At first glimpse the unit it looked quite elegant, small and thin. The words Pocket PC was written all over it. It is indeed a pocket PC and it boasts a lot of features that the traditional PC's have. It has a buit-in Microsoft Pocket Office and a Pocket PDF viewer. It's 2.8 inch LCD with has the same number of pixels compared to it's bigger brothers, the O2 XDA, and XDA 2. This means that it's as sharp as them but smaller. Its running on Windows Mobile 2003 which is not the latest at that time but has more available third party applications than the newer Windows Mobile 5. It has an Intel PXA272 processor with a clock speed of 416MHz, 64MB of RAM and also 64MB of ROM. The memory is not enough to open all the programs that you want that is why you have the option of installing programs in the external SD card when using ActiveSync. One thing that bothers me is the memory allocation/usage technique of WM2003. The local storage space is shared with the current running programs, that is why you have to close those programs that is the least importance. Aside from that is that the programs does not terminate when you exit it using the x at the upper right corner of the screen. You have to end the programs by accessing the task manager in the settings menu(control panel in Windows). Good thing that Dinarsoft's Handy Switcher can be installed to make things easier. Another software that I recommend is Resco Explorer. It makes file browsing more easier like it was Windows Explorer. You can expand or compress folders for easy navigation. It also comes with a Today Screen monitor to view the status of your main battery, back-up battery, RAM allocation, internal storage, and external storage.
I have maximized it's potential when I went to China for a business trip. I asked my Chinese counterpart to sent me pictures of Chinese characters and symbols of my Hotel, Company, and the names of the places to help me tell taxi drivers and people that I bump along the way of where I am going. And while I am riding the train and ferry I never got bored since I have packs of reading materials right inside the Mini most especially Avantgo channels like PC World, CNET, and CNN. I even watched an entire 12 rounds of my favorite boxing match. I also installed an English to Chinese translator with voice, that even helped me further in reaching my destination.
O2 bundled it with Sprite Back-up software so you do not loose everything when you experience an unexpected device black-out. When your device looses all the juice thats left in it's main battery it has a back-up battery to maintain all your contacts, calendar events, tasks, installed programs and other current information for a short period until you find the charger wherever you left it in the house. But when you find your charger on a later time then all of your data is gone. So I suggest that you back-up regularly maybe at least once a month to safekeep all your precious data. That is why i created a cd that has all the necessary programs that I need when a black-out on my device comes in the way. The programs that are very useful to me are: Resco Explorer, Tome Raider, Repligo Viewer, The Core Media Player, WordBook Dictionary, Avantgo, DinarSoft Handy Switcher, and Adobe Pocket Reader. I stored these installers in a folder and burned it in a CD so I have something to break in case of emergency. I usually use Outlook to back-up all my contacts and calendar events. Take note that you have to configure your ActiveSync set-up as to how to resolve changes made either in your PC or your PDA. I usually configure ActiveSync to overwrite the items on my PC during syncing since I always enter new contacts on my PDA rather than on my PC. Also, be careful not to accidentally open the back cover since this is the major cause of data loss. The device will turn-off itself when the cover is removed.The built-in 1.3 Megapixel camera is not as good compared to Sony Ericsson handsets. Although it has more pixels in store but the quality takes it down since it does not have an aoutofocus and is not really good when using at lower light levels. Imagine the picture quality of the Nokia 7250 with increased picture size. I do not recommend using this in taking those special moments but use a much abled point and shoot digicam instead.
Call quality is not a problem since my wife and me never had a misunderstanding while talking over Globe's cellular GSM network. But problems came when receiving my Dad's Smart handset which gets to the point that it's like I'm holding a single duplex radio. Maybe it's the interconnection between Smart and Globe that's the problem and not my handset.
As of now my XDA 2 Mini is in my wife's possession and she said that it's much better than her Nokia handset since she likes to read e-books. She asked me to install e-book readers such as MS Reader, and Mobi Pocket Reader so that she can maximize it's potential. Although the battery is not as good as before, she have no problem charging it every night. She never lost her data ever since she used it. I
The O2 XDA 2 Mini is a perfect device for those who need a basic phone and a powerful multi-tasking PDA. This has helped me a lot while I am on the go and has served its purpose as being really a Personal Assistant.
For more information about the O2 XDA II Mini please click on the links below:
http://www.gsmarena.com/o2_xda_ii_mini-944.php
http://mobile.softpedia.com/phones/O2/O2-XDA-II-mini.shtml
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