O2 XDA Zest Review - read honest O2 XDA Zest reviews
Introduction
The brand new O2 XDA Zest is a great new smart phone from O2 which offers a complete personal and business experience with a nice set of high quality features all inside a touch screen handset. The phone is expected for release any day now and is full to the brim with exciting features. The phone is equipped with a 3.2 mega pixel camera which has autofocus and there is a secondary camera for making video calls. The phone is a 3G device and in our opinion is a great little mobile phone which will probably be very popular with both personal and business users.
Specifications
The O2 XDA Zest is equipped with a 3.2 mega pixel camera with auto focus which is great for snapping shots here and there and is actually quite good quality. The phone also has a secondary video call camera which is ideal for keeping in touch with those you don’t see very often. You have probably guessed that this phone runs a Windows Mobile Professional operating system and it also has a touch screen user interface which all seems to work very well. The phone also has high speed internet as well as access to email and instant messaging which is a great feature.
There is also built in GPS and a-GPS, which means you can find your way to just about any location in the world with ease and with step by step audio directions. The phone also has SiRF star III chipset which is said to be a great asset to a phone with GPS navigation on board. There is also a great business feature of Pocket Office which is basically the mobile phone version of Microsoft Office and it allows you to view, edit and compose Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents. You can also use Outlook on this phone which is ideal for keeping your emails in order.
The O2 XDA Zest features are very good and we’d probably recommend this phone to both personal and business users. However, the phone doesn’t appear to have a video player – there is an MP3 player so you can listen to music as and when you want to but if you want an entertainment phone then we’d suggest you look elsewhere. All in all, the phone has a great set of features which are primarily for professional mobile phone users but there are a few features which personal users could enjoy.
Looks
In terms of looks, the O2 XDA Zest is very similar in design to that of an HTC Viva or HTC Touch 3G phone. It has the same small curved edge design and is very small and cute for a smart phone. The handset itself measures in at about 102mm by 60.5mm by 16.5mm which is relatively small for a smart phone and it only weighs 102.5 grams which is very light for a smart phone. The looks of the phone are very professional and stylish and we think it’ll definitely suit business users. It’s got a good look to it although we’re a bit concerned about the similarity to the HTC mobiles.
The phone has a nice smooth design and it’ll probably be very popular with business users and some personal users may find it a little boring. However, because of it’s similarity with the HTC Touch phones we can’t really rate it too highly because it’s obviously not their own design. Rumours indicate that it was designed by ASUS not HTC like a lot of people originally thought so it’ll be interested to see if HTC do anything about it – not that there is much you can do in a situation like this.
Design
In terms of design, remember it is a smart phone so it’s likely to be quite slow compared to other more simple phones. The Windows Mobile Professional version 6.1 operating system works well but is a bit slow and the processor speed on this phone doesn’t appear to be quite good enough for a seamless transition between applications. There have been a few rumours and comments about this phone freezing occasionally so be warned. However, most smart phones are slow so it’s not something unexpected by any means. In terms of the design of the features the phone is well made and designed and appears to be good.
Overall
All in all, the O2 XDA Zest is a great looking phone (even though it is a copied design) and it also has a great set of features. The phone has a lot to offer business users and it’ll probably be a good alternative to some of the more expensive business phones available. The O2 Zest may work out as being a cheaper HTC alternative although we’re not sure what the price is going to be like for this phone and it’d have to be pretty competitive to out weigh the HTC for style and features as well as price.
There is a lot to take in with this phone as it has a lot of features but there is enough here to entertain most business users and even a few features for personal use. It’s a great phone and has a nice set of features but we feel there is something missing from this phone. We can’t quite put our fingers on it but there is something missing. It could be the wow factor as this phone doesn’t really blow us away. It’s good and on paper it’s great but it seems to be missing that appeal that Samsung and LG and HTC have.
Overall, the O2 XDA Zest is a great looking phone with a nice set of high quality features and it’ll probably do very well in terms of sales this year and next year. However, with the wow factor missing and the copied design from HTC it’ll be interesting to see how long this phone actually lasts in the open market. All in all, on paper it’s a great phone but in reality it’s a forgettable smart phone with a good set of features.