The O2 XDA Atom Pure
By recrem
Since the initial release of the glossy black O2 XDA Atom
back in late 2005, many complaints were generated on various forums
regarding the buggy operating system, slow performance and plastic case
quality. After a number of ROM upgrades, O2 finally released a stable
operating system in April 2006, which fixed many of the problems users were
facing. Two months later in May 2006, O2 released the XDA Atom Pure which
addressed the issues regarding the quality of the case.
The O2 XDA Atom Pure is a small, lightweight and attractive
device running the latest Windows Mobile 5 Operating System that includes
the Messaging and Security Feature Pack and Microsoft Push Email technology.
Device Specifications
(Courtesy of SeeO2 Website)
Dimensions:
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Approx. 58(W) x 102(L) x 18.5(T) mm
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Weight with battery: 140g
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Operating System: Microsoft Windows Mobile 5.0
Operating time ^:
^ Battery life may vary depending on RF conditions and
actual usage
Bluetooth/Wireless LAN:
Audio:
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Stereo speaker
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Speaker with receiver
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Omni-directional mono microphone
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Support speaker phone operation
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Ringtone support: 64-chord MIDI, MP3, WMA, WAV
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Playback support: MIDI, MP3, WMA, WAV, AMR
Processor:
Display:
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2.7" TFT LCD display with touch panel
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240 x 320 dots resolution
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Supports 262K colours (65,536 effective)
GSM/GPRS Tri-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE:
Memory size:
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Flash ROM: 128MB
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RAM: 64MB
Camera:
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Colour 2-mega-pixel CMOS camera
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Preview mirror for self portrait
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White LED strobe flash
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Support still image and video capture
What's in the box
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Main unit
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Battery
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Universal AC adapter
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Stereo wired headset
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Mini USB cable
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Additional Stylus
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Getting started Companion CD with Microsoft® Outlook®
2002 and
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ActiveSync®
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Quick Start Guide and User Manual
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Limited warranty statement
Bundled Software
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Auto Configurator
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WLAN Manager
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O2 Connect
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O2 Media Plus
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O2 Phone Plus (Downloaded via O2 Connect)
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O2 Plus (Downloaded via O2 Connect)
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O2 AutoInstaller
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And all other available applications for the Xda Atom
Case
The major improvement on this device is the case build and
quality. The stark white is a contrast against the previous glossy black
Atom case and doesn't show up fingerprints. While fingerprints do not show,
clothing fibers stand out but are easier to wipe off. The case feels
nice and solid and joins meet up perfectly. The battery cover is a little
firmer than earlier models although no improvement has been made where the
battery sits as there is still a little play.
The front of the device houses the 2.7" screen, Phone Talk
and End buttons, Windows Start Menu button, O2 Media Plus button and the
Directional Pad in the centre. The rear of the device houses the battery and
battery cover, 2 mega-pixel camera lens, White LED Flash and Self Portrait
Mirror.
Along the left edge of the device is the Carry Strap Holder,
Volume Up and Volume Down buttons. The right edge of the device houses the
Stylus and Stylus Slot, IR Port, Notes and Camera buttons. All buttons are
slightly recessed to avoid accidental activation but are still easy to
locate. The battery cover doesn't quite line up perfectly like the other
pieces do and is easy to see in these edge photo's.
Along the top edge of the device we can see the Stylus,
Power button and Mini-SD Card slot. The sides of the Atom Pure are curved
inwards at the top to match the curve of the finger tips for a comfortable
grip. The bottom edge of the device accommodates the Mini USB Connector,
2.5mm Stereo Headset Jack and Reset button.
The screen is nice and bright, crisp and clear. It is easy
enough to see in bright sunlight provided the screen is angled to minimize
any reflections. Whilst discussing the display, it would have been a nice
feature to include a control panel applet to adjust the contrast, as the
colors tend to appear a little washed out when viewing front on. Tilting the
device slightly downward makes the colors appear more vivid.
This review unit did come with a slight manufacturing
imperfection that can just be seen in the picture above. On the case near
the lower left of the screen there is a small blemish that almost looks like
a chip - but I wouldn't describe it as a chip - just an imperfection of
sorts.
Performance
Over the six weeks or so that I have had this unit, it has performed quite
well for a 416 MHz WM5.0 device. I have found I get better performance
with minimal Today Screen applications running as opposed to having a lot
running. For example, on this device I have had Spb Weather 1.6, O2
Plus Wireless, O2 Plus Profiles and SBSH Pocket Breeze running. I did
have SBSH Contact Breeze running as another tab in Pocket Breeze but found
the performance started to lag as I have 200+ contacts. I also have
WEBIS Pocket Informant Pro installed as the default PIM. When opening
Pocket Informant for the first time after a reset, load times of around 4 -
6 seconds are normal. If Pocket Informant is left running in the
background and the calendar or contacts are activated, Pocket Informant
opens in around 1 - 2 seconds which is quite good.
Other software loaded into main memory include Microsoft
Voice Command 1.5 and Skype. Microsoft Voice Command works very well
on the Atom Pure - I haven't had to repeat commands for it to understand.
It picks up what I am asking it to do first time. I haven't tried this
in a noisy environment such as a 4WD or equipment rooms and the like, just
around home and in the workshop where I work I haven't used the
included Voice Dial application on the Atom as I prefer Microsoft Voice
Command. Personally, I don't have the time to set up a voice tag for
each of my contacts. Voice tags also take up valuable memory -
something I am reluctant to do.
Skype is a program I couldn't get running on the earlier
Atom (using an earlier ROM) but it works a treat on this device. All
VoIP calls I have made to and from family and friends have been surprisingly
clear. The occasional echo can be heard but this is due to VoIP and my
internet connection (same thing happens with my computer from time to time).
It is a neat feeling to be chatting to family and paying only 2.2 cents per
minute for the call. Walking around the house using WiFi and Skype on
the Atom Pure just seems like you are making mobile calls but heaps cheaper.
I have a lot of large PDF documents stored on the Mini-SD
Card for quick reference while I am in the field such as radio service
manuals, schematic diagrams and cabling diagrams. I prefer to use
Adobe Acrobat Reader for the Pocket PC as this handles PDF documents more
efficiently than the included ClearView PDF Viewer. However, I decided
to stay with ClearView just to see the difference. The performance of
ClearView with small PDF documents (100kB) is nice and quick but large
documents I work with (4MB+) is just too slow. Adobe Acrobat Reader
works well with larger documents but is still slower than I would like.
Regarding speaker volume and ring tones I have found the
standard ring tones to be fairly quiet in noisy environments. I have
to rely on the vibrate feature to alert me to an incoming call or SMS.
My Wife has the JAMin which is no louder than the Atom and her work around
was to edit a portion of her favourite song to make it louder and use that
as her ring tone. I haven't tried that as yet but think it would be a
good idea.
One of the much anticipated features of the Atom is A2DP.
This is where a stereo Bluetooth headset is paired with the device so that
stereo music can be listened to over Bluetooth. I have the BlueAnt
Wireless X5 Stereo Bluetooth Headphones which I tested on this unit.
While stereo music can be streamed from this device I found that each song
had a pause of a second or so somewhere in the middle of the song.
This occurred with songs in main memory or on my storage card. After
mentioning this to BlueAnt, they informed me that many Atom users have used
the X5 Stereo Headphones with no issues. One user reported the same
problem but after formatting his storage card the problem went away. I
also contacted O2 about this and they advised that some A2DP headphones had
problems because of the Microsoft Bluetooth Stack. They are currently
looking at resolving this issue with future ROM upgrades (this also applies
to the Atom Exec).
The WiFi on this unit is 802.11b and would have been better
if it supported 802.11b and g. I run a wireless network at home and
also have access to the wireless network at work. I haven't had any
difficulties connecting to either network. These networks appear
unsecured but use MAC Address Access to only permit access to those devices
whose MAC Addresses appear in the router's table. Another network at a
different workshop runs a secured network and I had no problems connecting
and accessing the internet through it. WiFi does use a lot of battery
power and I have noticed the battery drop from 90% down to 50% in under two
hours of continuous WiFi usage.
Lastly, I use OziExplorer which runs very nicely on this
device. While a larger screen would be better for satellite navigation
and geospatial data collection, the size of the Atom Pure makes it easy to
clip to a bracket on the dash of the 4WD. I am hopeful that in the
future I may be able to test Destinator on these review devices to see how
they perform using voice guided satellite navigation software. At this
stage all I have access to is OziExplorer.
Software
WLAN Manager
The new Wireless Manager is an easy way to manage the WiFi,
Bluetooth and Phone radios on the Atom Pure. With the older ROM, it
was necessary to navigate to the Control Panel to manage each radio.
The Wireless Manager is accessible by tapping the antenna signal meter in
the top status bar.
O2 Auto Configurator
O2 Auto Configurator helps to set the phone and data
settings by detecting the service provider from the SIM. If two SIM's are
owned with different service providers, adjusting phone settings is a
breeze.
O2 Media Plus
O2 Media Plus is an application that provides access to all
multimedia files and features on the device. The alarm clock is a
feature I use every morning to wake me up for work. It has proven 100%
reliable over the few devices I have used and I prefer using this over the
built-in alarm from Microsoft. Either an alarm tone, FM Radio or music
file can be used. If a music file is used, the music file must be
either in main memory or on the storage card. Music files stored more
than one folder deep aren't visible on the storage card in O2 Media Plus.
O2 Phone Plus
O2 Phone Plus allows smart dialing and the activation of
blocking unwanted numbers. I have never been a fan of smart dialing
and have never used the Block List feature. I have only installed it
on the device for review pictures. I prefer to manually dial a number
or use Microsoft Voice Command which works very well on this device.
O2 Plus
O2 Plus is a nice application used as a task manager.
It comes bundled with a number of Today Screen applications displaying last
call, battery and memory meters, shortcuts etc. I have found that
loading all these on the Today Screen slows down the performance of the
device. I prefer to only use the task manager and the Profile to
quickly adjust the system and phone volume as these features are all that I
really use.
Camera
The XDA Atom has been plagued with a poor 2 mega-pixel
camera. The application was initially very slow to load and didn't
take pictures of any real quality. Later ROM releases saw the camera
performance improve and with this release the camera is quite useable.
The application and hardware still have a way to go as it is still fairly
slow and good pictures take a little practice. If a camera isn't
handy, and it's one of those moments to remember, this camera will do the
job to capture the moment.
Phone
The phone dialer screen is the same as the original Atom and
all phone calls made have been clear both ways. Signal reception has
been quite good in most places I venture that have coverage. The one
point I would like to mention is that it takes a second or two to pick up
signal in weak areas. Sometimes when I switch it on I notice it has no
service, and then after a short time locks onto a cell. This hasn't
stopped the phone receiving a call though as I have received every call made
to this device.
O2 Connect
O2 Connect is an application to keep the user in touch with
the latest news and applications for the device. Applications such as
O2 Plus and O2 Phone Plus are downloaded through O2 Connect. News
about latest ROM releases, software upgrades, MMS templates and the like are
also available.
Equalizer
The Graphic Equalizer makes a huge difference to how music
sounds on this device. Without the Equalizer enabled, music sounds
tinny through both the speakers and earphones. There is only one
aspect of the Equalizer that I would like to see improved and that is to
make it work through A2DP - Bluetooth. I suspect the Equalizer is a
hardware feature linked to the stereo speaker amplifier though.
FM Radio
The FM Radio is an excellent feature to have in this device.
I listen to the radio on the way to and from work while I ride my bicycle
which has been fitted out with an electric motor (thanks to rising fuel
prices). Reception of the radio signal is quite good if the headphone
cable is completely uncoiled as the cable forms the FM Radio antenna.
The radio can automatically scan for active channels, and later can be
renamed as seen above which makes it easy to select your favourite channel.
Compatible Hardware
Here is a list of hardware that I have tested the XDA Atom
Pure with, and proven reliable:
Conclusions
This device would be best suited to people who are looking
for a stable Pocket PC with a nice and clear GSM inbuilt phone and who
aren't wanting to load every application under the sun into main memory.
People looking for a good camera as part of the package would be better to
look at the I-Mate JAMin or XDA Atom Exec.
Pro's:
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Small and light weight
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Stable operating system
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Non-volatile memory so no data loss when the battery
goes flat
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O2 software bundle
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FM Radio
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Improved 2 mega-pixel camera performance
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Limited edition white case
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WiFi 802.11b
Con's:
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Video capture has poor frame rate
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Case not as solid as RW6828
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A2DP doesn't work with all makes of stereo headphones
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Wired headphones look weird
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No WiFi support for 802.11g networks
Over all, this is a nice and stable Pocket PC with pleasing
curves and brilliant white case. The case isn't quite as solid as the RW6828
but does have the included O2 applications with a stable ROM and better
camera performance. Having not played with the RW6828 much I am unable to
confirm what BT stack is implemented. If HP use the WIDCOMM stack then it is
more likely to support more Bluetooth stereo headphones than the Atom Pure.
This device is very similar to the RW6828 with slightly different Pro's and
Con's. This is why I have decided to give the Atom Pure a similar score to
the RW6828.
Agree or Disagree !?! Discuss it here!
| The
O2 XDA Atom Pure Scores A Nice 9/10 |