Anyone looking at getting a new phone shouldn’t go past the new XDA II Mini… everything you want in a pda, in a smaller size phone… they are beautiful… Not sure about the availability in the US, but I just picked one up in Oz. I wrote a mini review for another site, but I’ll paste it here too for anyone interested..
Ok here’s a mini review of the unit after using it for 1 day… I will compare the unit to the PDA2k which I bought 3 weeks ago.
In the box:
Main Unit, Usb charger/Syncroniser cable, Wall charger, Spare Stylus, ActiveSync CD, Carry Case, Stereo headset 2.5mm, Manual and a 256mb SD Card.
First Impressions out of the box: This unit is small. Alot smaller than the XDA or PDA2k. It is silver, and cold to the touch… Very solidly built, it doesn’t feel like it will fall apart. The face and backplate are seperated by a thick black rubber part that all the buttons fit onto. You need to remove the back plate to insert the battery, but it seems very secure. Also inserting the sim card is very easy too, alot easier than most mobiles these days. The Stylus is about 3/4 of the length of the XDA II/PDA2k Stylus. If it were any shorter then I would be worried, but it seems to be just the right length.. not uncomfortable to use.
Ports and buttons. Along the bottom of the unit there is a mini-usb socket for charging and syncing, to its right is the headphone socket, and then the reset button. On the left hand side of the unit this is a camera button, volume slider, and record button in that order running down the unit. On the right there is the power switch (I really like it’s placement as it is very easy to reach), and the stylus holder. The SDIO slot is located at the top of the unit. As for buttons, there are the standard hangup and dial buttons, a 8-way directional pad with center button (best pad on any pda period!. Very good for games that require movement… very responsive), and below the dial buttons there is a contacts and calendar button respectively. All of these buttons are clumped very closely together which could present problems if you are intending on playing games that require you to move using the d-pad and press another button to perform another action (eg Anthelon).
The Screen is very bright, and sharp. I have no trouble what-so-ever viewing any of the information on it, even though it is roughly 2/3 the size of the xda II. Infact the screen is the sharpest that I have ever seen. There is no yellow tint like found on the PDA2k and is viewable from any angle (very viewable in direct sunlight too!!!).... All programs work on this unit that work on the XDA II or PDA2k as the resolution of the screen is the same…. There is a new little button in the bottom right handside of the task bar. All you need to do to rotate the screen into landscape mode is press this button. Press it again and it returns to normal. No more going through system settings to change the orientation. I love this feature. The only problem with the screen that I can think of, is if you have chubby fingers and are used to dialing numbers with your fingers, you may find it hard to press the right number. I don’t have that problem, but my fingers are fairly skinny.
In terms of operating system, it is running windows 2003se, and the speed of this machine is around 15 - 20% faster than the pda2k in terms of response time. In terms of the extra software loaded….. there isn’t much…. Only a Autoconfig tool which sets up the settings for your operator network, ClearVue pdf viewer and O2 connect which is used to install updates. Thats it. However there is a noticable improvement included with windows 2k3SE that wasn’t on the PDA2k3 that I bought…. It’s a neat new input feature called Phonepad. This feature alone makes it worth purchasing the Xda Mini. Basically, it adds T9 support to a normal phone keypad. You can use it in T9 mode, or normal keypad mode (eg.. Press the 2 key twice to type B) You can use it in any program, and I find it makes smsing soooooo much easier… It has a great word accuracy and makes the unit seem more like a proper phone. Don’t worry about using the onscreen keyboard either as they have increased the size of each letter to cope with the smaller screen size, by moving the number keys to their own keypad.
The Camera in the unit seems a little disappointing. It is supposed to be 1.3mp, but in the viewfinder it looks identical quality to the XDA II and PDA2K… However when you copy the image across to a computer, thats when you notice the quality…. Not quite as good at the nokia 7610 quality, but still a large improvement over the XDA II etc. I haven’t had too much of a play with a camera, so I could be missing some settings somewhere.
Next… The all important Sound quality…. The Microphone quality is excellent. I tested the unit in noisy conditions and the person on the other every heard me very clearly. I also tested using the unit on the desk with the microphone a fair distance away, and it did a great job. The Speaker is also very clear and loud enough. However the loud speaker unforunately is not the same. The max volume on the loud speaker doesn’t seem quite as loud as the XDA II or PDA2K… it also sounds a bit tinny… but in saying that it is still more than ample quality to watch a movie or listen to mp3’s etc… It’s stil better quality than most other phones, but not quite as good as I was hoping for. I read on another forum that it was possible to have an mp3 as a ring-tone… but I couldn’t find a way to do it. It seems to me that you can only use .wav or .wma files as ringtones… I may be missing something!?!?
Now to the bluetooth. It’s the best bluetooth impementation I’ve seen to date. It picked up my HBH-300 straight away, bonded and works perfectly. Call quality is crystal clear (the HBH-300 is the best bluetooth headset available in my opinion.) I tested it on a few calls. No drop out and the person at the other end heard me very clearly once again. I haven’t tested listening to music via the headset, but I’m hoping that it may be possible.
I solved the Lack of Wi-fi by buying the Sandisk Wi-fi card (The 256mb + wi-fi sandisk card does not work on this unit apparently, but I am planning to test it at a later date), installed easily and I was surfing the net within 2 mins (I am using the new belken pre-n 800% times faster etc access point). Windows 2003SE really does make connecting to wi-fi access points a lot easy than I remember on the XDA II. I’m not too upset that there is no bulit in wi-fi as this units’ size doesn’t make it hard to carry the sandisk card around as well, plus I don’t use the wi-fi that much as I would prefer to use my laptop when out and about. I mainly use the wireless to vnc into my server to remote control it when I’m on the road. I was initially concerned about viewing web pages on the small screen, but I have no problems at all, clear sharp and just as easy to read as the XDA II or pda2k in my opinion. (my eyes aren’t the best either as I wear contact lenses).
Power. The unit can be charged two ways. 1) via the mains socket 2) via the sync cable. The unit has a mini-usb port so it’s compatible with all mini-usb cables. This is very convenient for people like me who travel with laptops.. no more seperate charger. I noticed that the unit seems to take a little longer to charge via the sync cable than the mains, but I usually leave mine plugged in to sync anyway. I have only fully charged the unit once to this point. (well, that and when it’s plugged in to sync to install the programs)... The currently battery level is 46% and thats after making approx 1 hours calls via the bluetooth headset, using wi-fi for 20mins, watching 80 mins worth of the simpsons on media player, and about 2 hours use playing games and investigating the unit - all while bluetooth was switched on.
The manual claims 11hrs normal use, and up to 5 hours talk-time. From what I’ve seen so far this seems correct. Not forgetting that I have only charged the device once, so it’s not at it’s full capacity quite yet.
Overall…... I think you can tell that I really like this phone. I much prefer it over the PDA2k as it is no-where near the size, but keeps the quality. I don’t miss the keyboard of the pda2k (I never used it as it was a pain to use, and I prefered the on-screen keyboard.) or the bulit in wi-fi (fixed with the sandisk card). The XDA Mini is cheaper at $1049 (I think the rrp is $1199, but some places like organisaer world in melbourne have it at $1049). If you are tossing up which phone to buy at the moment, I really would suggest you go check out the XDA Mini. I will hopefully be testing the Sandisk wi-fi and 256mb Combo card, so I’ll let you know how I go.
Pros: Build and size of the unit, Screen is amazing, Bluetooth, Speed of the machine, Phonepad, Screen rotation, D-pad
Cons: Speakerphone not quite as loud as expected, lack of built in wi-fi (sandisk SD can solve issue), Screen maybe to small for some, buttons on front of unit are very close together
Overall: 9 out of 10
Images can be found at: (it’s the larger phone with the MDA logo)
http://www.msmobiles.com/news.php/3300.html
