Best budget smartphone for newbie?

[oneofthegiantsisme]

I've decided that it's finally time I got myself a smartphone, but am having a bit of trouble deciding what to go for.
I'm looking at PAYG, as I don't expect to be a very heavy user (at the moment, I top up by £10 every 6 months or so!), and have a budget of around £100. The research I've done suggests that Android is the way to go, & I gather I need to look for a capacitive (rather than resistive) touch screen.
I've seen good reviews of the Orange San Francisco, but went into a shop & they also showed me the HTC Wildfire & the Sony X8. Now I don't know what I want!
Any advice, anyone?

I have an HTC Wildfire. I like it :)

You'll struggle to get a new HTC wildfire for £100. Even on ebay 2nd hand they are only around that price.

If £100 is your limit, go for the Orange San Francisco which is a hell of a lot of phone for not very much.

If you can afford it though, get the HTC Wildfire as HTC Sense UI is incredibly good.

I did see that the Wildfire was a bit more (about £130 in the shop I looked at, I think) - I was wondering whether it was worth stretching the budget for!
One of the complications is that I have about £10 credit on my current phone, which I don't really want to lose; if I could get one of them unlocked, I'd happily stick with Tesco mobile, but the Orange San Francisco means I'll have to switch network (and wait for my new phone until I've used up the credit on my old one!).

Personally I like HTC's but the Sanfran has a very good fanbase. I'd suggest you go to the shops and have a play with both before making your mind up.

The Orange Sanfran may pip it at the post given your budget and you want something easily unlockable. Unlock instructions

The HTC is more and again you can get them unlocked already from Phones4U/CPW.

I assume if I unlock the Sanfran myself, I invalidate the warranty - how about the HTC if I buy it unlocked - does that affect its warranty? I'm a bit nervous about doing it myself, at least while it's still new (might give it a go in a year or two, once the warranty expires!).

Just doing a bit more research online - I see the screen res on the Wildfire is much worse than the Sanfran. Does this matter for browsing/general use, or is it only an issue if you want to look at photos?

If you buy a phone unlocked then no, that wont affect the warranty.

I doubt it will even affect the SanFran. All you've done to unlock it is to type in a number. It's not like you've opened up the case.

Have a play with the phones and see which you prefer. Like I said, I personally like the Sense UI which comes with the Wildfire but you are right that the screen resolution leaves very little room to play with. So for you, you may prefer the Orange SF, esp. given its price point.

Thank you! I now feel I know what I'm doing when I go to the shop.

Just in case anyone else out there is going through the same process - I've ended up with a Wildfire, and I love it. I've just spent all of half term trying to set it up so that everything is working how I want it, though!