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	O2 XDA Trion (O2) Carphone Warehouse £201.36
	O2 XDA Trion (O2) Carphone Warehouse £240.41

RATING:

Pay Monthly

SUMMARY:

Touchscreen 3G, HSDPA, Wi-Fi phone with hardware QWERTY keyboard, and Windows Mobile 5.0. A little chunky. Lots of stylus usage and menus/sub-menus. Newer better HTC phones are now available.

O2 Xda Trion Review

The O2 Xda Trion is the O2 branded version of the HTC Hermes. Orange, T-Mobile and Vodafone also have branded versions - Orange SPV M3100, T-Mobile Mda Vario II and Vodafone VPA Compact III.

The O2 Xda Trion is a heavy PDA/Smartphone/Pocket PC. It's a hefty 176 g, features a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, 2.8-inch touchscreen, 3G and HSDPA connectivity and Windows Mobile 5.0 software.

Design

The O2 Xda Trion is heavy (compared to other mobile phones) and chunky. 176 g, 58 mm wide, 22 mm deep. It's a silver/gun metal colour. There's a good 2.8-inch touch screen and the QWERTY keyboard slides out to the left of the screen.

The O2 Trion is well-built - the QWERTY keyboards slides out smoothly. The touchscreen is 65K colours and is a decent 2.8-inch size. Instruction manual reading is required - there are lots of buttons, keys and flashing LED lights.

The navigation pad and keys beneath the screen are perhaps a little cramped together - other than that, all the buttons and keys are easy to press. The back cover is easy to remove. The stylus slides out from the bottom right back corner. The power-on button is on the right side of the phone.

2.8-inch Touchscreen

Use the stylus or your fingers. Many of the icons and virtual keys are a little small, so using the stylus is the easiest selection tool. Turn the phone sideways to view the screen in landscape mode. Unfortunately, no accelerometer, as you get in some of the latest mobile phones. Change the settings in Start > Settings > System > Screen. Right-handed or left-handed landscape options are available.

The Today Screen and Start Menu

The Today Screen displays all the important information - tasks, appointments, status indicators - there are at least 39 of them.

Similar to a Windows operating on a home/office PC, tap the 'Start' menu to display a list of programs. All very easy to use. Options include Calendar, Contacts, Internet Explorer, Messaging, Phone, Windows Media, File Explorer, Camera, Notes, Programs, Settings and Help.

Features

Programs

These include:

• ActiveSync
• Calculator, Calendar, Notes
• Word Mobile, Powerpoint Mobile, Excel Mobile
• Bluetooth, ActiveSync, Comm Manager
• Camera, File Explorer, Messaging
• Clearvue PDF, Download Agent
• Games - Bubble Breaker and Solitaire
• Internet Explorer, MIDlet manager (Java)
• Pictures and Video, Pocket MSN
• SIM Manager, SIM tool kit service
• Streaming Media, Tasks
• Terminal Services Client, Voice Speed Dial
• Windows Media Player, Wireless Modem, ZIP

Customize

You can adjust the O2 XDA Trion settings to suit the way you work. Settings are divided into 3 tabs - Personal, System and Connections. Lots of options here.

Text input

Use the hardware QWERTY keyboard, on-screen QWERTY keyboard (tiny keys), letter recognizer, block recognizer or 'Transcriber' - a handwriting recognition program.

Hardware QWERTY keyboard: Slide the screen panel to the right. We like the hardware QWERTY keyboard - the keys are bigger than on many PDA-like phones. We still think they're a little small.

O2 Xda Trion vs Apple iPhone text input? The iPhone's keyboard takes getting used to. However, with practice we found that we could type nearly as quickly on the iPhone as we could with the O2 Xda Trion. It's a personal preference issue.

On-screen QWERTY: Tiny virtual keys - use the stylus. We could type quite fast on this. Bigger keys would have been nice.

Letter recognizer: Write individual letters, numbers and punctuation on the screen - they're converted into text.

Block recognizer: Use a single stroke to write letters, punctuation, numbers and symbols.

Transcriber: Use cursive and/or print. Worked OK. Not so good if your handwriting isn't super. Too much effort required compared to the QWERTY keyboard. You've also got to be precise with your strokes, else the software misinterprets it.

Making a Call

You can make a call from Phone, Contacts, Speed Dial, Call History and SIM Manager. You access each of these menus from the Start menu. EG Start > Phone.

You dial a number using the on-screen keypad - the keys are quite big, so they're easy to press with your fingers.

Call quality was fine. Adjust the volume by tapping the speaker icon at the top of the screen.

Video calls: Make video calls when you are in a 3G coverage area. We can't get 3G in our area, so we didn't test this out. A front-facing CIF (352 x 288 resolution) camera records your beautiful visage for the delighted recipient.

There are lots of video call options - camera brightness, camera on/off, main/second camera switch, swap image options (change size of yours and their video streams), change the display picture when you turn your camera off (shows a male/female provided by O2), or use your own image.

Smart Dialling: When you start entering a number, Smart Dialling automatically searches the contact entries on the SIM card, Contacts and Call History. You can then select the desired number or contact.

Web Browsing

Quite good. Uses Internet Explorer Mobile. 2.8-inch touchscreen, 3G and HSDPA - GPRS if 3G isn't available.

Wi-Fi: Open the Comm Manager. The Wi-Fi worked well. Turn Wi-Fi on, and the Trion scans for available Wireless local area networks (WLAN). Enter a security key if your network requires it.

Bluetooth

Handsfree, file transfer and A2DP support. You can also connect the O2 Xda Trion to a laptop or desktop computer through Bluetooth. You can use the Trion as a wireless Bluetooth modem.

2 Megapixel Camera

Take still shots and video clips. Adjust the lens at the back of the phone - normal mode or macro mode. The camera button is on the right side of the phone. Options include white balance, quality, panorama, flash, brightness, zoom, self-timer and various capture modes (still, video, MMS video, contacts picture, picture theme, panorama, sports, burst). You can also make adjustments in the 'advanced' menu.

2 MP still photos give 1600 x 1200 camera shots. Video capture is available at up to 352 x 288 resolution. Image quality is fine.

Office Applications

Word Mobile, Excel Mobile and Powerpoint Mobile are streamlined Microsoft office products. Read and edit Word, Excel and PowerPoint files on the O2 Xda Trion.

We wouldn't really want to do a lot of editing on a small-screen device, we would prefer to use a laptop or using a big 24-inch screen.

O2 XDA Trion vs Apple iPhone

The O2 XDA Trion does have 3G and HSDPA. It also has Windows Mobile 5.0 - use office documents, download applications and more.

In terms of usability, the iPhone is more intuitive and simpler. Visual voicemail, multi-touch, calendar... It's also a lot more stylish and lighter.

Apple iPhone version 1.1.1 lacks some key features - see the Apple iPhone Review, so the iPhone might not yet be suitable for your needs.

We would still buy the iPhone for business use. Simply because the functions that we use 99% of the time - calls, email, Internet access, calendar - are better on the iPhone.

Add in some iPhone office applications (an office icon is yearning to be on that home screen), a customizable home screen, add more connectivity features and hey presto.

Most manufacturers will be releasing big touchscreen phones in 2008. HTC should also bring out some big touchscreen HTC Windows Mobile devices too.

Summary

The O2 Xda Trion is a good feature-packed phone. 3G, HSDPA, hardware QWERTY keyboard, Windows Mobile 5.0. The Trion performs well. Check out the new mobile phone reviews for alternatives.

TAGS: touchscreen, 3g, hsdpa, wi-fi, smartphone, big screen, slider phones

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