UK Mobile Phones - O2 XDA Mini S Review

Your O2 XDA Mini S Reviews

Click here to add your own review for the O2 XDA Mini S


Reviewer: Musthahusin Niyaz - Male, Maldives
Date: 25th Jun 2008

It is easy to use.

---

Reviewer: James - Lonon, UK
Date: 19th May 2008

Where can I buy a charger for my pocket 02 XDA mini S PC.

---

Reviewer: Carly Wright - UK
Date: 5th Feb 2008

I have owned the 02 XDA mini S for a while. I wouldn't recommend it. I am not talking from a business style view but from a normal person view. My phone constantly freezes & has to be reset, the pens broke easily & are too expensive to replace & the screen was easily scratched by the pens. I liked the fact it had solitaire but this is one of the only positives. The qwerty keyboard is pretty cool, but not worth the money. I have tried to sell it. It has failed to sell & those that are selling are going for very low prices. I thoroughly feel as though I have been ripped off. This was not a good investment.

---

Reviewer: Fahmi - Jakarta, Indonesia
Date: 5th Jan 2008

Where I can buy the battery O2 XDA mini s?

---

Reviewer: Paul - UK
Date: 30th Dec 2007

Superb phone but like the xda2i could have been better on the camera side.

---

Reviewer: Mario - Malta
Date: 18th Dec 2007

I bought this device second hand on eBay & I am very happy with it plus I've installed some PocketGear Software on it & it is now wonderful. I also put in a 2 Gig storage card, which makes its memory un exhaustive!

Just one problem, recently when I press the phone left hand button to get the phone pad, instead of getting the normal phone pad with numbers, I am just getting white blank rectangles, except for the Speed Dial & Call History buttons. Phone pad works fine but you obviously have to know which button originally represented which number. Is this a settings problem? Or have I deleted some files by mistake?

I would be so grateful if anyone could help. Thanks.

---

Reviewer: Steve - UK
Date: 10th Dec 2007

This Phone is a fantastic Piece of kit, would highly recommend it to anyone out there looking for a Windows type phone. The slide out keyboard is great especially when you open it up as the screen auto rotates to make it a wide screen. MP3's play great. The Box it comes in is such a delight! Strange to comment on I know, but it's so great it needs a mention. Have fun!

---

Reviewer: Imtiaz - Mumbai, India
Date: 7th Dec 2007

CAN anyone HELP ME & LET ME KNOW WHERE CAN I GET the PC SUITE AS I LOST the ORIGINAL CDS IS THERE, A website TO DOWNLOAD IT AS MY ACTIVE SYNC DOES NOT WORK AT ALL.

---

Reviewer: Sophie - UK
Date: 23rd Nov 2007

I think think that the phone is great thank you O2, Soph xx.

---

Reviewer: Darell - Spain
Date: 18th Nov 2007

I recently purchased the mini s after having the really bad XDA 2 & to be honest this phone has blown all the other phones I have had out the window it is just pure awesome I love it.

---

Reviewer: Ed - UK
Date: 21st Oct 2007

The phone started well but as it is windows it crashes. It is bulky & the paint rubs off on anything else in your pocket. After about a year it really started to mess up & 15 months in it is constantly out of memory & even if you delete messages they appear back in you inbox the next day. The phone book has now died & so has anything that uses memory. It tells you there are missed calls when there aren't & messages from months ago arrive in your inbox as new. This phone cannot be relied on for business.

---

Reviewer: Monti - Shanghai, China
Date: 4th Oct 2007

Awesome phone dudes.

---

Reviewer: Stephen Crawford - Revesby, Australia
Date: 16th Sep 2007

I am a business man & I needed a new mobile, a mobile phone fit for a business man. The next day my partner bought an XDA mini s when I saw it, it was love at first sight, I've had it for over a year now but I am still discovering new things about it every day.

---

Reviewer: Saifz - UK
Date: 23rd Jun 2007

I think the XDA mini s is a great pocket PC for work & that lot.

---

Reviewer: Aakash Patel - Ahmedabad, India
Date: 13th Jun 2007

I am using this phone from last 9 months & I love to use it, there are so many features in this phone, & word & excel helps me in my business. To good to say nothing, simply the best one.

---

Reviewer: Moe - Slilgo, Ireland
Date: 14th May 2007

It's very hard to use the programs & features of this XDA with PC. I am having problems with reviewing my contacts on my PC. I am not even sure if they have been coped to my PC. If any1 knows how to help me please post, many thanks.

---

Reviewer: Kyaw - Newcastle, UK
Date: 12th May 2007

It's a good phone. I like it.

---

Reviewer: Kevin Peggie - Kirkcaldy, UK
Date: 5th May 2007

Pretty good fun, apparently you can't use more than a 1 GB memory card in it for your data or it just won't work well & keep freezing up when trying to play tunes in windows media player or a video. Easy to use & text & phone etc. pretty good gadget to have in your pocket.

---

Reviewer: Raj - Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Date: 30th Apr 2007

Good sound.

---

Reviewer: Gary - Southampton, UK
Date: 20th Apr 2007

Nice phone, but not as good as the orbit.

---

Reviewer: Ll - Roaming, UK
Date: 18th Apr 2007

I love this phone - it does it all & the keyboard makes typing so easy - I still don't understand what people like about the Blackberry. I am writing this review because I managed to put my MiniS through a full 40 degree wash cycle with detergent (accidentally, I hasten to add) &, lo & behold, it came back to life a couple of weeks later. A really nifty bit of kit!

---

Reviewer: Andy - Liverpool, UK
Date: 11th Apr 2007

Had the phone a week. Can't play any AVI or MPEG files on the video player. Not easy to navigate around the menus!

---

Reviewer: Nick - UK
Date: 12th Mar 2007

Nice review Sean!

I bought my XDA min s on an impulse last Christmas. Well actually I bought two, one for the g/f as a Xmas prezzie but she rejected it immediately & I ended up sending hers back. Wish that I had sent mine back now as well.

I made various attempts at using it for a few weeks but then gave up & it sat in the box for 6-7 months whilst I reverted back to my faithful Nokia 6600. One day g/f sat on her 6600 so I gave her mine & had to start using the XDA mini s.

The QWERTY keyboard is fantastic no other word for it. I can type almost as fast as on my laptop using both my thumbs, & I have huge hands. If you text a lot this could be useful but I warn you will soon get fed up with the lengthy sequence required to actually send a text message. I still have not yet managed to send a multimedia message either.

Taking pictures is a nightmare on this thing. Press the camera button on the side & the camera is ready to take a picture. Once taken the problems start. The icons for selecting store picture or delete or edit etc are miniscule & against are almost unreadable against the on screen image you have just taken. You then need to make 3 more `on screen' selections using the fiddly pen before you can take another picture. Absolutely crazy. If you need to take regular pictures for work like me, don't buy this phone its far too frustrating especially if like me you need reading glasses & always seem to be carrying car keys & a clipboard in the other hand. One handed operation it is not.

Battery life is fantastic & never seems to go flat. Screen is bright & clear & movies are exceptional. I found I spent more time showing funny videos to admiring friends that using it for anything else.

Wi-Fi works well & connects to my home wireless setup well but the XDA is simply tooooooooo slooooooooow to be useable. The XDA connects to my TomTom 510 in the car fine for hands-free calls but occasionally looses connection.

To sum up I think as a phone & camera it is poor & if these are your prime uses then I would advise looking elsewhere as the number of sequences required to do these simple functions are frustrating to say the least. Also it is extremely heavy & thick & does not seem happy in any pocket. If you intend to fully use all the other features I am sure you will find it more than adequate if you take the time to explore the XDA mini S operation & features.

---

Reviewer: Anom - UK
Date: 4th Mar 2007

I have had this phone for nearly a year. As an organiser I find it excellent. Mobile Internet is slow & basic, handy for checking e-mails in an emergency or info to settle an argument down the pub etc. But as a replacement/decent substitute to a desk top, forget it.

Two major complaints. Firstly: the phone features of the device are very bad. Its like phones used to be 5 or 6 years; service cuts in & out, they can hear you but you can't hear them or vice versa, call won't connect etc. Reception is so poor in my house that if I have more than a few calls to make from home I will put my Sim card in my old Sony Ericsson which has perfect reception.

Second; Bluetooth is so poor, it's unusable. It's not usably compatible with my SatNav, built-in car kit or 2 separate ear pieces. Have just come back from holiday with a couple of guys that are significantly more tech-minded than me & not one of them could Bluetooth any images from their phones to mine.

It's not all doom & gloom though because it is a very handy little device, the slide out key pad is awesome & I honestly couldn't see myself going back to a number pad again. But if phone calls are the main thing you would use this for, I think you will be left often frustrated.

---

Reviewer: Jim - Aberystwyth, UK
Date: 12th Feb 2007

I was given this phone by a mate its really cool like the design like wm5 like the usability has crashed a few times but it sorts itself out would be good if you could upgrade the operating system to windows mobile 2003 etc.

---

Reviewer: Are And Jones - UK
Date: 11th Feb 2007

Very disappointing. Has completely crashed after less than 4 months & left me stranded without a phone. The support form O2 has been very poor. Customer service is particularly poor.

My advice buy this phone at your own risk, bearing in mind you may well be tied into a 12 month contract for a pda/phone that spends weeks & months in repair!

There are more worthwhile charities than O2 you could give your money to for nothing in return!

---

Reviewer: PP - UK
Date: 10th Feb 2007

The Mini S is really cool, well done O2.

---

Reviewer: Sean - Halifax, UK
Date: 5th Feb 2007

I originally purchased this PDA-Phone over a year ago just after it came out, my score for the review is based on the out-of-the-box experience.

Immediately I noticed how slow the Windows Mobile 5 OS was to respond to input from either stylus or keyboard. I work in IT & love tampering with gadgets so I went to work finding out what was causing the terrible slowdown.

From researching various forums & websites I found that the XDA's have 2 modes of operation Corporate & Consumer, when you take the phone out of the box & start it up the first time it installs the consumer level software in the form of O2's Today screen plug-in, it is this element that slows down the whole PDA. I emailed the developer mobilesolutions & asked how to remove the software from the device as trying to do so from within WM5 generated lots of errors.

They weren't very supportive, so I hacked the software out of the PDA manually using a registry editor & browsing the file system for the rogue files. This not only doubled the speed of the operation of the device but also gave me a lot more space for applications in the built-in memory.

From then on using the phone has been hassle free, I have installed software to watch divx & xvid movies & can fit about 3 films plus a few hundred MP3's on a 1GB Storage Card. WM5 can be a little clunky in that once you close an application it isn't really closed in most cases & sits there taking up precious memory & cpu-time. A lot of common tasks take too many navigational steps to perform which can be a bind but this is a bugbear of the WM5 OS not the phone.

Wireless networking is useful but not perfect as it seems to be aimed at Internet usage rather than business networking. I personally rarely use the slide out keyboard & for this & the added feature of built-in GPS I will soon be swapping the XDA Mini II s for an XDA Orbit.

Battery life is excellent from a device of this type allowing me to play games & even watching a 2 hour movie only uses about 25% of the battery power.

It is a very durable device having been dropped a number of times from various heights onto hard surfaces with no effect other than scratches to the case.

After a year's use & the tweaks I did along the way I score the phone as follows.

Design 80% - Versatile & well built
Features 90% - Lacks Built-in GPS for a fully sorted device
Usability 95% - With the modifications I made.

---

Reviewer: Ray - Liverpool, UK
Date: 17th Jan 2007

The CPU is very slow, but compare with O2 Orbit, same CPU but Orbit is faster. I don't know why.

---

Reviewer: Lura Stewart - UK
Date: 9th Jan 2007

I love this phone I had it for a year & I am still finding new programs on it my only problem is it time for my mew contract & I can't find another that is quite as good.

---

Reviewer: Bob Abspoel - Finland
Date: 8th Jan 2007

I bought my phone a year ago. I have been satisfied with it & the capabilities it has. There were some problems that were solved by reading the forums on the Internet.

The stylus falls out after a short period of use. The Internet is full of users complaining about it. There is a solution for it, but you warranty goes.

I ran into three other problems / weaknesses:

1) The processor is too weak, so I have problems getting TomTom or Skype to work properly.

2) The WLAN feature is great, but it is not very sensitive. An external extra antenna would be great, but I have not found one.

3) I have found no way to remove unnecessary listings for WLAN hotspots. The phone tries out a good number of (even foreign!) connections before hitting the right one. Bad behavior when you are in a hurry.

Otherwise, it has been a pleasure to use this phone.

---

Reviewer: Beverley - Kent, UK
Date: 4th Jan 2007

Really disappointed. Freezes, makes dodgy scrambling noises & memory isn't that good, I was assured this was the best phone around, but memory isn't all that without a memory card. I only had a few photos & 5 songs & it told me I had run out of storage & had to delete programs! WHAA?! I took it too the shop & THEN they decided to tell me I need a memory card as most of the memory is taken up by the programs (must of skipped there minds before I signed the contract!) won't get it out of principle now. Haha ha, I'll show them! If you have the patience of a saint when the thing gets hormonal & stubborn on you, this is the phone for you. Mine I would gladly put in front of my car & run it over. Several times!

---

Reviewer: Lynne - Glasgow, UK
Date: 1st Jan 2007

I got the phone a year ago. I really like it although I have found some problems with it. It's a bit slow & freezes when the camera is used, it likes to do a soft reset every so often without permission & the text freezes sometimes. Oh & the keyboard is too small although I love how gimmicky it is. All in all it's a good phone, it's a good size & does loads of extra stuff. Wouldn't go back to an ordinary mobile after the XDA mini S. :-)

---

Reviewer: Duru - Kazakhstan
Date: 31st Dec 2006

It is an OK phone.

---

Reviewer: BJB - UK
Date: 12th Dec 2006

Excellent phone, one of my best buys ever. Top Marks :)

---

Reviewer: Midgers550 - Portsmouth, UK
Date: 14th Sep 2006

This replaced my Sony Ericsson P910i. My first impression of the XDA was this was way too hard to use. After a couple of hours I find it quicker & easier than my old phone. I cant work out how to do a simple transfer of an MP3 to the XDA from my home PC via Bluetooth, as this phone blocks any MP3 protected by DRM or similar (like itunes MP3's). I guess you can bypass this by burning a CD then ripping it into windows but this is a lot of hassle. Overall this is a great phone. Memory is very cheap too. Would totally recommend it to a gadget loving mobile user!

---

Reviewer: Kenoy Kadakia - Bombay, India
Date: 29th Aug 2006

Excellent phone....

---

Reviewer: Vas - UK
Date: 9th Aug 2006

Had a 2 week trial of the phone. Initially thought it was great but then realised how slow it ran compared to my old phone. Old phone had 400 MHz processor, this only has 200 MHz, & hence it struggles all the time. TomTom ran too slowly even after buying a high speed MMC to run the apps from & even after a hard reset removing all O2 programs. Nice concept but sadly let down by a very weak processor.

---

Reviewer: Karen - UK
Date: 27th Jul 2006

Had the phone for a month now. It's quite chunky but then it's more than a phone. Love the PDA side of it, particularly the QWERTY keypad, windows & hotmail however am having trouble setting up O2 webmail. Would have thought that this would be the most straight forward of all..... contacted O2 for help but found them to be not so helpful.

Not finding the phone functions to be that good. It's quite awkward to use, sometimes wish for a separate mobile! Maybe I just need to get use to it. Likewise with the contacts don't like the fact that I can't modify it i.e. view it by first names or change the fields to suit me.

Does anyone know if there is a counter for browser/download usage within its many programs? Don't like to be surprised when my statement arrives.

All in all a good gadget which looks great.

---

Reviewer: Danny Sacco - Bath, UK
Date: 23rd Jun 2006

The more I use the phone the more I love it but sadly I am have had 3 xda's in 3 months as I have had numerous faults such as freezing screens, sync problems & now voice activation problems. As I am in business I do not think I will be able to go on with a phone that is so unreliable which is a shame as the phone when working is great.

---

Reviewer: Thomas Jeffson - UK
Date: 17th Apr 2006

I got my Xda Mini S a month ago & I am very pleased with it & the price was great when I sent up a new contract with O2. A couple of minor problems so far but nothing too frightening considering the phones features & built in technology. I found that if I shut an application without naming it then it causes the phones pad to stop working & the battery runs low very quickly. I love the built in MP3 player & I have got loads of music on my Xda Mini S which is what I wanted. Still not using the business application as I thought I would but it is still early days & the WIFI has not been mastered yet, but I will get there in the end. Bluetooth is great & the O2 network provider is better than my previous provider for reception.

---

Reviewer: Eleanor - Langley, UK
Date: 14th Apr 2006

My dad had this phone & it is well technical & a very capable mobile PDA. Lovely looking phone & the features are never ending. He uses his all the time for his job & he is well happy with it.



Click here to add your own review for the O2 XDA Mini S

---

Home  |  Webmasters  |  Your Privacy  |  Our Legal Disclaimer
O2 XDA Mini S SmartPhone Reviews & Features © 2006 - 2008, Your Mobile Phone Reviews UK Limited