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T-Mobile first to launch Windows Mobile 6 smartphone in US |
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Dubbed the ‘Wing’, the latest HTC-designed phone from T-Mobile is the first smartphone to ship in the US with Windows Mobile 6, but should you buy it?
Ever since Microsoft unveiled Windows Mobile 6 (WM6), the wait has been for manufacturers to start selling devices on the market, be it through cell phone companies around the world or directly to the public, and finally, the T-Mobile Wing has started the race – with more WM6 equipped phones on the way later this year.
Using a now classic slider design, where the keyboard slides down from behind the horizontal screen, the T-Mobile Wing adds some nice features like an updated keyboard design, better battery life and a 30% size reduction from the previous model.
WM6 offers a range of updates and enhancements as well, including things like the built-in ‘Voice Commander’ software (version 1.6) with improved voice control over major features of your Pocket PC smartphone and much better HTML email support for mobile email that looks and works the way it does on your desktop or laptop computer, with full HTML support promised for browsing as well.
T-Mobile have pre-loaded the AOL, Yahoo, Windows Live Messenger and ICQ messenger programs, while WM6 also includes tight integration with Microsoft’s own Windows Live Services. There’s Windows Live Hotmail and access to all Hotmail contacts, Windows Live Spaces (Microsoft’s equivalent of MySpace) that lets you take photos and upload them photoblogging style to your own Live Space directly from the phone.
Windows Live Search is also built-in giving you access to standard search results, news, local business search, entertainment, directions, maps, images and more, although as a connected device you can easily search with Google or download Yahoo’s Go mobile search software.
Other standard features include that 40-key QWERTY keyboard, Bluetooth 2.0 (but sadly no A2DP stereo streaming support), a 2.8-inch color LCD touchscreen, a 2.0 megapixel camera for photos and videos, speakerphone, push mail (with Exchange Server 2003 SP2 or later and Windows Live Hotmail), built-in Wi-Fi, and quad band GSM. Other features such as Windows Media Player let you play mp3s and video clips from a range of formats, with plenty of third party software soon to come specifically for WM6 to let you do just about anything.
But it’s what the Wing doesn’t have that might make you want to wait. T-Mobile only offer an EDGE capable network, meaning it’s not 3G. EDGE offers speeds of around 90kbps, and while surfing the web at this speed is an improvement over GPRS and works well enough, it’s a lot slower than fast 3G or the even faster 3.5G networks that other networks offer.
In addition, the Wing uses a 200Mhz processor, meaning the interface can become sluggish if too many programs are open at the same time – you’ll need to make sure you close down programs you’re no longer using although WM6 makes this easier than before.
Submitted Date: May 24, 2007
Source: iTWire
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