O2 Xphone II

Those who deemed Microsoft's foray into the mobile market as futile should probably eat their words now. The software giant has been making inroads into the smart phone market and proven it's a force not to be impeded easily. O2's polished Xphone II looks set to sustain that momentum. Not merely a facelift of the Xphone, it gets a technical upgrade via hardware and software.

Design
Measuring 44.5 x 107.5 x 18mm, the Xphone II has shed much of the heft of its predecessor. Physically, this compact mobile is comparable with other handsets from traditional manufacturers on the market. Like previous models, this iteration retains the solid construction and quality build we've grown to know. Taking a cue from Sony Ericsson design-wise, this O2 is reminiscent of the popular T610. Matched with Vertu-like buttons, the entire setup exudes style. Despite the rather cramped keypad layout, keys are angled to facilitate texting. A light sensor embedded below the keypad adjusts backlight according to different situations to conserve power.

On the facade, much real estate is taken up by a generous 2.2-inch display. This 176 x 220-pixel TFT is tweaked for adequate contrast and 65K colors. More importantly, it exhibits no yellowish cast seen in other Windows-based smart phones such as Sagem's myS-7.

A camera sits at the back and lends itself to casual shots for the photo phonebook. Unfortunately, this video-capable VGA shooter doesn't quite keep up with megapixel camera-phones that other manufacturers are churning out.

Features
Addressing one of the main issues of the original unit, a Texas Instrument OMAP 200MHz processor powers the Xphone II. Although the amount of onboard memory remains unchanged, the speed enhancement is evident. It isn't the end of the dreaded hour glass but the speedy chip keeps such cases to a minimal. That said, we frown at the unit’s boot-up time which takes approximately 1 minute.

Running on Windows Mobile 2003 for Smartphone Second Edition, this triband mobile features a rich suite of productivity tools for professionals. Through synchronization, information stored in your desktop Outlook can be effortlessly ported to Calendar, Tasks and Contacts. On the road, the Messaging app accesses SMS, MMS and email. This is complemented by Internet Explorer for Web surfing.

To keep the form factor compact, device manufacturer HTC opted to embed a miniSD slot beneath the battery for memory expansion. Not hot-swappable, this spells some inconvenience as you'll need to power off the unit to swap cards.

Like the previous model, this Xphone offers infrared and Bluetooth for wireless connectivity. As the profile isn't as comprehensive, we aren't able to transfer data files over Bluetooth. This mobile also synchronizes over USB with your desktop. Interestingly, it trickle-charges the phone simultaneously. Take note that if your cell is completely drained, you can't replenish using this method.

Call handling can be improved. Although music is paused when an incoming call is received, this Xphone fails to resume automatically. In addition, the lack of MP3 ringtone support forces you to transcode media files to WMA format before use.

When composing text messages with T9, a list of suggested words will pop up onscreen for selection, a.k.a. Sony Ericsson-style. The texting engine is snappy and no lag is experienced generally.

Reception, Battery Life And SAR
Powered by the supplied 1,050mAh Lithium cell, this mobile was good for slightly over two days of moderate use. When used as a music player, expect trips to the charging bay frequently. Looping music repeatedly at half volume, this Xphone delivered about 10 hours of playback on a full charge.

During the two-week review period, we encountered no issues with reception or voice clarity with the test unit.

This handset meets international requirements concerning exposure to radio waves as the highest Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) value recorded for this model when tested was 1.6 W/kg.

Conclusion
The Xphone II is available at S$698 (US$513.90) with a two-year operator’s contract and S$798 (US$587.53) without. Offering a rich feature and multimedia set, we’re sure this remarkably compact smart phone will go down well with mobile professionals and multimedia buffs on the move. Just be prepared for occasional slowdowns.