Orange Monte Carlo

Nexus18 · 30 Jun 2011 at 15:01

I have to say the display looks amazing in terms of quality, it really does look like AMOLED from these videos. the viewing angles and the colours look very vibrant, IMO the quality of the screen in terms of colours etc. looks much better than the desire HD screen and dare I say it slightly better than the sensation (only for the colours), not washed out one bit:

They all show the same thing pretty much.

No idea why ZTE made the keyboard so tiny though, maybe just a fault, and if not it can be easily solved by installing a third party keyboard.

buchtis · 30 Jun 2011 at 15:30

Look how slow and laggy it is on those videos, looks unusable. People will buy this then whinge at how bad it is and that's it a side step from the San Fran. Knuckle down ZTE!

grudas · 30 Jun 2011 at 15:34

buchtis said:
Look how slow and laggy it is on those videos, looks unusable. People will buy this then whinge at how bad it is and that's it a side step from the San Fran. Knuckle down ZTE!

:/ you know nothing.. CLEARLY..

Nexus18 · 30 Jun 2011 at 15:36

Yeah it is terrible, but then again so was the SF and my samsung spica i5700 was as well, but once you get a good custom ROM on, the lag is gone.

My i5700 feels as fast and smooth if not better than my brothers desire on stock 2.2.

Plus it could just be a fault/bug, since it is an early test version in those videos being used, just like the sensation had terrible problems with the camera/video recording when it was being shown, but now it is a hundred times better and same for all the other mobiles shown.

Also iirc 2 or 3 of those videos, the guys had live wallpapers, which would make it even more laggy and there was 1 video where it did look pretty smooth.

Nexus18 · 30 Jun 2011 at 16:03

http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/39148/zte-skate-lands-summer-2011

buchtis · 30 Jun 2011 at 17:54

grudas said:
:/ you know nothing.. CLEARLY..

Then educate me sir. But when you do, be sure to use correct grammar and punctuation please.

ZTe are trying to capitalize on the Blads's/San Fran's success. They've released a phone that's still very low spec but has a slightly bigger screen and maybe a better camera than the SF. It's just basically another cheapo SF clone but slightly updated. People will buy this, be disappointed with it's performance and it'll end up on the bay about a week later.

JIM_BOB7813 · 30 Jun 2011 at 18:31

buchtis said:
Then educate me sir. But when you do, be sure to use correct grammar and punctuation please.

ZTe are trying to capitalize on the Blads's/San Fran's success. They've released a phone that's still very low spec but has a slightly bigger screen and maybe a better camera than the SF. It's just basically another cheapo SF clone but slightly updated. People will buy this, be disappointed with it's performance and it'll end up on the bay about a week later.

It will sell because it's gingerbread as stock, most people with sanfrans will be running stock orange eclair.

wellibob · 30 Jun 2011 at 18:42

Fail if its CPU and gpu are blade specs and if it cant run flash.... its pointless in todays Android market.

CAT-THE-FIFTH · 30 Jun 2011 at 18:52

The Huawei U8800/Ideos X5 uses a Qualcomm MSM7230 running at 800MHZ and an Adreno 205 and is around £174 unlocked:

http://www.carphonewarehouse.com/mo...I-U8800/HANDSET?portal=BUYAT&promo=hotukdeals

It can play flash videos. It uses the earlier Qualcomm MS7227 running at 800MHZ and an Adreno 200. Since the same combination with the CPU running at 600MHZ is found in the Orange San Francisco and cannot play flash well I hope the Orange Monte Carlo is under £120.

Wicksta · 1 Jul 2011 at 13:42

buchtis said:
Then educate me sir. But when you do, be sure to use correct grammar and punctuation please.

ZTe are trying to capitalize on the Blads's/San Fran's success. They've released a phone that's still very low spec but has a slightly bigger screen and maybe a better camera than the SF. It's just basically another cheapo SF clone but slightly updated. People will buy this, be disappointed with it's performance and it'll end up on the bay about a week later.

Having actually used one it seems a lot better than a SF to me. It is an excellent budget handset with some big advantages over the SF.

But what do I know, I've only played with one.

Myshra · 1 Jul 2011 at 14:35

Aye same, the test handset I have here is pretty good for it's price point.

krooton · 1 Jul 2011 at 15:11

buchtis said:
Then educate me sir. But when you do, be sure to use correct grammar and punctuation please.

ZTe are trying to capitalize on the Blads's/San Fran's success. They've released a phone that's still very low spec but has a slightly bigger screen and maybe a better camera than the SF. It's just basically another cheapo SF clone but slightly updated. People will buy this, be disappointed with it's performance and it'll end up on the bay about a week later.

If it comes in at under £150, it will still be better than any other brand new handset at the same price point.

loltim · 1 Jul 2011 at 16:39

Wicksta said:
Having actually used one it seems a lot better than a SF to me. It is an excellent budget handset with some big advantages over the SF.

But what do I know, I've only played with one.

Still won't do Flash though, seems pointless unless you insist on not going 2nd hand and grabbing a desire/defy/galaxy s1.

Wicksta · 1 Jul 2011 at 17:44

loltim said:
Still won't do Flash though, seems pointless unless you insist on not going 2nd hand and grabbing a desire/defy/galaxy s1.

I'd agree for my (and your) use. However a lot of people like my parents won't care about Flash, hell how many iPhone users are there. It's a good value handset in my opinion and I can see it selling well especially in retail outlets when people see the quality of the screen.

PermaBanned · 1 Jul 2011 at 20:51

http://shop.orange.co.uk/mobile-phones/orange-monte-carlo

Looks like they haven't learnt their lesson - still with the horrid Orange interface?

Robbo · 1 Jul 2011 at 20:58

PermaBanned said:
http://shop.orange.co.uk/mobile-phones/orange-monte-carlo

Looks like they haven't learnt their lesson - still with the horrid Orange interface?

Nearly all Orange phones have this in some form, they are bar stewards for it.

Nexus18 · 2 Jul 2011 at 00:33

I think what some people are missing about this mobile is that it will probably cost less than £125, possibly if were lucky around £100.

And for that money you are getting a great device 2.3 device, 5MP with LED flash (probably won't be great anyway), 4.3" 480x800 etc. as anything in that price range is going to be crap in comparison just like it was with the SF.

Also more the fact that the screen looks great quality and is 4.3" 480x800 and the only devices that I know off that are good with the same size screen is desire HD, sensation, GS 2 and they cost a lot more, plus the desire HD screen looks crap compared to this ZTE device IMO.

Again it all depends though on how popular it will be with the developers.

JIM_BOB7813 · 2 Jul 2011 at 11:32

Nexus18 said:
I think what some people are missing about this mobile is that it will probably cost less than £125, possibly if were lucky around £100.

There was a rumour that it was £180 unsubsidised, so I would guess Orange don't subsidise PAYG too much. (£30-£50 maybe?)

http://www.eurodroid.com/2011/06/zte-skate-priced-at-less-than-200-or-around-180-unsubsidised/

stoke1863 · 2 Jul 2011 at 11:36

I know someone who runs Oranges E-commerce strategy, i will try to find the price point!

CAT-THE-FIFTH · 2 Jul 2011 at 14:10

Wicksta said:
I'd agree for my (and your) use. However a lot of people like my parents won't care about Flash, hell how many iPhone users are there. It's a good value handset in my opinion and I can see it selling well especially in retail outlets when people see the quality of the screen.

Nexus18 said:
I think what some people are missing about this mobile is that it will probably cost less than £125, possibly if were lucky around £100.

And for that money you are getting a great device 2.3 device, 5MP with LED flash (probably won't be great anyway), 4.3" 480x800 etc. as anything in that price range is going to be crap in comparison just like it was with the SF.

Also more the fact that the screen looks great quality and is 4.3" 480x800 and the only devices that I know off that are good with the same size screen is desire HD, sensation, GS 2 and they cost a lot more, plus the desire HD screen looks crap compared to this ZTE device IMO.

Again it all depends though on how popular it will be with the developers.

JIM_BOB7813 said:
There was a rumour that it was £180 unsubsidised, so I would guess Orange don't subsidise PAYG too much. (£30-£50 maybe?)

http://www.eurodroid.com/2011/06/zte-skate-priced-at-less-than-200-or-around-180-unsubsidised/

The problem is that you can get better phones for around £150 to £200 which can actually run flash and have faster processors. The San Francisco is under £100 so using a Qualcomm MS7227 and Adreno 200 is OK. Paying over £140 to £150 for an Orange branded ZTE Skate with a slow CPU and GPU is a waste of money. It seems the phone is sluggish:

http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/review/2035442/zte-skate-smartphone-impressions

"The 800MHz processor just didn't cope very well with running Android 2.3 Gingerbread on the phone. The screen is unresponsive to swipe gestures and there is significant lag when moving between home screens and loading content."

The Huawei U8800/Ideos X5 has twice the graphics performance(Adreno 205 as opposed to an Adreno 200),is fully unlocked,has no network branding and uses a faster CPU core for £174. The ZTE Skate uses an MS7227 which is an ARM6 CPU whereas the MS7230 is an ARM7 CPU.

Even,the Acer Liquid E can be had for around £130 fully unlocked and without any network branding. It use an Adreno 200 and uses a 1GHZ QSD8250 ARM7 CPU.

The MS7227 is simply a much slower core and does not support flash decoding at all.