This is the end

Iv decided i cant be arsed doing a blog anymore.
So this is it.

O2 XDA ZEST REVIEW PART TWO.

Well here is part two of my review, Now that i have have run down all the specs im going to see how it works in the real world.This phone is made by asus im sure you will know they have alot of different products on the market.Its the first windows mobile on sale on payg on o2 for £250 or free on certain contracts.Which if you look at the features is pretty fair for the price.The styling of this phone really reminds of my last xda phone i had the orbit, which isnt a bad thing as it works well.It also manages to run windows mobile alot quicker than my old trusty orbit and it pratically flys along.It also is quite light and is finished with a shiny black plastic.

As you can see it does look similar, but hasnt got the track ball or scroll wheel.

Camera quality



Well as you can see the camera ain't bad really,its much better than my iPhone and it copes with darkness very well.For a 3 mega pixel phone id say the images are quite crisp.
The video quality is pretty good and don't worry you wont be seeing a video of my ugly mug on here but it does the trick, with playback on windows media player it works quite well.

Phone Menus

Some people can get quite confused when it comes to using windows mobile using the start bar and o2 have implemented their own menu system which basically makes it a little easier to use.So you can use your finger allot of the time when doing what you need to do.me i find using either quite easy.But i can imagine most people who are new to windows mobile will stick mostly to the o2 menu system.



Here is the menu most windows mobile current windows mobile users will know.



Call And signal quality

I'm gonna be honest here, my 3g signal can be a little bit flaky where i live so there has been times when the zest has problems finding any network at all.But this was addressed by turning off the phone for a minute or simply switching to aeroplane mode then back to normal.This isn't ideal after all before everything else this is a phone for making telephone calls.But once i was connected to the network call quality was good.


Connectivity

There is wifi which works quite well, 3g and hspda for fast connectivity.As well as video calling which is also a must for todays smarthphones i feel.There is also gps on the device which works with the included copilot software or third party apps like google maps.

Pc connectivity

I used windows mobile device centre for vista to connect up to sync my email contacts from outlook to the phone and also recieved or sent emails, which is very usefull if need your email on the go.Installing apps is made easy using this program and adding or taking away multimedia is just a case of drag and drop which is so simple even i can manage it.Also it has office on the phone so you can quickly view your documents when you need to.




Messaging

Well what i can say it has push email, mms , text messaging, when using mms in a 3g area it zips along really well.Everything you would expect from a decent windows mobile phone.


Applications

Being a windows product os, there is a whole plethera of different apps you can download from places such as http://www.freewarepocketpc.net/ everything from a spanish dictionary to rock hero 2.0. I have downloaded the lastest google maps to try on the phone and i was impressed at some of the things i could do.You would be suprised at how many different app's there are to run.



Conclusion

Well having spent a few days using the phone, im quite pleased with it.It does alot for the price.I would like to think the signal issues was just a black spot was where i live.Overall i would say if you are looking for a decent priced smartphone with great windows intergration then look no further than this.Thanks to O2 for sending me the phone to review and you can find out more at http://www.my-xda.com/devices/xda_zest.jsp

O2 XDA ZEST REVIEW PART ONE.

Before I get started here is all the specs of the handset itself for you technically interested people.
Operating system: Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional
Talk time: Up to 3 hours talk time in 3g coverage, 5 hours in 2g.220 hours in
standby 3g,260 hours in 2g
Mobile networks: Quad band (so it works pretty much everywhere)
Memory: 256MB flash memory,128MB ddr sdram,Also SH DC Micro SD slot
Messaging Options: SMS, MMS, Email (push and pop3), Instant Messaging (via Live messenger)
Screen: 2.8 inch 64K tft,240 X 320 VGA.touchscreen
Web browsing: WAP 2.0/xHTML, HTML
Games: Yes
Colors: Black
Camera 3.15 MP, 2048x1536 pixels, auto focus, video; secondary VGA video call camera
Gps: Built-in GPS with A-GPS ( SiRF star III chipset).Copilot software included trial version.
Office apps: Pocket Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, One Note, PDF viewer)
Java: Java MIDP 2.0
Other main features: Voice memo MP3 player Built-in hands free


Whats in the box, well I didn't actually get a box it came in a jiffy bag.Also without a Manual or a cd or even a memory card so i couldn't test any of the copilot features.il be honest this didn't really get off to a good start.The phone had been used at a stand promoting the phone as there was a picture or two and even a video of them trying to sell this phone and might i add most alarmingly some text messages to somebody oops.When I asked to review this phone I said that I would be honest and speak my mind.I'm now waiting till next week to get what I need to fully review this and will continue this review then, I'm sure you might think as i do they kinda dropped the ball on this one.



On the plus side i do like the speedy side of this phone having had an xda in the past this has improved greatly.

I'm gonna continue this review next week by then hopefully I will have received all I need from o2.

O2 XDA ZEST HAS ARRIVED

Once i have put it through its paces and got all the software I'm gonna review here.so stay tuned....................

O2 XDA ZEST

Hopefully il be getting my filthy hands on a O2 XDA ZEST tomorrow.I'm gonna put it through its paces and hopefully come up with a half decent review.I used to own an older xda phone and apart from its problems i did like the thing and it was sad to see it leave my fluff filled pockets.Here is a few things taken from the o2 page.

O2 Xda Zest

* Windows Mobile 6.1
* Built-in sat nav
* Fast mobile Internet with Wi-Fi connectivity
* 3.0 mega pixel camera
* Size: 120 x 60.5 x 16.5mm

Well the camera seems better than my current phone (iPhone) so I'm looking forward to taking a few pics with it.Id like to know how the GPS works out too as my current phone don't do turn by turn as of yet.I'm thinking if I grow too attached i may have to get one for Christmas or start writing letters begging o2 to let me keep it..........

Giz a job!

OK so iv finally decided to get off my fat arse and get a job.Like yozza from boys from the black stuff I'm hoping i can just walk into one (without headbutting the boss).So if you read this and have a job in the UK and you think i can do then drop me a line.In all seriousness though i really need to make a change I'm at a crossroads in my life now and its gonna go one way or another.

I'm going to visit my mum this Friday, il be honest I'm not looking forward to it.I hate hospitals, she is pretty out of it on morphine and is pretty sore.She has come through her op quite well so that is a good thing.We will find out more on wether the cancer has spread pretty soon.I hope she can get over this and be back to the same old mum who calls her son a nob head when i come around, not in a nasty way though.I think its pretty funny actually............

Quick Update

Well xfx did get in touch and done well erm nothing at all really apart from talking to me like Iam some kind of two year old who doesn't know what a pc is and saying that they have bent over backwards to help me,after 24 days with no reply from them i don't think so.But never mind I know to avoid them like the black death in the future.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the people who responded to me enquiring about getting info for electronics reviews and information for doing this blog as a tech blog.So thanks Lg and vodafone uk and o2 uk so far.This is something i would very interested in continuing to do.So if You can help with this drop me a line in the comments Or email me on gully666@gmail.com.

My mum went into hospital today and she goes under the knife tomorrow, I'm hoping everything goes well and this week at least il have allot on my hands so il try and update this place as much as i can but sometimes other things are just that much important than writing crap in a blog........................................

THE XFX IGNORANCE O' METER

So it's been 21 days since i contacted xfx support to let them know how bad the service i received when dealing with them with a problem i had with my graphics card.If you look here i even managed to contact xfx support in America before they have even replied http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=205469.So far i don't think xfx have even replied to there own company.They are beyond anything i have ever experienced in my entire life and I'm starting to view this as one big mess and I'm warning anybody to steer well clear from this company in the future.You will be ignored and They even ignore themselves.But I'm gonna keep on this and see how long they will take i might be quite old when they do....................

Mondays i dont mind them

Well its Monday and iv found there is allot of people who don't like them,me i think Tuesday's are sent from hell to punish me for everything i do.I always have a bad one without fail.

So iv been thinking about updating my blog a bit and doing more things about technology I'm not sure how anybody who actually reads this would say but its something I'm interested in and i like the thought of ranting about stuff that is good or bad in tech.Like I have in the past about graphics cards (damn you xfx and not replying to me in now over 19 days, ill get to you in another post pretty soon don't worry ).
So if you read this and have an opinion on how this blog takes shape let me know.
You have the power.............

Windows 7 beta

Well Pdc was last week and the people of the tech who was there got a nice hard drive full of the future products including windows 7.Well i have managed to acquire a copy And i have it running in vista in a vmware running faster than vista if that makes any sense.I used 1gb of my 3gb memory and i found it was better.This ain't just another vista 2 this shit is much faster and thanks to a hack i got the nice start bar going good as well.The first impressions i have is that its much more speedier and the cpu cycles when idle are very low, also when running apps which it does fine even in beta.
I think Microsoft aren't too far away from shipping a beta out to masses so I'm gonna see if can get on that as id be interested to see where they go and what more they add to this,hopefully it wont get to bloated or completely rewritten like vista as they are on to a winner here.

It's good shit.