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The Singapore round of the World Cyber Games recently saw tough battles between teams sporting names such as Micronology, Zenith and fsk3, led by fighters who probably haven't got their driver's licence, least of all a licence to kill. But youth isn't just the arena for gamers.
There are just as many 'suits' who are hard-core gamers. The many who turned up for this year's Singapore launch of the World of Warcraft's Burning Crusade claiming they were really lining up for their brother, cousin, sister, nephew... were really there for themselves (the quick getaway with gleeful looks gave it away).
Those who must have their daily game will be glad to know that now they don't have to wait to get home to have a good slug out. All they need to do is arm themselves with the latest from O2, the Xda Flame.
Tuck it by your waist as you would your trusty sword or pistol before you face the world, and you will find you will want for nothing more.
The Xda Flame runs on the Windows Mobile 5 platform, so when it comes to work, you will be kept safely productive with the suite of Office programs (Excel, Word and PowerPoint), Adobe Reader and Push Mail Technology.
When away from the office and on the road, you'll also appreciate the GPS on board that you can use to download data to find your way around.
What really takes the prize is the fact that the Xda Flame doesn't just act like a PC that you can cradle in your hand. It is as good as a PC with its Intel XScale PXA 270 Processor running at 520 Mhz, 128 MB RAM and 2 GB of onboard memory.
What's even more amazing is that this handheld has something some PCs don't even have, an NVIDIA dedicated graphics processor!
The result is super clear graphics thanks to the GoForce GPU on board. That's where those who must have their adrenalin fix from getting rid of a couple of walking gargoyles comes in.
The Xda Flame comes pre-loaded with the game Doom, a kill-or-be-killed adventure with blood-splattering, horned monsters who jump out of every corner of the brick-walled maze or box-filled room the player is in. Yes, it is that clear.
There were no jagged edges to the graphics and the movements were swift and smooth. The detailing was so good, a 10-year-old Pokemon fan quit the game in 30 seconds as the gore and monsters were just too scary compared to the pocket monsters.
It didn't help that the Doom monsters had pretty mean growls that came across clear and true with the Xda Flame's SRS WOW HD, which offers users 3D surround sound.
Of course, all this is also useful for applications other than gaming.
The super bright audio means better music playback on both the Windows Media 10 Player and FM radio that's built in, while the graphics processor offers crisp text for easy reading and very enjoyable video viewing.
An excerpt of a classic movie sent via Bluetooth from desktop to the Xda Flame played back amazingly well. There was hardly any loss on the details of a painting featured in the video clip while the movements of the starlet remained graceful.
You can really check the details of your videos because there is a generous 3.6 inch VGA screen. But if you really must, you can also pull out the set of audio/video cables that come in the box along with the charger and other included accessories.
Now, I was rather curious when I found the cables, wondering just why a handheld device would come with audio/video in, until I proceeded to wire up the Xda Flame to a TV set.
The result was a pleasant surprise.
If you want to show everyone your baby's photos and videos that you carry on your handheld, followed by your deft skills in killing monsters in the game Doom, you can! Just cable up the Xda Flame to a monitor, whatever's on the small screen will show up on the big screen.
This also means, on a more serious note, that you can make a decent PowerPoint presentation to clients off your latest O2.
If you are using other devices, you can still whip out the Xda Flame because the handheld is also programmed to function as a remote control via the infrared on the phone.
Yes, let's not forget that this is a phone, which means you can make calls including video calls with its wireless LAN and VGA camera. There's another camera sporting 2 Megapixels, flash and 4 times digital zoom for taking photos and videos which you can save to the micro SD card if you don't want to clog up the phone memory.
With so much packed into it, you'd think the Xda Flame could also make coffee or baby-sit. Sadly no.
The other minus points. For starters, there is no keyboard, if you are one who enjoys banging on keys.
The touch screen does offer a virtual keyboard and handwriting input that was smart enough to decipher my bad handwriting with 4 mistakes out of more than 10 words scribbled onto the screen. That means, whether it's sending an email, SMS or internet message, you won't have to worry much.
The biggest problem I had with the Xda Flame was working out how best to 'wake up' the device once it goes into power-saving mode, it was always either the key was held too briefly so the screen came on for a split-second, ending up with my playing some weird peek-a-boo with the device or it threatened to shut down as the key has been held down too long. But that's not too hard to work out in the long run.
Oh yes, you must also be ready to accept the size (whoever said good things come in small packages?). It is 126mm long and weighs 190 grams with battery.
But hey, it beats having to carry a laptop and a mobile !
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