It’s finally here! The successor to the immensely popular Xda is now available officially in India. So, when we managed to convince the national distributor to send it to us for a review and let us spend a few days with it, there was a fair bit of excitement all around. The gadget freaks amongst us waited with bated breath for it to arrive. And when it finally did, I pulled rank to make sure I got to review it myself!
I was not disappointed.
Day 1
I opened the big white and blue box the way a 10-year old opens his Christmas gift. I removed the small pieces of treasure with reverence—the carry case, the cradle, and the power adaptor, to uncover the Kohinoor—the PDA itself. Couldn’t wait to switch it on, but you have to charge these things first! I connected the device to its charger. A press of the power button and the sleek screen came alive with 65,000 colours. Set up and ready, I waited for somebody to call me.
Day 2
No calls yet. That’s funny. No one calling to ask me whether product reviews were on time, no one to spam me about new credit cards or bank loans? Someone message me! I decided to take matters into my own hands, and call up someone myself. Pulled out the stylus and launched the SIM Manager application. It takes a few seconds to read the numbers on the SIM. Called the wife in Delhi. Her voice was enough to set my heart aflutter. Was it love, or was it the voice clarity on the Xda II?
Day 5
The damn SIM manager doesn’t let you pick a number to send an SMS to. This is not good. I copied all my SIM contacts to the device memory, and selected the number to send the SMS to. Chose Transcriber to write the message, and discovered that the handwriting recognition is quite decent if you write slowly and clearly without scribbling.
Day 5
Bored with playing Jawbreaker and Solitaire, the two games that come with Windows Mobile 2003 for Pocket PC, I decided to install more games and apps on ‘my’ mobile companion. Installed Microsoft ActiveSync 3.7 on my computer, placed the Xda II on its cradle and connected the USB cable. It was detected immediately. Installing new applications is now just a simple matter of downloading and running the setups.
Day 10
It’s a Sunday, and I am at a shopping mall in a Mumbai suburb. The Xda II is hanging in its leather carry case clipped to my belt. Find a lot of people staring at me when I am talking on the phone; maybe they’re wondering why someone would talk to a PDA. There are flipsides to not having an external antenna. I used the camera on the Xda II to take some snaps in the mall. Not too good quality, but decent enough to MMS across to friends.
Day 15
The alarm rings to wake me up at 7 am. Another beep an hour later to remind me of the design meet at 11. Man, 15 days, and my life already feels so organised! Feeling on top of the world, I play a few MP3s using Windows Media Player while I dress for work.
Day 20
Talking on the phone at home this evening, I needed to use the speakerphone. Fiddled around with the phone options but could not, for the life of me, locate the option to activate it. Had to refer to the manual.
Day 29
The phone is ringing again. It’s my sis, and her picture flashes on the screen. It’s the cool Photo ID feature that lets you associate images with your contacts. I remember that the Xda II is due to be returned soon. Well, at least I completed the e-Book I had been reading on it.