June 4, 2007

Over the past two years multiple carriers and manufactures of Windows Mobile devices have released a plethora of devices with slide-out keyboard designs.  While the majority of these devices have been good, many of them have lacked the raw processing power needed to be a true "power user" device.

O2, a carrier and manufacture well known through Europe, Asia and the Middle East has been one of the last OEMs to release such a design but the wait has been worth it. 

O2 has developed a strong player in the O2 Xda Zinc that has plenty of processing power, loaded with features and a staggering battery life.  Making it even more compelling, O2 has committed to the release of Windows Mobile 6 Professional upgrade for the Zinc, on which this review is based. The Zinc, developed by AsusTek and known as the Mars II, is a welcome entry into this competitive portion of the Windows Mobile market.

Figure 2:  The O2 Zinc

The Zinc's physical dimensions are 58 x 109 x 22.6 millimeters (2.3" x 4.3" x .9") in width, height and depth.  Including the battery it weighs approximately 175 grams or 6.17 ounces.  The front of the device is dominated by the 72mm (2.8") QVGA touch screen display with the phone send and end buttons at the far edges below the display.  Directly below the display is the Action-D pad which is flanked at the top by the two soft key action buttons and below them are the Windows and Messaging buttons.  Having the action buttons makes the Zinc easy to operate with one hand, requiring far less stylus input on the touch screen.  To the right and above the display is a small video camera which is used for video calls, a feature that holds much promise for the Zinc and future devices.  With this camera you can have a face-to-face call just as you would a voice call.

Figure 3:  The Front of The O2 Zinc

The back of the Zinc is curved to fit comfortably in your hand and is smooth to the touch.  The upper portion of the back is dominated by the 2.0MP camera which includes a built-in flash.  On the left side of the Zinc is a rocker button which allows you to control the volume of the speaker while on a phone call.  Below that is a physical lock for the device, preventing any button to be pushed while it is engaged.  This is quite handy for those times when you carry the Zinc in your pocket or handbag.  Below the lock is the MiniSD slot so you can expand the memory of the Zinc.  On the right-hand side of the device is the Infrared port as well as the camera activation button.

Figure 4:  The Back of The O2 Xda Zinc

Figures 5 & 6:  The Left and Right Sides of The O2 Xda Zinc

When compared to the Cingular 8525 (HTC Hermes), the Zinc is almost identical in size, dimension and weight.  The Zinc is a bit more angular in its looks but the chrome trim around the edge of the device adds a nice aesthetic touch.

Figure 7 & 8:  The O2 Xda Zinc Compared to The Cingular 8525

The keyboard of the Zinc is easy and comfortable to use and is backlit in dark environments.  I found the keyboard to be responsive but not overly sensitive.  On the keyboard, the W, E, U and I keys are slightly smaller than the rest of the keys to accommodate the action buttons.  At first glance this would seem to be something that could cause erroneous button pushes but I found this not to be the case.  Indeed after using the Zinc for a while, I found the placement of the action buttons to be very natural as you navigate around the device using these keys.

Figure 9:  Keyboard of The O2 Xda Zinc

Under the skin of the Zinc you will find the speedy Intel XScale PXA270 running at 520MHz which supports the ARM v5TE instruction set.  The processor has a 32KB caches for data and instructions.  Within the settings of the device you can adjust the speed at which the processor runs.  This allows you to save battery life by throttling down the processor in times of low activity.  By default this feature is enabled but it can be overridden by going to Start>Settings>System>Power Scheme. 

The benchmarking figures of the Zinc are strong, proving empirically the strength of the device.  In comparing the Zinc to the Dopod 838Pro, the Zinc out performed in 15 of 22 measured categories.  You can get a full rundown of the benchmark data collected for this review at this link. Note that these benchmarks were performed with Windows Mobile 5.0 and not Windows Mobile 6.  Given that the Zinc is the first device I have reviewed with Windows Mobile 6, benchmarks are somewhat static and not very informative at this juncture. 

From a memory perspective, the Zinc has a 128MB ROM of which approximately 38MB is user accessible.  Additionally there are 64MB of RAM, 51MB of which are accessible.  Memory can be expanded using MiniSD cards and in my testing I had no access issues with cards up to 2GB in size.

Figure 10:  Power Scheme Settings	Figure 11:  Memory Allocation in The Zinc

The radio stack in the Zinc functions quite well, supporting GSM 900, 1800, 1900 and UMTS 2100 bands.  Data standards supported are CSD, GPRS, EDGE and UMTS.  Wireless connectivity is possible with the 802.11g internal antenna as well as Bluetooth 2.0.  Connectivity to your PC for ActiveSync or Windows Mobile Device Center (Vista users) can be done using the USB 1.1 jack at the bottom of the device or via Bluetooth.

The 2MP camera built into the Zinc is impressive and HTC should take note.  The color and clarity of the images are outstanding and this could easily serve as one's digital camera while traveling.  There are a variety of custom settings that are available including the image size and resolution, effects such as sepia tone, the ability to turn the flash on automatically or with every shot, a self timer and a "burst mode were up to 9 pictures can be taken in rapid succession.  Note that the image below has been resized to fit the review but has otherwise been unedited.  To see the full version of this photograph, please click this link.

Figure 12:  Photo From The O2 Xda Zinc

The final note from a hardware perspective is the outstanding battery life of the Zinc.  The 1300mAh battery has an advertised life of 220 standby hours and 5 hours of talk time but I found it to be substantially better than this in my testing.  This is one of the few devices I have reviewed that could easily go a 2 days without charging and still average 2-3 hours of talking on it per day.  To clarify, I typically run my Windows Mobile devices with Bluetooth active (for my headset), with WiFi disabled and at full CPU speed, "Turbo Mode" in the case of the Zinc.  Obviously your "mileage may vary" depending on how you use the device but it is sufficient to say that the advertised life expectancy should be reach.

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