Terrible battery life only thing preventing this phone from getting 5 stars! (O2 XDA Zest)

Member Name: pickle_09

Product:	O2 XDA Zest
Date:	19/05/09 (152 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Windows mobile

Disadvantages: Appalling battery life

I got the O2 XDA Zest as my handset upgrade about a month and a half ago after careful consideration and a lot of research. I wanted a phone designed for easy web browsing, on which I could access my e-mail (hotmail not outlook) and preferably on which I could also view attachments.
I was also hoping to get something with mp3 capability and a camera. It came down to a toss up between the Blackberry Bold and the O2 Zest. As I wanted to use the phone more for web browsing than linking to an outlook account I was advised the Zest would be a better bet.
The web browser on the phone is excellent, there are two options for this. The opera browser or the windows browser. Windows mobile is installed on the phone, and as I am more used to the set up of windows I use this more often. The phone also comes with flash installed which is particularly useful on some websites.
The other applications on the phone such as word, excel and notepad are also easy to use and useful, particularly for viewing attachments. Adobe acrobat reader is also provided.
The touchscreen is responsive, clear and bright and easy to use - this was my first touchscreen phone and I was sceptical as I had found them awkward to use when looking at friend's phones. The phone comes with a stylus, which for me in the beginning was indispensable for texting, the keypad offered is qwerty and very small, but the stylus slots into the side of the phone so it is handy and discreet. It does take a bit of getting used to using the stylus to text, but I have now also managed to learn to text on it without the stylus. There are a few different modes for texting, one is the qwerty keyboard, two use predictive text and there is a handwriting transcriber function as well. This is quite accurate and even manages to interpret my handwriting correctly, however it is more time consuming as you can only fit a certain number of words on the screen and have to pause for a second for the screen to be refreshed when the transcriber puts the text in.
There are so many applications and widgets on this phone I don't think I have got through them all yet, even after a month but in general the functionality for programmes is very good.
The phone is lightweight and smaller than I imagined and is quite aesthetically pleasing as well as being extremely functional. It has a slide lock on the side for the touchscreen which I have found extremely useful. You are provided with a handsfree kit and charger for the phone. I was very impressed with the charger, it is a mini USB to standard USB lead which plugs into a standard socket, the socket has a detachable third pin allowing it to be used in Europe as well, the USB cable once detached from the plug can be used to connect the phone to the computer for synching files and for charging from your PC. Perhaps this is not a new thing but it is the first phone I have had with this option and I was very impressed.
The two most disappointing things about this phone are the battery life - it has to be charged every night - it reaches 1% or switches off at the end of the day even on power saver mode. I do not make a large number of calls on the phone, or really send a huge number of texts. I occasionally check my hotmail or have a look at facebook but would say my entire web usage time on the phone would not exceed an hour and a half in any one day, so the battery life is extremely disappointing.
The other thing which is a bit annoying but shouldn't put you off is the memory of the phone. You need to delete all the web browsing files and cookies and associated content probably once every week or two weeks or the phone will prevent you opening web links or completing tasks once the memory is full - there is a solution to this, the memory card provided is quite small and can be replaced with a larger one.
Windows media player is also not the most user friendly application for a portable music device, but as it is not the focus of the phone, and it does what it is supposed to do I won't complain about that too much.
All in all other than the battery life I am very satisifed with the phone.

Summary: Extremely useful little gadget, a very user friendly xda

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