O2 blueroom

That may sound like a contradiction in terms - and it is. But it’s also a good description for the O2 Xda.

The Xda has functions by the bucketload. Indeed there’s probably one to book your holiday and make you a cup of tea at the same time, if only I knew where. But it’s also sufficiently simple to let me make calls, send texts and take photos (which are my essential things) with the minimum of fuss and without ever having to read the manual.

Things I like about the Xda:

• Looks quite swish (yep, am a sucker for the flashy and impressive-looking)
• I can check my emails, internet dating sites and other important dating schenanigans while out and about/waiting in a bar.
• GPS is a wondrous thing - no more need for endless scruffy print outs from multimap of bar locations etc. Though as the battery life plummets when you use it, it’s good to be paying attention once you set it going.
• Seemingly unlimited memory for text messages for the sentimental amongst us who like hanging onto these things.
• Large screen for pictures/picture messages

Things I don’t like/have struggled with:

• The Stylus. Yes, it’s possible to write texts without it, but it’s definitely more fiddly than on a normal phone - and for those multi-taskers amongst us who are usually texting while walking/standing on the tube/wine glass in hand, it’s sub-optimal. On the positive side, no doubt my phone bills will decrease.
• Re the above… fat chance of me EVER managing to send a text when drunk. This may be no bad thing, however.
• It’s quite big. Not 1980s big, you understand, but considerably larger than my previous phone (LG Chocolate). It doesn’t fit in some of my evening handbags, so I have to swop my SIM onto an old phone for the evening - so I’m back to being able to drunk text. Rats.
• It is impossible to see the screen in bright sunlight. Particularly if you lock the phone so it doesn’t dial from your pocket. Whilst skiing I completely gave up and had to resort to an old phone. Again, rats.
• Transfering photos from the phone to my computer is not easy. Well, you can email them (at a cost, of course) but there should be an easy cable transfer thing, like most digital cameras. I faffed for half an hour loading various bits of software and then gave up and went to the pub to show my friends the pics. Easier. But not very 21st Century. Also, because it’s a 3MG camera, the pictures it takes are then too large to send by MMS (despite selecting low res options etc). Go figure.
• Disappearing photos. The phone had a hissy fit one day and deleted all my pictures. Fortunately I had emailed my favourite ones already to my emails. I have no idea where they went. Same place as those blokes who are abducted by aliens? Possibly.

So there you go. I like it - mostly for the looks/phone/email combo. If I could get music/camera to work properly too, it’d be even better. But maybe this is where I ask a bloke to help?