O2 Launches Xda Zinc Product Page

[Darius Wey]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.seeo2.com/product/XdaZinc/template/Product.vm' target='_blank'>http://www.seeo2.com/product/XdaZin...late/Product.vm</a><br /><br /></div><i>"The new Xda Zinc makes sending and receiving messages a breeze with the slide-out QWERTY keyboard. With its built-in Wireless LAN and Intel XScale® PXA 270 Processor you'll be able to transfer files and messages easily, wherever you are. Equipped with Windows Mobile® 5.0 the 3G-enabled Xda Zinc makes video calling, messaging and surfing the web faster and more reliable. With such impressive features, the Xda Zinc is the absolute communication tool."</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/wey-20061223-xdazinc.jpg" /><br /><br />If you've been following the news here at Pocket PC Thoughts, you would have seen pictures and rumoured specs of the O2 Xda Zinc time and time again. Now, it's official. Head over to <a href="http://www.seeo2.com/product/XdaZinc/template/Product.vm">O2</a> and check out what this Pocket PC Phone has to offer. With support for tri-band GSM/GPRS (900/1800/1900) and W-CDMA (2100), a primary 2.0-megapixel camera, a secondary camera for video calls, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, IrDA, a 2.8" QVGA TFT-LCD, a miniSD slot, and an Intel PXA270 520MHz CPU to boot along with 64MB RAM and 128MB ROM, will it topple the Hermes in the slide-out keyboard market? Unlikely. O2's decision to leave out the 850MHz band may kill it for many people.

[aquanaut]

Competition is good --

Pros:
2.5mm Ø headphone jack (only major Hermes design flaw);
miniSD (better value than microSD);

Cons:
lacks UMTS 800+2100 band (useful for travelers to Korea/Japan);
lacks 850 GSM (useful in USA)

When considering both processing speed and battery life, selection of the 520mHz intel processor over the Samsung 400mHz will be interesting to hear how battery life fares.

Cheers :)

[saru83]

i like it better than the hermes, what is the manufacturer though?

[Darius Wey]

i like it better than the hermes, what is the manufacturer though?

It's made by Asus.

[Frankie1]

I say this now and I wll probably say it again several times in the future: Is it me, or do all WM5 phone edtions have the same form factor, are all the manufactures playing it safe? I mean you have some other form factors (Jasjar and some Treo) but give me a break, the only real things that are changing with these devices is the button lay out. It's really getting frustrating to see. Personally I love mey O2 Xda Exec, but even more - I loved my PDA 2k (one hand usage was awsome) but the OS was just out dated. It satarting to get really lame to see all these renditions of the same device.

[Frankie1]

By the way,
I love O2 they alway throw something into the mix (two cameras for vieo calling) that's an awsome feature that they seam to include on most of their devices. It makes for good bragging rights to the guys in the office and the "Curious Georges" that I run into in differnt places. NOW ONLY IF SOMEONE CAN WRITE AN APPLICATION THAT USES THE TECHNOLOY IN A MANNER THAT DISPLAYS A WINDOW ON THE DISPLAY WITH A VIDEO STREAM OF WHATS IN FRONT SO THAT WE CAN WALK AND TEXT OR (do I dare say) DRIVE AND TEXT. I'd pay good money for an app like that. would'nt you guys? I'm way too lazy to develop such an app.

[Nurhisham Hussein]

By the way,
I love O2 they alway throw something into the mix (two cameras for vieo calling) that's an awsome feature that they seam to include on most of their devices.

Nothing to do with O2 - that's common with all 3G phones. You'll be hard-pressed to find a 3G phone without two cameras (SE's M600 is the only one that comes to my mind).

[Frankie1]

By the way,
I love O2 they alway throw something into the mix (two cameras for vieo calling) that's an awsome feature that they seam to include on most of their devices.

Nothing to do with O2 - that's common with all 3G phones. You'll be hard-pressed to find a 3G phone without two cameras (SE's M600 is the only one that comes to my mind).

From my expericnes, living in the US, I sont know of one phone provider (Sprint, Verizon, T-Mobile, Cingular) that offers a phone with dual cameras. I have my Xda Exec is turned on my T-Mobile but I had to get that imported. Neither the new Cingular 8525 (the latest WM5 device in the US) nor the unreleased Verizon Phones (xv6800, i760), all of Sprint's phone are 3g and they don't have a single phone that has dual cameras.
All though it might be the case overseas, I reassure you that dual cameras are not common place on devices in the US.
Please enlighten me if I am mistaken.
Thanks,

[Nurhisham Hussein]

Ah...the peculiarities of the American market - you're quite right. In the rest of the (GSM) world, the 2-camera thing is part of the 3G feature-set, required for 3G video calls. My guess is that this just isn't supported by US 3G networks.

[Frankie1]

Ah...the peculiarities of the American market - you're quite right. In the rest of the (GSM) world, the 2-camera thing is part of the 3G feature-set, required for 3G video calls. My guess is that this just isn't supported by US 3G networks.

The peculiarities of the American market; that is the most true statement that I've heard. It really is a peculiar market. You have no idea how frustrated I am with the devices that are offered here, I have the option on my phone to make video calls but I can't. There is such a high demand for more advaced devices but there is a serious shortage of supply, I find my self having to bid online (something I hate doing) and changing service providers (something I really hate doing), and working with their unsupported phones department (can't describe how much I hate that) just to be able to use half the functions that my device is intended to do.
I'm in the process of buying the T-Mobile version of my XDA exec (MDA Pro) from Europe just so that I will be able to send MMS. So now that leaves me with 2 devices totaling about $2,000. And I am positive both devices will be outdated before the American service providers will support video calling.
Sorry about the ranting, but I just needed a shoulder to cry on.
Thanks Nurhisham, Thanks.

[Frankie1]

Ah...the peculiarities of the American market - you're quite right. In the rest of the (GSM) world, the 2-camera thing is part of the 3G feature-set, required for 3G video calls. My guess is that this just isn't supported by US 3G networks.

The peculiarities of the American market; that is the most true statement that I've heard. It really is a peculiar market. You have no idea how frustrated I am with the devices that are offered here, I have a have the option on my phone to make video calling but I can't there is such a high demand for more advaced devices but there is a serious shortage of supply, I find my self having to bid online (something I hate doing) and changing service providers (something I really hate doing), and working with their unsupported phones department (can't describe how much I hate that) just to be able to use half the functions that my device is intended to do.
I'm in the process of buying the T-Mobile version of my XDA exec (MDA Pro) from Europe just so that I will be able to send MMS. So now that leaves me with 2 devices totaling about $2,000. And I am positive both devices will be outdated before the American service providers will support video calling.
Sorry about the ranting, but I just needed a shoulder to cry on, thanks

[Nurhisham Hussein]

Sorry about the ranting, but I just needed a shoulder to cry on, thanks

No problem - I'm continually surprised that the US government doesn't take on the carriers for anti-trust practices...but that's a topic for another day :nonono: And now back to your regularly scheduled programming ;)

[Janak Parekh]

No problem - I'm continually surprised that the US government doesn't take on the carriers for anti-trust practices...but that's a topic for another day
Because no one carrier has a monopoly; instead, the carriers form a loosely-organized oligopoly that don't really collude. It's a tricky situation.

--janak

[kiwi]

The peculiarities of the American market; that is the most true statement that I've heard. It really is a peculiar market. You have no idea how frustrated I am with the devices that are offered here,

you think you have it bad? Try living in Canada.. as well as being very politically correct out there, the cell phone industry sucks big time!! We're about 2 years behind the rest of the world..