But for mobile geeks and enthusiasts, size does matter. Let's face it. Most people got used to small size mobile devices, and that big size of smart phones and PDA phones constitutes a psychological barrier for them to switch.

That's why, O2 has came up with a unit that's not only beautiful and fashionable. But more so, pack features that one would exclaim in quote, good things come in small packages. This is O2 Xda Atom.

After O2's success with their Xda II Mini in the market, the O2 Xda Atom was introduced to the Philippine market last January 2006. Since then, the Atom has already gain a foothold among mobile owners, especially the young execs and yuppies alike.

The Atom has a bluish black color with a ceramic touch finish shell that gives a classy yet sleek look, and adding to that, it has silver buttons and silver frame for its camera lens on the back.

The battery cover is of the slide-out variation, and the memory expansion card slot is on the top of the device where the 'on' button is also located. An up and down pair of buttons are on the left of the device. The camera, video and voice recorder hotkeys are on the right side of the device, and the USB port and a headset receptor can be found on the bottom of the device.

The Atom's 2.7-inch, 256K colors (65K effective) TFT touchscreen (with a 320 x 240 pixel resolution), is slightly lower than the surrounding shell that reduces the chances of accidentally scratching the screen. The display is quite big in relation to the size of the device, and this is great feature, except that we had to hold the Atom at a slight angle away from our faces while having a conversation on the phone.

The device operates the latest mobile OS from Microsoft, the Windows Mobile 5.0 and runs on the Intel PXA272 416MHz microprocessor. It has 128MB ROM and 64MB of RAM making the interface a little slow in response time. Let's hope O2 will come up with more RAM on their succeeding Atom units in the future.

For us in the Technews lab, one of the features of the Atom that impressed us well is its handwriting recognition. We find it quite magical that we got engrossed with this unique feature. The minute we started using this feature, we were engrossed in just writing anything and seeing it translate it into alphabets. To tell, Windows Mobile 5.0's transcriber translated it with at least 95 percent accuracy, and we find that simply amazing.

It is good to know that the Atom is a Tri-Band GSM device that supports nearly every kind of connectivity option out there. It works on the 900/1800/1900 frequencies and supports EDGE, GPRS, Bluetooth and Infrared technologies. The only question that all of us in the Technews lab was asking, where's the 3G? Never mind that, for now.

Okay, we love Starbucks coffee, and thanks to the Atom, it has Wi-Fi that works like a charm. But first, the user has to go through a basic configuration process to select the type of connection, and once that's done (it selects the strongest network), the Internet is just a click away. If there are multiple networks available, it will prompt a user to choose the one you want to connect to. But if the network is based on dedicated IP addresses and not DHCP, the user must manually enter those settings as well. Gotta tell, surfing the World Wide Web has never been this mobile and convenient.

The Atom is equipped with a 2 MegaPixel CMOS-based camera that is feature rich. Apart from customized setting to get the best size/quality balance, a user can shoot directly at MMS quality, so the files are average quality and not too heavy to transfer.

It even records live video, which can also shoot in various modes. The Atom's camera retains the usual modes, but now it will also let you shoot in night mode. This is neat if you are outdoors and need to shoot a quick video when the light isn't particularly great. Of course, there is always the option of switching on the built-in flash for more light.

The Atom has a MediaPlus application that is a smooth of software design -- or, if you're the conspiracy theory type, a neat bit of interface thievery -- but you'll either have to load files in via ActiveSync or via MiniSD card.

Another feature that we like about the Atom is that it comes with a built-in FM radio, and save of up to 20 local radio channels. But a user must plug in the headset for this feature. The device supports MP3 and MIDI files, not to mention MPEG-4 video files.

Voice notes can be accessed either from the main menu or via the shortcut button at the right side of the device. Voice dialing can be programmed into the device via the voice speed dial application in the program menu.

The Atom has both built-in Bluetooth and Infrared. The infrared port can be found on the right of the device, next to the voice recorder hotkey. We at the Technews lab briefly scratched our heads when we transfer MP3 files or JPG files to the Atom. It downloads the whole file before asking if we want to keep the file. That seems a little bit silly for us, when the permission to download should have been asked before downloading the file.

The O2 Xda Atom is powered by a 1530 mAh Lithium Polymer battery that can be fully charged in 2 hours. We were amazed when it lasted for just over two-and-a-half days of normal usage that included GPRS and Wi-Fi usage, Internet access, e-mail, conversing and SMS messaging.

Despite of several shortcomings, the O2 Xda Atom is a pretty phone. The basics are executed out very well by the device and has good features to pack. We at Technews hope that it will improve further and be a continuing success, especially if the price is brought down to a  much more competitive level.

To tell, the O2 Xda Atom is a redefined micro-smartphone that's certainly eye-catching and fun to use.