The new XDA Exec phone from O2, kiss my A1000 goodbye!

My contract with 3 comes up in January and I’m desperate to get rid of my Motorola A1000, which has plagued me with random crashes, reboots galore and a dodgy power connection that means that I have to apply pressure to the cable in order to get it to charge. It’s a shame really, because if it was stable, and didn’t have flakey electronics it’d be a great phone, except for 3’s ‘walled garden’ which stops me actually using 3G.

I was originally looking at getting the new MDA III from T-Mobile as a replacement, until I saw this.

Of course, I’ve just changed my mind.

The XDA range has always been PocketPC oriented rather than Smartphone oriented, but check out the specs on this thing. 3G, Class 10 GPRS, Bluetooth, 802.11 WiFi, Two digital cameras (like my A1000, one for pictures and a lower megapixel one for Video calling), plenty of memory (64Mb but with 128Mb of ROM I’d imagine this is enough for Windows Mobile 5) and an SD slot, so my Transflash card may well work. Failing that, I’ll just have to buy another 1 Gb card… hmmm… 1 Gb of SD memory…

Of course, the real biggy is the clamshell design and tablet-pc-like fold out keyboard. This looks infinitely better than the piddly little buttons you see on blackberry handsets, or indeed the small pop-out keyboard on the MDA series.

Here are those specs in full:

Technical Data
• Windows Mobile 5.0
• Intel XScale PXA272 520MHz
• 128MB Flash ROM, 64MB RAM
• 3.6” 640×480 65k transflective colour backlit LCD
• up to 8/4/15/250 GSM Talk/3G Talk/PDA/Standby time
• GSM Tri-band (900/1800/1900), UMTS Single-band (2100)
• GPRS class 10, UMTS 64/384
• Bluetooth 1.2, Infrared and mini-USB connector
• Wireless LAN 802.11b
• SDIO slot
• 3.5mm Audio Connector
• Stereo Speakers
• Integrated camera (resolution 1280 x 960) with LED flash, 2nd CIF camera for video calls
• Integrated antenna
• 15 buttons (Answer, Hangup, Backlight on/off, OK, Start, Camera, Power, VoiceRecord, 5-way navigation pad
• 62-key QWERTY keyboard with light sensor to auto-adjust the screen and keyboard backlight
• Removable battery (1620mah)
• Weight: 285 grams

Pre-release reviews are available at Trusted Reviews, ZDNet and TekGuru here and here.

Update:
I’ve since found out that the XDA Exec is based on a HTC design, called the HTC Universal. O2 have the first version (XDA Exec), with T-Mobile to release their version, dubbed the MDA Pro. Orange will then follow up with the SPV M5000 and finally Vodafone with the VPA IV. You can also get hold of the reference device lock-free as the i-mate JASJAR.

This is quite interesting, as with the WiFi functionality, T-Mobile are streets ahead of the competition in terms of being able to provide access both in the UK and elsewhere, although in terms of 3G coverage Vodafone wins hands down in the UK. I guess I’m just going to have to stick it out with the A1000 until my contract’s up.