O2 XDA Guide satnav phone

All roads lead to roam

Thu 4 Jun 2009 // 12:02 UTC

As far as media formats go, it can handle a broad range of audio files including MP3, WMA, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, AMR, AWB, QCP, WAV and MIDI files. The video line-up isn't bad either, with WMV, ASF, MP4, 3GP, 3G2, M4V and AVI all supported.

Built for the road: a car cradle and charger are also included

The default browser is Opera, though Internet Explorer is also available should you care for it. Opera is fairly quick, even with a 3G network connection, and easy to use. A double tap on the part of a page you want to view zooms you in smartly and you can move pages around by brushing your finger across the screen. It also comes with Office Mobile so you can view and create Word and Excel, as well as view PowerPoint documents.

The Guide has 256MB Ram built-in but takes up to 32GB on a microSDHC card. The battery life stands up quite well for a Windows Mobile device – it's quoted as delivering six hours of talk time and up to 400 hours standby but, in practise, that translated into a good day and half of moderate use, with Wi-Fi on for most of that time.

Verdict

O2 seems to be doing its damnedest to make an XDA for everybody, and only time will tell if this specialisation route will prove to be profitable for the company. Thanks to its bundled CoPilot software and car kit, the Xda Guide makes a decent fist of positioning itself as the Xda-with-satnav. As is usually the case with satnav on phones, screen size is the main issue. At 2.8in it's just a bit too small and fiddly to deliver at its best. Nevertheless, it's robust and easy to use, featuring the best that Windows Mobile can offer, with the worst largely concealed by HTC's TouchFLO interface. ®