O2 XDA Atmos

Discontinued
12th March 2008

O2 have been in the Windows Smartphone market longer than most - the original O2 XDA was launched way back in 2002, and it was one of the very first Windows devices on the market. Originally O2 relied on HTC, but recently it has gone elsewhere to source its latest XDA handsets.

So, the new O2 XDA Atmos is a little different from other carrier's Windows smartphones in that it isn't an HTC device, and is presumably made by ASUS. A tri-band UMTS device with HSDPA high-speed data, WiFi, quad-band GSM, GPRS and EDGE, the XDA Atmos ticks all the boxes when it comes to connectivity.

The 2.4" touchscreen is pretty normal too, and the O2 XDA Atmos comes with Windows Mobile 6 and all the usual software that you would expect, including push email support and "Pocket" versions of Microsoft Office.

However, the unusual thing about the O2 XDA Atmos is that it features a full numeric keypad and a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, which means that the Atmos can be used seamlessly in either mode.

This layout is a bit of a compromise, and the numeric keypad does mean that the screen is smaller than other similar smartphones. On the other hand, it's the only phone that we can think of that has this type of arrangement, and we suspect that many consumers will find that the O2 XDA Atmos is ideal for their needs.

The other features on the XDA Atmos are not really surprising - a 2 megapixel camera, video calling, 4 hours talktime on UMTS, Bluetooth 2.0 and microSD expandable memory round off a pretty typical feature set. O2 say that the XDA Atmos has 64MB of memory when we would hope to see more, but overall this looks to be a pretty decent Windows mobile device, and the dual-keypad arrangement is certainly novel.

The XDA Atmos is available now, at a variety of prices depending on the tariff chosen.

Haven't I heard that name somewhere before?

If you are of a certain age, you may just remember the Oric Atmos from 1984! [Photo source].

Conceived several years before cellular phones were common, the Atmos also featured a QWERTY keyboard and was powered by Microsoft.. in this case, a version of Microsoft BASIC. Did O2's marketing department remember this 1980s relice when they named the XDA Atmos? We don't know.. we have a sneaking suspicion that the Oric might be older than many of O2's marketing team!