The O2 Xphone II joins the swelling ranks of Windows Mobile-powered handsets, sporting an elegant black-and-silver outfit. Richard Newman sees what's underneath.
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The Xphone II is O2's branding of the HTC Feeler reference design, shared by the i-Mate SP3i and others. Physically, it appears to be a new shell around the slightly older Orange SPV C500/Audiovox SMT6500; at least, the switches and ports are all in the same place! This is no bad thing; the handset is well-sized and very pocketable. The Xphone II, however, is less curvaceous, taking an angular approach to style. It's a very comfortable handset, weighing in at just 102 g, and measuring just 108 x 45 x 18 mm.
 | The Xphone II is a good smartphone in its own right, but doesn't innovate
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Technically accomplished
The Xphone II is a very well-equipped device; 64 MB of flash ROM and 32 MB of RAM supports the OMAP 730 processor, running at 200 MHz. The display is a 176 x 220 pixel TFT, capable of displaying 64,000 colours. The viewing angle is quite good, and the brightness raises no complaints.
Connectivity is through tri-band 900/1800/1900 MHz GSM with GPRS Class 10, Bluetooth, and IrDA. The handset offers good voice communications (clear and with good volume settings), speedy T9, and a quick interface, but we found that once a signal had been lost it was quite leery of regaining it; in some cases a switch to Flight Mode and back was necessary. Reception was also inferior to some other handsets, placing the Xphone II squarely in the middle of the pack for radio performance.
Like a bar of soap
Because of its sleek shape, and the frighteningly smooth (yet fingerprint resistant) plastics used in its construction, the Xphone II is quite hard to hang on to. With its small, bar-shaped buttons users might in fact find one-handed texting to be quite a challenge. It is, however, very nice to look at, and the joystick is mostly usable (certainly much better than the rocker on the Orange SPV C500).
Comparisons with other Smartphone devices are largely inconclusive; the Xphone II's display appeared slightly richer than that of the C500, while the C500 is a tiny bit better built. Both have very capable batteries (1050 mAh) which net several hours of talk time, but the Xphone II gets subjectively slightly improved standby time. In general, it also benefits from slightly updated software, though the bundled Windows Media Player remains version 9.
Blending into a crowd
As a Windows Mobile phone, the Xphone II possesses the standard light sensor, VGA camera, software suite, miniSD expansion slot under the battery, and speakerphone. Synchronisation and charging are through a mini-USB connector on the base of the unit, with a decent - if not exceptional - Bluetooth implementation.
This, indeed, is the ultimate flaw of the Xphone II; it's not a bad device by any means, but like any reference-built design it fails to distinguish itself. With Windows Mobile handsets being strongly specified, it is difficult enough to stand out from the crowd, but the Xphone II doesn't even try.
Availability
The O2 Xphone II is at the time of writing available exclusively to O2 Asia subscribers, selling for approximately $400 USD with a 2-year service plan.
Price and availability
The will start selling for TBA () in November 1999.
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