The phone, when compared to the likes of other PDA phones like the Motorola e680i and the Toshiba e800, there is a huge difference in size and it's not the only thing that sets it apart. It's appearance follows HTC's mini design very closely. It sports a solid black, shiny, plastic casing which leaves fingerprints easily. The Atom succeeds in shaving off 6mm in length from the Xda II mini's specifications and compresses all it's components into a 102 x 58 x 18.5mm frame. However, the struggle for estate space means some sacrifices have to be made. The manufacturer therefore chose to implement a 2.5mm audio jack, which is incompatible with all your standard earphones, and a miniSD expansion slot that effectively renders all your existing SD memory cards useless. It boasts a 262K TFT coloured screen and aside from the bright screen, only the call and end keys are lit up in green and red respectively. None of the other keys are lit, not even the Windows keys and the O2 media key found below the screen.
The 2-megapixel camera with flash (1600x1200 pixels) can do video capture a 320x240 pixels. But the camera is very slow, it takes ages to fire up the camera application. The camera has a 8X zoom and the picture on the viewfinder looks really clear. Photo files are stored in the JPEG format and another good thing about the camera is that picture frames are good for livening up your pictures, especially when you want to send a photo to a friend via MMS, or to simply store it on a regular computer or photo website.
The O2 XDA Atom may be the smallest PDA phone, but it packs a real punch with a 416 Mhz PXA272 processor, 50 MB available RAM and 43 MB of flash available to store data and install applications. It's 128MB of ROM is sufficient for a normal user. Power users can simply purchase a high-capacity miniSD card and install more applications on the media. The Atom also comes with persistent storage which retains all your data when the battery runs out. Also the most talked about feature in the Atom is the FM stereo, which you will need to plug in the headset if you want to enable this function to work. Voice notes can be accessed either from the main menu or via the shortcut button at the right side of the device. Voice dialling can be programmed into the device via the voice speed dial application in the programs menu.
On the Connectivity side, the phone comes with a bluetooth and Infra-Red. The infrared port can be found on the right of the device, next to the voice recorder hotkey. Also in addition there is a Wi-Fi connectivity, which was missing in the previous Mini phone and also EDGE is supported all the way up to class 10. And of course!! USB port, as mentioned, is found on the bottom of the device, and this is probably the best way to connect to a computer.
Other useful features are, an equalizer for sound, GPRS monitoring, voice speed dialing, a self-diagnostics utility, O2 Plus (similar to the vBar functionality that lets you close applications instead of just minimize them). On the multimedia side of it, as mentioned earlier, it includes FM radio and the O2 Media Plus worthy of their reputation. The O2 Media Plus is an interesting effort to bring a full multimedia experience with video, pictures, radio and music under a single full screen application.
The battery life here in this device is defnitely a cause for a concern. It is too low for my liking. Not only for me, I think it's way below par for such an expensive device. It includes a 1530 mAh 3.7V battery and that's one of the biggest batteries shipping with any phone today. It manages 10 hours of mp3 playback, which is way below HTC's 5 days and 15 hours respectively on a 1250 mAh battery.
Pros : Fast processor, Unique additional software, Size, Quad-wireless capability, Upgraded ROM, FM Radio And Camera with flash.
Cons: Battery life, No hardware softkeys, No speakerphone, No keyboard, Very expensive device.
Date Announced :
2005, 3Q
Network Technology :
GSM 850/ 900 / 1800 / 1900
Hardware/Processor :
Intel PXA272 416MHz processor
Dimensions (mm) :
102 x 58 x 18.5
Weight (g) : 140
Available colours :
Black
Display
Screen Size :
2.7 inch, 240 x 320
Screen Color :
TFT 262k Colours (65k effective)
Design Type :
Blok
Navigation Key :
5 way Navigation Key
Other Keys :
Volume up/down, Camera, Recorder
Antenna :
Fixed Internal
Memory
Phonebook :
Advance
Internal(MB) :
64MB SDRAM, 128MB ROM
Expansion : miniSD, SDIO
Battery
Battery Type :
Li-ion 1500mAh
Stand-by (hrs) :
150
TalkTime(min) :
330
Entertainment
Ringtones Polyphonic :
64-chord polyphonics
Customization :
MIDI, MP3, WMA, WAV
MP3 :
Yes
FM Radio :
Yes
Video Record :
Yes
Video Support :
MPEG-4, H.263, WMV
Audio Support :
MIDI, MP3, WMA, WAV, AMR (Stereo Speakers, 10-band equalizer, 2.5mm Audio Jack)
Voice Support :
Recording, Dial
Games :
Solitaire and Jawbreaker
Messenging
SMS :
Yes
MMS :
Yes
EMS :
No
Email :
Pocket Outlook
Instant Messenging :
MSN messenger
Connectivity
Bluetooth : Yes
EDGE :
Yes, Class 10
Support 3G :
No
Data
Types / GPRS :
Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots)
Infrared (IrDA) :
Yes
USB Port :
Yes
WIFI/WLAN :
802.11b
Data Cable :
RS-232, mini USB
Software
Java (J2ME) :
Yes ,MIDP 2.0, CLDC 1.1
WAP :
Yes Ver 2.0
Platform / OS :
Windows Mobile 5.0
Browser :
Internet Explorer Mobile
Other Application :
Windows Media Player Mobile 10, Office Mobile (Word Mobile, Excel Mobile, Powerpoint Mobile), O2 MediaPlus, ActiveSync 4.0, PDF Viewer
Personals
Themes :
No
Info.Caller ID :
Photo
ProfileID :
Yes
CameraLens Type :
CMOS, 2.0 Megapixel
Digital zoom :
8x
Max. Resolution :
1600 x 1200
Flash :
Yes
Night Mode :
No
Extra Features :
self-portrait mirror
Photo Format :
JPEG(1600x1200,1024x768, 640x480, 320x240,176x144)
Video :
Yes
