O2 xda: The phone with xtra oomph

The xda, a combination mobile/PDA from British manufacturer O2, comes in a box that can comfortably fit a small pair of boots. However, the actual device is a more reasonable 13cm long and 7.3cm wide, with most of the box taken up by accessories.

Accessories include a charger, which also provides USB PC connectivity, a leather pouch and belt clip, spare stylus, earphones, a couple of manuals and a CD containing Active Sync.

For the technically minded, the xda includes an Intel StrongARM 32-bit processor at 206 MHz, which puts it at the lower end of Pocket PC PDAs. If you're the type that likes sticking it to the English, the Australian model comes with 64 Mb of RAM, double that of the UK version, according to the distributors.

The touch-screen of the xda runs at a relatively standard 240 x 320 resolution, with 4,096 colours. Most of the buttons are found on the screen, for instance when dialling you press a screen-displayed keypad. The stylus is stored in the aerial, although as we noted in our First Take, this isn't immediately apparent.

Above the screen are two hotkeys to "contacts" and "calendar", although these can be adjusted to link to whatever function or program you like. Below the screen are the "call" and "end call" buttons on either side of a five-way direction key, which we still can't discern a use for. The on/off button is on the top left, and the volume button is on the left side of the PDA.

An SD card memory expansion slot is in the bottom of the phone. All in all, we found the layout uncluttered and easy to use.

Information can be entered into the xda via one of two ways. If handwriting recognition worries you, the xda will pop up an onscreen keyboard, although this is undoubtedly the slower of the two entry methods. The handwriting software did a good job of reading most letters, save for any that require multiple pen strokes.

To connect to a PC you can use either infrared or the supplied USB cable. It was easy to set up Active Sync, but be warned that you have to download some programs, such as the mandatory connection wizard from the net. We're not sure why they weren't included on the CD. The Web site offers other programs for download as well, including a couple of games.

While it shares the Pocket PC OS with numerous other PDAs, it isn't entirely compatible with a lot of existing software available for that platform at the time of writing. The phone comes with the latest Media Player, and MP3 files played well. Unfortunately, the MPEG we loaded wouldn't run on the xda.

The call clarity on the xda is good enough, and the Web browsing works pretty well. As could be expected, it uses a version of Internet Explorer, which should make for a familiar browsing environment for most users. Web sites can be displayed as a segment of the full screen you would get on a larger screen, and we found navigation around them relatively easy. Some Web pages, notably those of Microsoft and Telstra, have special PDA pages that are designed for the smaller screen.

Internet access is handled via GPRS. In our testing we found the data transfer rate to be reasonable. There were intermittent slowdowns on some pages, but it's very hard to say if that was the phone at fault or simply our connection.

Of the basic PDA functions, we found the contact and calendar functions most useful. The time is easy to set, but be careful if, like us, you've fallen into the habit of using your mobile as an alarm clock. The alarm on the xda is not very noticeable, and doesn't go off at all when the phone is switched off, which it does automatically after a few minutes of non-use.

The battery of the xda managed quite well, powering along for four days without dying. One of the major shortcomings of matching a mobile phone to a PDA rears its head with the xda. According to the manual, if you let the battery run dry, you run the risk of losing all data on the unit; most phone users would presume that their phone contacts would at least survive battery death. The box advertises 3.5 hrs talk time, 15 hrs PDA usage or 150 hrs standby. One of the ways the phone conserves battery life is to switch itself off when not in use.

All in all, we found the xda to be a good addition to the PDA/mobile market. It will take users a while to get used to, and we worry about battery draining leading to the loss of data. Still, once you get used to keeping it consistently charged, it provides a good mix of inbuilt functionality and uploadable customisability.

O2 xda
Company: O2
Price: AU$1,699
Distributor: Selected resellers

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