When the O2 Xda II mini first arrived on our shores more than a year ago, we marveled at a full-fledged PDA-phone that boasted the latest features in a petite form factor that was truly portable. However, it still left some things to be desired, including Wi-Fi. 2006 welcomes two similarly handy convergent devices: The O2 Xda Atom, which heralds from an established brand name and looks the part, and the 818 Pro, brought into Asia by new kid on the block Dopod. We ran the fledgling PDA-phone through its paces, discovering another worthy entry into the wonderful world of mobile-capable handhelds.

Design
If mimicry is, indeed, the best form of flattery, then the revolutionary O2 mini must have its head among the clouds. Despite a glut of mini doppelgangers like its sibling, the Dopod 838, and O2's own Atom, the 818 Pro is the closest clone yet. This isn't particularly surprising, since both the 818 Pro and O2 mini are produced by the same OEM company, High Tech Computer (HTC). As a result, you still get a clean, sleek-looking metallic frame that's smooth to the touch, fingerprint-resistant and retails with a choice of five color shades. Slightly differing is the smooth rubber lining along the circumference instead of the mini's ridged version, though both offer sufficient and comfortable grip.

Likewise, we have no gripes with the Dopod's size and weight. Traditional phone users thinking of going convergent may inevitably compare this with pint-sized clamshell phones and find it goliath-esque. For our money, though, you can't get a sweeter form factor for a PDA-phone at the moment without sacrificing either its portability or display.

Screen real estate is another critical point when choosing a PDA-phone. While large screen PDAs such as the Dopod 900 along with its full-sized QWERTY may be better suited for business professionals who do a lot of Internet surfing or documentation on-the-go, most other users should find the 818 Pro's 2.8-inch TFT display sufficient. On the downside, compared with the sharp VGA screens of other PDAs, the 320 x 240-pixel, 65K-color display here seems slightly less vibrant and detailed.

The 818 Pro's camera, volume and wireless manager controls are located on the left, while the power button and infrared port sit on the opposite side of the set. With the Dopod resting on the palm, all these are easily accessible and controllable. The cheaper and more common SDIO expansion option is a welcome choice for most users as compared with the costlier miniSD format.

Below the display sits a circular five-way navigational pad, two calling buttons and four soft keys, two of which are devoted to activating the start menu and OK option, and the other two for Windows Mobile 5.0 menu navigation. The pad itself is easy to use and responsive, while all the other buttons provide excellent tactile feedback and are comfortably spaced out.

The reverse of the handset houses a 2-megapixel camera sensor which can be switched between normal and macro shots by slightly rotating the metal ring around the lens. Unfortunately, along with a reflective metallic circle for taking self-portraits, the speaker grill is also located behind, forcing us to consciously rest the device face down or risk muffling the sound and missing calls.

Features
Like other Windows Mobile 5.0 PDA-phones, the Dopod comes with souped-up Office applications such as Word Mobile, Excel Mobile and PowerPoint Mobile. Although PowerPoint slides still cannot be edited on the Dopod, you can at least view and rehearse that deal-clinching presentation on the commute to work. Setting up a user profile and synchronizing Outlook data via Microsoft ActiveSync 4.0 was a breeze. Connecting via a mini-USB cable simultaneously charges the device as well.

Kudos to the Dopod's TI OMAP processor. Operating at 195MHz, despite clocking in at less than half the speed of the Xda Atom, the 818 Pro actually seems speedier, generally more responsive and with shorter loading times than the O2. With Windows Mobile 5.0, tapping the cross on the top right-hand of the program only closes the window with the program still running in the background. Thus, even though the 818 Pro comes with a generous 128MB of ROM and 64MB of RAM, users can still benefit from freeing up valuable resources allocated to open but seldom used programs by clearing them from memory via the Settings page.

Without a dedicated keypad, you can choose to use traditional ways of inputting text such as Block Recognizer, the Pocket PC equivalent of Palm's Graffiti, or a miniature on-screen keyboard which certainly isn't for the myopic. Like the O2 Xda II mini, though, the phone pad method, which displays a classic 0-9 keypad onscreen, allows users to tap away as if they were using a T9 predictive text input on their typical mobile phone. Also, take note to soft-key lock the device by tapping on the Today screen 'Lock' option, since the 818 Pro doesn't come with an external locking switch.

Like the Atom, the 818 Pro comes equipped with built-in Wi-Fi, the one thing that O2 critically left out with the mini which prevented it from being a no-brainer purchase for some PDA users. One press of the wireless manager button, one tap of the Wi-Fi tab, and we were off and running, be it chatting with friends on MSN Messenger, surfing Web sites or checking email.

Commendably, the imaging function of the 818 Pro is well-implemented. The camera activates fairly rapidly, with about 4 seconds of boot-up time, though a 2-second shutter lag leaves room for improvement. Picture quality is pretty decent for a PDA-phone, though color reproduction is still somewhat lacking. The macro mode is also a plus, allowing for sharper close-ups shots previously unachievable with a PDA-phone's camera. Settings and tweaks are minimal, though, limited to capture format, picture size and ambience. Video capture at 176 x 144 pixels is mediocre and nothing to shout about.

Sound quality is decent and perfectly acceptable for casual listeners, but as Windows Media Player 10 Mobile still doesn't offer any equalizer settings, the slightly bass-heavy and treble-thin sound may appeal to some but put off others. You won't find an FM tuner with this model, as well. Video playback, on the other hand, is rather choppy with an unstable frame rate. Again, the choice of employing a 2.5mm audio jack means you'll have to use an extra converter in order to plug in your favorite earphones.

Performance
Disappointingly, the phone once hung when we attempted to make a phone call, needing a soft reset. Other than that, the OS was stable without any error reporting messages.

Running on a 1,200mAh battery, the Dopod managed to last about 1.5 days on average usage before calling it quits. Thankfully, the latest OS offers persistent storage, so users don't have to worry about vital data being lost when the PDA runs out of juice. Heavy usage of wireless or multimedia features will expectedly drain the power much faster, so regular charging is recommended.

Although you can set your favorite MP3 or WAV files as ringtones, the speaker volume is a tad too soft and muffled. Coupled with a rather weak vibration alert, we found ourselves missing a few calls during our testing.

Besides being a quadband phone, which effectively makes it a global companion, the 818 Pro is also EDGE-enabled, though local providers in Singapore currently do not support this service. In addition, 3G fans will have to make do with the Dopod 900 instead, the only 3G-enabled PDA-phone available in the market for now.

Conclusion
Perhaps the biggest selling point of the 818 Pro is its price. At S$938 with a two-year plan, it's considerably cheaper than the O2 Atom while offering almost the same feature set. All in all, although it doesn't sport any new tricks or killer applications, the 818 Pro is a value-for-money choice for those looking for a convergent device that's portable and versatile.