T-Mobile Wing with WM6 Professional

BENCHMARKS

   Spb Benchmark from Spb Software House has not been updated for use with Windows Mobile 5.0 or 6, which include many changes for increased performance and battery life (as well as a different way of working with storage memory), we can only compare Windows Mobile 5.0/6 devices to other Windows Mobile 5.0/6 devices. As you can see from the graphs below, the T-Mobile Wing does slightly better than similarly featured Windows Mobile 5 devices. One can only guess whether this is due to Windows Mobile 6 operating system enhancements or hardware related enhancements.

 

 

 

BATTERY
    The 1130 mAh battery on maximum backlight during normal usage lasted for about 6 hours 23 minutes.  

HELP SUPPORT

    The T-Mobile Wing comes with manuals discussing basic operation in Windows Mobile as well as the hardware. You've also got a great full color "Getting Started" guide and a pocketable "Tips & Tricks" pamphlet. Furthermore, you can dial 611 from your T-Mobile phone at any time 24 hours a day 7 days a week to talk to some one about any problems you may have. You can also walk into any T-Mobile store for support.

BUGS AND WISHES

    I wish the T-Mobile Wing was really based on the HTC Kaiser (which won't be available until later in 2007). I wish it had UMTS, HSDPA, and HSUPA. I wish the T-Mobile network would finish its support for those protocols.  I wish the Wing had built-in GPS and was thinner and lighter. I wish it had the Trackball-scroll-wheel thing from the HTC P3300. Ah, well.. that's a lot to ask for. I also don't like the rubber flaps covering the memory slot and ExtUSB port, but that's just a personal taste.

    Software-wise, there's still a few issues with this first release of Windows Mobile 6 Professional. Mainly I think the culprit is Windows Live Messenger. It occasionally loses its connection, some messages don't get sent, and it doesn't always load all of my contacts. Furthermore, the Windows Live Contacts integration is a pain as this is forced upon anyone who wants to use Messenger. You can't have a Windows Live Mail account that's different than the Messenger account you want to log in as either. There's still plenty of classic problems with the Messaging application and Windows Media Player as well. Email reply status is still not communicated to IMAP or Exchange servers, draft messages still don't sync with anything, and there's no push IMAP support. Windows Media Player still has the embarrassing inability to navigate the Library view with the D-pad.

PURCHASING

    The T-Mobile Wing will be available on May 22nd at the T-Mobile website as well as T-Mobile retail stores for $299.99 when you sign up for a 2 year contract.

PROS

• Thinner than most keyboard slider phones
• Smooth rubbery blue skin
• Slide-out keyboard with big buttons
• Great added software from T-Mobile
• 802.11b/g WiFi
• Windows Mobile 6 Professional

CONS

• 201Mhz TI OMAP850 processor can be slow
• Not enough program memory for all that Windows Mobile 6 offers
• Buggy Windows Live applications
• No more Email Triggers support
• No 3G UMTS/HSDPA
• No built in GPS

Value
Ease of Use
Features
Overall

What do these ratings mean?

OVERALL IMPRESSION

    While the technical specifications for the T-Mobile Wing are not much different than the old T-Mobile MDA that it replaces, you really can't get any other Windows Mobile 6 Professional device in North America today. Though the new thinness and great build quality are very welcome improvements, really the Wing is all about being the first with Windows Mobile 6 Pro. If you're concerned that it doesn't have 3G internet, well guess what... neither does T-Mobile. They're still working on it and only testing it in a small number of Cities. So if you're outside of those Cities, you're not going to know what you're missing anyway. Even Cingular/AT&T doesn't have a very widespread UMTS network in place in North America yet, so it's not much of an issue.

     If you're drawn to T-Mobile's new "MyFaves" rate plans, the Wing supports this fully and beautifully. I wish it would still support the Email Triggers feature for selective push email (i.e. only people you like get emails pushed), but all good things must come to an end. The new Windows Live features such as push Hotmail, Instant messenger with voice clips, and Live Search are sure to be enticing for consumers. 

     At first I was a bit turned off by the blue coloring, but it has since grown on me. Everyone has black or grey phones, the dark blue is quite a refreshing change. And I can't get enough of the "soft touch" skin covering the device. That combined with the excellent build quality is sure to make the Wing very popular with T-Mobile's Windows Mobile fans.  

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