Windows Phone Thoughts: O2 XDA Atom Reviewed

Getting Up to Speed
Before I purchased the Atom, I read numerous reports on the Web that the initial firmware release was incredibly slow and buggy at best. I immediately visited O2's website and applied the latest version.

Consequently, O2 has had a number of firmware updates in the last few months - which could be good and bad, depending on how you look at it. In contrast, HTC has their devices rebranded by a number of companies and wireless carriers, each sending out their customized firmware updates at different times and intervals. Since O2 is currently exclusive with the Atom, firmware updates seem to come in rather quickly. (As of this writing, a third firmware update is scheduled this month.)

Setting Up and Customizing
After powering up the Atom for the first time, you'll be prompted to personalize the device with your information, then select a carrier to which custom GPRS/MMS settings will be applied. Unfortunately, the only choices for locations are Australia and Southeast Asia, so I skipped that configuration page and entered the Cingular settings manually.

There is one glaring bug that occurs when you skip that configuration screen: at every soft-reset, you are prompted with the question, "Do you want to launch the auto configuration now?" Regardless if you choose "Yes" or "No," that message will appear again at the next reboot. While I feel it's related to my SIM card or the Cingular network it detects, I've contacted O2 Support about this and await a possible firmware update to fix this (it's apparently hardcoded in the ROM and not in the StartUp folders/services or Registry).


Figure 13: This pop-up message at the beginning of every soft reset can get annoying.