O2 XDA II

Discontinued
25th October 2003

The O2 XDA II starts to ship in November 2003, according to O2. By all accounts, the XDA II is a huge improvement over the first O2 XDA model.

To begin with, there's a complete software upgrade, taking the O2 XDA II to Windows Mobile 2003 for Pocket PC. It has a 400MHz Xscale processor and a huge 128Mb RAM.

On the hardware side, the O2 XDA II has a 640x480 pixel digital camera, and it has a large 240x320 screen in 65,000 colours. Memory expansion can be done with SD and MMC cards. The O2 XDA II measures 130x70x19 mm and weighs 190 grams, which is fairly standard for a PDA but makes this large and heavy for a phone.

The original XDA suffered from short battery life, but the O2 XDA II is a lot better. Talk time is up to 5 hours, and standby time is about seven days making the XDA II much more practical for the business market.

Also with businesses in mind, the XDA II comes as a tri-band phone, and itI comes with GPRS, Bluetooth and infra-red. If you have an original XDA, then it might well be worth considering upgrading to the O2 XDA II. If you're in the market for a really smart smartphone, then the XDA II is well worth a look too.

The XDA II is one of a whole series of recent phones that pushes back the boundaries between different electronic devices. As yes, no one device is perfect. This one has strengths in music playback, PDA functions and connectivity, but the lack of a keypad would prove irritating to many. Still, it's a very good alternative to looking for a PDA such as an HP iPAQ because the mobile functions are integrated. All in all, a great improvement for O2's UK customers.