/mobile/telephone-portable/android-edition-staraddict?vue=000029. 
8. ^ "Modaco Forum - ZTE Blade coming to Germany". http://android.modaco.com/content/zte-blade-blade-modaco-com/324098/zte-blade-comes-to-germany/. 
9. ^ "Update to Unlock 256MB Devices to 512MB". http://android.modaco.com/content/zte-blade-roms-rom-customisation/327684/09-jan-guide-update-to-unlock-256mb-devices-to-512mb/. 
10. ^ "Telenor Hungary ZTE Blade". http://www.telenor.hu/sajto/sajtokozlemenyek/841. 
11. ^ "Dell XCD35". http://www1.ap.dell.com/content/topics/topic.aspx/global/products/mobile-accessories/topics/en/ap/in/mobile-xcd35?c=in&cs=indhs1&l=en&s=dhs&~ck=mn. 
12. ^ "SoftBank 003Z". http://mb.softbank.jp/en/products/zte/003z.html. 
13. ^ "ZTE Blade". http://www.omnitel.lt/mobilieji-telefonai/zte/zte-blade/52457?branch=private&spath_end_item_id=850. 
14. ^ "Smart's Netphone Coming this September". http://www.gameops.net/2011/08/smarts-netphone-701-coming-this.html. 
15. ^ "Orange San Francisco". http://www.orange.pl/klienci_ind/delfin/telefony/orange/orange_san_francisco. 
16. ^ "Beeline E400". http://device.beeline.ru/smartphone/e400.wbp. 
17. ^ "Comviq Sweden ZTE Blade". https://comviq.se/webbutik/ZTE_Blade. 
18. ^ "Telia Sweden ZTE Blade". https://www.tewss.telia.se/privat/katalog/VisaProdukt.do?productRef=/privat/mobilt/mobiltelefoner/ZTE/ZTE_Blade.product. 
19. ^ "ZTE Blade 2.2 Updates". http://www.ztesweden.se/Exego.aspx?p_id=327. 
20. ^ "Orange and Valora launch new PrePay mobile offer". http://www.valora.com/en/newsroom/newsinformation/news_00379.php. 
21. ^ "Google Document comparing zte base models". https://spreadsheets0.google.com/ccc?key=td7Uje5hPWAxGQcDhGs5z6Q&hl=en&authkey=CJTbrfIG#gid=0. 
22. ^ "Paul Reviews the Orange San Francisco". http://android.modaco.com/content/zte-blade-blade-modaco-com/318802/paul-reviews-the-orange-san-francisco/. 
23. ^ "Orange San Francisco review from Techradar UK". TechRadar UK. 2010-10-19. http://www.techradar.com/reviews/phones/mobile-phones/orange-san-francisco-901915/review?artc_pg=13. Retrieved 2010-12-06. 

External links

• ZTE Blade, MoDaCo Wiki
• [1], Tutorials, guides and articles on Rooting and Custom ROM-ing the Orange San Francisco / ZTE Blade.