By Reuben Lee
23/01/2007
URL: http://asia.cnet.com/reviews/mobilephones/0,39050603,61983949,00.htm

SINGAPORE--The new year continues to look promising for the PDA market with handheld maker O2 today unveiling its first 3G devices for Asia Pacific, the Xda Zinc and Graphite. The company has also announced plans to further expand its product lineup within the next two months with two more PDA-phones, the Xda Atom Life and Xda Flame.

	The Xda Zinc features a slide-out QWERTY keyboard (click for more info)

In a press statement, Mark Billington, CEO of O2 Asia Pacific, believes the Xda Zinc and Graphite are "about broadening choices and new experiences for the customers".

Designed for the "communication enthusiast", the Xda Zinc will be one of the company's first QWERTY-enabled PDA-phones we've seen in a long time since the Xda IIs in 2004 and the canceled Xda Mini Pro in 2005. The Zinc will compete head-on with Dopod's 838 Pro which also sports a QWERTY keypad and 3G but offering the faster HSDPA standard albeit on a slower 400MHz processor. The Zinc will run on Intel's 520MHz XScale chip and pack Bluetooth, 802.11b/g wireless LAN, a 2-megapixel camera and push-email functionality.

The Graphite seems to be O2's answer to Dopod's 595 smart phone. In addition to 3G, both competing models come with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, though the Graphite has a faster 416MHz XScale processor and a higher 2-megapixel camera.

	O2 Xda Atom Life

Both handsets were first unveiled in Thailand last December, with Singapore due to receive the O2 units in early February, followed by the rest of Asia. According to O2, the Zinc is expected to retail for S$1,298, while the Graphite has a possible street price of S$798.

Also unveiled at the launch were two new PDA-phones slated for launch in Asia within the next couple of months. The Xda Atom Life, which is expected to be available in black and white, will come with HSDPA, large onboard memory and a fast processor, while the 3G-enabled Xda Flame will feature a large 3.6-inch display, onboard Nvidia GPU and a 2-megapixel camera. (You can read more about the Flame and Atom Life here.)

Model name	In a nutshell
O2 Xda Zinc Click for more details	Cool factor: O2's first 3G PDA-phone in Asia Pacific Notable features: Triband with 3G Slide-out QWERTY keypad Intel 520MHz XScale processor 2-megapixel camera with light; secondary VGA camera for video calls 2.8-inch QVGA TFT display with 65K-color support Windows Mobile 5.0 128MB ROM; 64MB RAM; miniSD card expansion slot 802.11b/g wireless LAN, USB 2.0, infrared and Bluetooth 109 x 58 x 22.6mm ; 175g Availability in Singapore: Early February Price: S$1,298
O2 Graphite Click for more details	Cool factor: O2's first 3G smart phone in Asia Pacific Notable features: Triband with 3G Intel 416MHz XScale processor 2-megapixel camera with light; secondary VGA camera for video calls 2.2-inch QVGA TFT display with 65K-color support Windows Mobile 5.0 (Smartphone edition) 128MB ROM; 64MB RAM; microSD card expansion slot 802.11b/g wireless LAN, USB and Bluetooth 109.5 x 46.9 x 18mm ; 105g Availability in Singapore: Early February Price: S$798