O2's XDA Atom reviewed

The folks at MTekk have pooled their collective XDA Atom knowledge and amassed an in-depth review of the unit. The overall impression of the nearly iPod sized Windows Mobile 5 device seems pretty positive; they're digging the 2.7-inch QVGA screen and the quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE phone functionality, but they find it a tad slow in operation. Apparently Windows Mobile 5 is the culprit there, but with the addition of XCPUScalar you can get decent performance, since the 416MHz chip is scaled down from its traditional 520MHz. The battery, if conditioned properly, can muster around three days with medium to heavy usage, and the unit packs some decent stereo speakers, along with a headphone jack, to take advantage of WMP 10. Unfortunately some users have noted a clicking noise during audio playback, which is rough for those importing the device, because you can't try before you buy. The final verdict is an 8.5 out of 10, but the unit will cost you a good amount once you've imported an unlocked unit and bought an SD card to round out the 128MB of ROM, so you'd better hope it's a strong 8.5.

[Via PPC Thoughts]

[MTM @ Jan 24th 2006 6:56PM]

It's only tri-band (could be a deal breaker for people in the US) and it uses miniSD cards (of course, you can argue 'SD card' also covers microSD and miniSD). Anyway, quite an amazing device.

[AbangTosh @ Jan 24th 2006 7:52PM]

Before thinking of buying an Atom checkout comments from those who have use the the Atom for quite a while in Singapore (it was selling in Singapore since last December). You can checkout user comments and feedback here:
http://www.ppcsg.com/index.php?showforum=16

Seems like a lot of them prefer the Dopod 818 Pro.. if you insist on buying the Atom make sure you get the latest ROM update as it solve a lot of the reported sluggish performance and other problems.

[John Smith @ Jan 24th 2006 9:29PM]

Do NOT buy this piece of garbage. Unbelievably slow to use - slow even to use the built-in apps - like the phone! Poor volume - hard to hear or be heard. AND - O2 - stung by the criticism - are releasing a followup version anyway - check out MTEK.

[Will @ Jan 24th 2006 11:34PM]

Looking at the surface scratches on that XDAII, it seems as though it has spent most of its life being used as some sort of gaming rig, they look uncanily similar to those on my x30 after using it for the past year for solitaire only.

just thought id mention it.

[recrem @ Jan 25th 2006 12:52AM]

Hi Guys! The link to my review has certainly boosted MTekk's page loads over the past few hours. It's nice to see.

With regard to the scratches on my XDA II screen protector - it has certainly seen a lot of Solitair, but also heavy use writing reviews and not to mention heavy use at work. I am hopeful my new XDA Atom screen will cope until some Expert Shield protectors are released!

[dr @ Jan 25th 2006 3:18PM]

Thanks, but I prefer my good ole' treo 650. =]

[Liam Young @ Mar 6th 2006 5:15PM]

Great product, perfect for anyone wanting the phone and pda cross-over, decent size... only issue is speed, but don't blame 02, blame damn microsoft who kill any machine small or large!

Goodluck folks, we're either going to stick with this or go for a much BIGGER Xda Exec... :/