O2 XDA Zest Review!

Introduction It’s nearly 7 years now since O2 launched their pioneering XDA range and introduced the British public to the delights of Windows Mobile. Since the original XDA O2 have presented us with a plethora of HTC devices that have kept us captivated. The XDA Zest is the latest device to wear the XDA insignia but it hides a secret. This XDA is not HTC, it’s ASUS. The famed motherboard manufacturer from the Far East has jumped on to the Windows Mobile band wagon and has made its intentions clear. Is ASUS’ Zest a worthy addition to the XDA range? Read on to find out………

For your delectation photographs are thumbnails which may be clicked on to load a larger image.
Thanks go out to O2 for providing us with a review sample.
For more information on the O2 XDA Zest go to the O2 XDA Zest website

Technical Specifications

Processor: Marvell TavorP 624MHz Memory: 256 MB NAND Flash ROM 128 MB SDRAM SDHC MicroSD card slot Operating System : Microsoft® Windows Mobile™ 6.1 Professional Display: 2.8-inch, 480 x 640 TFT Touch screen Liquid Crystal Display (LCD)with 65,536 colour and back-lighting Connectivity: HSDPA 3.6Mbps, UMTS 2100Mhz, EDGE/GPRS/GSM(900/1800/1900Mhz): Class 10 GPRS: Class B, Multi-slot class 10 Bluetooth : V2.0 EDR

WLAN : 802.11b/g USB : USB 1.1 compatible GPS Built-in SiRF star III chipset Camera Back: 3.0 megapixel auto focus camera. Front: VGA camera Audio Mini-USB audio port Built-in microphone and output speaker Size: Weight: 120.5g (with battery) Dimension: 102 x 60.5 x 16.5 mm Battery capacity: 1300 mAh Lithium Ion (Manufacturer: Welldone; Model: SBP-19) Talk time: 3G: up to 3 hrs; 2G: up to 5 hrs Standby time :3G: up to 220 hrs; 2G: up to 260 hrs

Externals and Hardware

In the box The full retail package I received for review contained: O2 XDA Zest Wired headset 1300mAh battery USB mini male to USB male cable MicroSD card and adapter Mains charger unit UK plug connector EU plug connector Spare stylus Power and Audio splitter cable Quick start guide User manual Getting started CD containing: Microsoft Active Sync Microsoft Windows Mobile Device Centre Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 Trial It's interesting to see Windows Mobile Device Centre bundled with new devices, and I’ve been very impressed generally with the standard of applications supplied with the device. A full version of Copilot would have been nice, but you can’t have everything can you? The bundled accessories are also quite interesting as it’s unusual to get a free USB audio and power splitter included but then it’s equally unusual to not get a case for the device supplied.

Convergence Modern life in the 21st Century is becoming ever more complex and hectic, and PDAs that are being developed have to evolve to suit that need. No longer are users happy to carry around a PDA, phone, etc; more functionality is demanded from the market and in ever more pocketable and slight devices. The XDA Zest strives to meet these needs boasting a truly spectacular specification and therefore contains the following areas of functionality within the device: Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) Mobile (cell) Phone Camera GPS Navigation Unit Push Email Portable media player As we proceed through the review you should able to decide for yourself whether the Zest ticks all the boxes.

Aesthetics When it comes to aesthetics we’ve seen a bit of a revolution recently. With the pressure applied by Apple, and more specifically the Iphone, Windows Mobile devices have started to look like they’ve been lovingly sculpted as opposed to cast from blocks of East European iron. The old functional bricks are no more, and we are increasingly seeing svelte Touch optimised devices that rival even the prettiest devices the like of Nokia and Sony Ericcson are producing. The XDA Zest, while not quite at the cutting edge aesthetically is still a good looking device. Reminiscent of a glossier version of the original HTC Touch it’s rounded livery is very easy on the eye. I really like the combination of the gloss black and the chrome strip around the lower middle of the device. The gloss is somewhat of a fingerprint magnet, but it’s not as noticeable as on some machines, the Touch Diamond for example. The flush screen keeps the lines flowing nicely and the rounded edges sit very nicely in the hand. It’s attractive and nicely designed without being overly pretentious. I like it.

Front The front view of the Zest is fairly run of the mill as far as Windows Mobile 6.1 devices are concerned. All controls are present and accounted for and most things are exactly where you'd expect. The two send and receive buttons are easily accessible towards the bottom of the device. Sitting in between them is the rounded edge shaped Dpad and action button. The area immediately above the send and receive buttons is populated by the Windows and Ok buttons. There are no hardware soft buttons on the device, but I don’t find this is an issue with flush screen devices. I had no issues with finding the send and receive buttons or the Dpad without looking. This is important for picking up calls efficiently. As far as buttons go, that’s your lot for the front of the device. There are no Mail and IE buttons etc. Towards the top edge above the screen are the indicator LED and speaker and front camera. This can be used for video calls if your network supports it. I’ve never really seen the need for video calls on a mobile, so I wasn’t too disappointed when I tried to initiate video calls and I was told that my network did not support it.

Back The rear cover of the device is pretty sparsely populated bar the top third or so. The rest of the back is taken up by the large battery cover. The cover contains the 3 mega pixel camera, that I'll discuss that later, and a second speaker.

Top & Bottom The top and bottom of the device are both unusually sparse. The bottom only contains the USB charge and sync button and the reset hole. The bottom also houses the microphone, while the top has just the power button. The access for the stylus silo is on the top right corners. I found the power button a little tricky to use, it being a little too deeply recessed for my liking. At least there is no chance of the device powering it on or off accidentally.

Right As it goes the Zest is relatively shy when it comes to hardware controls. Neither the left and right sides of the Zest contain what you’d call a plethora of controls. The right hand side of the device only contains, from top to bottom, the awesome hardware standby switch and the camera button. The camera button is of a decent size and travel but the star of the show is the standby button. I think it’s one of those examples of how don’t realise how bad something is until it’s successor comes along. In my opinion all devices from now on should come with a standby switch as opposed to a power button. You have to take my word on this, it’s just excellent!

Left The left hand side of the device is equally as sparse as the right. Other than the combination of the up and down volume buttons there is just the external GPS port on the left hand side of the device. The volume buttons are all well spaced on the device and like the right hand controls are easy to find without looking. You should not be hitting the wrong button at any point.

Stylus The stylus silo for the Zest is situated on the top right corner of the device. The silo is a full length affair with a stylus formed from a single piece of plastic. There are no fancy engineering tricks such as telescopic extensions here, it’s solid and sturdy with no fuss. I’m not really a big stylus user myself, but it seems reasonably comfortable to use.

Headset The headset is a fairly nice looking affair, but is not out of the ordinary for this type of device. I quite like the headphones and found the mute button was not too big and bulky as often the HTC ones are. There’s a nice elbow connect too, which makes connecting the headset less bulky.

Battery & Charger The Zest has an averagely sized 1300mAh Lithium Ion battery. It's not quite as big as some of its competitors but it is adequate. As a comparison if you look at the 1350mAh of the HTC Kaiser and the 1340mAh of the HTC Touch Diamond you can see it’s on the same sort of scale. I've been quite impressed with the battery life on the Zest. Any WM device that goes a couple of days without requiring a charger is out of the ordinary these days. I found I could get 2 days worth of usage from it comfortably. An average day’s use for me consists of up to 20 minutes of calls, 30 minutes of browsing in a mediocre 3G area and about 100 push emails. I'm not much of a texter but there's usually a couple of SMS in there too. I also use my device as an MP3 player while I'm cycling to work, so there's also an extra 30 minutes of music too, over a set of Bluetooth headphones. For me the 2 day charge is a very important factor when choosing a device so this is very nice indeed.

So everything all looks peachy so far, but it’s not quite as good as it seems. The Zest has a couple of foibles I’ve not seen on recent devices. The first is that the charger is not wired in the same way as your standard XDA devices. If you use for example an Ignito (Diamond) or a Stellar (Kaiser) you’ll only get a trickle charge. This will take several hours to trickle charge the device as opposed to the official Zest charger that quick charges from nothing in just over an hour. The second issue I found is that if you remove the battery for more than about 30 minutes you’ll discharge the backup battery. This is not catastrophic but it does mean you’ll lose your time settings. If you’re not expecting this it can cause some “interesting” issues if you’re connecting to an Exchange box. As I said, it’s mainly good, and as long you’re aware of the issues it isn’t really a problem. The charger itself is a 3 part affair with the socket insert (UK and EU versions supplied) the charger itself and then the USB cable required to be assembled for charging. It’s good to see both UK and EU options supplied and also the little folding earth prong on the UK part really appealed to the gadget freak inside me!

SIM Loading Installing your SIM card into the Zest is a fairly standard affair. Flip off the back panel; pull out the battery and insert the card into the SIM holder. Pop the battery in place fit the rear cover and you're good to go. Obviously unlike the Tytn2 this means powering down the device to swap the SIM cards, but I can’t see this being a problem.

MicroSD Loading As with the SIM loading, installing your MicroSD card into the Zest is again a fairly standard affair. Flip off the back panel; pull out the battery and insert the card into the MicroSD card slot. Pop the battery in place fit the rear cover and you're good to go. Many devices these days have the MicroSD card in a position whereby it’s accessible without powering the device on and off. While I don’t see this as an issue with the SIM cards I’d much prefer the MicroSD card to be swappable without a soft reset. Remember, if you are using your MicroSD card with your PC, that if you leave the battery out, it might flatten your backup battery meaning you’ll need to set the time again.

Size As you can see from the comparison shots with the HTC Tytn II and the HTC Touch Diamond the Zest is not the smallest device on the market, but it’s still very compact and pocketable. Although slightly shorter than the Diamond it’s a little wider and thicker. It is however a lot shorter and thinner than the Tytn II. ASUS have worked a little bit of magic with the Zest though as the rounded edges make it feel smaller than it is in the hand and in the pocket.

Screen One of the major pluses with the Zest is the screen. It seems almost as though VGA has quickly become the resolution of choice for 2008 but I have to say I still marvel at that level of quality. The screen on the Zest is crisp and clear and very detailed. Some of the O2 menu screens look fantastic. I love the screens that sit flush to the case as well. These make finger navigation a whole lot easier. As with all Windows Mobile devices there is a bit of an issue in bright sunlight, i.e. you can’t see it. Actually it’s not that bad. It’s not amazing either, but I found if I was using the bundled Voice commander software and my Bluetooth headset I didn’t need to look at the screen. It’s not perfect, but it works for me.

Telephony When reviewing Windows Mobile devices it’s easy to get carried away with fancy screens and GPS navigation, but for a lot of us one of the most important uses for our devices is as a telephone for voice calls and SMS messaging. Historically, the telephony aspects of Windows Mobile Phone Edition devices were weak, but some modern devices have addressed this flaw and perform up to the expectations of dedicated cellular telephones. The Zest is such a device as it performs very well when it comes to both making outgoing call and receiving incoming calls. The quality is reasonably good and the bundled software applications make retrieving stored contact details and initiating contact very easy. The Zest is let down slightly by a poor SIP keyboard for finger typing, but this can be rectified easily and cheaply (free) by adding a 3rd party touch keyboard like PCM keyboard. There are more details on this later.

WiFi and Bluetooth The Zest’s WiFi performance is up to scratch as you’d expect from a PC manufacturer like ASUS. I had no issues connecting to any of the 3 WAP’s I tested the Zest with, over either WEP or WPA. The signal strength seemed reasonably good too, exhibiting only a slightly weaker signal than my laptop. The Bluetooth performance on the Zest is excellent. The signal strength seems very strong as I can keep my phone in my pocket without problems. Many HTC devices struggle with this kind of use and skip occasionally. The Zest has no such problems. I use Bluetooth for a couple of hours a day for concurrent A2DP (Bluetooth Stereo) and also regular hands free use for calls. My Motorola S9 headset handles both music and calls and switches between the two with ease. The inclusion of Cyberon Voice Commander software also adds voice dialling functionality, and this was automatically picked up by the S9’s without configuration too. It’s an altogether an excellent combination of hardware and software.

GPS The GPS unit was tested using the bundled “Try and Buy” version of Copilot 7, as well as VisualGPSce for general diagnostics, and no problems were encountered. Lock times were as fast as on the HTC Diamond and the HTC Kaiser, and I easily got a signal from inside my house near a window. The Zest software package includes an application called GPS catcher that is effectively the same as the HTC application “QuickGPS”. This downloads assisted GPS information to make the satellite lock quicker.

Hardware standby switch It’s a little bit unusual in a 4WM hardware review for a single hardware control to have its own section. Ordinarily your average button or switch is…. just a button, or just a switch. I’ve made an exception for the Zest’s hardware standby switch because I think it’s a stroke of genius, and therefore deserves its name in lights. It’s funny really, because the switch does almost the same as the power button on a HTC device, but for some reason it just feels right being a sliding switch. And before you think I’ve lost the plot (which is possible ) the other 4WM moderators who’ve used the Zest agree. It’s a winner. It is a physical sliding switch. The switch basically moves the device in and out of standby. Being a switch there’s no accidental pushing in your pocket, flick it up, the device comes on, flip it down the device goes to sleep. It’s located on the right hand side of the device so a simple flick with your thumb is all it takes. Simple but effective.

CPU, ROM and Memory The Zest comes with a processor I’ve not heard of before called a Marvell TavorP. It runs at a whopping 624MHz which sounds very impressive. RAM and ROM allocations are 128MB and 256MB respectively which has become the norm for Windows Mobile 6.1 devices. So how does it perform? In real life I’ve had no issues at all with performance on the Zest. Even with Copilot running in the background the device has remained snappy and navigating through the included “O2 Menu” software has always been swift indeed. I don’t actually recall experiencing any slowdown at any point with this device, and have not had any unplanned soft resets in the 6 weeks or so I’ve been using it. In order to get a more tangible view of the Zest’s performance I decided to pit it up against two of its major competitors with a shootout to the death. The co-conspirators were the HTC Kaiser (TyTn2) and the HTC Touch Diamond and my weapon of choice was the only Windows Mobile benchmarking tool I am aware of, SpB Benchmark. I don’t really hold too much stock in benchmarks as they don’t really mimic peoples own individual device just a set of regular tasks. That said it does give a reasonable indication of device performance. The Dell Axim X5 and the iPAQ 3600 are in there more to fill things out a little for people still packing older devices. Although I could tell from everyday use that the Zest was reasonably swift I was totally unprepared for how good the benchmark results of the Zest are. With the exception of the graphics benchmark the Zest has utterly spanked both the Kaiser and the Diamond in most categories. I’ll leave you to peruse the benchmark charts, but I think they’re relatively self explanatory. I’m not sure where this Marvell TavorP chip came from but it’s smoking!

Camera The Zest comes with a 3 mega pixel camera. 3MP has become the standard for this generation of devices from the likes of HTC et al, although some of the smaller devices still ship with 2MP. As we all know though, it's not all about the size of your pixel count so how does the image quality of the ASUS hold up? As you can see from the example photographs below the camera produces a pretty nice image (for a phone camera) that you could even produce a small (6x4) print from. The images would also look reasonable on a digital photo frame. If I could fault the camera on the Zest then as per usual it would have to be the flash. There isn’t one. Quite often devices ship with a simple "flash" or LED compensation light, but there isn’t even one of these. As it is they make very little difference in poor light except for those obligatory "self portrait" shots when you've had one too many, but it would be better than nothing. What this means is that while the daylight photos the Zest takes are reasonable the bad light shots are unspectacular and would not be good enough for prints or even photo frames in my opinion.

Example Photographs

Applications The O2 XDA Zest comes with Windows Mobile® 6.1 Professional so all the usual programs are in situ. While the Zest doesn’t come with a huge bundle of extra applications, in my opinion, the software included with the device makes it a very complete package indeed. The extra programs included over and above the standard WM6.1 suite are: Adobe Reader LE – allows you to view pdf files GPS Catcher – assisted GPS update program Java - for running small Java applets Messenger Newstation – RSS application O2 Menu – SpB Mobile shell, touch interface and today screen replacement Opera Browser – alternate web browser Remote Desktop Mobile – remote control servers SIM Manager - allows you to copy contacts between the SIM card and the Zest Voice Commander – voice dialling and more Windows Live As I said earlier, the software bundled with the Zest is all about quality rather than quantity. There really are some very, very useful applications here. “O2 Menu” and Cyberon Voice Commander are particular high points for me personally and really make using the device very easy indeed. Other applications often left out by major service providers like Remote Desktop Mobile, Opera and Adobe Reader LE are also very welcome additions too. Along with the additional applications there are a few nice customisations in place. The Wireless Manager and the Dialler skins are good examples of this. I think the suite is very well put together functionality, but would maybe have liked to see a better media player. Maybe that’s me just being fussy, but Windows Media Player is looking a bit dated these days.

O2 Menu Those of you with eagle eyes with no doubt have spotted by now that the cheekily named “O2 Menu” is in fact a slightly customised version of SpB’s Mobile Shell software. I’ve long been impressed with Mobile Shell and have always installed it in on my non HTC devices. Mobile Shell offers an excellent finger friendly Touch interface that will allow you very easy access to your contacts, shortcuts, settings, etc without having to remove your stylus from its silo. Mobile Shell also contains a very attractive today screen replacement called the “Now Screen” that contains time, date, weather, notification etc information again all in a very pretty touch friendly way. It’s a very nice addition to the suite indeed.

Dialler App The dialler application is not a million miles away from the regular diallers we’ve seen, but I just thought the Zest one was a particularly nice implementation. I really like the Zest dialler skin and found the note icon that is right there in front of you very handy indeed. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get a screen shot of the dialler app. The screen shot program would not work.

PCM Keyboard Without a doubt if the Zest has an Achilles heel then it is the default Windows Mobile soft input panel (SIP) keyboard. With the exception of the provided SIP I genuinely believe the Zest comes with a software bundle with which you can work on a day to day basis without the need for 3rd party intervention. However, that said, what is there to do about the SIP keyboard? Well, being Windows Mobile it's possible to dip into the huge ocean of available applications and select an improved SIP keyboard. I’d recommend this one, PCM Keyboard, which is available from PocketCM. You’ll also need a VGA skin too, available here. The software is free, but I’d heartily recommend you donate if you do use it, as the author has obviously put in a lot of work into what is a quality product.

Cyberon Voice Commander I use my devices a lot while I’m cycling. I use them for music primarily but also for hands free use. On most devices I’ll be cycling up a hill and decide I need to phone the wife and it means either stopping, or doing some fancy no hands jiggery pokery to get the device out, select the number and dial it. With Voice Commander I simply press the call button on the headset, and say “call the wife at home” and hey presto, it dials and starts to ring. Cyberon Voice Commander is not just for dialling though, it will read your emails out for you or even tell you the time. Fantastic. There can be a small issue with commands not being recognised in noisy conditions, but more often than not it’ll get you what you want when you want it. The inclusion of Voice Commander with the Zest is a massive plus for me, and if you use your phone in your car, then it probably will be for you too. Well done O2.

Copilot 7: Try and Buy As the Zest has an integrated GPS facility O2 have included a copy of Copilot 7 and the maps for the UK & Ireland on a MicroSD card. The version bundled with the Zest is not a complete free version unfortunately, as it is a new “Try & Buy” version. Essentially you get a 2 week trial of the software with the option to purchase the complete version for £49.99. Copilot 7 is the latest version of ALK Technologies familiar satellite navigation software, and with the Zest you get the latest edition that is enhanced for use on VGA screens. Very nice. Although it would have been better to have a completely free version of Copilot bundled I can understand the decision behind the “Try & Buy” system. Not all users will want to take advantage of the GPs system and rather than push the price of the device up for everyone, you have the option to choose. You can see a more detailed review of Copilot 7 here .

PC Integration It was nice to see both ActiveSync 4.5 and Windows Mobile Device Centre bundled with the Zest. Obviously this caters for both Vista and XP users. I didn't experience any issues with XP or Vista, and my Vista SP1 installation auto detected the Zest and even had a nice image displayed in WMDC too. Lovely. It is worth noting though that the Zest is only USB 1.1, and so the transfer speeds from and to the device are not superb. It’s not a major issue, as it’s easy enough to remove the MicroSD card and transfer directly to that, but it is something to note.

Pros and Cons

Low price tag	Weak keyboard SIP
Hardware standby switch	Short backup battery life
SDHC MicroSD card compatible	Slow USB 1.1 transfer speeds
Excellent Bluetooth implementation	No finger scrolling
Good battery life	Copilot not free
Gorgeous screen	Non HTC compatible quick charger
O2 Menu (SpB Mobile Shell) included	No case provided
Cyberon Voice Commander included
Good call quality
Decent camera
GPS
Good performance
Cool UK/EU charger
Audio/Power USB splitter

Overall Conclusion I’m not going to beat about the bush here, I’ll just come right out with it. I just love the O2 XDA Zest. I am fortunate as a WM reviewer to have a good selection of the latest devices to hand and the Zest is my device of the moment. I have an HTC Touch Pro, an HTC Touch Diamond and several other high spec devices sat gathering dust on my shelf while the Zest goes in my pocket every morning and back on charge every night. I’ve been trying to figure out just why I find the Zest better than the smaller flashier Diamond for example and I think it all comes down to O2 and ASUS having found the perfect balance of hardware and software. On paper the Zest is not the best device in stores at the moment, and it’s not the prettiest, but it’s just so easy to use (once you replace the SIP keyboard that is). It’s complete. The fact that O2 have launched the Zest as their first PAYG XDA as well is utterly amazing. £250 for what in my opinion is the most usable device on the market today? That’s just a bargain, and to be frank, you should all go and buy two today (everyone needs a spare! ).