UK Mobile Phones - O2 XDA Orbit Review

Your O2 XDA Orbit Reviews

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Reviewer: Reddy - Hyderabad, India
Date: 21st Jul 2008

Hey I am having O2 XDA Orbit. It's cool. I have a problem with it. I can receive data from other cells via Bluetooth but I am unable to send the items. CAN ANY ONE HELP ME OUT, HOW TO SHARE the DATA WITH OTHER MOBILES.

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Reviewer: Peng Ung - Perth, Australia
Date: 15th Jul 2008

I have had my Orbit for over a year now & it has been largely trouble free. However about a month ago the on & off switch stopped working & I had to operate the camera & switch it to the today screen. However I can switch it on & off if the phone is charging.

Can anybody tell me if this is a hardware or a software problem & how & where I can rectify it? Thanks.

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Reviewer: Stephen - Dundee, UK
Date: 10th Jul 2008

I have a 02 Orbit I put it back to factory setting & now it wants a administrator code, can someone help me cheers, Stephen.

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Reviewer: Bruce Cramer - San Antonio, US
Date: 10th Jul 2008

I have struggled with this phone for a year now & thought it was about time I put up my review. I love the size & layout of the phone but I have never got the GPS feature to work, the Wi-Fi works sporadically & I have to do a soft reset regularly. I cannot get it to do a hard reset & the processor size really shows. It is very SLOW.

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Reviewer: Steve - Bolton, UK
Date: 1st Jul 2008

I have had this PDA now for 18 months and last week upgraded to the Nokia N95. After a week the Nokia was back with the supplier and the Orbit was back in my pocket. It is by far the best phone & PDA I have ever used. I am definitely going to upgrade to the Orbit 2. I find using the stylus to input text etc a lot less cumbersome than using a keyboard. The features on this phone are awesome and for business use, top dog. Get one now you won't be disappointed.

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Reviewer: Dara - Coventry, UK
Date: 30th Jun 2008

It's fantastic phone better than NOKIA N95.

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Reviewer: Rtb - Essex, UK
Date: 3rd May 2008

Had phone now for 10 months. Had a PDA prior to this, so most functions were familiar to me. I agree with other users about the poor quality camera. Texting is good, especially predictive phrases as you can very quickly put sentences together that you have used before.

I just find sat nav a bit slow to connect. Must get an external sat nav aeriel to see if it improves the connection speed. Anyone know if this would be the case?

Wi-Fi is very useful, GPRS has been helpful in many situations.

Overall a good phone, PDA, Sat nav & MP3 etc.

However, there is one other downfall, memory doesn't get released as well as it should do after stopping applications in memory manager, even after updating to WM6. This could be what other users may be experiencing as slow down or crashes. A quick restart resolves this issue. But don't let this memory issue put you off buying one, it can be easily worked around by a restart every week or so. But then what Windows machine doesn't need a restart every week or so!

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Reviewer: Roxy Bell - UK
Date: 28th Apr 2008

I've had this phone for 14 months & I must admit it has everything you possibly need. However, after the novelty had worn off I found that texting was a big problem as the phone has a mini keyboard to press the little keys with a stylus, which isn't practical when texting on a train or a transcribers that doesn't recognise my hand writing. The phone over time has got slower & has a tendency to freeze for about a minute. I've found that the time & date resets to 00:00 6th October 2006.

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Reviewer: Amir Khan - Bolton, United Arab Emirates
Date: 23rd Apr 2008

Super phone.

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Reviewer: Andrew - UK
Date: 9th Apr 2008

I have used the orbit 2 for about two months now after upgrading from the orbit 1.

The only quirk is the front jog wheel my rubber band has come loose from the wheel, I suppose the type of glue to stick this rubber cover to the jog wheel is a quality control issue & hopefully should be sorted but apart from that the phone is excellent to use no problems with software & the touch flo software is good once you get used to it.

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Reviewer: Andrew - Kent, UK
Date: 7th Apr 2008

RUBBISH phone.

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Reviewer: Chris Bradbury - London, UK
Date: 26th Mar 2008

Once you get used to using the stylus, it's all easy, & works very well. Had two previously which did have some software problems, but latest one is trouble free. Biggest beef is that it is almost impossible to get the phone out of your pocket without activating something, especially the Co Pilot satnav, which then announces to the world WELCOME TO CO PILOT LIVE! The satnav is superb however, & nearly always chooses the best route.

A great phone. Just tried an Orbit 2, the original is much better, with better graphics & more facilities. So I sent it back!

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Reviewer: Marianne - Sheffield, UK
Date: 23rd Mar 2008

Hi, I have recently bought the phone & absolutely love it!

I am having a couple of problems with the co-pilot sat nav, I've registered it but it doesn't seem to be able to find my location on the gprs.

Any ideas?

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Reviewer: Chopsy - London, UK
Date: 14th Mar 2008

Great phone! Absolutely loved this device. It's rammed full of features & works very well. But I've just upgraded to a Sony Ericsson W960!

The good.
- Styling, good phone in a relatively small package.
- SatNav works great with TomTom 6 & having the built in GPS receiver is fantastic.
- Large screen.
- Syncs with Outlook, etc.
- Uses mini USB instead of non standard proprietary ports or cables.
- Bluetooth works perfectly with my jabra Jx10 headset.
- Wi-Fi is easy to set up & works well (never used it after initial set up though! ).
- Call quality is excellent.
- Great as a phone & a PDA.
- Battery life was good.

The Bad.
- Standard MS contacts & calendar apps are awful, take a look at the Sony Ericsson W960 to see how this should be done!
- No adapter supplied to convert mini USB to standard headset for listening to MP3s.
- No standard headset socket on device.

Other.
- As a PDA, this device is excellent. As a phone, usability suffers a little. To dial numbers or write text messages, you have to stab the screen with your finger or stylus. This will not be a surprise to anyone since there is no keypad on the phone but after a while it does become tiresome! This is the only reason I upgraded to a similar size phone but one with a keypad. I did use this for a year though & do still think it's one of the best gadgets I've ever owned!

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Reviewer: Abhishek - Lko, India
Date: 11th Mar 2008

The PhonE IS The CooLest MoDEL, GreaT LooKs, TO UsE IT is VERY VERY EASY. JUST GO & ByE IT AS SooN AS PosSIBLE, SO you HAVE A PROUD phone.

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Reviewer: Liam W - Londonderry, Ireland
Date: 6th Mar 2008

This is my first PDA phone, I find it user friendly, some nice features (even though I can't use half them). Have a memory card in & no problems.

Negatives are it keeps freezing & I need to reset to get it to do anything.

I have SERIOUS problems trying to get it to sync to the laptop. The toggle switch for the volume on the side has broken.

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Reviewer: Shakeel Hatteea - Coromandel, Mauritius
Date: 13th Feb 2008

My XDA Orbit help me a lot in my work especially I can use Outlook Express is very easy to do work better & many other interesting things. But I am still trying to send a picture or a sound clip from the gallery by using Bluetooth but I can't reach to do it as I have lost my manual booklet. Can you help me on that? Waiting your kind reply.

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Reviewer: Graham D - London, UK
Date: 12th Feb 2008

Hands down the best device I have owned. I previously owned an XDAIIi & XDAiis, so know the idea of the phone. I wanted GPS PDA & Mobile in one, & this does it with a camera too.

The great points are.
- The Phone is XDA's best yet & surprisingly good quality, Finally!
- The user interface is reasonably easy to follow & it has the PDA side covered.
-The roller ball mouse is a great addition, but totally unnecessary.
- The screen is pretty good & the whole device is very solidly built, well done!
- The Audio quality is pretty decent too.
- Sat Nav is actually really good, a great GPS, better than the Bluetooth one that came with Tom Tom.
- Converting music to ring tones is easily managed.
- Battery life is double what the XDAIIi could achieve. It get me two days normal use, & if I use Sat Nav for three hours, one days normal use.
- I have my 2GB micro SD card in it, easily enough for me.
- I love having my dog bark alarm call.

There are issues.
- My wife hates the dogs bark alarm call!
- The PEN is on the bottom, so it is where it can fall out, Buy (more) extra pens!
- The buttons can be programmed, & the voice recognition is a pain as you press it when you turn on & off. The sat nav doesn't come on by itself, you are pressing the button accidently.
- The WiFi is a disaster, but that is probably just me!
- The Camera is rubbish, but then I am a photographer, but the white balance just blows! It is useful for taking pictures of documents for recall later, or directions etc.
- When playing back movies in full screen it automatically minimises to adjust volume.
- What is the point of a Mini usb port for connecting the external headset? I ride a motorbike & this now means that I have to have Bluetooth through my helmet, this is a reasonably difficult way of doing things.
- The Sat Nav (Tom tom 5) won't allow me to have audio, but that may be a me thing.
-It doesn't have 3G, damn I wish it were on the 3G network with Skype.
- It doesn't talk to Mac's that is something that I would like.

All in all its easily the best smart phone device I have come across. Though the New HTC ones look really great with magic screens, they do seem complex & not user intuitive.

Much better than the Nokia E65 & N95 (despite rubbish camera).

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Reviewer: Apul - Ireland
Date: 5th Feb 2008

I like the orbit, I have it nine months, however I have spent a lot of time resetting connection details & now it is freezing all the time. I have to take the battery out to start it up again.

I want out at this stage.

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Reviewer: Chris - Wiltshire, UK
Date: 4th Feb 2008

I can't wait for my contract to expire so that I can replace this phone.

It's slow, difficult to use, the wireless LAN is unreliable, frequently needs that battery removed to turn off, keys are overly sensitive & sat nav regularly starts for no good reason & Windows is awful.

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Reviewer: Jose - Manchester, UK
Date: 29th Jan 2008

Hi there, I really do like the phone but since I did cancel my contract the GPS stopped working, can anyone help me to fix it please. I have a free GPS software with it is from O2. Thanks.

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Reviewer: Dougie - Edinburgh, UK
Date: 28th Jan 2008

Just a quick review in answer to some points made by Gerard from Ireland.

I frequently use the phone in the car with a Bluetooth headset while running GPS, & when a call arrives it pops up immediately & once the call has ended it returns to the SatNav software seamlessly. Battery life is good, better than I expected with all that running. I also occasionally use the phone to stream music to my Bluetooth stereo headphones with no problems at all, Bluetooth on this device is very good.

I have updated my Orbit with great advice received from both XDA developers & mainly XDA site, very recommended for a visit.

This phone has proven to be the best phone I have ever had.

P.S. I have mine configured to use an 8GB Micro SDHC card.

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Reviewer: Gerard - Sharry, Ireland
Date: 19th Jan 2008

From what I read here, I take it most of the users are new to Windows Smart Phone software for PDA's. My first PDA was a Dell. The only problem with it was I also had to carry a phone & camera. When I first research the Internet to see if I could just have two items only I was very surprised to see the O2 XDA2s had three units in one. There were two units for sale, one with & one without a key board. I went for the key board & in all the four years, I have it, I have used the key board once. If you used to PDA, you will have learned to use the style pen that comes with the unit & after a while with use your finger. My friends say I write the longest text they ever get & that is because it has the same setup as Word. In addition, that includes a very good spell checker, which I use a lot. You can also make up your own dictionary as you go along. Handy for odd names & places. I have never master short hand text & while I get it all the time bit by bit, I am converting my friends to move away from it. The camera is fine for recording A4 letters you sign & the miner bump, if you are unlucky. It is not for portrait & is not meant to be. The tape record works the same. The only thing it is missing is what the Orbit has.

If I have four criticism of the Orbit without seeing one, but going on what you all have said so far.

- I cannot see how partial it can be if it is one third smaller. The size of my XDA2s is no problem & never has been. & that where the Orbit has come into problems in that it has attracts the phone clients who are really not into PDA but more MP3 & MP4 video which the Orbit is not amid at.

- the maximum size of the Mini SD card. Today it should be able to take larger cards than 4GB. Most good GPS units take up to 4 GB just to cover all Euro & parts of Russia & that not the USA. Also the ram is not sufficient for a multi running appliance software, as a Phone, GPS & Bluetooth unit all running together if you have a car, adapter unit fitted. I cannot see how it can cope with the load on such a slow processor & small ram. It bound to lock up. I like the way the XDA is heading with the Orbit, but I would not buy it yet because it has a bit of everything but not enough to make it reliable. It needs to return to its original size, a faster Processor & a lot more ram. I use a 2400mAh battery on my old XDA2s & even with the Bluetooth on for my GPS, it will last for more than five hours for hand use. With an ear peace, you can leave it in your pocket if the size is a problem in public, as it appears to be with some people.

- I see the Bluetooth in the Orbit still has the same problems as the old XDA2s. It seems to be the week point with these units. My one never worked with the car radio Bluetooth kit. I was warned before it was fitted into my car by the radio technician. I will now sit back for a while & watch how it progresses before I will go for a new update unit. ALSO A WORD OF WARNING. As more & more people put very personal details on these units also the GPS records where you were, it can be used against you if it is robed or impounded for whatever reason. So a master delete program that has a time reset alarm by code you set would be a great accessory for the phone makers to add on to their units. It could save you one day in the future. A word of wisdom to O2 is do not leave it to long to update, as the choice in the market is getting better each day & loyal to a brand is not what it was in the past. If another unit on the market lives up to what I mention, then it is my next unit. Yours Gerard.

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Reviewer: Garry - UK
Date: 16th Jan 2008

What a load of rubbish I really think that this phone is a waste of money. It crashes practically every day, the screen goes black & nothing happens so you have to take out the battery & if you do that every day in my concerns will break it. O2 say that they have not had anyone else complain but I don't see how, this phone is rubbish.

The only thing on this phone that I like is the Co Pilot (satnav) it does work & works well once you have set it up properly & have got clear connection. But that have proved quite hard to do in most places. I have took this phone back three times now is absolutely rubbish, recently they have had my phone for over 3 weeks & then they give me a new one & this has broken recently too, it is definitely going back & I hope for a different model, but I do quite like the design that is why I have given it a generous score.

anyone WHO WISHES TO BUY THIS PHONE don't!

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Reviewer: Tony Castle - France
Date: 13th Jan 2008

Great phone, well worth the money & does everything an iphone can't.

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Reviewer: Peter - UK
Date: 12th Jan 2008

Impressed. Those of you wondering about the 4, 6 or 8GB SDHC cards will be pleased to know that you can apparently use them with a little tweak of your software at most. They have to be formatted on your laptop or desktop before use. For advice on how to achieve your goal look on the excellent XDA developer site. I agree the camera is poor but I didn't buy it for that.

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Reviewer: Rob Blades - Buckley, UK
Date: 5th Jan 2008

I have had my XDA orbit for 7 months & I think it is an excellent phone but, the camera is bad compared to the phone I thought it would have a better quality camera.

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Reviewer: John - UK
Date: 3rd Jan 2008

I just got my Orbit a few days ago & I am very impressed.

After a little struggle to get the SD card in & getting it all set-up it is working really well.
The speed is pretty much the same as my trusted PALM TX as long as I make sure that there are not too many programs running in background. The camera is a bit of a let down & shouldn't be taken too serious.

I found that I need the stylus in almost situations with the exception of the phone which works fine with my thumb.

Internet connection is straight forward, but closing the browser does not cut the connection (could be expensive).

I miss a few little things in the phone section. I get a lot of marketing phone calls & normally set my phone only to ring on contacts in my list & the rest goes to voice mail. I have not found a way to do this with the Orbit.

Another thing I don't like at all relates to windows mobile 6 & the insistence to only allow to sync with outlook (that is defiantly a con!).

Otherwise I am pretty happy.

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Reviewer: Bryan - London, UK
Date: 10th Dec 2007

Hi, getting the XDA orbit for Xmas. Can anyone tell me do you have to pay for the built in GPS for co pilot?

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Reviewer: Roger Herbert - Birmingham, UK
Date: 5th Dec 2007

4GB san disk for XDA Orbit problem. I have recently purchased a san disk aa0709xxc 4GB for my mobile it is an XDA Orbit however it will not auto detect it. The local O2 shop sell up to 8GB for this mobile & were quite confident that this should work. There was a comment made re formatting the disk by the mobile but it is not obvious how this can be done. Is the disk compatible if so what can be done for the mobile to recognise this disk? Has anyone any thoughts.

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Reviewer: Ray - London, UK
Date: 5th Dec 2007

XDA Orbit great phone as I have just upgraded from the mini XDA well can anyone confirm if they have a 4 gig micro SD card & if this works can they confirm the exact spec & manufacturer as all the 4 gig SD card's I've seen are the micro SDHC & not sure if it compatible with the XDA Orbit? Much appreciated in advance.

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Reviewer: Ben - Newcastle, UK
Date: 4th Dec 2007

I've just got one & it has everything I need! Although does anyone know how I can use a 4GB memory card in it. If I could use a 4GB card it would be PERFECT!

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Reviewer: David Lee - Bradford, UK
Date: 1st Dec 2007

I have used the Orbit for 3 months after an upgrade from XDA Exec. Mine came with Windows Mobile 6.

The Orbit is smaller than the XDA Exec & is easier to carry about. I can phone using one hand again, Exec needs two hands or Voice Dial. The Orbit screen is smaller, poorer resolution but clearly brighter than Exec, with wider angles of view. I chose to load Tom Tom Navigator 6 & Memory Map 5 Ordinance Survey Maps. WM6 allows them to share the internal GPS both work smoothly whereas with the Exec it was one or the other as they competed for the external GPS receiver com port.

I've only found two down sides to the Orbit. First, the 2.8in screen is too small for reading Excel spreadsheets (I carry data around with me) & too small for searching web sites when I go on line using GPRS. Interestingly, the 3.6in VGA screen on Exec gives a clearer (expected) & more fully detailed (unexpected) display of Tom Tom navigation maps of same place. & second, the battery life is average at best. If you use GPS it lasts less than 5 hours, shame if you're walking in the Dales using Memory Map. Switching off the screen extends life but WM6 still doesn't stop programme's running when you close them, so you need to go into Memory management in & turn them off. I get 3 days at most & prefer to charge the Orbit each night.

So I carry around the Orbit for everyday use, an excellent handy sized phone with the bonus of GPS, which just gets on with the job. However, when route planning & traveling with the family (driving or walking), I use the Exec, for its better screen which can be read from the back seat of the car!

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Reviewer: Wendy - Edinburgh, UK
Date: 29th Nov 2007

Just been reading through all your reviews, most of the problems, if not all, of your problems have a solution.

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Reviewer: Wendy - Edinburgh, UK
Date: 29th Nov 2007

I agree it's a fantastic bit of kit, the only thing that lets it down for me is the camera.

If you want to upgrade your 2GB microsd, you can now get a cab which will allow you to add sdhc support to your already fabulous orbit.

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Reviewer: Alan Smith - Stevenage, UK
Date: 25th Nov 2007

Fantastic bit of kit, I would be lost without it, I have upgraded to WM6, updated Co-pilot to version 7 & now want to replace my 2GB with a 4GB memory card, I know it can be done & have read some reviews of people running them, only problem is how do you do it?

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Reviewer: Zubair - Blackburn, UK
Date: 21st Nov 2007

Excellent mobile phone, if you know how to use it & download software, I just can't stay away from it, one of the best ones I have ever had.

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Reviewer: Rep - Inverness, UK
Date: 17th Nov 2007

Love it. Buy it. You won't regret it.

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Reviewer: Ivan - Bourgas, Bulgaria
Date: 6th Nov 2007

Super Mobile Phone.

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Reviewer: TP - London, UK
Date: 31st Oct 2007

This is a phone is not ideal for long term use. If you use it for more than 3 month your system will crash or go slow.

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Reviewer: Ranj - London, UK
Date: 29th Oct 2007

Well I thought I'd update on the review I left a little while ago here. Well 02 have pulled out the windows mobile 6 upgrade for the orbit which is great news I updated my rom a few weeks ago now & have to say the phone is PERFECT.

This is a great rom update & I am glad 02 put it out for us to all grab, & now with the upgrade the orbit is back on top of the windows mobile tower. The only problem I have was tom tom wasn't that stable, & would give me a problem certain times, also dual booting co-pilot & tom tom was a big NO NO. But with WM6 I tried tom tom & it was more stable & faster than my tom tom 500, also the GPS pick up quicker, & with a little software I run on it I can dual boot 2 navigation programs, am currently using tom tom & route66.

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Reviewer: Chris - Kent, UK
Date: 24th Oct 2007

I've had this phone since May. First I will say I really like the phone & functions on it, BUT! Have had nothing but trouble with it. I am currently on my 3rd handset. The first one kept turning itself off, I sent it for repair, but it continued to do this. The next handset, the call history went strange one day, & was non-existent after that. The latest handset, today, the on-off button decided not to function. Don't want to but anyone off, the XDA is a great phone, but has given me lots of trouble. Or maybe I was just unlucky.

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Reviewer: Ranj - London, UK
Date: 15th Oct 2007

A real improvement on XDA Mini but still not quite there. Having read write ups on the Orbit I went ahead & upgraded & am pretty pleased so far. No hang ups yet but its early days. So far:

Positives:
- Love Wi-Fi, much improved pop up telling you nearest hot spots/access points.
- Scroll wheels a nice touch & works well.
- Battery life is great improvement.
- Fast enough for me.
- Nice & slim, considering what it can do.
- Great screen & much improved speaker - mini XDA sounded far too tinny.
- Much nicer/user friendly than the N95 (which I was considering).

Negatives:
- Programmes don't close when you close them, they sit in the background.
- Headphone jack! Would much prefer 3.5mm jack so could use proper headphones that don't sound like tin cans strapped to your ears.
- Shutdown button right opposite voice command button, constantly calling people by accident!
- Could be slightly better spec, my girlfriends Samsung U600 seems to have better spec out of the box.

But overall I am very happy with the Orbit. It does everything well. Room for improvement, but from what I have seen so far this really is the best of the bunch.

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Reviewer: Julia - Macclesfield, UK
Date: 11th Oct 2007

Processor Speed verses Battery Life. I've had this mobile phone 4 months & my main grumble is that the 200 MHz processor is slow. After reading a review on another website, I've discovered that a faster processor would drain the battery quicker. I generally close down applications after use hoping to speed up the response times. With all the other apps properly closed I once timed that it took 16 seconds just to bring up the dialler screen before I could make a call - not good enough really. Perhaps it's the fault of the Microsoft Mobile 5 Operating System. I have upgraded the Storage card memory & moved my pictures onto it & have plenty of Main memory free for Programs & Storage.

Though I grumble about the speed I find it very handy indeed having MS Mobile Word, Excel & especially Outlook in my handbag, I.e. All my contacts, calendar appointments, notes & tasks. Having Internet Explorer on the phone has been useful occasionally but a bit slow. However, I avoid using it now as my first BT O2 phone bill was enormous even though I have a 512MB allowance in my monthly contract. I've installed CoPilot (the mobile SatNav software) & found it to be reliable & responsive. You need to purchase it at the same time as you obtain the phone for a 50% discount saving £50. The case, screen & buttons are good.

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Reviewer: Ian - West Midlands, UK
Date: 10th Oct 2007

This phone once customised is superb, the problems some reviewers have encountered can be easily overcome by a few tweaks & software additions (& as previously stated READ the MANUAL!)Had phone about a month, here's a few tips

- Co pilot (get a fix before driving off).
- Install better software than provide by wm6 (check spb software).
- Install a full screen keyboard for texting, email, word doc's.
- Set up active-sync to do what you want it to do.
- Have a look at the XDA-developers forum for help & advice.
- Keep running programmes to a minimum for extra speed.

IN CONCLUSION: I find something new this phone is capable of everyday, the best phone I have ever owned. Have fun!

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Reviewer: Nilz X - London, UK
Date: 28th Sep 2007

You guys heard of the X Factor. Yes? Well this little gadget has got the X FACTOR! I am crazy about this phone. It's worth an Oscar. Satisfied customer indeed. Well Done O2, at least you guys got 1 thing right. In fact this compensates for all your let downs.

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Reviewer: Khan - Dublin, Ireland
Date: 18th Sep 2007

Well I am using mobile phones for long time now but I think this is the best one of all. Sleek design, very light to carry & very fast to respond, excellent battery life, no other words can define it anymore.

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Reviewer: Brigitte - Croydon, UK
Date: 12th Sep 2007

I was so excited when I first started using it but now after 3 months I am so frustrated with the slow reaction speed that I want to throw it out the window. It does everything I want but the lack of speed means that I waste at least 1 hour in waiting time every day.

I've uninstalled co pilot & the speed slightly improved. Sat nav was so slow that I usually was halfway to my destination before it said 'welcome to co pilot live' Bigger memory did nothing. Another irritating factor is that I am forever surfing the web without being aware of it. I have unallocated the Internet explorer button but sat nav activated the Internet connection & did not shut it down.

The alarm is very unreliable & you have to un-tick & tick to ensure it will go off to wake you up. It is better to set a reminder in the calendar. You regularly have to switch it off or reset it because its stops responding & you have to stop all apps regularly to prevent it freezing up.

Beside all the above I want to love my XDA but frustration prevents me from doing so.

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Reviewer: Alan Keltie - Highlands, UK
Date: 10th Sep 2007

Having owned many phones & XDA's over the years including XDA II, XDA IIi & XDA Exec, the XDA Orbit has been the most stable & usable one that I have used so far. Masses of features, descent button layout & useful software. I prefer not to have a keyboard, as I am not much of a texter, but as an avid & constant user of XDA's I am really used to using the touch screen, (I suppose it's practice, just like everything else) I toyed with the idea of a Nokia N95, but I am really glad I stuck with the XDA's. I bought Co-pilot 6 for my XDA IIi & it worked fine but now it's all included even the GPS receiver is built into the XDA Orbit, so there is nothing else required for personal Sat Nav (only one thing to charge & that's the XDA Orbit itself). There are also some nice tweaks with WM6. XDA's have come a long way over the years & this is a lot of kit in a small package, it's not the fastest, but it's fast enough. I highly recommend the XDA Orbit; it just takes a bit of practice :-).

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Reviewer: Prithvish - Shffilld, UK
Date: 8th Sep 2007

Hey guys, I think this is a fabulous phone also I am a well acquainted user of PDA's & this phone is marvellous also be careful when you install software, install only the ones necessary as memory is a constraint but a few main software would be the Reso Explorer & picture viewer & the Beta Player a Mini SD would solve the problem & messaging is a constraint but over all this rating for the phone is 95% good just use it for a few months & you will know it's worth the trouble!

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Reviewer: Raja - Peterborough, UK
Date: 8th Sep 2007

Good Phone.

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Reviewer: Jeremy Evans - UK
Date: 7th Sep 2007

I have inserted a SanDisk 4GB card without success, the phone does not see the memory. A pain as the microdisk is in the least accessible place. I assume it just doesn't support the 4GB card. But let me know if that's not true.

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Reviewer: Mal Function - UK
Date: 5th Sep 2007

The phone makes me want to leave the company that gave it to me.

Prior to this I had the XDaIIi (this was OK but would lock up now & again) the time it took me to re-boot the XDaIIi & to load the program up again the orbit has just thought about doing anything with the program.

If you put ANY demanding software on it (like I am lumbered with) FORGET IT!
It will do stupid things & annoy you. I can't believe that when you press the X button (I.e. To close the program, like MS has done for years! ) it still has it open running in the background so you have to go to the stupid menu & close it AGAIN!

You have to be exact with your stylus on the key pad or you'll hit the wrong key - I didn't have this trouble on the XDaIIi.

Oh yes, after a while on the phone it gives me a headache. After a few months of ownership the screen bezle has started to come away & I have a pouch for it.

Please give me my XdaIIi back or I'll leave!

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Reviewer: Djs - UK
Date: 2nd Sep 2007

I've always owned Samsung phones (since having a contract that is) & always thought I was getting a good phone because of how insanely expensive they are, I know people who swear by Nokia's & Sony Ericsson, but until the n95 neither have appealed to me, & since using the n95, Well, Its a camera, with a phone, but that's it.

Now when I got this phone I was hugely disappointed, was tempted to go back to my old Samsung d500, however after tweaking I now love this phone, I've had it for ever a month & find new things about it all the time example, last week I discovered tomtom 6 lets you navigate to a contact, simply click navigate to, select the next page, & there is a contact button, provided you have the address of your contacts it will do the route straight away (well it impressed me). Tomtom software I bought for an existing windows pda, didn't come with the phone, & I didn't get the co-pilot free either with mine.

More to the phone though, first thing that really annoyed me about this phone was texting, its insanely difficult wit ha stylus (although now sometimes I prefer it) so I found a program called phonepad, (Google it if you want it) & basically it adds a keyboard like a phone pad with predictive T9 text & all that, so you can text easily like on a normal phone, only problem is this keyboard uses a different one to the default O2, so if you want to edit the dictionary you have to download another program called 'T9-Editor'.

The camera function on this phone is amazing to say the least, OK, it doesn't have a flash, (annoyed me at first) but it takes a picture instantly, I have never used a phone in which you can press the button & not have to hold the phone still whilst it processes the image, I've taken over a 1000 photos with this thing so far, & once you get used to it its really good camera, also there is a registry tweak to save the photos by folders sorted by date (which I love! ), the video is lacking, its very small 172x140 or some weird insanely small resolution, but video playback is impressive on this little device, however 640x480 videos taken with a Nokia n95 will not play smoothly with windows media player unless you over clock the device. 320x240 works flawlessly though.

Sound on this little device has impressed me no end, its so loud & so clear, it matches the Nokia's n73 music edition if not better than it.

One thing I always found to try on a phone, although I never use it for 3d games I wanted to try it, & surely enough, it impressed me too, put tombraider on it, it's like playing it on the playstation but with better graphics! Its insane, although highly difficult to play, only had one go to see how it runs.

Bit of advice if you're getting this phone, if you're going to upgrade to windows mobile 6, take out the memory card before doing so, this will save a lot of hassle as the O2 programs do not install if a memory card is in the phone for some reason.

The battery life in this phone is amazing, (considering all it can do) if you use it purely as a phone it will last longer than a lot of more popular phones available, (I actually charge this phone less than my girlfriend charges her Samsung e700).

Using tomtom without an in car charger on full brightness (after a full charge) I made a 3 hour journey & the battery was still on 40%, enough battery to take a load of pictures, but charged it on the return journey! (you can also set it to auto answer to speakerphone, which works very well, however the profile options don't have the option to turn this on & off which is annoying.

I personally couldn't recommended this phone enough, if you can get over the unusual way of texting, its an amazing phone, however if you text 24/7 & find it annoyed having to make 4 taps of the screen before you can right a message then I'd avoid it.

Oh & if you find the phone pads buttons are tiny when dialing a number there are 100's of free skins available that put nice chunky buttons there, making it feel like a natural phone when making calls.

This phone isn't for someone who is afraid of computers.

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Reviewer: Martin - London, UK
Date: 31st Aug 2007

I bought a 4GB micro sdhc card to use with the orbit but the phone is not seeing it. What can I do? What is the biggest GB one can use on it? Is there a 4GB SD card? I need help please.

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Reviewer: Tushar - London, UK
Date: 30th Aug 2007

Can any one please advice me how to organize the contacts in orbit. The problem is, if I copy contacts from the sim directory, in the contact page all the sim card & mobile contact shows & one name showing twice. But I don't want to see the sim contact. I want to see only phone contact. Can any one please advice me how do I do that?

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Reviewer: Dave Peters - Cambridge, UK
Date: 13th Aug 2007

This phone has some very nice features but its problem is the Windows Mobile OS. You cannot, for instance use it easily to make a phone call while on the move (isn't that the point of a professional unit?). It is impossible to quickly & easily choose a contact & call them with one hand free. All the buttons & keyboards have to be used with the pointer for best results. Try doing this on a crowded train or in a taxi or bus. You need 2 hands-free to use it. Nothing I have used compares with the Treo's ease of selecting & calling names from the contact list.

However, if you sit down at a table & use the thing it has some nice features. The web browsing is quite good, the camera is easy to use (but you can't select & email multi images, only one at a time - why?!). The on screen keyboard is surprisingly good but why the buttons so small? The dictionary picks up words & names you have used in the past & the predictive text is nice to use. The handwriting recognition is surprisingly good but the dictionary is different & works differently. It is as if different people worked on the software & never met.

The POP email is just not efficient enough for serious use. For example if you have a 100 emails to delete you cannot do a block select/delete. If you ask it to download only the last 2 days emails (to give higher speed) it deletes all previous ones unless you have gone to the trouble of manually moving 'to be saved' ones to a saved folder. Navigation thru the menus is really clumsy.

I never got the PDF reader to work although the Word/Excel reader does a good job. My MMS never worked (with O2).

The calendar/diary is a dog, forget it. Nothing like the easy-to-visualise 7 days to a layout Treo diary. If you move to a new time zone it changes all your future appointments. You have to remember this for planning meetings already entered after the date of your return. The person who thought this items up has clearly never used this feature.

I gave this phone 40% because of the lousy usability. It's really Windows Mobile that is the problem which is why I rate the Design & Features higher.

The web sharing worked fine with my laptop & was quite fast, easily OK to view web pages if you don't mind a bit of a wait. However, when signal levels are low it stops working.

I have had this phone for 4 months now & can't wait to get rid of it. Those people giving this a high rating cannot have traveled seriously overseas with it & cannot have used it in taxis & cars while on the move. This is, after all supposed to be a phone for serious business people on the move!

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Reviewer: Faz - Ellon, UK
Date: 10th Aug 2007

Excellent piece of equipment. I bought a second hand XDA II for £75 & the software had a problem, so took it to an O2 shop for repair, & they couldn't repair it so they gave me a new Orbit for FREE, as the old XDA II was still under warranty. YES I was well chuffed.

I can't fault the Orbit, once I set up the settings the way I liked them, the device works a treat, I have no problem with it at all. It did however take a bit of time to set the setting to my preferences, about 2 weeks.

As I use O2 pay as you go sim card, I called customer services & they talked me through the MMS & GPRS setting, as the phone is only available on prepay. Every thing works first time. With no problems.

I use a 4 GB mirco SD card, & stored the Copilot software on to that. Transfers data back & fro with WI-FI, Active Sync easily, was also surprised how well the software & functions performed. Camera is not that great, but works well.

I use a NAVMAN satnav in my car & tried out the Copilot against this, the NAVMAN came out a little better, but it is a dedicated device after all, unlike the Orbit its a 'Jack of all trades, & master of all'.

Over all, for the amount technology that's in this little device, it works well, & discreet!

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Reviewer: Andy B - Nottingham, UK
Date: 10th Aug 2007

I bought my XDA 6 months ago so have had plenty of time getting used to it. Boy what a phone, I love gadgets & this is some gadget. It still keeps me occupied for hours, even now.

I steered away from co-pilot & opted for tom tom 6 & it works flawlessly, whether of foot or in the car. A 2GB memory card at least is a must. I have video, music & applications coming out of my ears, the more the better, stops me getting bored.

Although the Nokia N95 seems a pretty good phone the screen is to small for my liking especially when using sat nav in the car, the XDA however is perfect, not as big as stand alone sat navs but does the job all the same.

I only gave it 80% on usability simply because it isn't no walk in the park to get used to if you are not much of a gadget geek (unlike myself) I took to it like a duck to water, to me its a toy & I love me toy LOL.

Have recently upgraded to WM6 & boy what a difference it makes, so much smoother, doesn't lock up (yet) & to its appearance is a lot easier on the eye, someone once compared it to a mini windows vista, & I must agree. A recommended upgrade!

All in all a fantastic phone, if you haven't seen or used one don't get that N95 just yet try the XDA Orbit, you'll be blown away.

Try it, Buy it, Love it.

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Reviewer: Kaan - Turkey
Date: 9th Aug 2007

This is fantastic =).

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Reviewer: Rob Britton - Gosport, UK
Date: 7th Aug 2007

I started with the HP Jornada & wished it had a phone, then came along the first HP PDA with a Phone. Useless! Never got reception, battery lasted hardly any time & it was a brick, sold it on eBay without any remorse.

The XDA Orbit comes along boasting all its features & GPS & my ears pricked up. I had to take the first one back due to a fault, these things happen I was told by the sales assistant. So he talked me into having another one. BUY THIS MAN A DRINK!

The device is brilliant! It does what it says on the tin & the extras you can add on over the net are brilliant. This device has renewed my faith in PDA Phones!

BEST PHONE HAD SO FAR!

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Reviewer: Paul - Kent, UK
Date: 5th Aug 2007

Hey lads, Can anyone tell me if the Orbit takes 4GB micro sd cards? Cheers.

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Reviewer: Ian - Reading, UK
Date: 3rd Aug 2007

I love this phone too much!
I'd recommend it to anyone who wants or needs its features but not if you want a phone that simply texts & makes calls as you might just find it just too complicated! I am not being patronising I genuinely forget how to access the phone function! I've had it for less than a month & after a fair amount of trial & error & a bit of manual reading I've finally got my head around most of it. Another thing to note is that there is no keyboard. I like it because it keeps the device smaller, but typing using a stylus via the touch screen (or handwriting) might not be to everyone's taste.

Here are some of the good bits:

GPS with Co-Pilot Live (6)
I was impressed with O2 for bundling the software, in-car charger & the cradle & suction cup for free. The charger is handy if you're going to be on a lengthy journey using the CoPilot as you'll have the screen on max brightness & the GPS activated - both add to battery drain.
Unlike a lot of people, I don't mind waiting a minute or two to get a fix. I just make sure I keep the Quick GPS topped up & get a fix outdoors (or in the car while I am sorting out my music for the journey, fastening my seatbelt, turning on the engine etc.) before setting off.

WM5
The operating system seems OK so far. It's not the newer WM6 which I know very little about but I am a light user of most of the applications on it so I am just happy that it's stable. Yes, there've been a few resets needed but nothing to moan about - no more than other phones I've had.
The inclusion of what might be dubbed 'lite' versions of apps like Word & Excel is a handy bonus for me as I use them now & again (to write this!). I call them 'lite' as they're not the full blown desktop versions but have enough functionality to be more than useful. I've not tried syncing with Outlook either. There's Windows Media Player in there too as well as Internet Explorer.

Wi-Fi
This is a great feature on O2 as the Wi-Fi is enabled. I am forever on an unnamed auction website using the Orbit while the good lady hogs the laptop (being poked on unnamed 'social networking' sites by new friends, apparently).
I've not used it at any hotspots out & about yet but finding connections is a doddle. Besides, if I am that desperate in future I'll be happy to pay to access the Internet using costly GPRS.

Camera
My biggest gripe is the camera. I've not managed to take a good photo! I am not writing it off yet as I may not have the settings right. I guessed beforehand that the camera probably wouldn't be up to Nokia N95 or Sony Ericsson Cyber shot standards & I knew that it doesn't have a camera light or flash. For me it was a hard compromise to make but I am not regretting it now.

There's also the usual MP3 playback, radio, Bluetooth, calendar, alarm, contacts &, of course, the telephone part of it too (quad band as well!).

As its Windows based there are quite a few extra things to do to the device to enhance it & tailor to suit your needs. Below are some things I've done already:
- Downloaded a free player for MPEGs as they're not supported by Windows Media Player.
- Downloaded an add-on called 'NoData' that lets you toggle the GPRS connections so it doesn't connect automatically & cost you money e.g. When you access Internet explorer without connecting to Wi-Fi first but leaves the O2 Active open to let you send/receive MMS.
- Added a 2GB memory card & moved the SatNav software over to the new card (using ActiveSync to temporarily copy the entire contents of the CoPilot card to my PC, then removing the 256MB CoPilot card from the Orbit & replacing it with the 2GB card & moved the files from the PC to the onto the new card in the Orbit via ActiveSync).

I'd recommend checking sticking 'XDA Developers' into your search engine & trawling through the forums for the HTC P3300/Artemis sections for links & threads for all sorts of common issues e.g. Memory card corruption etc.

Anyway, it's a good unit & does the PDA, SatNav & regular phone all rather well. It's not overly straightforward but then it's incredibly clever & does complicated stuff. A great bit of kit for a good price.

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Reviewer: Daithi - Belfast, UK
Date: 3rd Aug 2007

This is my first PDA type phone & I am very pleased with it - I really like the Wi-Fi feature for checking the web or e-mails.

I have a question. I recently bought a TOMTOM One, which has TOMTOM Home software - Can I use this on the XDA? Or would I need to buy a different piece of TOMTOM software? Thanks.

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Reviewer: James - Edinburgh, UK
Date: 24th Jul 2007

Hi, Can anyone tell me how they installed tom tom on an XDA ORBIT. E.G. What software package they bought & can you install it on the phone or does it need to run from SD card. Thanks James.

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Reviewer: David - Sydney, Australia
Date: 22nd Jul 2007

I love it but am constantly running out of memory for programs. How would I go about upgrading the memory? I have 54Mb or storage, 48Mb of Program memory & a 1Gb mini SD card.

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Reviewer: Rob - UK
Date: 20th Jul 2007

A fantastic bit of kit works well with my tomtom 6 software. One question does anyone know how to change the message tone to one of my own, I have done the normal call tone but am having some bother with the sms one, thanks.

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Reviewer: Steve C - Plymouth, UK
Date: 20th Jul 2007

I have been using this phone for 2 months now. It is worthwhile reading the very extensive manual to get the best out of this phone. Overall - very impressed.

Good Points
- Screen very good.
- Co Pilot almost as good as Tom Tom & certainly no need to pay extra for Tom