I lost myself in the Stellar Xda
22 April 2008
“That’s a bit like giving a one-legged man a top-of-the-range mountain bike,” said Mr H sourly, as I paraded the new Xda Stellar and demonstrated the navigation software.
Let me explain. I get lost - a lot. Apart from Africa, I have been lost on every continent on the globe (I haven’t been to Africa). I hesitate around the building at work if I come down a different stairwell to the usual one; is the production department left or right? Without fail, I get lost in North America; then I get cross. I arrive at a junction for, say, the 880. Cheered at the prospect that this road will take me to the intersection where I am staying, I am faced with a choice: 880, north or south. Listen, if I am lost and don’t know where I am, how do I know if I want to go north or south of this point? (If only they had roundabouts so I could just back-track…..).
Hence Mr H’s begrudging admiration of the sleek, smooth, Xda with inbuilt GPS that I held in my hand. If this can prevent me from getting cross AND lost, it has to be a good thing - for everyone.
Harmony has been restored at Hayes Towers as a result of the Xda. The children have not been late for a single party or football fixture in another town; they have not missed a single cub or scout pack holiday in some field in deepest Kent which Arkala describes as “just a short way off the M20 – you can’t miss it”. Not only that, I found my way back home even with one-way systems through Bromley. Of course, I didn’t have it positioned in the manner the photo would have you believe.
True, there are several mobile navigation systems around now, (Nokia introduced Nokia Maps 2.0 for its Series 60 and 40 phones earlier this year) but Xda Stellar’s CoPilot has me in raptures. The Xda Stellar’s screen is large and clear (580mm x 430mm), and the software displays the current location in a choice of ways, it can be 2D or 3D and focused on where you are or where you want to end up. It even has a night-time view.
The best part of the CoPilot is the support, so often the Achilles heel of technologies. I had problems activating the software through the code I had been given. I cannot fault ALK UK customer service. I was quickly up and running because the customer service email department must have actually read my email and thought of the appropriate action rather than try and keep me sweet with ‘acknowledgement emails’ to reassure me they were there for me. Or ones that answer a common question – but not the one I had posed. As a result, another code was sent in the next email and since then, I have never looked back (except in the rear view mirror).
The great thing about CoPilot is that it reconfigures quickly. Even when I turned off the usual route home because of road-works and traffic jams, the screen adapted to show me how I was digressing from the route, and how to get back on track until, as I persisted in that direction, it adapted the instructions to steer me home on this new course.
The Xda Stellar itself is sleek and sturdy. It weighs 194g and measures 114mm x 57mm x 18mm. It has rounded edges, people cradle it like a smooth pebble when I deign them to hold it. The solid design is minimalist but classic, chrome and black. The edges have a three-band pattern, which helps grip as well as aesthetics. The stylus is stored in the side of the base and is also sculpted to blend in with the edging. Attention to small details like that reassure me. The earpiece and mike are a good distance apart so calls, even in noisy environments were possible. The handset is comfortable on the ear, another sign of good design.
As a PDA, the Xda Stellar has Windows Mobile 6.0. In fact, notes for this article were written using it. As well as Word and Excel documents which can be viewed and created, there is also a Powerpoint viewer. That brings me to another plus point, the smooth, sliding QWERTY keyboard has sensible-sized keys which are raised so that you don’t have to have fingers the size of a Twiglet to hit the chosen keys in the right order. A neat wheel on the other edge to the stylus, which can be used to scroll down contacts or a Word document, means you don’t look awkward just because you are using a PDA. As with any PDA, calendar and contacts can be synchronised with the desktop PC. There is web browsing too as well as internal WLAN, GPRS/EDGE, Bluetooth and a cable option, for connection anywhere and with 3G, quad band, GPRS/EDGE, you can take it around the world. It also has Microsoft’s direct push email and support for Blackberry Internet and Enterprise.
Taking it around the world would only be a problem if you forget the charger. The battery can be a problem, CoPilot drains it. Having said that, Stellar lasted 54hours before I got a battery warning when I used the phone just for calls and as a PDA. However, you could argue it is all you would need when travelling. Email – check; phone – check (quadband); map – check; music – check(it has an MP3 player); camera – check. The screen size is large, making use of the Stellar’s 3Mpixel camera a pleasure too. With auto focus and editing, the photos can be cropped and enhanced, belying the fact they have been taken with a phone. The box of tricks can keep growing, as the expandable memory can be up to 32Gbyte.
Waiting for the GPS current position can be lengthy, but then if you use Windows a lot, you get used to that.
I did find it odd, especially as the Xda Stellar is an O2 product, that the £ sign is not on the initial keypad of the PDA but the $ sign is. (The £ sign is accessed via the shift keypad.)
Another curiosity is that CoPilot only uses imperial measurements in its visual display and verbal instructions. I asked around the office and most people still think in yards and miles but that could be an option for next time. Similarly, the estimated journey time, or estimated time from destination might be included.
But that is all for next time round, and hardly detracts from the joy of having (and brandishing and basking in the reflected glory of) an Xda Stellar.
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