Overview
Introduction
In their latest PDA entry for the Australian market, O2 has chosen Quanta Computer to create for them the O2 XDA Atom – a PDA phone with an emphasis on multimedia. It’s a PDC the size of the O2 XDA Mini, but sports more advanced features such as a two megapixel camera, FM radio, Bluetooth stereo headphones support and the latest Windows Mobile 5.0 operating system. It aims to be one of the most functional devices around, but with the hardware to back it up as well. Read on for the review.
New/outstanding features
The biggest change is arguably one of direction for O2, which has prided itself on releasing workhorse PDAs made by High Tech Computer (HTC) in Taiwan. Changing over to a model from Quanta Computer has resulted in a compact PDA that isn’t so business focused. O2 see it as a PDA for younger people, with its focus on music playing, an FM radio and two megapixel camera. But having said that, it retains almost all the features of previous PDAs sold by O2, including 802.11b wireless and the Windows operating system, now up to Mobile 5.0 (the successor to the previous standard, Mobile 2003 SE). It’s even smaller than the original O2 XDAII mini, shedding some length and 10 grams of weight.
Physical aspects
The Atom is a compact and light (for its class) PDA and yet is able to house all the hardware that it does. It measures just 102 x 58 x 18.5 millimetres and weighs 140 grams. It’s easily one of the smallest and compact PDAs I have ever used, if not the smallest. It sports a rounded rectangular design with a glossy black paint finish, which is easily dirtied with fingerprints.
As is expected for a PDA, the front of the device is taken up by the large 2.7 inch LCD. Above it is the phone speaker and three indicator lights, while below the screen is a small set of buttons to make using the Atom easier. There’s a four direction arrow pad with confirm key, dial and hang up keys and shortcuts to load the Start button menu and O2’s Media Plus application. On the left hand side is the volume rocker switch for adjustment, while on the right are two buttons for recording a voice note and loading the camera, as well as the infra-red port. The top of the phone conceals the miniSD card slot and power button, while on the bottom is the miniUSB connector for recharging and connecting the Atom to a PC. You’ll also find a 2.5mm headset jack, the microphone and a pen-size reset button on the bottom. Finally on the back you’ll see the small camera lens and its assist LED. The battery cover beneath can be removed to reveal the large battery, and underneath that is the SIM card slot.
User Interface & display
The display used here is a 2.7 inch TFT LCD capable of displaying 262,144 colours (although Windows itself only displays 65,536) and has a resolution of 240x320 pixels. Brightness of the screen can be adjusted across a large range, and with brightness set to maximum the screen becomes legible in outdoor light, although it could be brighter.
The user interface has changed slightly in the upgrade to Windows Mobile 5.0, although users of the previous OS will find that it resembles it a lot and may wonder just what has changed at all. The standby screen now has a soft-key bar at the bottom instead of status icons, other than this it appears the same. Unfortunately there aren’t actually any physical soft-keys, so you’ll need to tap them with the stylus to use them. The arrow pad now works in a lot more situations as well.
As with all Windows Mobile PDA versions, you can list and customise a number of lines of information to appear on the standby screen. O2 has also included a useful application that displays even more information, such as exact battery and free space levels on the standby screen.
Making and receiving calls
Phone calls are made either through the handset itself, through a wired handsfree device or through Bluetooth wireless ones. In order to dial out you load the phone application by pressing the dial key, and it will bring up a virtual number keypad to dial your number on screen. You can also direct dial from the contact list. Talking through the Atom itself was generally problem free and worked well. A few times I had crackly call quality, but on the whole reception is on par with other handsets available.
The included stereo handsfree can also be used for calls, and it provides slightly clearer audio quality than the Atom’s own speaker. However the earphones themselves are really uncomfortable to wear, and there’s no clip to attach the handsfree to your clothes, meaning the handsfree is heavy and wants to fall out of your ears (making it even more uncomfortable). Using a Bluetooth headset solves both problems, and my HS801 worked fine with the Atom.
As with previous PDAs, the phone book system in the Atom mimicks the one in Microsoft Outlook on a PC, and will allow you to store as many entries as the PDA’s shared memory will allow. It supports a large amount of different fields within each entry, and these include standard things from name and address to particulars like birthday and office addresses.
Unfortunately the ringtone situation hasn’t changed with the Atom. The included sounds are very basic indeed and don’t use the full set of 64 tones the Atom is capable of. Having said that you can add your own ringtones, so this isn’t too much of a problem.
Messaging
If you’ve owned a PDA before then you probably know that messaging isn’t a very fun application. Without a keypad or keyboard you are only left with typing letters from a virtual keyboard with the stylus or by handwriting on the screen directly. I found both methods to be sluggish, although O2 has included third-party recognition software that is much better than the default Windows one. There is predictive text support that will attempt to complete words for you as you type them, and this helps alleviate the slowness of text input. Having said that the Atom is quick to input text and won’t slow down as you input a large amount of words.
There is full support for SMS, MMS and email. Long SMS can be composed so you aren’t limited to just 160 characters. MMS support works up to 100 kilobytes per message and can have pictures, sounds and videos attached. You can create slides and add even more files this way. The messaging program also supports email of the POP3 and IMAP4 variety. All in all the messaging application remains unchanged from previous Pocket PCs (there are slight cosmetic differences but it works the same), so take a look at one of our previous PDA reviews for more details on messaging.
Connectivity
As expected with PDAs the connectivity level of the Atom is one of the best with a large variety of methods to connect to local and wide area networks. There is a tri-band GSM radio, able to connect through the 900, 1800 and 1900 MHz bands. GPRS enables 48kbps download speed, while EDGE support triples that to nearly 150kbps. Unfortunately there are no EDGE networks in Australia right now, although Telstra is upgrading its network to support it. If you’re in range of a wireless hotspot, you can connect to it at 11mbps, thanks to 802.11b wireless support (or WiFi).
Locally you can use USB, infra-red or Bluetooth. USB is for connecting to a PC and you can recharge the phone this way, as well as synchronise core applications and transfer data between the Atom and a PC. Infra-red is used for transferring data to other handheld devices while Bluetooth can be used for data transfer, wireless headsets and wireless headphones to listen to music as well.
Build quality
The build quality was satisfactory. I couldn’t find any moving or loose parts, nor could I get the PDA to creak or groan by bending or twisting it, so I was impressed. My only complaint is that the battery cover can come off with very little pressure, so the clip fastening it should have been a bit stronger.
Battery life
With 1530 mAh of battery capacity, the XDA Atom is capable of lasting 150 hours on standby and 5 hours 30 minutes while talking. In practice I was able to gain three days of mixed, albeit light usage – talking, messaging, internet browsing and the occasional Solitaire game. However there were two cases where I lost battery power in huge pieces, and I’m not sure why. More details in the problems section.
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