Since the initial release of the glossy black O2 XDA Atom back in late 2005, many complaints were generated on various forums regarding the buggy operating system, slow performance and plastic case quality. After a number of ROM upgrades, O2 finally released a stable operating system in April 2006, which fixed many of the problems users were facing. Two months later in May 2006, O2 released the XDA Atom Pure which addressed the issues regarding the quality of the case.
The O2 XDA Atom Pure is a small, lightweight and attractive device running the latest Windows Mobile 5 Operating System that includes the Messaging and Security Feature Pack and Microsoft Push Email technology.
Performance
Over the six weeks or so that I have had this unit, it has performed quite well for a 416 MHz WM5.0 device. I have found I get better performance with minimal Today Screen applications running as opposed to having a lot running. For example, on this device I have had Spb Weather 1.6, O2 Plus Wireless, O2 Plus Profiles and SBSH Pocket Breeze running. I did have SBSH Contact Breeze running as another tab in Pocket Breeze but found the performance started to lag as I have 200+ contacts. I also have WEBIS Pocket Informant Pro installed as the default PIM. When opening Pocket Informant for the first time after a reset, load times of around 4 - 6 seconds are normal. If Pocket Informant is left running in the background and the calendar or contacts are activated, Pocket Informant opens in around 1 - 2 seconds which is quite good.
Other software loaded into main memory include Microsoft Voice Command 1.5 and Skype. Microsoft Voice Command works very well on the Atom Pure - I haven't had to repeat commands for it to understand. It picks up what I am asking it to do first time. I haven't tried this in a noisy environment such as a 4WD or equipment rooms and the like, just around home and in the workshop where I work I haven't used the included Voice Dial application on the Atom as I prefer Microsoft Voice Command. Personally, I don't have the time to set up a voice tag for each of my contacts. Voice tags also take up valuable memory - something I am reluctant to do.
Skype is a program I couldn't get running on the earlier Atom (using an earlier ROM) but it works a treat on this device. All VoIP calls I have made to and from family and friends have been surprisingly clear. The occasional echo can be heard but this is due to VoIP and my internet connection (same thing happens with my computer from time to time). It is a neat feeling to be chatting to family and paying only 2.2 cents per minute for the call. Walking around the house using WiFi and Skype on the Atom Pure just seems like you are making mobile calls but heaps cheaper.
I have a lot of large PDF documents stored on the Mini-SD Card for quick reference while I am in the field such as radio service manuals, schematic diagrams and cabling diagrams. I prefer to use Adobe Acrobat Reader for the Pocket PC as this handles PDF documents more efficiently than the included ClearView PDF Viewer. However, I decided to stay with ClearView just to see the difference. The performance of ClearView with small PDF documents (100kB) is nice and quick but large documents I work with (4MB+) is just too slow. Adobe Acrobat Reader works well with larger documents but is still slower than I would like.
Regarding speaker volume and ring tones I have found the standard ring tones to be fairly quiet in noisy environments. I have to rely on the vibrate feature to alert me to an incoming call or SMS. My Wife has the JAMin which is no louder than the Atom and her work around was to edit a portion of her favourite song to make it louder and use that as her ring tone. I haven't tried that as yet but think it would be a good idea.
One of the much anticipated features of the Atom is A2DP. This is where a stereo Bluetooth headset is paired with the device so that stereo music can be listened to over Bluetooth. I have the BlueAnt Wireless X5 Stereo Bluetooth Headphones which I tested on this unit. While stereo music can be streamed from this device I found that each song had a pause of a second or so somewhere in the middle of the song. This occurred with songs in main memory or on my storage card. After mentioning this to BlueAnt, they informed me that many Atom users have used the X5 Stereo Headphones with no issues. One user reported the same problem but after formatting his storage card the problem went away. I also contacted O2 about this and they advised that some A2DP headphones had problems because of the Microsoft Bluetooth Stack. They are currently looking at resolving this issue with future ROM upgrades (this also applies to the Atom Exec).
The WiFi on this unit is 802.11b and would have been better if it supported 802.11b and g. I run a wireless network at home and also have access to the wireless network at work. I haven't had any difficulties connecting to either network. These networks appear unsecured but use MAC Address Access to only permit access to those devices whose MAC Addresses appear in the router's table. Another network at a different workshop runs a secured network and I had no problems connecting and accessing the internet through it. WiFi does use a lot of battery power and I have noticed the battery drop from 90% down to 50% in under two hours of continuous WiFi usage.
Lastly, I use OziExplorer which runs very nicely on this device. While a larger screen would be better for satellite navigation and geospatial data collection, the size of the Atom Pure makes it easy to clip to a bracket on the dash of the 4WD. I am hopeful that in the future I may be able to test Destinator on these review devices to see how they perform using voice guided satellite navigation software. At this stage all I have access to is OziExplorer.
Device Specifications
Dimensions:
- Approx. 58(W) x 102(L) x 18.5(T) mm
- Weight with battery: 140g
- Operating System: Microsoft Windows Mobile 5.0 Operating time :
- Standby: 150 hours
- Talk time up to 5.5 hours Battery life may vary depending on RF conditions and actual usage
Bluetooth/Wireless LAN:
- Bluetooth SIG version 1.2 compliant
IEEE 802.11b compliant
Audio:
- Stereo speaker
- Speaker with receiver
- Omni-directional mono microphone
- Support speaker phone operation
- Ringtone support: 64-chord MIDI, MP3, WMA, WAV
- Playback support: MIDI, MP3, WMA, WAV, AMR
Processor:
- Intel PXA272 416MHz
Display:
- 2.7" TFT LCD display with touch panel
- 240 x 320 dots resolution
- Supports 262K colours (65,536 effective)
GSM/GPRS Tri-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE:
- GSM900/1800/1900
Memory size:
- 128MB Flash ROM, 64MB RAM
Camera:
- Colour 2-mega-pixel CMOS camera
- Preview mirror for self portrait
- White LED strobe flash
- Support still image and video capture
What's in the box
- Main unit
- Battery
- Universal AC adapter
- Stereo wired headset
- Mini USB cable
- Additional Stylus
- Getting started Companion CD with Microsoft® Outlook® 2002 and
ActiveSync® - Quick Start Guide and User Manual
- Limited warranty statement
Bundled Software
- Auto Configurator
- WLAN Manager
- O2 Connect
- O2 Media Plus
- O2 Phone Plus (Downloaded via O2 Connect)
- O2 Plus (Downloaded via O2 Connect)
- O2 AutoInstaller And all other available applications for the Xda Atom
