XDA Atom is the pioneer to incorporate a 2.0 Megapixel camera with built-in flash, FM radio tuner, and the new O2 MediaPlus application, which offers equalizer settings with Windows Media Player 10.
                    

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Apart from that it is also the first such device to run on the new Windows Mobile 5.0 platform, and offers advanced features in Microsoft Office programs for Windows Mobile. O2’s XDA Atom also incorporates new features like the Self Diagnostics utility which is a step-by-step testing process to make sure the Atom is functioning at optimum condition; the Auto Configurator utility meant for frequent travelers; and the O2 SMS Plus which gives a one-page summary view of all incoming and outgoing text messages.

If you can’t connect to something with the Xda Atom, you’re really not trying. For a start, it’s a tri-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE (GSM900/1800/1900) phone. Moving beyond simple mobile telephony, it’s also Bluetooth capable and Wi-Fi capable, albeit only to 802.11b speeds. For the true relics amongst us, it’s even IrDA compatible, although we’re not sure anyone’s using infrared to send anything via mobile in this day and age. There’s an obvious battery hit to take into consideration for each and every one of these technology inclusions, they’re still good to have as individual connection options.

O2 warned us that the unit they were sending us for evaluation was a pre-production sample — and we could hardly miss the splash screen that warned us of this fact every time we powered the phone up. This puts us in a tricky position to accurately gauge the Atom’s true performance, as it’s hard to say that any particular issue might not be solved via a future ROM upgrade. Still, many of our observations of the Atom’s performance had less to do with issues that might be resolved with ROM changes, and more to do with the phone itself.

As with the Xda Mini, the biggest hit against the Atom is also the unit’s biggest area of appeal, in that it’s a very small smartphone, and you won’t feel like you’re holding a brick up against your ear every time you make a call. The downside of miniturisation in this case is that everything else — interfaces, screen sizes and virtual keyboards — is smaller too, making it a more challenging PDA than its fuller-sized cousins. It’s less of an issue for jotting small notes, but if you need to send a long e-mailed response to a business query in a hurry, you may find yourself struggling.

The MediaPlus application is a smooth bit of software design — or, if you’re the conspiracy theory type, a neat bit of interface thievery — but you’ll either have to load files in via ActiveSync or via MiniSD card. The MiniSD card inclusion is a touch disappointing, as there’s plenty of SD users out there, but many fewer with MiniSD cards outside of the mobile world.

O2 rates the Xda Atom as having a battery life of 150 hours standby and 5.5 hours talktime, although that’s almost certainly a figure achieved with Bluetooth silenced and Wi-Fi switched off. In our testing we found the battery lasted around four days of moderate usage, although how much that was affected by the pre-production ROM in our test unit is impossible to say — we did experience a few crashes in that time that could have preserved or even drained additional power.

The Xda II Mini was certainly a hit amongst our audience as it dominated the early months of the year when it came to choosing our top mobiles, and given that the Atom is essentially just a feature set upgrade and a coat of black paint on the same basic design, we see no reason why the Atom won’t fare as well. If you’re after a small smartphone, the Atom is a solid, albeit not exactly inexpensive choice.

O2 Xda Atom
Price: AU$1,233