O2's first xda was reviewed here in June 2002. A lot has happened in the handheld computing world since then, but O2 has found that the xda design and branding works well, and has boosted the product range over time. Late in 2003 came the xda II, which internalised the original antenna and boosted the specifications. Earlier this year we saw the xda IIs with its slide-out keyboard. The latest member of the family is the xda IIi.
Design
In design terms, the xda IIi echoes the classic xda format. As a direct descendent of the first connected Pocket PC to hit the UK, its arrangement of buttons retains the ergonomics of the original. It also retains one of the key annoyances: the headset jack is still on the bottom right edge, where, when used with a handsfree kit for voice calls, the jack is easily jarred in a pocket or bag.
In size and weight terms the xda IIi is almost unchanged from its immediate predecessor, the xda II. At 69mm wide by 130 mm tall and 19.9mm high it matches the xda II precisely, while its 200g weight adds just 10g to the earlier model.
There is a digital cameral built in, with a dedicated camera button on the left edge of the device, along with volume button and a shortcut to the built-in Notes software.
Features
The xda IIi has a 520MHz Intel PXA 272 processor, and 128MB of RAM, of which 93.94MB was available to share between programs and storage on our device. There is an additional 59.68MB of Flash memory available from the 128MB ROM, making a total of 153MB of available memory. In addition, there's an SDIO-compliant SD card slot for expansion.
Bluetooth and Wi-Fi are both present (the xda II only offered Bluetooth), each accessible via their own icons on the main screen. A third icon sitting alongside allows you to rotate the screen into landscape format, thereby making use of one of the important features of the second edition of Windows Mobile for Pocket PC Phone Edition. Continuous taps of this icon align the landscape screen for right- and left-handed users, before returning to portrait format.
The built-in camera has been upgraded to 1.3 megapixels, and can now shoot stills at resolutions up to 960 by 1,280 pixels (and also at 480 by 640, 240 by 320 and 120 by 160). Video capture is available at 240 by 320, 144 by 176 and 96 by 128. There are separate camera settings choices for MMS video (offering a variety of sizes and both MPEG-4 and H.263 formats) and for photos to use with the supplied Photo Contacts software. The camera incorporates a range of ambiance settings and there is also a ‘picture theme’ option that throws a frame around any image you shoot.
Much of the provided software matches what came with the xda II. The ClearVue PDF and PowerPoint readers are on the ROM, as is the aforementioned Photo Contacts application and a MIDLet Manager for running JAVA applications. Windows Media Player is upgraded to version 10 -- still a rarity on handhelds at the moment. xBackup and a wireless modem tool round off the bundled suite.
The phone module is still tri-band GSM with GPRS, and the screen retains the 3.5in. diagonal size, 16-bit colour depth and 240-by-320 pixel resolution of the xda II.
O2 also retains its O2 Active screen, which provides quick links to connected applications and tools, as well as the standard Today screen notification of upcoming appointments and tasks, unread email, SMS and MMS messages, and a battery status monitor. We have always found this extremely useful -- and as it simplifies the use of connected services, it's no doubt a good revenue driver for O2. But if you don’t like O2 Active, it's easy to switch to the standard Today screen using the Today option on the Start menu.
Performance
When using the xda IIi it's easy to see why there has been no tinkering with the general ergonomics. It works well, both as a handheld and for connected communications (except for that awkwardly located headset jack).
O2 claims 4 hours of talk time, 168 hours on standby and up to 15 hours' use in handheld mode (i.e. with the GSM radio turned off). Our battery rundown test, which involves turning the GSM radio off and looping MP3 music with the screen forced to stay on, achieved a total of 4 hours and 38 minutes of battery life, with 3 hours and 48 minutes of this delivering music. There is a processor speed control option available, and we ran our test under 'standard mode' rather than 'turbo mode'. For the record, this same test delivered 4 hours and 31 minutes when we ran it for our xda II review.
Specifications
| Audio | |
|---|---|
| Audio input | microphone |
| Audio output | speaker, headphone jack |
| Voice recording capability | Yes |
| Connectivity / expansion | |
| Wired connections | USB |
| Wireless PAN | infrared, Bluetooth 1.1 |
| Wireless LAN | 802.11b |
| Wireless WAN | GSM 900, GSM 1800, GSM 1900, GPRS |
| Expansion slots | SD/MMC (SDIO compatible) |
| Display | |
| Display type | transflective TFT |
| Display size | 3.5 in |
| Native resolution | 240x320 pixels |
| Colour depth | 16 bits |
| General | |
| Built-in devices | camera, phone |
| Dimensions (W x H x D) | 69.9x19.9x130 mm |
| Weight | 200 g |
| Input devices | |
| Touchscreen | Yes |
| Stylus | Yes |
| Navigation button/wheel | Yes |
| Memory | |
| Memory expansion | SD/MMC (+SDIO) |
| Installed ROM | 128 MB |
| Installed RAM | 128 MB |
| OS & software | |
| Operating system | Windows Mobile 2003 for Pocket PC, Second Edition, Phone Edition |
| Software included | Pocket Word, Pocket Excel, Pocket Outlook, Calculator, Solitaire, MSN Messenger, Pocket Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player 10 for Pocket PC, Jawbreaker, Inbox, Voice Recorder, Microsoft Reader 2.0 for Pocket PC, Terminal Services Client, Pictures, Bluetooth Manager, Wireless LAN Manager, Wireless Manager, Transcriber, Letter Recognizer, Block Recognizer, Pocket IE, ClearVue PDF & PowerPoint readers, Photo Contacts, MIDLet Manager, camera capture utility, VGA output utility, SDIO Now!, XBackup |
| Synchronisation software | ActiveSync |
| Desktop software | Outlook |
| Host PC system requirements | PC with Windows 98/ 98SE/ME/2000/XP |
| Power | |
| Battery type | Li-ion |
| Removable battery | yes |
| Number of batteries | 1 |
| Claimed battery life | 15 h |
| Processor | |
| Processor | Intel Xscale PXA272 |
| Clock speed | 520 MHz |
| Expand | |
Images
Member reviews
- 7.50 out of 10
7.50 out of 10I have had my xda IIi for over a month, and I can honestly say it is a faboulous PDA/phone. I recently traded my iPAQ 2210 and bought this and I have not regretted that decision.
Its strenghts are:
* performance -the processor really shines here
* the camera is excellent good in average lighting conditions
* the phone quality is brilliant, none of my friends have ever complained, and the speakerphone is a dream
*software is spot on- what you would expect from a pocketpc
* Inbuilt wifi
Weaknesses
* The size & weight - this is my main gripe. The jam wins on this one. but what do you expect with wifi built in?
- 9.00 out of 10
9.00 out of 10- 9.00 out of 10
9.00 out of 10Having been an avid xda fan for the past few years upgrading to the xdaIIi has been a dream. Everything is where you want it, GPRS works well -- Wi-Fi mixed with landscape screen mode makes viewing Web pages acceptable.
Main problem is the lack of real Bluetooth support -- check out the Web forums before buying if this is a key purchasing driver! Running on a Nokia car kit the unit echos so much it is unusable.
O2 technical support leaves somehting to be desired!
Overall - fantastic upgrade.
- 8.00 out of 10
8.00 out of 10I can't comment at length, as I have had the product for 2 days, but I would say that it is slill taking up all my time finding out what it can do.
In addition, driving around with WiFi on is a very fun passtime, seeing that so many people still leave their w'net unsecured... I digress.
Plus points
- Wireless connection screen
- WinMob2003 (2nd ed) is superb software: for example, Portrait/Landscape view
- ActiveSync 3.7.1 is astonishing (works with Outlook 2003)
- Reasonably good gaming platform
Minus
- only available on o2 (at present)
- Can't close programs easily
- Charge difficult in case, and impossible with wired headset attached.
- 9.00 out of 10
9.00 out of 10Finally I have been able to ActiveSync via Bluetooth with an extremely helpful facility on the XDA IIi (I failed miserably with the original XDA II).
I've purchased Microsoft's UK voice recognition package which is simply extraordinary, in fact, so good that all folks buying this device **MUST** purchase. WiFi works well though the display of signal strength is rather lazy (software bug in the graphical display).
It has required resetting a few times, but not excessively. Would I purchase again - Yes, without any hesitation.
- 9.00 out of 10
9.00 out of 10Excelent Pocket PC Phone Edition!
- 10.00 out of 10
10.00 out of 10Excellent Phone Edition
- 10.00 out of 10
10.00 out of 10- 9.50 out of 10
9.50 out of 10- 9.50 out of 10
9.50 out of 10The battery won't support and can't keep the program and data still on , must reinstall program if the battery lack power
- 4.50 out of 10
4.50 out of 10I have just been given a xda2i after my xda2 was returned 5 times since new - all different faults.
the ppc2003SE s/w upgrade is much better.
this could be an excellent tool - if it would only behave its self... i have only had it 2 days, yesterday its hung 3 or 4 times. today the phone has locked altogether.
another caution - O2 business support was soooo bad last year i just put the phone in the cupboard and used one of the kids phones, rather than talk to them any more.
speaking to them recently they have been much much better, almost decent. they admitted they have employed a new supprot team to save the o2 reputation... heres hoping!
- 6.00 out of 10
6.00 out of 10Its Bluetooth will not function with all devices and will fail with heavy use. OS also has very poor tech support
- 5.50 out of 10
5.50 out of 10The only thing is that if used on the internet, the XDA IIi software starts to feeze up a lot. The bluetooth software is excellent. I think the XDA IIi should be supplied with a firewall and antivirus software.
- 9.00 out of 10
9.00 out of 10I've bought mine 3 months ago and simple adore it. i use email, web, Words & Excel. all my spreadsheets fits in easly. with 1mb SD card its a perfect entertaining device music, movies and games.
I strongly recomend to any one who wants more than a mobile.
- 10.00 out of 10
10.00 out of 10This device is just not ready to be marketed. In 3 months, I've had 3 different devices (plus assurances that previous hardware and software are now fixed) but the device I have now is even more buggy and crash-prone than the first one. I've never before had to reboot a machine as often (sometimes over 10 times per day), and it now says it runs out of memory all the time (despite there being plenty of space).
Great theory, very poor reality!
- 4.50 out of 10
4.50 out of 10This my work phone and compared to my personal phone (a Motorola A100 symbian os pda thing on the 3 network) crashes a lot and is not as easy to use. It's good having a larger screen and memory but the complete lack of Mac support for software/rom upgrade is unforgivable.
My partner finds it difficult to hear me when I speak to her on this phone and it randomly drops calls (but not as much as my 3 phone!)
- 6.00 out of 10
6.00 out of 10There will be no WM5 for this device! It shouldn't be like this!!
- 3.50 out of 10
3.50 out of 10Good kit; good screen; good touch screen phone numbers. Shame no upgrade route to Windows mobile 5; instructions not detailed enough for sorting out the failure when Wi-Fi does not find the wireless router.
- 8.50 out of 10
8.50 out of 10- 10.00 out of 10
10.00 out of 10- 6.00 out of 10
6.00 out of 10- 9.50 out of 10
9.50 out of 10Excellent tool for the mobile user. The software works well and features are far better then most out there. Upgrade to Windows Mobile 2005 would be nice, but not critical unless you are using corporate email.
Other say it locks up etc, I initially had this after installing some games etc. refreshed the system and got rid of those and it has not played up since. Bluetooth solid with the newer devices.
- 8.50 out of 10
8.50 out of 10I am very much impressed with this gadget features. But there is a problem with spped/performance i.e. some times it get slow or look like freeze, but I dont know why. I am happy with this gadget.
- 8.00 out of 10
8.00 out of 10Buggy is one word that best describes this horrible unit.
We purchased over 300 units of XDAIIi for our local govt and the amount being returned faulty is astounding.
Do not change from a blackberry to one of these as you will be very dissapointed.
- 4.00 out of 10
4.00 out of 10- 10.00 out of 10
10.00 out of 10Had my xda IIi for nearly a year and I can say that it has revoultionised the way I work, especially not having to lug a laptop around all the time.
- 8.00 out of 10
8.00 out of 10Good and reliable, simple and easy to use tried and trusted.
- 9.00 out of 10
9.00 out of 10The device needs continued re-booting and the ergonomics (especially the placing of the camera button in default mode) are unworkable
- 2.50 out of 10
2.50 out of 10- 7.00 out of 10
7.00 out of 10Excellent tool for the mobile user.
- 8.50 out of 10
8.50 out of 10- 9.00 out of 10
9.00 out of 10- 8.00 out of 10
8.00 out of 10