£100 sim-free phone

[Smudger]

My better half wants to buy a new phone for her mother for Xmas, £100 is the limit, and it has to be touchscreen, android preferably. So far it seems to be the Samsung galaxy y, anyone got anything better?
Oh, she has to be able to put her O2 payg some in it as well...

[Tim_UK1]

got the orange san fransisco for about 100 notes - you will have to crack it to go sim free but plenty of guides and if you're a member here you won't have any problems.

[circuitmonkey]

got the orange san fransisco for about 100 notes - you will have to crack it to go sim free but plenty of guides and if you're a member here you won't have any problems.

Think there's actually a new orange San Francisco, might be worth a look

[Smudger]

Yeah, I've seen the San Fran 2 in Orange, how easy are they to unlock?

Edit: I'm not asking how to do it, by any illegal or nefarious ways, what I mean is, do you just chuck Orange £20 to take off the network locking?

[Smudger]

Bueller?Ok, anyone got any other ideas? Is the Orange San Fran a ZTE re-brand?

[mrochester]

Bueller?Ok, anyone got any other ideas? Is the Orange San Fran a ZTE re-brand?

It is, but it's quite slow and frustrating to use. I'd go with something that operates a bit quicker as the San Fran can often miss screen presses and can take a while to respond.

What sort of things will your other halves' mother be doing with the phone?

[Smudger]

Not sure. I don't think she's sure either. She'd just seen touch-screen phones on the telly and fancies one herself. Just usual texting, e-mail and a bit of web, I think. I reckon we should look for as big a screen as possible, but the Galaxy Ace seems to be the biggest at or around that budget...

[Zoso]

Sorry, bit late; the original San Francisco can easily be unlocked for free, the San Francisco II looks like a bit more of an involved process. They're badged versions of the ZTE Blade and Blade 2 (or Crescent, lots of names floating around) respectively. Apparently the T-Mobile Vivacity is also a Blade 2/Crescent, in a slightly different body, just out for £100. Modaco forums have sections with lots of info (also for the Orange Monte Carlo/ZTE Skate, pretty much the same thing but with a 4.3" screen instead of 3.5", around £130ish).

I've had a San Francisco for the last year, it's not the nippiest of things especially if you chuck a lot at it, but for mail, web, texting etc. it's been fine.