O2 Joggler: review

The O2 Joggler has just arrived in shops, and while you’ve seen our first poke around with the touchscreen calendar, you’re probably itching to know if it’s worth the cost of admission. We’ve tested it out this week, so see if the O2 Joggler is what you need in our review right here.

You might be tempted to call the O2 Joggler a home hub if BT hadn’t already nabbed the name: it’s a Wi-Fi friendly, touchscreen, digital photo frame sized device that helps co-ordinate your home life. Central to that is the calendar, the same one as you’ll find on the O2 website. Registration is quick and it texts you with reminders for events like clockwork.

O2 has bunged several other features into the O2 Joggler too mind: weather forecasts, news and media playback all do as advertised with absolutely no stumbling blocks. The O2 Joggler had no problem handling .avi files off a USB key, and you can stream media from a PC via UPnP, though O2 doesn’t flag it up in the instructions anywhere.

O2 Joggler hands-on photos

It’s not all virtual milk and honey though. Several O2 Joggler features promised, like SMS messaging and internet radio, are still MIA, but our biggest gripe is with the traffic feature. Zoomed into the closest level, it shows just 4 roads and the motorway for the whole of west London, making it as useful as a seat belt made of paper for a mum on a school run.

The O2 Joggler isn’t advanced, and it’s not any more helpful than your own phone calendar if you live alone, but it’s a great way to keep track of everyone, especially if there are kids in the house.

Love: Great size, calendar works a treat.

Hate: Traffic feature is pointless, some features still greyed out.

Overall: The O2 Joggler would have been a cutting edge gadget in 2006, but it still has a place now on the kitchen counter for families.

Score: 3/5

Out Now | £150 | O2