Getting a few reviews in the pipeline now. RRCs will be returned.
Getting a few reviews in the pipeline now. RRCs will be returned.
Member since:21.12.2005
Reviews:173
Members who trust:54
This phone was recently issued to me by my employer as a replacement for the XDA2i, which had proved to be unreliable. I will divide this review into two parts, my initial impression of the phone and my experience of using it in the field.
Our usage of PDA phones is how we get our calls in the field. I work as a field support engineer and when a call arrives for me it is displayed on the screen in an application called antenna, which we install on our phones.
The first thing you will notice about this phone is the deviously clever design of the box! it took some of our guys ten minutes to get it open and find all the accessories.
we carry our service manuals on SD cards and I found fitting the microSD card very fiddly. once installed, however, it stays put. it goes under the SIM card and anyone who has handled a micro SD will tell you, it is smaller than a badger's toe nail.
The screen is smaller than the old XDA, making reading the call log more difficult. THe phone quality is better, the bluetooth, once you sus out how it works (God forbid that any tech ever reads the manual!) - the old XDA used to regularly fall over with bluetooth, not allowing you to answer calls. The other problem with the old one was the deplorable battery life - sometimes the battery would be flat by lunchtime unless you took the charger with you to jobs. this new one has lasted 2 days, which is a vast improvement, especially as it is the first charge and should improve when the battery is properly conditioned.
The big problem that I have found with all the PDA phones I have tried is that whenever you have finished with an application and click on the X to close it, it carries on running in the background, when you look at the running program list everything you have used that day is there. you can then close each of them. when too many applications are running it gets very slow to respond
The phone is easy to set up for internet access, especially if you have a wireless access point, although surfing the net on such a tiny screen is a bit pointless.
Data connections can be made via dial up and GPRS.
Call quality is reasonable, although the FM radio is a disappointment.
The camera is pretty much like any other phone camera, anyone who has read my phone reviews in the past will know my views on such things, to me they are as much use as wing mirrors on a donkey.
The stylus is a bit small and fiddly and, quite annoyingly, instead of fitting into a slot at the top of the phone it locates in the bottom, so that when it gets a bit worn it will probably fall out and get lost.
The good thing is that, unlike the XDA IIi, I have not needed to reset it, with the IIi I was having to reset anything up to ten times per day.
The unit synchronises with my PC via the cable supplied. other PDAs have a cradle but that is just another piece of junk taking up space on my desk. The cable is a more elegant solution.
The connector on the bottom is a lot more robust than the ones I have experienced on other phones, the charger, wired headset and synchronisation cable all use the same connector, so it might be a bit of a pain if you wanted to listen to the radio and charge at the same time. it will charge from the USB cable but the wired headset is required for the FM radio, as it also acts as the antenna.
The bluetooth is reliable, I have had no cause to use the infrared connection, the WiFi is just what it says, it works.
In all? it was provided by work for a particular task. I could not imagine buying one for personal use.
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Advantages: Lightweight, Loads of features, GPS, free Win Mobile 6 upgrade Disadvantages: Touchscreen can be a little fiddly, cheap headphones, no case included
hailstormxp 17.10.2007 (17.10.2007)
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Review of O2 Xda Orbit
Advantages: Good looks, huge screen, software, range of features Disadvantages: Apps not easy enough to find, battery life not great when running WiFi or Bluetooth
MikeB_86 09.06.2009 ·
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
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