O2 XDA Zinc

The highly awaited O2 XDA Zinc recently hit the Indian market. A lot is expected from this smart phone, so let�s take a look at how it fared in the tests.

Features
The O2 XDA Zinc is a triband phone, and works with GSM 900, 1800, and 1900 networks. It also supports 3G and the WCDMA 2100 standard however this feature is still not of any use in India For further connectivity there is GPRS class 10, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g, and Bluetooth v1.2.

The 2 mega pixels CMOS based camera on the rear of the phone is complemented by a second VGA camera on the front for video conferencing. The main camera has a fixed focus, and thus when you hit the shutter button there is no pre-focus lag. However this also means that all objects that fall in or out of the focal plane will appear blurred.

Since this handset is a smart phone, there is a powerful 520 MHz Intel PXA270 Xscale processor in it. This compares well with all other smart phones up against it in the market. The phone ships with Windows Mobile 5.0, but is eligible for a free upgrade to Windows Mobile 6.0 via the O2 website.

There is 64 MB of RAM to feed the processor, and 128 MB ROM to store data on the phone itself. The bundled version of Windows Media Player can play MIDI, MP3, WMA, WAV, AMR-NB and AAC files. You can add support for more formats by installing compatible applications. These standard formats can even be used as ring tones on this smart phone.

The phone�s 2.8 inch screen looks nice and has a pretty wide viewing angle. The touch sensitivity is comfortable, and is usable even without the stylus. Web browsing is fun, however Internet Explorer seemed a bit slow when compared to browsers on other phones.

The phone came with a mobile version of MS Office. It was tested by copying Word and Excel files to the phone. The Word files were fully editable and the Excel files worked with all their formulas, calculating cell values in real time.

Build Quality
The XDA Zinc has two speakers to play stereophonic sound, but they are placed next to each other so there is no real benefit while playing a stereo file. The orientation of the display seamlessly changes to landscape as soon as you pull out the keyboard.

The back light QWERTY keyboard feels good for the fingers and the key placement is pretty comfortable, except for the two soft keys on the topmost row that somewhat squash the W, E, U, and I keys.

The main camera on the rear of the phone does not have a lens cover, but is well protected. There is also a self portrait mirror just above the camera, and a strobe flash on the side.

Verdict
Even though the phone has a powerful processor and adequate RAM, it gets bogged down with some applications, for example Web surfing. The phone�s battery gave a standby time of around 100 hrs with heavy usage with Bluetooth and Wi-Fi enabled, and around 180 hrs with normal usage.

This phone has all the components of a powerful communication device but for this price, something close to perfection is expected.