UK 3G Mobile Phones - O2 XDA Exec Review

Your O2 XDA Exec Reviews

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Reviewer: Brian - Ncastle, UK
Date: 16th May 2008

I have just paid £80 for this phone from eBay. It sounds good from your reviews but have a feeling it's going to be slow & crash!

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Reviewer: Carlie - Maltby, UK
Date: 7th May 2008

This phone is brilliant, I love it :).

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Reviewer: Kanawade Shivshankar - Bombay, Iraq
Date: 19th Mar 2008

Amazing phone!

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Reviewer: Rahul Seth - Mumbai, India
Date: 14th Dec 2007

A mind blowing phone. Bigger screen so fun to watch movies & view snaps & for playing games.

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Reviewer: Zoe - UK
Date: 29th Aug 2007

I think this phone is excellent & I cannot fault it. I think the swivel idea is fantastic, it does everything required & it does it perfectly. I have heard some people saying about answering the calls & it taking a long time to swivel the screen around. I don't know if this is of any help but you can answer & talk on the phone while it is closed. Just press the side call/end buttons. The only problem is you can't see who is ringing you, but I have found it much easier!

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Reviewer: Apo Spiegel - US
Date: 31st Jul 2007

I've had the O2 XDA Exec for almost a year & all I can say is this machine rules. I've had only minor problems with it which I will describe, & which I consider negligible given that I use it on a fairly constant basis as a phone & organizer. I sync daily with MS Outlook. Since my contacts are on the phone, I always know who is calling as long as they are on my contact list. The synchronization with Outlook is FLAWLESS, which is more than I can say for any PDA I've ever had & I've had quite a few, each with their own sync problems.

The O2 has a lot of memory so doesn't crash easily, but it does freeze up sometimes which is easily resolved by high-resolution on such a tiny screen, & I imagine that the memory limitations would be rather prohibitive. Another thing: putting the phone against my ear gave me headaches, so I switched to headphones which work much better. The keyboard is fine, although I find the clicks it makes when you type to be a little annoying if you ever want to type at a quiet meeting & also don't expect to be able to touch type on this keyboard, it's too small for that. The XDA Exec works well with an SD memory card. I use the long life battery (got it cheap from a Chinese seller on eBay) which adds a couple of millimetres of thickness, but is worthwhile since it allows you to use the device all day without worrying about running out of power. I also paid $20 for the Energizer recharger unit to keep on hand for emergencies when the battery runs itself out, which happened to me once. I highly recommend a soft zipper case & Velcro to attach the unit onto the inside of the case to protect it, always keep it in the case, & keep it zipped when not in use. This method makes a lot more sense than the hard cases, which don't allow you to open & close it. Of course also get a screen protector film.

One other problem is that the ring/vibrate selector seems to have a bug, so I basically have to choose between global vibrate, ring or silent, without being able to select combinations such as vibrate for calls & ring for SMS. A few other quirks: no simple way to record an audio note. The arrow keys on the keyboard sometimes fail, so you have to touch the screen to move the cursor (which is usually easier anyway), & I no longer use the pocket ms word since it showed a proclivity to freeze up without saving my changes. For my personal purposes, which I've described, the few drawbacks of the device are far outweighed by the benefits of this quality device.

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Reviewer: Ciaran - Ireland
Date: 18th May 2007

Don't buy this if you just want a fancy phone, because that is not what this is: it is an ultra portable laptop computer. It is the first useable 'ultra portable' I have got, all the other PDAs fell short either in the connectivity area or unusable display or keyboard.

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Reviewer: Tim Mcgarrity - UK
Date: 9th May 2007

Summary. Get a camera that's not very good, a PDA that's OKish, a phone that is completely unusable sellotape them altogether & you will have yourself an XDA EXEC.

Bad Points:
- First one did not work (replaced very quickly though).
- Can not see who is calling you.
- To see who is calling open lid & phone cuts caller off.
- It is really far too big.
- Everybody refers to it as a brick.
- People laugh at its size.
- Twist the screen round & wait for the image to catch up.
- Requires soft resets often as it get confused.
- Battery last 1 day.
- Side buttons easily pressed in pocket.
- Downloaded latest software updates from O2 site followed instructions. Phone went blank half way though, waiting for O2 to get back to me.

Good Points:
- Its an OKish PDA

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Reviewer: Dr J Sadiq - Dublin, Ireland
Date: 26th Apr 2007

An excellent phone for business use & professional use.

Pro's are a lot to mention. Con's are; the weight Only & Price!

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Reviewer: Emma - Birmingham, UK
Date: 23rd Apr 2007

Looks good, great concept, dreadful in practice.

Please, please do not get one of these phones, even if they offer you it for free, it's NOT worth it!

It is slow, it takes ten seconds or more to catch up with you.

It crashes regularly & you don't even know it, I have been late for work several times as I depend on its alarm which doesn't go off because it crashed last night & it still thinks its 11pm last night not 7am this morning! (Yes I have now bought a new alarm).

The battery life is non-existent, I have to charge it every day even when I barely use it (although if you have one already you can extend the battery life by doing the let it empty, recharge it several times method - I didn't think this actually worked but it does on this model).

If someone calls you & you have the lid down, you have to open the lid to see who is calling & then this lovely phone cuts them off around 90% of the time, so you either have to call them back or the few times it doesn't your caller hears you swearing at the phone' because you think it has cut them off because it takes a while to catch up. O2 helpline & store people can't figure out why this is, I've asked!

Its features are pretty much the same as any other Windows Pocket PC phone, other than being forced to use the horrible O2 setup of it. Some of these features are pretty good, some are naff, you can't change the text message tone, alarm tone, reminder tone etc to anything other than their set handful, which is a pain when you have two different phones in the house both running this OS, I.e. You hear a noise & you don't know if its a text message for you or a reminder on your partner's phone because the choices are limited!

Good things:

I like the way it looks, it is cool, it's like a brick (I.e. Not small) but I like that fact.

The stylus doesn't fall out & get lost easily, which happens on a lot of similar phones.

The camera is okay if you can get the damn thing to work.

Its storage is fairly good.

Any other good things are OS based, I.e. You can lots of games or put sat nav on it, but you can do this with any phone with this OS & the O2 XDA exec takes forever to catch up with your clicking & loading & kills the battery very quickly!

Oh & don't make the mistake of plugging your phone into someone else's PC/laptop to download something as this phone synchronises with their stuff so, at best you get all their contacts, calendar etc at worse you lose everything! I currently have my partner's contact list instead of my own (which is now lost forever) because I tried to put a picture on his laptop from my phone. Again O2 helpline & shop don't know why this!

I am gutted I got this phone & even more gutted that I will have to use it for 18 months (my contract) before I can get another decent phone especially as I thought it would be good so I paid for a higher contract than I actually needed to get it!

Finally O2 & the O2 shop made several mistakes in setting up the phone don't care about you (unlike when I was with them 3 or 4 years ago).

There are many, many other minor little faults & niggles that add up to make this the worst & most infuriating phone I have ever had!

In summary, this phone is rubbish, O2 aren't much better (or at least they weren't for me) you may get or have got a better service. PLEASE DON'T GET THIS PHONE!

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Reviewer: Simon F - UK
Date: 10th Mar 2007

Great concept but poor in execution.

Good points:

- Lots of features (also a negative)
- Useful software (but note running speeds)
- hands-free speakerphone
- Good screen
- Texting is a dream
- Lots of connectivity
- Useful keyboard
- Reasonably robust build quality

Negative points:

- Bulky. Will not fit any pocket
- Slow boot up & slow apps (no difference in speed between consumer & business mode in my opinion)
- Too many dropped calls for my liking
- Poor call quality (when you can get a call)
- Lots of bugs & very crash-prone
- Fiddly buttons that are pressed in error when you use as a phone
- More of a 'geek-toy' than a serious tool for work.

I ended up selling it on eBay after spending a bomb!

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Reviewer: Parupatel - Mumbai,india, India
Date: 24th Feb 2007

The most excellent phone every seen in the world of mobiles.

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Reviewer: S8y - Sheffield, UK
Date: 9th Feb 2007

- Bluetooth doesn't support A2TP (using stereo headset for MP3 will not work)
- Phone camera will not support SD card bigger then 2GB (memory address allocation problem)
- Phone doesn't support EDGE (only GSM & 3G)
- Battery drains rapidly while screen in use
- Camera is only 1.3MB
- Too few navigation buttons on screen panel (not best for gaming)

+ Excellent MP3/movie/divx player. Good navigator/desktop/office tool. No point to swap until find one with those functions.

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Reviewer: Ad - Derby, UK
Date: 3rd Feb 2007

Really good phone!

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Reviewer: Tauseef Naqvi - Islamabad, Pakistan
Date: 12th Nov 2006

It's a good PDA, size is bigger, if 60% of the size then a perfect set. The flash is slower & reducing efficiency of 520MHZ processor.

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Reviewer: Alex Thomas - London, UK
Date: 8th Nov 2006

I've had my exec (imate jasjar) for over a year now. Great phone & l highly recommend it. I recently broke mine & have felt lost without it! Everything from the convenience of having synced outlook contacts, tom tom sat nav, PowerPoint presentation capability to being my remote control for my television! Oh Exec how l miss you & wish that l hadn't taken you for granted!

Oh well. Time to move on to the imate Jasjam! Sorry folks not available on O2 for the foreseeable future so am having to acquire network free. It will be worth every penny for the web & walk feature!

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Reviewer: Jo - Netherlands
Date: 29th Oct 2006

Fantastic 3G smartphone, best buy around.

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Reviewer: Benj - Marlow, UK
Date: 21st Oct 2006

My dads got the XDA & at first, I really really liked it. I thought their were so many features packed into one small device & it was incredible. Because it was my dads, I wasn't really allowed to go on it but sometimes he would let me if he got a bit stuck. After a while it got boring & I discovered it wasn't as great as I once thought.

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Reviewer: Mikel - Nigeria
Date: 25th Sep 2006

Though a great phone, it does not show videos on full screen. O2 should work on that feature.

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Reviewer: Sarwar - Dhaka, Bangladesh
Date: 18th Sep 2006

Great 3G smartphone, great software...

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Reviewer: Matthew Marmoy - Swindon, UK
Date: 19th Jul 2006

I upgraded from the XDAII with some hesitation because of how good the XDAII was, but due to an excellent O2 "Loyalty" deal I could not refuse & have never looked back. I love it, I've ditched the standard O2 case in favour of a more user friendly one & got a screen cover as I like using the writing recognition mode. Slightly lacking on original games but easy & cheap to download from millions of www sites. Camera is very sensitive & remains on last setting selected which does not default back to auto, which can catch you out & to try to find a fault for a well rounded review, the phone can be a touch fiddly if the screen is in the face down position in your pocket, by the time you've opened the case, spun the screen round & answered the call either with the soft button or hard button it's a bit frantic; the answer is to keep the XDA Exec in the flip case with the screen uppermost. If you have an inferior version of the XDA go out & upgrade to the exec, you're worth it!!

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Reviewer: Dean - New York, US
Date: 17th Jul 2006

I also use gotomypc.com & skype & find this phone unbelievable!

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Reviewer: Bronte Wake - Coffs Harbour, Australia
Date: 6th Jul 2006

I recently purchased an O2 XDA Exec for use in Australia, everything worked well for first 2 weeks including a 4Gb SD card, however cameras (front & rear) both now display & capture a green grainy negative polarised looking image.

I assumed something corrupted the software since both cameras hardware shouldn't fail this way at the same time. I've tried a hard reset hoping to fix problem, even upgraded firmware but still not fixed!

Have since discovered another owner of a similar device (QTEK 9000) is experiencing the same hardware/software camera problem.

So far 2 emails to O2datasupport@O2.com about this camera problem have remained unanswered, & searches on the Internet, forums etc have yielded no solutions so far!

So far, there are 2 people I know of that are experiencing this weird thing about the camera!

I know it may sound trivial but that was one of the reasons I bought this device, to actually develop Windows Mobile 5 apps that make use of the Camera API! Dammn!

I want some answers to this problem! & any other reviewers of this product should demand & expect answers as well!

Everything else about this device is fantastic for my needs. I have a Motorola HS850 Bluetooth headset that I use when making lots of calls, however I don't know what looks more geeky - wearing a Bluetooth headset or holding a PDA up to your ear!

Grab a few apps from Freewareppc.com like OZVga & TCMP for extra resolution & media playing capabilities & if you are hard-core like me you can even install a web-server & develop asp database driven web sites while on the run & upload them to the web right there an then, fantastic!

The built-in Wireless is strong, as I'm frequently detecting wireless connections from neighboring houses 60 - 100 meters away, or when driving around town my device picks up connections from offices etc. all over the place!

I do have some issues though:

1. Unit is a bit slow, a reset is required when unit hangs often.
2. Would have loved a CF Card slot in it as well!
3. Should have support for USB mass storage device for plugging in (powered) USB hard drives.
4. Some response to my 2 emails to O2datasupport@O2.com PLEASE! Support is not good so far!

Buyers beware! If you have purchased this item like I have new through EBay & live outside of the UK or Ireland & this device has not officially been released in your country yet, then you may not be protected by warranty!

Software Developers for this Product BEWARE! - make sure these camera hardware/software problems are not going to be an issue!

Summary: Overall I still like this device, using it all the time, using the laptop less & less now, BUT would really love this device if I can get the camera fixed!

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Reviewer: Lee Brown - Reading, UK
Date: 23rd Apr 2006

I don't own this phone but I want it very much as it comes with an excellent specification. I will keep my eye on this web site for further user reviews & options. I am unsure of the O2 XDA Exec release date but imagine it is a recently released phone due to the specification. I am interested in the emailing services, operation system, WLAN, WIFI, Bluetooth & fast 3G. I need to know how reliable all these functions are before I purchase it. Very interested potential buyer, my scoring may be slightly incorrect as I do not have this phone.

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Reviewer: Simon Fellows - Liverpool, UK
Date: 18th Apr 2006

XDA Exec is a high end business users dream. I have my own business which involves travelling around the World & living out of my suitcase. My support team can contact me on my Xda Exec at all times & I use my phone as much if not more than I use my laptop. I had a few software issues in the first two weeks but since that has been resolved by only two short phone calls, it works like a dream. The Xda Exec had only just became available when I got it so it was inevitable that I would come across a few issues about its operation & software, but nothing major. The size is compact & the phone has heaps of style. I love the speed, usability & reliability of this phone & it helps having Bluetooth, 3G & full tri band. If a business 3G PDA phone is what you are considering buying then look no further, this is an amazing phone & in a class of its own.



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