Author: cheewee

Even since PPCSG reported on O2 Xda Atom, it's Atom madness and readers have been requesting for more snippets of it. Being Singapore's leading Windows Mobile site, we do our best to satisfy our members' techno-lust. Here, we present to you exclusive photos of O2's upcoming Atom in action!

For the uninitiated, O2 Xda Atom sports a 416Mhz Intel processor, 64MB RAM and 128MB ROM, 2.7-inch QVGA 18-bit screen, quadband GSM, EDGE, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, miniSD slot and a 2MP CMOS camera with flash. It is probably the first Pocket PC phone to sport a built-in FM tuner, too. The Atom will hit our shores in early December at a price of S$1,348 inclusive of taxes.
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Similar in appearance to the current Xda II Mini, the Atom has its power switch and miniSD slot located at the top of the unit. There is also an eyelet to attach a hand strap.
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On the left of the unit lies the volume control.
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The right side of the Atom sits the infrared port, a button to activate the voice recorder and interestingly, a dual function key to toggle the camera to record stills and video clips.
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Targeted at music aficionados, the directional pad is preprogrammed for tweak the volume and select tracks. There are also speaker grilles for a more pleasurable time tuning into your favorite tracks.
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At the bottom, you can find the familiar sync and charge miniUSB port. If you examine carefully, the Atom actually sports a 3.5mm audio jack that allows you to use your favorite pair of buds! And let’s not forget the all-important reset button. *grin*
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The lens of the 2-megapixel camera, self-portrait mirror and photolight are located at the top left corner on the back. The back faceplate has a rather large O2 logo embossed on it.
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The camera snaps 2 megapixel stills of 1200x1600 pixels.
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No surprises here. The Atom runs on Windows Mobile 5.0.
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The Atom is powered by Intel’s PXA27x 416MHz processor.
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This is the much-hyped O2 MediaPlus application. It manages your media and lets you easily access your music library, photos collection, video clips and activate the FM tuner.
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There is a sleep timer so you can doze off to your favorite tunes. To complete the experience, there’s even an alarm function!
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There’s even an onboard 10-band equalizer catering to particular music buffs.
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We saved the best for last. Ooh.. pretty face. Hey, even the model wears a PPCSG shirt! Looks like PPCSG is finally getting the recognition we deserve!
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wow, amazing phone....it has EDGE, right?
I assume that the FM Radio does not need the usage of earphones that have the receivers built-in like the ones you find in the Nokias as it has a 3.5mm jack instead.

excellent.. finally something good which comes with 3.5mm headjack..

Woah better hold on to the purchase of the XDA IIi first.

fantastic photos chee wee!
lets have more!!!

i think i've seen some other photos on the Web, and the atom looks significantly smaller than the mini

any chance for a side by side, photo comparison??

and is it a definite that it comes with a 3.5mm jack?


droooll....

wow looks goodie

Hi Pistone,
Sorry to disappoint you. The Xda II ini weighs 150g and has a dimension of 58 x 108 x 18.1mm. On the other hand, the Atom weighs the same and has a dimension of 58 x 102 x 18.5mm. That's means the Atom is a little thicker but about 6mm shorter. Unfortunately, we don't have an evaluation unit from O2 so we can't take comparison shots.

From the photos, we can safely assume it's a 3.5mm audio jack.

UPDATE: I stand corrected, it's a 2.5mm jack.

haha the surface looks like the gloss black minis ive wrapped.. lol but it sure looks tempting man.. especially the dpad area design.. love the two speakers there,darn cool..

Here is the comparison image

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hmm since this atom aim for music and multimedia, please help us to find out whether atom has the audio profile for bluetooth!! its best to use this with a bluetooth headphone...

This will be the killer MS PDA Phone in the market. In Thailand, O2 Mini has been the best selling PDA Phone in the history and generated a lot new MS PDA Phone fan more. It seems like Mini Sales is slightly better than P 910i from SE.

There seems to be some confusion ( on other sites) on who actually makes this phone, HTC or Quanta, any comments? It's been suggested there is a label under the battery area syaing it's made by Quanta.

Thanks for the photos, my bank manager also thanks you, I'm going to wait for this phone to hit the UK

Gordon

it's made by Quanta IIRC...

When is O2 releasing a 3G win mobile phone?

Any information to support that claim?

If I am not mistaken msmobiles.com had an article on that. Uniwired claims the same thing too.

There has been alot of assumptions and rumours regarding the Atom.

Well guess what, our boss, Chee Wee did some checks and found out and confirm that IT IS from Quanta. So case close on where it comes from.

Let's move on to more hotter topics like, why is it using Mini-SD? Do you think it is better? Do you think Mini-SD will catch on?

I'm fine with Mini - SD though SD would be a better and of course cheaper choice. don't think the Mini SD will catch up with the capacity of the SD cards.

This is what I got from O2:

Dear n20nine,

Thank you for choosing O2!
We thank you for your interest in O2's upcoming products. The upcoming new model - O2 Xda Atom and the O2 Xda Mini Pro will be launched toward the end of the year. Stay tuned.

Warmest Regards,
James Heng
O2 Technical Support
Asia Pacific Region
For full listing of retail outlets and information on the latest products information, please visit http://www.seeo2.com

Time is running out... The Atom is coming out... Better starting saving money... haha.. Can't wait to lay my hand on it!

Look again closely at the picture of the headphone jack. It looks like a 2.5mm jack and not a 3.5mm.

MiniSd is a major drawback. Less storage than SD means few songs, so it's less useful as music player.

Rest of it looks brilliant

D

yah
thats what i think too
looks like a 2.5mm to me.

What article? Do you have the url?

What's the differences between Atom and Mini Pro?

nice job for the review. =)
i'm aiming for this man. but the miniSD slot seems a little less popular.

Saw from Expansys Sg selling the 1Gb mini Sd for about S$120. Quite ok lah...

It's not just the price. Current Pocket PC users have already invested in a 1GB or even 2GB SD cards and have standardized on SD format for their gear. It's tiring and a waste of money to keep changing. Maybe we should just all go get microSD for future proofing.

Well, don't neglect the fact that the photo was taken at an angle. Even at this angle, it seems quite passable as a 3.5mm. Hence, if it is head on, it should be bigger. That's why I came to the conclusion.

Anyway, I have emailed to O2 Singapore and also their PR agency but didn't get a reply.

Me too. Got an existing 1Gb SD card. No choice lor...

hopefully you're right cheewee.
the 3.5mm could be the deal breaker for me. if not i'll just have to go for the universal. 3.5mm + regular SD slot

i am using the mini now with a 3.5 to 2.5mm jack so that i can use by B&O headphones.
Will be good if i can do without the jack but at least it works.

the miniSD is a bit disturbing as well ... like who must have pointed out we have an existing investment in a bunch of SD cards ... but like IT gadgets ... we just have to move on ... i finally threw away all my floppy disks.

i wish the Wi-Fi is high speed like the nokia N91 instead of just the slower one.

good that the memory is doubled.

finally anyone know of a detailed review of the windows mobile 5 review? am more looking forward to the improved OS. especially for one hand operations and a stable T9 number pad.

Yeah, I hate the miniSD thing... I wish they used SD instead. Comparing SD with floppies, though, is a little inappropriate. Floppies were replaced by faster and higher capacity USB thumbdrives. Mini SD, on the other hand, is neither faster nor higher capacity than SDs. SDs are nowhere near obsolete, as they are still used by gazillions of other devices such as digicams. I use them in my (ex)Palm, PPC and digicams.

I bitch about my Sony PSP using Memory Stick Duos, and I'm not going to add one more media format to my collection. Sigh...

its a 2.5 not 3.5 jack and yes its cfm its on mini-SD. Believe it or not. =)

Ohhh.....one more feature that some users do not like. BTW, do update us once u have news on the HTC Prophet.

is the 2.5mm jack socket not too much of a problem because of adaptors like this?

eBay link

James

Hi,

I haven't seen the stylus in the pics or descriptions, can you please tell me where it is located/hidden?

Thanks ...

Cheers,

Mamadou

From this picture, you should be able to see that the stylus silo should be at the top right, similar to the Mini.

ok thanks, I can see a small dent, waouh ... totally integrated :-)

Cheers,

O2 XDA Atom is manufactured by Quanta (and not HTC). I read that Quanta also manufactured Dallab DP900.

Link: FCC Approves the O2 XDA Atom

Looks like the FCC test report says 802.11b only, and tri-band only. Can anybody confirm it is only tri-band. I was hoping for quad-band.

COE

sad to say i tested with the initial rom and yes its quad band...however i heard that the ROM is still not finalized yet and it will be tri-band only once cfm.

hi Lit3s, could you advise if the casing and batt cover is metal like that of the mini? because it looks kinda plastic to me and plastic normally gives it a "cheap" feel for a not so "cheap" SRP of about 1.3K as reported. Thanks

I read an article that mentioned O2 atom is very slow in performce because it is manufactured by Quanta. Does anyone know whether it is true?? Will HTC Prophet launch later?? If it is true, I would rather wait for Prophet...
Also, it mentioned the battery capacity of atom is 1550MAh, I think it is quite enough.

source: http://msmobiles.com/news.php/4401.html

http://www.seeo2.com/product/XdaAtom/templ...vm#Notification

Upcoming (Available in Dec 2005)

Infrared IrDA 1.2 SIR (115kbps at 30cm)

Audio jack (2.5mm ø)

Bluetooth Bluetooth SIG version 1.2 compliant
Supported profiles: headset, hands-free, object push, serial port, dial-up network, advanced audio distribution (A2DP), Audio/Video Remote Control (AVRCP)

Removable rechargeable Li-Ion battery, 1,500mAh

The final specs on O2's Web site says it's only tri-band.


Yes, O2 XDA Atom is manufactured by Quanta. As for HTC Prophet, there are rumours of a Q1 2006 launch. The next issue to wonder is the price?

Hi broz,

Heard that the atom supports A2DP. Does that mean that it now works with the Motorola HT 820?

To summarise, Atom vs Mini....

Same:
. Intel 416MHz processor
. Triband

Improvements as compared to Mini:
. WM5
. Integrated wireless LAN
. 128MB onboard flash ROM
. 2 megapixels camera, with built-in LED flash
. FM tuner
. 6mm shorter in length than Mini

Downside:
. 2.7" screen (Mini is 2.8")
. 0.4mm thicker than Mini
. miniSD slot