Breathe Deeply, O2's XDA II is a Jack-of-all-Trades

[Jason Dunn]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=14059' target='_blank'>http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=14059</a><br /><br /></div>"If you look at the XDA II's technical specifications, you’d see one hellova wireless PDA. It’s got a super 240 x 320, 65K colour, touch sensitive, TFT LCD screen. You can even playback video clips which flip the image sideways so they look far better than normal. But does the Xda II perform as a truly mobile office in your pocket? Er, no.<br /><br />Some of the Xda II’s imperfections can be blamed squarely on its OS – which happens to be Pocket PC 2003 Phone Edition/ Windows Mobile. Yet other failings are entirely the fault of O2/HTC’s specifications. Like its battery life, for example. Contrary to rumour, O2 does NOT supply a spare battery with the Xda II. So you’d need to buy a second one in order to obtain anything remotely resembling a day’s full usage out of it. Plus it takes ages to recharge. And if you’re not careful, draining the battery completely results in a full reset of all your data."<br /><br />Why even bother reviewing a device if your bias against Microsoft is so painfully obvious? :roll: The reviewer also doesn't grasp that this is a PDA, and not a smartphone, because at the end he criticizes the Pocket PC Phone Edition for not being a better "smartphone"....this is one of the worst reviews of the XDA II that I've ever read.

[Macguy59]

Besides what you feel is his personal bias against MS, do you find what he say's to be factually incorrect? I do agree that this device is better compared against the Treo 600.

[mv]

Totally agree. It´s like a KKK member talking about how Tina Turner sings!
:twisted: :twisted: :twisted:

[tvalentin]

A bad review gets a bad review? :silly:

[possmann]

agreed - geesh - my daughter could do a better review... comparing it to phones is like comparing a car to a motorcycle - they both can get you to point a, but they are both used for different things...

It really bugs me when I see people review items that have very little knowledge regarding what the item's primary purpose is... :evil:

[manywhere]

The reviewer also doesn't grasp that this is a PDA, and not a smartphone, because at the end he criticizes the Pocket PC Phone Edition for not being a better "smartphone"....this is one of the worst reviews of the XDA II that I've ever read.
What is the definition of a smartphone? Where is the line between a PDA-phone, a smartphone and a cellphone?

Way way back in the good ol' 1990's, Nokia's Communicator was called a smartphone when it was released. Not by the corporation itself but by the media. Now, is/was the communicator a smartphone by your definition?

While you're pondering at that; I believe that the definition of a smartphone varies greatly between each individual. (Especially us gadget geeks! :D )

Also, the inquirer has published some negative reviews of other devices. And, to my knowledge, they may do so -- after all this is the internet. I do not care what they wish to diss and not, their opinions are in my mind irrelevant.

[adamz]

Is he referring to the original ROM which did have bad battery life, or the latest ROM which has much better battery life?

You can select all email messages by using the Ctrl + A keys on the software input. Just like the desktop computer.

[Janak Parekh]

What is the definition of a smartphone? Where is the line between a PDA-phone, a smartphone and a cellphone?
The lines are indeed gray, but two that are commonly used is the presence of a dialpad or presence of a touchscreen. The XDA does not have a dialpad and does have a touchscreen, which strongly implies that it's a PDA with phone functionality added on. The Nokia Communicator, on the other hand, did not have a touchscreen and had a dialpad (right? I can't remember anymore 8O). The Treo 600 is somewhere in between.

Also, the inquirer has published some negative reviews of other devices.
Right - the Inquirer is... shall we say... "cutting-edge". ;)

--janak

[mv]

But he´s right about one thing: there is no easy way to dial on a PPC. On a Treo 600 that can be done with one hand. On a tungsten I can dial via BT to my T39. On my iPAQ, i can dial using BT, but is not fast and takes two hands. And i really thing that this is weird. Why a 266mhz ppc can´t do something so easy? :devilboy: :devilboy:

[szamot]

Say what you will but in every lie there is always an ounce of truth. Perhaps to a non-cutting edge personality this is a bad device. Perhaps we all are bias against someone who does not conform to our ideas of ideal.

[Cameron_Talley]

It looks to me like the reviewer isn't very familiar with Pocket PCs. In any case, that review didn't do a good job of informing me about the product. To the author: work on your review skill... :(

[Jason Dunn]

Say what you will but in every lie there is always an ounce of truth. Perhaps to a non-cutting edge personality this is a bad device. Perhaps we all are bias against someone who does not conform to our ideas of ideal.

A reviewer can only review a product if he understands what he's reviewing - by comparing the XDA, a PDA with phone functionality, against smartphones (phones with PDA functionality), it shows a fundamental lack of understanding. If I reviewed a Porche Boxster and complained about it's lack of cargo hauling ability, would you consider that a valid comparison? The differences between a PDA and phone are just as critical, and he completely missed that. In reading his review it seems like he spent 20 minutes with the device then gave it back. :?

[adamz]

But he´s right about one thing: there is no easy way to dial on a PPC. On a Treo 600 that can be done with one hand. On a tungsten I can dial via BT to my T39. On my iPAQ, i can dial using BT, but is not fast and takes two hands. And i really thing that this is weird. Why a 266mhz ppc can´t do something so easy? :devilboy: :devilboy:

The Microsoft Voice Command voice recognition is pretty easy, unless you're in a noisey environment. Dialing with one hand is still possible with the XDA 2. Hit the phone button to turn it on, press down or left to get to speed dial or up/right to get to the call history, press down to select who you want to call and hit the action button. Or from within Contacts, scroll to the person you want to call, hold the action button down until the context sensitive menu appears, then press down to choose which number you want to dial, and press the action button to call. That could even be easier than trying to use the phonebook on an Ericsson phone!

[mv]

But he´s right about one thing: there is no easy way to dial on a PPC. On a Treo 600 that can be done with one hand. On a tungsten I can dial via BT to my T39. On my iPAQ, i can dial using BT, but is not fast and takes two hands. And i really thing that this is weird. Why a 266mhz ppc can´t do something so easy? :devilboy: :devilboy:

The Microsoft Voice Command voice recognition is pretty easy, unless you're in a noisey environment. Dialing with one hand is still possible with the XDA 2. Hit the phone button to turn it on, press down or left to get to speed dial or up/right to get to the call history, press down to select who you want to call and hit the action button. Or from within Contacts, scroll to the person you want to call, hold the action button down until the context sensitive menu appears, then press down to choose which number you want to dial, and press the action button to call. That could even be easier than trying to use the phonebook on an Ericsson phone!

Cool... now how can i do that with my iPAQ? :mrgreen:

[Jonathon Watkins]

I sent this in as I was really NOT impressed with the 'review'. It does indeed seem like a 10 min once over by a palm user.

"So you’d need to buy a second one in order to obtain anything remotely resembling a day’s full usage out of it." Really? :?

"The list of features just goes on and on. Which is the problem. " Palm like mentality there. :?

Not impressed - the Inq is usually better than this. :|

[steddyman]

I can't believe that anyone could review the XDA II and report it has poor battery life.

I get at least 3 days usage of the battery with the following usage pattern:-

1. 1.5 hours general PPC usage per day.
2. 20 minutes of voice calls per day.
3. 200k and 30 minutes of GPRS usage per day.

This is better than most Pocket PC devices I have owned and even better than most mobile phones.

It also was the first shipment into the UK, so will be a very early rom edition.

Steddy

[Cortex]

But he´s right about one thing: there is no easy way to dial on a PPC. On a Treo 600 that can be done with one hand. On a tungsten I can dial via BT to my T39. On my iPAQ, i can dial using BT, but is not fast and takes two hands. And i really thing that this is weird. Why a 266mhz ppc can´t do something so easy? :devilboy: :devilboy:

thats the beauty of voice recognition... with my t-mo pocket pc phone, i just tell it the number or contact to dial...

[SJ]

But he´s right about one thing: there is no easy way to dial on a PPC. On a Treo 600 that can be done with one hand. On a tungsten I can dial via BT to my T39. On my iPAQ, i can dial using BT, but is not fast and takes two hands. And i really thing that this is weird. Why a 266mhz ppc can´t do something so easy? :devilboy: :devilboy:


Try Vito QuickContactPro or Mobimate ContactPro for your iPAQ :wink:

or NeuVoice Navigatior, which (IMHO) is the best recognition software I've tried so far. It even works in noisy environment 8)

-SJ

[Scott R]

As some others have said, who really defines what's a smartphone and what's a PDA with phone technology built in? It's a gray area. My old Samsung i300 Palm OS phone just had a touch-pad, but it felt like a phone in the hand and I definitely could see thinking of it as a smartphone. Here's my qualification: If you can hold it up to your ear to talk, you can call it a smartphone.

Scott

[fishd]

i think one thing that needs to be taken into account here is this:

in the uk, O2 is a mobile phone company. the xda and the xdaII are sold in mobile phone shops in the high street. they are sold with a sim card, with contract and AS PHONES.

while as gadget freaks we can argue about the definitions of smartphones vs. pdas with "phone capabilities" but the average joe, the guys and gals picking this thing up in O2 shops all over the uk aren't thinking "hey, that's not a smartphone, my p800/treo 600/orange ev100whatever is a smartphone"... they're thinking one of two things... "jesus, that things HE-UGE!" or "wow, i can get one of these and get a phone and an organiser in one!"

the reviewer is quite valid in explaining the device has shortcomings, let's face it most do (as a P800 owner I know this too well, great phone, great pda, truely lousy sync software!) and just because he has a pop at one of the products based on an MS operating system everyone here slants him as unfair... if the people here could get off their MS-fanboy bandwagons for five minutes ... sheesh.

i work as a windows support technician, i use windows and office xp day in and day out mainly by choice, outlook (despite it's security holes) is my pim of choice, i have an xbox and love it (and constantly lord it over ps/2 fanboys "pfft, those graphics suck, you should see it on my xbox" etc etc) but not everything MS turns out is great, most of it isn't even good.

I'm currently posting this via Mozilla Firefox because imho IE truely sucks, after being deserted by ms I had to ditch my Casio E115 due to lack of software, my Jornada 720 sits unused because of the same reason, (now here's where I'll get the most stick) i've recently bought a Tungsten T3 because after spending two weeks with a WM2003 iPaq I thought it was way too clunky (although a big improvement on PPC2002) and needed resetting far too often (i even had to hard reset it after a weeks usage and reload my apps/data!).

i've been visiting pocketpcthoughts for ages, i love the fact that jason and the crew here do an excellent job at bringing a mix of interesting information, gossip and knowledge together about a wide variety of devices, not just those with an MS OS... but... remember that other people may not share your thoughts on what makes a good device, different nations may market items differently which shows a devices flaws rather than strengths and some people, who are not necessarily evil or wrong, don't like microsoft and because of that aren't prepared to defend a sub-par product simply because it's from microsoft.