I am of the opinion that handheld PCs will never truly catch on with consumers. The ability to organise one’s life and connect to a wireless network is all very well, but haven’t the manufacturers of these devices missed on one very important detail: The ability to make a voice call. You can’t with most of these devices without first synchronising them with a data-compatible mobile phone. What this means is that the prospective user ends up with two devices in their pocket. Most unsuitable, I think for the majority of users.
Two years ago, there was some salvation for PDA manufacturers when Taiwanese company HTC manufactured the first generation XDA handheld under contract to 02. Essentially the XDA was a handheld organiser based around Microsoft’s Pocket PC operating system, with one essential difference – it came with a GSM and GPRS sim built-in. Not only could you record and synchronise contacts and data with a desktop PC, you could now also place voice calls, send text messages from the device, send and receive e-mail wirelessly and even browse the Web in full HTML glory.
That same functionality comes in the second generation XDA with a few extras thrown in. Gone is the bulky antenna and the operating system has now moved to Windows Pocket PC 2003. Wireless Bluetooth for use with a hands-free headset or car set is also included. Keeping up with the current demand for integrated phone cameras, the XDA II sports a small camera on the back of the device which snaps photos and captures video.
The photos are low resolution at 640 by 480 dots per inch (dpi) – suitable only for e-mailing to contacts and for posting on a website. Short video clips in MPEG 4 can be recorded to an SD portable card (not included); the slot is on the top and the SD card can be removed from the device and inserted directly into many laptops or into many printers for direct printing of photos. Of course, captured photos can also be sent as multimedia messages once you are on a GPRS network.
As I understand it, once your purchase the device from 02, you get a GPRS data connection as standard. GPRS is an effective and fast way of picking up web-based e-mail and e-mail off your business server in work. For collecting web-based mail it’s as simple as inserting your e-mail address e.g. joebloggs@eircom.net and your password; once connected you can collect your e-mail through the 02 gateway. For LAN-based connection it’s a little more complicated and you will need to get your POP3 incoming and outgoing mail settings from your IT administrator to collect the mail off your office server. Let the techie take over here!
The price is the most attractive aspect of XDA II. It comes with a suggested retail price of EUR449 for a first time connection with 02. This represents good value when you consider that even the most affordable Pocket PC-powered handhelds without phone capability generally retail for in excess of EUR400 – take the Dell Axim X3i with wireless networking capability, which retails for EUR411, as a prime example.
Live! verdict ****
Perfect for the business executive or gadget lover who wants to ditch two devices (phone and PDA) in favour of one. 02 also claims that certain professionals can now sacrifice their laptop for one of these devices. Here at Live! we have yet to see evidence of that. If there are users out there who have done this, please let us know.
XDA II – EUR449
Screen 3.5in TFT with a 320 x 240 display resolution
OS Microsoft Windows Pocket PC 2003
Memory 128Mbyte of RAM
Processor Intel Xscale PXA263 400Mhz
Weight 190g
12/01/04
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