Orange San Diego Intel Android mobile phone review

 

Intel’s first mobile phone is a humble beginning, but the firm has mighty ambitions says Matt Warman.

The San Diego looks like many other Apple-inspired mobile phones, but inside it is a unique and special beast. This is the debut European mobile with Intel inside.

Exclusive to Orange, and originally announced as the Santa Clara, the first thing you notice when you turn on the San Diego is the network’s logo, followed by Intel’s classy equivalent. After that, however, consumers need never know what chip powers the device.

Indeed, this is a mid-range phone where cheaper equivalents are available, such as Huawei’s perfectly decent G300. Intel's initial aims are modest.

The San Diego does, however, bode well for the future. While its battery life is not exceptional, it is better than average for an Android smartphone. This means it lasts the day in my very unscientific tests of using it for nearly a week, and although it has a single core processor it runs Android Gingerbread more than adequately. An update to Ice Cream Sandwich is apparently coming later in the year.