Having read the reviews on ciao (and numerous other sites) I must admit I was wary of buying the 02x1. No one had much to say about the phone, other than “don’t buy it!” I was on the look out to upgrade my nokia phone to a camera phone, and at first I attempted to buy a Motorola ... Read review
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3 hours - great value, so buy a spare charger for the office ensuring you're always contactable - can be used in conjunction with our range of desktop chargers - 3-pin (for use in the UK) - CE safety tested for piece of mind Suitable for the following O2 X1
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Great price, great features, camera of high quality and motion .
Disadvantages:
Can only store 10 SMS messages .
Recommend to potential buyers:
yes
Full review
Having read the reviews on ciao (and numerous other sites) I must admit I was wary of buying the 02x1. No one had much to say about the phone, other than “don’t buy it!” I was on the look out to upgrade my nokia phone to a camera phone, and at first I attempted to buy a Motorola V525 but found out the release of that specific phone wasn’t until late March. Being the inpatient person that I am, I couldn’t wait as long as that, so I considered buying the 02x1. The reviews I read on it weren’t positive, and at the time the all-over rating of the phone on ciao was 2 stars, and many people said there was no point in buying the phone. I decided to wait for the release of the Motorola V525 and was eagerly anticipating its release until one day I read in a magazine that 02 had sorted out all of the 02x1’s problems and now it was a perfect phone for anyone; especially a first-time camera phone buyer. So, I took a risk. A big one at that. I forked out just under £200 (£170 to be precise) for it and must admit I was dreading receiving it in case I had taken too big of a risk. Luckily, it was the right decision to make…
♣ ♣ First Impressions… ♣ ♣
When I received the phone the first thing that sprung to mind was that it was a lot smarter than I’d anticipated it to be. I had seen the Motorola V500/525 and the new Sharp phone (which are both modern camera phones) and both are very heavy in weight and rather brick-like. The flip phone was silver with a very shiny and classy cover and it had a 180-degree rotating camera that was pretty smooth and easy to turn around. It had a small aeriel, and its battery was extremely light and thin. Weighing a mere 85g it’s not heavy to hold or to keep in your pocket. I was, at first impression, pleased with the phone. It had everything anyone could want, in respect of appearance, and if the features were good (which I hoped they would be) I would also be pleased with the appearance of the phone. The phone arrived with a charger and hands free which I was extremely pleased about. The hands free were also very smart, and were much nicer than ones I’d seen in the past. I was a bit disappointed that it didn’t have blue tooth. Blue tooth enables you to send numbers/pictures and other things to another phone that also has blue tooth. It can be done through holding the two phones close together (and keeping them at least 10cm close to each other) and sending the number or picture or whatever you wish to send. It can be done free and most new mobile phones have them. The fact that I didn’t have it wasn’t that disappointing but I did wish I would have the feature. ♣ ♣ The Features ♣ ♣
The ease of use of the phone altogether is pretty easy. I find it easy to text and to take pictures although when trying to use my phone some friends find it difficult to work out. I put this down to the fact that they aren’t really familiar with it, and I’m sure that if you used it long-term you’d get to know it easily. There are many features on the phone that I was pleased with and nothing disappointed me.
♣ Messages
Like all mobile phones the 02x1 has SMS; and like most new mobile phones it has MMS. The SMS feature is pretty simple to work out and to use. You’ve got an inbox and an outbox and you can save different templates. You’re able to write 456 characters in one text, which does save time and you can also use speed text which is up to date, although like most speed text facilities it can be annoying with “he” and “if” when the phone doesn’t know which one you want. The downside of the SMS facility is that you can only store 10 SMS messages, and that includes inbox and outbox messages. I was really surprised that the amount you could save was so little and was very disappointed. I use the SMS facility more so than calling someone, so I do receive around 10 messages a day. That means that I have to delete my messages everyday. Compared to the new nokia phone (which stores over 100 messages) it is very poor, and I was disappointed with the fact that 10 was the maximum amount that could be stored. Other than that, the SMS feature is very up to score. It’s got everything you need, including the facility where you can add an image or an animation to the message.
The other feature is MMS messaging. Here you can send and receive media messages. That is picture messages in non-phone talk. The only downer with this is that I can’t find a way to save my photos that I receive into the photos that I take. This means that the images I receive through MMS cannot be used as wallpaper, as it isn’t in my photos file but my MMS file. I found this irritating and off putting at first, and still do really, but have got used to the fact that I can’t find a solution to the problem. To my knowledge it can’t be done (as I’ve searched and searched the manual), although I could be wrong and I could just not be able to find a way to do it.
♣ 02 Active
02 active is, simply, the Internet. I haven’t really sued the feature much, but from what I’ve heard you can use e-mail and other features of the web on the phone. Each time I access the feature (through the blue button in the centre of the keypads) I get a list of facilities to choose from, including messaging, news, downloads, etc. I’ve downloaded a few ringtones from here, which is pretty handy. It’s even handier for this handset as it’s difficult to find ringtones that are suitable to download to the 02x1. That’s the downer of the phone – as it’s not as popular as other handsets it’s difficult to find sites that offer ringtones and wallpapers for the phone. I haven’t actually accessed the web yet, but I know people who have and say that it’s nothing different. If you have a WAP phone at the moment, then this will be exactly the same; there won’t be any new features on this one. Every time I access 02 active I get it for free for some reason. I’m not totally sure whether this is just because I’m lucky or whether this happens on each handset, but each time I access it, I don’t pay a penny. Lucky, eh?
♣ Organiser
I knew what I’d miss the most with my old nokia was the alarm. I knew there was an alarm on the 02x1, but I just hoped it would be as useful as the nokia one. On the 02x1 you can set 3 alarms at once (for different times, obviously) for any time of the day. There are five different sounds to choose from, but there’s a slight problem. Although all sounds are effective in what their purpose are, and are rather cool I find them a bit too loud. Many of times I’ve almost suffered a heart attack after the alarm going off in the morning. Not because I think I’m getting up late but because it’s so loud! Too loud if that’s possible. I’ve got used to it now, but if you’re the only person waking up in your house in the morning and are hoping to be discreet it probably isn’t the best thing to set the alarm on the 02x1 because I’m sure you’ll wake them up; and the neighbours!
Another feature on the organiser is the Calendar. This gives you the opportunity to set memos/birthdays/meetings on different occasion to remind you of that specific occasion. It also gives you a month view or a day view, and is a very modern updated feature on the phone. I don’t use it that often, but for a businessman or woman it would be very handy. The phone also has a feature that enables you to set tasks (“reminders” to use old-nokia users) that will remind you of different things to do on different days. You can set quite a few at one time to my knowledge and is a very handy thing to have; especially for people you forget things pretty easily! And of course, there’s a calculator like all phones have nowadays. It’s pretty modern and cool, again, and is simple to use. Just like any calculator!
♣ Games
I was rather upset that I’d be leaving my Snake II behind on my Nokia so I was hoping that I could have some good games on the 02x1. Sadly, I wasn’t too impressed by them. They are both java games, and the first is Jumping Bear and the second is Mini Golf. Both are satisfactory and easy to play, but rather dull and boring. There aren’t top scores, and for people who are rather competitive like myself that isn’t a very good thing. Another downer here is that if you flip the phone down during playing the phone will freeze and you’ll have to take out the battery and put it back in again to use it. But, this is the only time this happens. It NEVER freezes otherwise no matter what anyone says. Games can be bought and downloaded on 02 active for around £1.50 (which is a very good and reasonable price). Although I haven’t downloaded any I would recommend a game freak to do so, because that’s a very good price. Luckily for me the games feature of a phone isn’t that important, so the fact that the games aren’t much cop doesn’t matter to me. And really what you’ve got to ask yourself is, does it matter to you if the games are good or not?
♣ Ringtones & Wallpapers
With polyphonic ringtones and a wide range of wallpaper features the 02x1 has both great wallpapers and ringtones. There are 40 polyphonic ringtones to pick from, which are all fun, modern and funky and can fit anyone’s taste. You can also pick from 10 different polyphonic SMS alerts. Both the ringtones and the SMS alerts range is very wide and I often change both of them because I love so many of the different ones. I’ve downloaded a few ringtones too, from 02 active for a mere £2.50 and I can use this as well. You can have a specific ringtone for a certain person too or for a certain group. A group is when you group you’re phone book, e.g. friends, family, colleagues etc. I don’t do this, but for people who have a lot of numbers/people in their phone book it’s a good idea to do it. The ringtones on the phone are wonderful, and are the best I’ve had. They’re also much better than other phones’ variety.
The wallpaper features are very good too. You can choose a picture from you’re photos that you’ve taken to wallpaper as well. They’re of a very high standard, and I often change my wallpaper depending on my mood. Certainly another great feature.
♣ Phone Book
With over 250 names and numbers possible to save the 02x1 is certainly a phone for a people with a lot of friends (and remember that this is the phone that stores a mere 10 SMS messages!). You can store the person’s name, surname, home number, mobile number, work number, address, postal code, country, e-mail address and you can group them into a certain group. So, as you can see there are a wide variety of features in the phone book alone. A phone book is a phone book, really, but the 02x1 phone book is certainly one that is a cut above the rest. It’s full of different features and you can store many numbers. It’s most certainly impressive!
♣ Camera
And of course, the whole reason so many people are upgrading their phones, and the whole reason I bought the phone… the camera. The 02x1 takes wonderful pictures and not only that, but takes motion clips as well. For the pictures and the motion there’s 2MB, which I find pretty reasonable. You can easily take up to 200 pictures with this. The only problem (if you could call it that) is that the picture and motion don’t have separate MB, but share the same. For one small motion clip, you could probably take about 30 pictures, so in retrospect, it’s best to just take pictures. To date I’ve not saved any motion clips, although they are fun. They don’t record sound but they’re pretty top-notch, really. The whole camera facility is very clever and modern and certainly as good (if not better, perhaps) than I thought it might be. You can view thumbnails of the photos or have a photo list. Either way they’re still great to look through, to send, and to remember with. You can add frames around you’re pictures (which is a lot of fun to do) and you can also zoom in and out, and can get pretty close to someone whilst trying to picture them! There are great features with the camera that doesn’t let it down. A great good quality camera that I’m dead proud to have!
♣ ♣ So, Did I Make A Mistake? ♣ ♣
After reading what I’ve said about the features you probably know that I wasn’t disappointed with it, I did take a risk with a buying it as it had received such bad reviews and no one really had any good to say about, but all in all, I’m really happy with the phone. With it’s 180 degree rotating camera you can easily take a picture of whatever you want. There isn’t a flash (which isn’t uncommon with a camera phone at all), which doesn’t really bother me as I usually take pictures in the light or in daylight, so it doesn’t affect me. The fact that it freezes on java games and that it can only store 10 SMS messages is the big downers for me, though. I don’t really play the java games so that’s not as big an issue, but I am an avid texter so that does disappoint me. If it stored 50 SMS messages I’d be completely, 100% happy, but that’s something that just makes me 98% happy with it!
I think that the 02x1 is a phone for anyone really – young or old; businessman/woman or student. It’s got such a wide variety of features that it wouldn’t disappoint anyone, it’s very versatile for anyone really. It’s not difficult to use at all, and I learnt how to use it within hours of getting it. The battery's pretty long lasting too. It has to be charged very three days or so, and that's after a good use. it usually takes around 3 hours to charge fully from no blocks at all. It’s light and looks smart and at £170 I think it’s well prized against its competitors that aren’t that good. All in all I’m happy with it. So, did I make a mistake with buying it? Definitely not!
I give it 4 and half stars, which rounds up to 5. Highly Recommended.
Advantages: Looks good, Compact, Nice Screen and Rotating Camera. Disadvantages: Bad Predictive Text, Lot's of Little Annoyances.
...annoyingly placed, for example the O2 button in the middle of the directional keys should surely be a menu or okay button instead, I mean who really wants a button which takes you directly to the O2 wap site and nothing else, you could have set a shortcut key for that! Saying all this the layout of the buttons is 'okay' and should not be a problem for nimble fingers.
The menu on the phone looks like it should be easy to use as it shows two rows ... ...can only go through these icons in a set order of forward or back making it a little annoying if you're in a hurry. Moving through the menu can get confusing at times as to what button does what, as there is an okay button, a call button and a hang up button for you to use. It appears that the okay button and the call button switch places every now and again as one brings up a menu and the other 'okay's' things as they please, surely they could be ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Advantages: Good camera, looks good Disadvantages: Poor texting, not practical
...have had a contract with O2 for several years now and have had several phones within this period so without professing to be an expert, I’d like to think this review is not wholly unqualified.
First Impressions
Firstly, when I ripped the bubble wrapping off and pulled out my new phone, I was impressed by the way it looked. It’s a very attractive phone, with a completely metallic look. Its external display shows a battery meter, reception, time, ... ...What I found with the O2 X1 though is that the menu system is very confusing and irritating. It has a green phone button which you sometimes press to activate menus and confirm actions, but you also have an ok button which also does this at different stages so I was forever pressing the red cancel button to withdraw my actions. As with everything, you get to instinctively know how to do things eventually but it takes time to accustom yourself to ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Advantages: Looks very nice, and has a good colour screen. Disadvantages: Bad predictive text, and can crash a little.
I got this phone for my birthday, in December. I opened the box and was amazed, it is very attractive and looks a lot more expensive than it actually is. When starting to play on it, it worked a dream and i really liked it.
Ease of use - 6/10
This phone is incredibly different to the typical nokias everyone is used to, the keys used are different, and everything takes that little bit longer to do and get used to. Camera - 6/10
The camera is situated ... ...rotate it around to take pictures of yourself or of things infront of the camera. It is quite simple to use once you have got the hang of it, but can be a little confusing at first. The quality of the pictures is not very high, they come out blurred and dark, also there is no data cable yet (i think) so you cannot download your photos onto a computer.
Wap capability - 5/10
My phone did not come with wap on, but i managed to set up a basic wap, ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Advantages: Good Camera, Good Looks, Ringtones Disadvantages: Freezes, Crashes, Will probably take its last breath after 6months
The 02 X1 was a phone i longed to get, i loved it dearly until it said its last word - select ringtone then it froze and never worked again, took it to the carphone warehouse and they sent it off for repair. A long 6 weeks went past and i got told i would never get it back. So here is my review of the X1.
.: Messages :.
Texts are not an easy thing to send on this phone, the predictive text is rubbish and i wouldn't have been able to speed text ... ...once took me 4 minutes to send this message - ok then, see ya later. The message storage space was not great - about 9 or 10 depending on the size of the message. .:Making a call:.
The phone can be comfortable to use when making a phone call, the problem is though you can hear the person incredibly well but they cant hear a word you say, even if your reception bar is on full.
.: Ringtones :.
The ringtones are great, they are polyphonic and they ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Advantages: Looks good, good size, light, charges quickly Disadvantages: Bad predictive text, no snooze on alarm, no silent mode
...a new (free) phone on o2 and my requirements were a silver flip phone with colour screen, camera and polyphonic ringtones. The o2 X1 gives me these features, however, it misses out a lot of other features that I'd taken for granted with previous phones. The main problems with this phone were the predictive text is very slow which usually means you end up typing half your message in nonsense. You can't go back and easily edit words either like on ... ...type it again. The dictionary is quite limited compared to other brands and it seems to not remember words you type in in ABC mode but does remember nonesense words you type by accident which is highly annoying.
The alarm on the phone has several problems with it. On previous phones if you set a time it would go off at that time the next day, however with this phone you have to set the actual day which sometimes you can forget to do which results ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Advantages: just about everything! Disadvantages: sometimes it takes photos when its in your pocket
...I got this phone around a year ago as an exchange for the O2X1. (which was terrible... read my other review for more info!)
I loved it from the very first time I seen it. I charge mine around every three nights, which is good considering the amount of time I use the phone. (I'm definantly text-obsessed and forever playing games and phoning friends). The charger is very reliable and clicks into place, so it's easy to find my phone in the mornings when it's fell down the side of my bed, I just pull the cable and there it is! I tried that on other phones I used to have and the phone just fell off, leaving me on a quest down the side of the bed to find the phone.
It's relativly easy to type texts- the one problem with texting is having to change to the ABC mode every time you open the text screen- either I haven't found a way to save...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Advantages: An impressive phone packed with features Disadvantages: Software drags a bit
...The Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 is a phone I have had the privilege of using during the past four weeks, it came as part of a monthly O2 24 month contract package at £30 a month so I didn't pay for the handset separately. It is a well designed phone with an overall finish of brushed metal that makes the shell case feel solid and pleasing to hold in the palm of the hand. The sleek design is enhanced by stylish peripheral buttons and the fact that there are no irritating floppy rubber doors covering ports. Yes, there are lighter and slimmer phones out there, but such attributes are really a matter of taste and fashion. Its dimensions are 17mm deep by 53mm wide by 110mm tall. Personally I really like the slim width of the phone and I like my gadgets to have substantial weight (the phone weighs in at 145 grams) to remind one that they're in your...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
![Elekratek Maxon O2 X1 Mobile Phone Windscreen Mount Holder [ MOUNT_UNI ]](http://picnica.ciao.com/uk/76378650.jpg)
![Elekratek Maxon O2 X1 Mobile Phone Windscreen Mount Holder and Car Charger [ MOUNTCHARGER_UNI ]](http://picnicb.ciao.com/uk/76378663.jpg)
20.03.2009
10.11.2007
