The Orange San Diego is the first phone to arrive in Europe sporting an Intel processor, signalling a new player in a market currently dominated by ARM-based chips.
As Orange itself has no smartphone manufacturing heritage, calling on the likes of HTC, Microsoft and ZTE in the past, the San Diego has been built by Intel (through the little-known firm ODM Gigabyte), around its new Atom processor, codenamed Medfield.
The San Diego's spec sheet makes for pleasant reading, packing a 1.6GHz single-core Atom Z2460 Medfield processor, 4.03-inch display, 16GB of internal memory, 8MP camera with LED flash and 1080p video capture, HDMI out and NFC technology, although it's stuck with Android 2.3.7 for the time being – with an Ice Cream Sandwich update arriving before the end of the year.
While the specs may not sizzle when compared to the likes of the HTC One X and Samsung Galaxy S3, the price is certainly attractive and may make the San Diego a hit.
Available for just £199.99 on PAYG and from £15.50 per month on a 24 month contract the San Diego positions itself at the top end of the budget market.
Intel hasn't strayed away from the generic smartphone design, with the San Diego sporting a look similar to the Samsung Galaxy S2 from the front, though the rubberised back makes for a secure grip in the hand.
The San Diego is a slender device and sites comfortably in the hand, evenly weighted to give a slightly premium feel, without being heavy. Even though the case is plastic, the San Diego feels sturdy and well built.
Three physical buttons adorn the Orange San Diego, with a power/lock key located at the top of the handset, next to a 3.5mm headphone jack and volume rocker and dedicated camera shutter buttons on the right hand side.
The volume rocket was easy to hit, but we found the lock key on top harder to navigate, especially when held in our left hand.
There's a microUSB port on the left hand side and a charging sport flanked by speakers on the base.
The shutter button is in a perfect position when holding the San Diego in landscape, but is also useful for up-front portrait shots.
Orange and Intel have gone down the microSIM route with the San Diego, with a pop-out tray for the chip located just above the shutter button – in a style very similar to the one found on the iPhone 4S and HTC One X.
Fire up the Orange San Diego and you'll find it running a pretty stock version of Android Gingerbread, with just some minor visual tweaks to widgets and app dock on the home screen – along with the usual array of Orange bloatware apps.
The 4.03-inch display is crisp and clear and the 1024 x 600 resolution provides a decent image which is easy on the eyes – although not quite a powerful as the iPhone 4S retina display or the HD offerings found on the Galaxy S3 or One X.
The 1.6GHz single core processor does a decent job at keeping everything flowing, though we did experience some slight sluggishness when flipping between the five homescreens, which sadly can't be increased – so you may find yourself limited to the number of widgets you can stick on the screen.
We found the 8MP camera to be a decent offering, with a wide array of settings; but accessing these was tricky thanks to the tiny icons Intel had decided to include in the app.
Burst mode allowed us to take three, five or ten shots in rapid succession, but we found the physical shutter button on the San Diego required a hefty press to get a response out of it.
Keyboard-wise you're greeted with the stock Android offering, which is not a bad offering, but better versions are available from Google Play if you are going to be doing a lot of typing - we recommend checking out SwiftKey X.
Intel claims that its processor and the way it's integrated with other features within the San Diego gives excellent battery life as well as great performace, providing up to 14 days of standby – we'll put that claim to the test when we get the handset in for our full review.
According to Intel the processor also makes for speedy web browsing - the handset we got hands on with lacked a web connection, so we were unable to see it for ourselves.
Sadly the battery is not removable, which will irk some people and there's no microSD slot, so you're stuck with the 16GB of internal memory.
It's also worth mentioning that the Orange San Diego cannot run every app found in Google Play, as some developers have specially engineered their applications to run on ARM chips.
Intel assured us that they had successfully tested over 70% of the apps in Google Play, so this shouldn't be too much of an issue for most users, and if Intel-powered devices take off compatibility rates will only improve - but that still means hundreds of thousands of incompatible apps on the app portal.
Early verdict
From our brief time with the Orange San Diego, it looks like Intel has done a pretty good job with its first mobile phone.
Performance is generally very good, and we waitng to see its ability when handling the web and gaming during our in-depth review. And let's not forget that low price point, which definitely makes it an appealing handset and will probably negate most of the above issues for many consumers.
We hope it can live up to the excellent Orange San Francisco and if Intel's web and battery claims hold up, then we reckon the San Diego could be a winner.
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