O2 XDA Mini S user reviews
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User reviews16
Kevin Chan 21 August 2010
Good: camera, touch screen, qwerty keyboard
Bad: no 3g
Comment: great phone
Gude 12 February 2008
Good: It does EVERYTHING right.
Bad: Size
Comment: I've had this phone since October 2007, and i bought it second hand. I have only had one problem so far - and that was because i had it unlocked, occasionally it rejects my sim card, but that is solved by a simple turn off and back on again.
Design: The only fault for me is the size, its chunkier than my SPV C500 was, so sometimes at football matches i have a bit of a problem. The keyboard is great, the buttons on it are perfect size for typing. The MiniSD card is at the top of the phone instead of behind the battery which is great.
Rating For Design: 8/10
Features: Perfect. Does everything right and if there is something it doesnt have (i havent found anything yet), then it is so easy to put it on. With my SPV C500 it took me 5mins to put a new application on because it took so long to install, with this i can do it within 30 seconds. I don't use the microsoft office much but the occasional times i have used it, it has been great.
Rating For Features: 10/10
Performance: Perfect again. Everything works. And for the first time, The help feature actually helps!!!!!
Rating For Performance: 10/10
Overall: Superb.
PS - At people saying 'crap call quality'. you need you ears testing. There is nothing wrong with it. It is much better than any other phone i have had, and i have had a lot.
Hope thins helps.
Thanks
Steve
David Blastock 13 January 2007
Good: Everything about it
Bad: Nothing
Comment: Good phone, perfect
10/10
Anonymous 10 October 2006
Good: Keyboard, Windows/Outlook sync, Wi-Fi, Media player, voice-activated dialling, miniSD for media and files, GPRS for mobile based surfing.
Bad: Slowish CPU and/or short on internal memory. Slow O2 software.
Comment: Windows mobile is powerful and extensible, but out of the box for a phone or even PDA-based user it can be a bit difficult to use. Microsoft have got to work harder to get up with competition such as other PDA/phone built-in applications. That said, the sync with Outlook and Exchange is excellent and the exec fits in to that laptop on the move idea with out all the luggage! By the way, using the voice-activated dialling removes most of the 'it's not a phone handset' type niggles, as does using the hot keys.
Duncan Smith 1 August 2006
Good: Connectivity, push email, screen quality
Bad: Lack of shortcut to phone features
Comment: Just replaced a treo 650 with the O2 XDA Mini S. As a Mac user, I've always leaned towards Palm-based phones as they're easy to sync with Mac OS X. However, combining this phone with 'missing sync' software (about £20) was a breeze - first time sync, no problems. It'll also 'mount' the phone on the Mac desktop for access to my documents etc.
So far, very impressive and already knocking the socks off the Treo 650.
Sudhakar Sharma 3 July 2006
Good: Its size, easy to carry (unlike other XDAs), sliding Qwerty keyboard
Bad: Supplied hands-free headphones, looks plasticky and cheap!
Comment: It's a good phone for people who fancy a PDA, not for kids!
Chris Lomas 29 June 2006
Good: Size and potential features
Bad: Instability
Comment: I have never gone more than 3 weeks without either the phone doing a hard reset itself and wiping all my data and software, or me having to do a hard reset because the software became corrupt and only the essential functions would work (this doesn't include the phone). On top of this I would say that I have to soft reset it at least every 2 days and the battery life is poor, meaning you have to keep it constantly on charge.
Nice idea, technology doesn't seem to be there yet though.
Piers Bell 13 June 2006
Good: Instant, out-of-the-box functionality; Wi-Fi; intuitive, powerful operating system; wealth of features; hi-performance after O2 'software' removal
Bad: apparent slight lack of built-in memory (dependance on new SD-mini cards),
Comment: The O2 XDA Mini S is in short brilliant. Its new operating system is its core feature, which blows Palm away. The keyboard is extremely useful and makes text-messaging, MSN, email and data-entry actually viable on a handheld.
The downsides can be easily rectified without significant extra cost: the slight lack of processing grunt can be offset by software utilities and the immediate removal of O2's 'active interface'. The lack of memory means that a new model of SD card must be bought for serious file storage. Although the processor is only 195MHz OMAP it outruns an Intel X-Scale of the same calibre and no program I have installed has bugged out due to lack of CPU power. Plus it uses less battery than an Intel.
The device is powerful and eager to be user-friendly. It is packed with features that are easy to exploit and unlike a lot of these devices it more-or-less takes care of itself.
Negative comments regarding its telephone-call quality prove to be untrue. This could be due to updated software since the product's initial review. Provided the phone speaker volume is set to maximum it sounds great. It should also be noted by those living in remote areas that the signal pickup is better than any mobile phone I have owned in the last 5 years.
Raju Varsani 20 May 2006
Good: Most of it
Bad: Whilst listening to MP3's the keypad and screen both can't be turned off, using more power.
Comment: All round good phone/PDA. Was initially concerned about the O2 ROM as I had heard that there were bugs which cause the device to crash. However I think that there is a new ROM which is installed, my device has no problem. It works well, TomTom works too (with Bluetooth GPS reciever)! Brilliant Wi-Fi. Reasonable battery life. Using the device to call and text does take some getting used to, but it's not a problem. All round brilliant device... has everything you could need.
Scott Parker 26 April 2006
Good: Good size, nice keyboard, great screen
Bad: Processor very slow, not perfect as a phone
Comment: In theory, this looks as though it has everything I want, but using it day-to-day has been a nightmare. It's very slow and crashes frequently, especially if you have more than one app running (and they don't close when you think they have). I haven't installed anything funny or done anything particularly intensive, just looking at emails, web, calendar etc.
And it's not just me, my two colleagues had exactly the same problem.
The Orange M500 is the same size but has a bigger processor and PPC2003 OS rather than Windows Mobile 5.0, but I might just return to the huge but reliable big brother the M1500 (or XDA II)