O2 Xda IIs

Supplier: O2 Manufacturer: O2 (HTC) Product: O2 Xda IIs Pocket PC Colour: Black / Gunmetal Grey Cost: £249.99 on Monthly contract Supplier Web Site: http://www.my-xda.com/xda2s.html Supplier Product Web Site: O2 Xda IIs Manufacturers Page: O2 For quite a few weeks now since Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition (WM2003 SE) was launched I've been looking forward to seeing the new OS in the guise of a Phone Edition machine. O2 kindly provided an Xda IIs to Tekguru, allowing us to experience the Phone Edition variant of WM2003 SE, and see what the IIs has to offer. So please read on and enjoy the O2 Xda IIs experience as brought to you by Tekguru. For your delectation all photographs are thumbnails which may be clicked on to load larger full size images Official Description Xda IIs New to the Xda family, Xda IIs combines all the best elements of Xda II and adds Wireless LAN and a built-in keyboard. Now with quad-band support for even greater coverage when roaming in the USA, a camera for taking pictures then and there, and Bluetooth for use with your laptop computer or Bluetooth headset. With stunning good looks and a sleek metallic black finish, Xda IIs stands out in the connected PDA world. Everything you need to access the Internet is already in place. No wires, no add-ons required. It's so easy to use. No need to change your email address. Just put in your O2 SIM card, click and you are surfing. Specification Special Features Integrated personal digital organiser and mobile phone Quad-band (GSM 850900/1800/1900) GPRS class B Multislot class 10 Built-in Bluetooth SDIO Instant Message (IM), short (long) message (SMS) and multimedia message service (MMS) Full internet browsing VGA camera (640 x 480 pixels) MPEG4 camcoder MP3 media player Speakerphone and voice recorder facility Removable and chargeable Lithium-Ion Polymer Battery, 1490 mAH Key lock support by software SIM Toolkit Support for WAP 2.0 browser and xHTML Handwriting recognition Hardware Processor Type: Intel Xscale PXA263, 400MHz 128 MB SDRAM, 64 MB ROM 3.5" Transflective 65,536 colour LCD (240 x 320 pixels) VGA Camera o Supports image formats JPG, BMP o Supports video formats MPEG4, H.263, Motion-JPEG AVI o CMOS Chip: VGA (640 x 480 pixels) o Minimum scene illumination: 5 lux o Frame rate: 15fps PBCCH Power on/off button Volume up/down button (2way) 8 programmable buttons 2 phone buttons 5-way navigation button 39-key QWERTY keyboard Soft reset switch One external antenna connector One MMC & SD/IO slot One Infrared Port One Signal port for USB, serial, power and audio Red/yellow/green LED for radio/charger indication on the RIGHT Blue/Green LED for Bluetooth/Wireless LAN indication on the LEFT Built in Software Windows Mobile 2003 2nd Edition for Pocket PC phone edition Includes Pocket Outlook, Pocket Word, Pocket Excel, Window Media Player, Microsoft® Reader and ActiveSync® Multimedia Messaging integrated with Pocket Outlook Wireless modem for USB, serial Bluetooth and IR Photo caller ID Powerpoint (PPT) viewer PDF viewer Camera capture utility XBackup 32 chords Polyphonic MIDI ringtone Games - jawbreaker, solitaire Additional Software on Companion CD Fonix Voicedial v2.0, for voice dialling function ZIP Manager v1.11, for managing and creating ZIP archives KSE Truefax v2.08 for Windows Mobile 2003 2nd Edition, for sending and receiving faxes SPB GPRS Monitor, to record usage of GPRS Xda IIs User Guide (PDF) Xda IIs Windows User Guide (PDF) Dimensions: (H x W x D) 71.6 (W) x 125 (L) x 18.7 (T) mm approx. 210g What's in the box? Xda IIs 2x styli USB synchronisation cradle DC Jack AC adaptor Stereo headset with single pick-up/hang-up button Removable battery Standard Leather Case Xda IIs Quick Start Guide Windows Mobile 2003 User Guide Warranty Card for UK, Ireland and Germany Companion CD (includes Microsoft® Outlook 2002 and Microsoft® ActiveSync® 3.7) + license key for one computer PART I - The Externals of the Xda IIs The Xda IIs is supplied packaged in the usual O2 house style box, which on the front shows the picture of crossed-devices (always reminds me of a coat of arms). The sides offer an overview of the special features of the device and detail included software, technical specification and what is included within the IIs package. The interior of the box is as expected, well packaged and laid out, with the two layer design as per the Xda II still being used. The IIs and the more critical components are stored on the secondary layer where the protection is greatest and the less fragile items stored on the topmost tray. As is usual with PDA packages the contents always seem to require more space than the box itself contains (the TARDIS effect). The contents were itemised and checked against the official list (as per above), nothing was missing which was good news . One thing which was nice to see was that a second spare stylus was included as standard (unlike PDA packages from HP). [Update: The Wireless Modem Drivers are missing from the Companion CD, details of where to obtain them are given here on TG]. After unpacking and admiring the sleek rounded black curves of the IIs it was reluctantly placed in the cradle (with power only connected) to charge overnight. The instructions advise you to charge the device for 8 hours, but I always give the battery overnight to charge just in case. The IIs sits in the cradle at a somewhat steeper angle than that of the Xda II which makes it much less stressful on the wrist when interacting with the screen. Once seated in the docking cradle the IIs is held firmly, as with the Xda II, but due to the more upright stance it is actually easier to dock. Immediately behind the docking position of the IIs is the charging slot for a second battery. The construction of the cradle itself has been improved over that of the II and the build quality is significantly better. There are less harsh edges and the design is complimentary to the smart lines of the IIs. The secondary connection to the right of the power cable is however once again plugged which indicates that the rumoured desk speaker system (which was promised with the Xda II) has still not been brought into the light of day. I feel now that this will never materialise. The cradle is quite weighty with most of the mass being towards the base which means it will sit securely on the desk with little chance of it wandering when in use as a stand for the IIs. The IIs itself has been neatly styled with all edges smoothed in a more rounded fashion than with the Xda II, this styling change has been mandated by the thicker body which is caused by the split body design of the casing. This serves to actually give the IIs more of a pleasant feel when in the hand and this taken together with the new surface finish of the machine mean the tendency for it to slip from your grasp has been reduced. With the IIs there is no need to purchase eGrips to ensure you have a secure grip on the device when in use. The new black and grey livery serves to give an air of style to the IIs and makes it look damned impressive. Even my other half was impressed with the shape and colour and remarked it's possibly the most stylish PDA she's seen so far. I have to agree on this point, if the Xda IIs had been supplied in the 'standard' silver design I feel it would have looked somewhat 'tacky', as it is, its looks are pure class. The Jaguar XJS of PDAs The front of the IIs has been significantly restyled compared to the II with the buttons being redesigned (as well as increased in number) and the speaker and joy pad reliefs being harmonised into a rather obtuse looking bezel design (which is the only design feature I dislike). The grey portion of the upper housing sports two indicator lights, the one of the left being used to indicate WiLan ON (flashing green) or Bluetooth ON (flashing blue), when both systems are active you get alternating blue and green flashing indicators. This LED also serves to indicate RF signal status. The right hand indicator serves to indicate the power status, burnt amber when charging and green when fully charged. It will also indicate PDA notifications, battery warnings, GSM standby, as well as GSM network status. To the left of the speaker is the Contacts button and to the right the Calendar button which trigger the standard ROM applications. The lower front of the machine has also been significantly enhanced compared to the II with the addition of four extra control buttons (at long last) and a redesigned joy pad which is now engineered to have just about perfect sensitivity, there are no more accidental 'out of direction' movement problems as with the 'loose' joy pad on the II. The movement in each direction is smooth and positive and without error. The row of buttons above the joypad (from left to right) are predefined as follows. These customisations are unique to O2, no other operator has mofified these controls: Today - quick access to the O2 Active menu (the custom O2 Active Today/Home Screen) Inbox - takes you to the Inbox application and activates the folder menu so you can choose which mailbox to use. Internet - loads Pocket Internet Explorer which is preconfigured to open http://pda.o2.co.uk OK - either selects OK or closes the application The Green Answer and Red End Call buttons are less obvious than on the II and harmonised more neatly into the design. When the IIs is being used they are illuminated, they do look so very cool and smooth . As with the II if you hold down the Green Call button during a phone call the speakerphone will be activated. Whereas if the Red End Call button is held down it will terminate any active GPRS connection. The joy pad can be used (as on all WM 2003 SE devices) for navigating drop down menus or paging through program instructions. This works well in conjunction with the new OK button and serves towards the aim of stylus free operation. When operating in Camera mode the joypad takes on additional functions such as changing capture mode, zoom, or navigating round the review menu. The layout of the base of the IIs has been reworked and the microphone is now positioned to the left of the reset hole (but not labelled as such). This is a design error IMHO compared to the lower front face position which was used on the II. This design change means you have to hold the IIs closer to the mouth (to ensure you are heard clearly). This increases the possibility of the screen touching the face and picking up facial grease The reset hole is in a similar location to that of the II but (on my machine at least) requires significantly greater force to generate a soft reset. It is thankfully larger than the microphone port and it is not possible to insert the stylus into the wrong hole by mistake. The USB/Power/Sync port remains 22-pin and is wired identically to the Xda II. However the design has been modified to have a notch in the center of the port. This means that any Xda II accessories must be either forced to fit (not recommended), or as a minimum modified by filing. Needless to say you can of course buy accesories with the right connector for the IIs The top of the IIs serves to hold the on/off switch, which has now been relocated from top left (Xda II) to the top right position. This makes it easier to operate with the thumb, but more difficult to power up using the forefinger (as was common practice on II). It should be noted that if one presses and holds the power button down it serves to toggle on and off the backlight. The SD/MMC SIDO card slot is located in the centre of the upper face as per that of the II. The cards are loaded via gently pressing the card into the slot and then removed by a second press which serves to unlatch and release the card. The slot when not in use should be protected by the 'dummy' insert provided. There is no self closing protective flap as on some PDAs. One important point, which should be noted, is that the SD/MMC card must be loaded 'backwards' - that is the cards' interface connections should be towards the front and the card label towards the back of the IIs. This is not stated in the documentation, so be careful you do not try to load a card the wrong way round, that is a recipe for disaster! A welcome addition to the top face is that of the handsfree port (2.5mm stereo jack socket), this is much more convenient to access (compared to the base location of the II) and suits the use of third party holsters/cases, which tend to mount vertically. The port is protected by a flexible rubber flap which is anchored firmly to the casing and can easily be popped to one side to provide access to the port. The stylus is located in the top right hand back position (as with the II) and shares it's neatness of design. The ability of the stylus to 'home in' on the silo, and rotate into position has been retained. This still impresses me, as a Engineer, as a feature that has been designed really well. The Stylus on the IIs has been enhanced slightly compared to the II with the addition of larger ridges on the stylus head. This allows you to easily perform stylus extraction from the silo single handed. The stylus shank is constructed from moulded brass plated with a protective silvered coating. This is topped with a screwed plastic portion which serves as the stylus grip when extracting it from the body housing. The stylus is held in the silo by use of frictive force (as per the II) but the internal clearance around the top of the silo is slightly greater. This assists the stylus extraction process and makes it 'quicker on the draw'. Returning the stylus to the silo is also easier to perform. This is still the nicest stylus mounting system I've used on any PDA - easy to remove and usually easy to dock. The right hand side of the Xda II is completely featureless with the exception of a TORX screw used in the construction of the slide mechanism. The left hand side sports three controls (top to bottom): Record button - Press to record a voice note Volume slider - Press UP/DOWN to adjust the volume of the IIs Camera button - Press once to launch the camera, press again to take a picture and beneath these is the IrDa (SIR) sensor. Unfortunately FIR (Fast Infra Red) or CIR (Consumer Infra Red) are not supported. The back of the IIs has completely changed compared the the Xda II, the somewhat flimsy (although nice looking) silver battery cover and occasionally problematical battery mounting locking system have been eliminated. The battery itself now forms part of the casing and can be seen as the raised portion directly below the 0.3 Mega pixel camera / mirror combo. The battery locking mechanism has been strengthened for external use, and serves to hold the battery very securely. To the far left of the camera is the port for an external car antenna. I've carried out 'wiggle and jiggle' tests on the battery mounting and removing it several times. This was in an attempt to trigger a hard reset as this was a common Xda II problem. At no time was I able to trigger a hard reset, the new battery system eliminates that issue which is good news! The SIM card locking mechanism has also been revised, and instead of the hinged sleeve lock used on the Xda II the sliding gate method is now utilised which removes the requirement for any moving parts. The SIM card is slid under the two guide rails and pops securely into a form fitting recess moulded into the body housing. This is a much better design as it is less prone to mechanical failure. The headset provided with the IIs is almost identical to that supplied with the Xda II. It comprises a reasonably comfortable set of ear buds affixed to wired connections which run through the control unit to a 2.5mm stereo mini phono connector. On the cable between the control pod and the phono plug is a basic 'shirt clip' which serves to try and control the random wanderings of the cable by tethering it to your clothing The control unit offers the facility to change the volume of the headset as well as a button which can be used to answer and terminate calls. There are unfortunately no additional controls for either rejecting an incoming call or controlling Media Player. The volume level of the headphones is adequate. The ability to increase the volume level just that little but more would have been useful, especially for playing back music. As with previous incarnations of the Xda O2 supply as part of the package a protective case. The box packaging details that this is made from leather. Investigations with a sharp knife reveal that it is made from leatherette, it is not made from leather at all. The case is designed to belt mount via an integral slide clip - the case slides onto the belt using an anchored inverted U shaped clip made of spring steel. Even though the steel used in the clip is very strong it is no substitute for a decent belt clip mechanism. As the case mounts horizontally there is more chance of the 'see-saw' effect occurring where pressure on either end of the case can cause the clip to move upwards off the belt. However the advantage to the horizontal design is that the main axis of the case follows that of the belt and it does make it comfortable to wear. The case is however better than a lot of cases supplied with PDAs and will certainly last until you can afford to upgrade to a more professional and secure method of protection for the IIs. The miniature keyboard which is revealed by sliding the front face upwards has the normal QWERTY keyboard layout with the exception that the numeric keys are not located above the letter keys. They are present but occupy the same keys as are used for U, I, O, J, K, L, N, M, O and UP they have to be accessed via the Lock/FN key. The keys although small and closely spaced are slightly raised, and when pressed give tactile and audible feedback (a click). This gives a good indication that keys have been pressed and using them is not as onerous as feared. In practice you will soon adjust to the keyboard and a reasonable typing rate can be achieved - great for SMS creation or Instant Messaging! The keys when pressed activate a glowing blue backlight which serves to allow one to use the keyboard painlessly in low light levels. [And yes before anyone mentions it the picture showing the illuminated keyboard does look like a grinning devil with blue teeth] One point to note is that two keys to the left of the SPACE key is the O2 key, which as a default serves to activate Internet Explorer. This can however be reconfigured to activate any program you wish via the Button Editor. One of the innovative features of the Xda IIs has to be 'the slide' Here of course I'm referring to the split design of the casing where the front part of the IIs can be slid upwards to reveal the hidden internal keyboard. Prior to receiving the IIs I was concerned (as an engineer) about the strength of the joint between the two halves and the quality of the slide itself. I was pleasantly surprised when looking at the design. The twin sets of components used to achieve the slide are of good quality and there is no feeling of looseness or sideways movement. The assembly withstood a goodly amount of 'grasp and twist' without any creaking sounds or signs of deformity or failure. The slide movement itself is accomplished via a slightly forceful upwards push on the front of the case which serves to overcome slight resistance to start the move. Once the movement has started it is smooth and almost effortless - the only lack in the design that there is no positive 'lock' when the keyboard is fully revealed. Exterior Pro's Superb hardware design overall Unique in built sliding keyboard 'No slip' surface texture to the housing Improved battery design Auto-locating stylus/silo design A goodly number of external buttons Excellent build quality Exterior Con's Microphone connection should really be on the front face of the unit MMC/SD card mounts the wrong way round Volume of the handsfree headset could be increased Conclusions In my humble opinion the IIs has got to be the most beautifully designed PDA I've used so far. I do not say that lightly - from the gorgeous styling in black and silver (which looks awesome) through to the mechanical design of the slide the IIs oozes quality. HTC (the actual manufacturers of the IIs) have to be complimented for producing a unique design of exterior housing that so far is proving to be well constructed, useful and very eye catching to third parties. I've had many second glances from folks and appreciatative comments passed - especially after them seeing the IIs slide being performed) This is the fourth Phone Edition device (Xda, Jornada 928, Xda II, Xda IIs) I've had the pleasure of using. Out of these devices if I had to select which model has the best external design with reference to use, ergonomics, style and beauty - well there is only one choice - the Xda IIs. External Features - Tekguru Rating: 97% Next..... What applications are supplied with the IIs (ROM and CD)? Will there be any operational issues when the power is turned on and we start using the machine? How fast is it? What is the battery life? Any bugs? Can we 'hack' it? The answers to these questions are more will come in the forthcoming sections of the review ......... Coming soon - PART II - The IIs Applications All images processed via TechSmith's SnagIt