Vincent M Ferrari
05-23-2007, 03:00 PM
<img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/ferrari_wing_0.jpg" /><br /><br /><b>Product Category:</b> Quad Band (850, 900, 1800, 1900) GPRS / EDGE Windows Mobile 6 Professional Phone<br /><b>Manufacturer:</b> <a href="http://www.htc.com/">HTC</a><br /><b>Where to Buy:</b> <a href="http://t-mobile.com/shop/phones/detail.aspx?device=acc8102d-4506-4eaa-bc2f-9c7b8ec1b1e0">T-Mobile.com</a><br /><b>System Requirements:</b> Windows 2000 or later, USB 2.0, MS Office XP, 2003, or 2007<br /><b>Specifications:</b> 2.3 x 4.3 x 0.7 inches, 6 ounces, Lithium Polymer Battery, 4 hours talk time, 6 days standby time, Windows Mobile 6, 2.0Mp Camera, BlueTooth, 802.11b/g WiFi<br /><br /><b>Pros</b><li> Excellent GSM RF performance;<br /><li> Solid feel;<br /><li> Excellent screen;<br /><li> Excellent keyboard.<b>Cons</b><li> Only has a 200Mhz processor;<br /><li> Non-standard headphone jack;<br /><li> EDGE only (no UMTS or HSDPA).<b>Summary</b><br />The Wing has some big shoes to fill. Its predecessor, the MDA was enormously popular. Can the Wing fly like its elder, or will it crash into the ground like a buzzard?<br /><br />Read on for the full review!<!><br /><PAGEBREAK><br /><span><b>Svelte, Smooth, and Rubbery</b></span><br />A few days after T-Mobile tentatively christened The Wing, our sales rep from HTC visited us to show off some new toys. I should explain that I work for a company that is one of the largest Master Agents for T-Mobile in the country, so every once in awhile someone drops by to hawk their wares. When he put the Wing in my hand, I knew right then and there that this baby was light years ahead of the MDA.<br /><br />Yesterday, I got my hands on one before it hit the stores and I've had some time to play with it now. Let's talk first impressions.<br /><br />The first thing you notice about the Wing is the size of it. It's about the same width as the MDA, but significantly thinner with a bigger screen and better-placed buttons. Gone is the coppery/silver facade replaced by a rubberized blue outer shell like the one found on the Zune or the Motorola V300. In a word, it feels great in your hands even when it's closed. On the front of the Wing are two new buttons for MDA owners; a Windows key, and an OK key. These are not new and in fact existed much earlier on devices like the HTC Apache (aka: The Sprint 6700 and the Verizon VX6700), but it's nice to see them make an appearance on the Wing, too.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/ferrari_wing_1.jpg" /><br /><i>Figure 1: The Wing, opened, to expose the keyboard.</i><br /><br />When you open it, the Wing emits a nice little chime to let you know that you've opened it. Unlike the MDA which often bound up on the plastic rails, the Wing slides gracefully along a slightly spring-loaded track. After opening, the screen rotates around and you're exposed to a fantastically type-able miniature QWERTY keyboard. You'll immediately notice a few usability tweaks over the MDA including led lights to indicate CAPS and ALT status (a brilliant idea I'm surprised they didn't try earlier) and the softkeys have been moved to correspond to their location on the screen. HTC was also kind enough to cover every single key with a shortcut of some kind. There are shortcuts to everything from symbols and punctuation to different applications. Unlike the MDA, the Wing's numeric keypad is in a more traditional configuration for a phone (3 rows of 3) than a typewriter (1 row of 10). Numeric dialling with the keyboard is accomplished by holding the Alt key and typing the number, or by double tapping the Alt key to lock it in place.<br /><br />Across the side are an array of application specific keys. Starting with the left side of the Wing, from the bottom, you have a MicroSD slot, you have the volume up/down slider, and you have a camera button. Across the top is only the power button, and then down the right side is the messaging button and the Voice Command button. Holding the messaging button will bring you to the Voice Recorder. All the buttons are easily accessible. On the bottom edge, you have a mini USB port which serves as the power port and headset jack.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/ferrari_wing_2.jpg" /><br /><i>Figure 2: The back of the Wing.</i><br /><br />On the back of the wing, you have the camera lens. It's notable that HTC didn't build in a flash, but in reality does anyone ever use those silly things on a camera phone anyway? I certainly don't.<br /><PAGEBREAK><br /><span><b>The egg is hatched...</b></span><br />I can honestly say, it works at least as well as the MDA an in some ways better. The Wing has a 200 Mhz processor, but it feels much snappier than the MDA. Applications pop open, key presses are responsive, and overall performance is quite acceptable. It's not great; we're not talking about a really fast chip here, after all, but in the end, it's more than good enough for some on the go music, mobile web browsing, texting/e-mailing, and so on. In my informal observations, even with a few applications open, the Wing continued to respond well. Occasionally I would get the dreaded "Low on System Memory" message, but closing a few open applications took care of them.<br /><br />Another nice feature of the Wing is that it finally corrects one of the dumbest UI moves in the history of operating systems. The X in the upper right hand can be set to minimize or close (the default action) a running application. HTC is also kind enough to toss in a pretty good task manager that you can access from the Today screen that will show you all your running applications and allow you to close them from there.<br /><br />T-Mobile is also as stingy, as far as including apps, as it was with the MDA. They include the OZ IM client which connects you to Yahoo!, AIM, and ICQ. You can, as always, connect to MSN through the included client (which is recommended because it doesn't come off your pool of text messages if you do). Very little outside of the standard bundle appears in the Today screen; the most notable change being if you have MyFaves, those icons will appear on your Today screen, but that's an option you can disable if you prefer a more uncluttered appearance.<br /><br />Turning data connections on and off is a breeze. As with previous HTC handhelds, the Wing ships with an excellent Communications Manager that lets you selectively enable and disable all three radios (GSM, BlueTooth, and WiFi). The Communications Manager is no longer on a dedicated button, but there is a Today Screen plug-in that will show you the status of the WiFi and BlueTooth radios. Also, unlike the MDA, the Wing will let you know when you have EDGE coverage versus when you have regular GPRS coverage. Previously, on the MDA, you had to hack the registry to get anything but a G in the status bar.<br /><br />In another upgrade from the MDA, the Wing comes with 802.11g and it's enabled by default. On the MDA, you had to hack the registry to get 802.11g support, so this is a welcome reprieve for people tired of hacking their handhelds.<br /><br /><span><b>The buzzard heads for the ground</b></span><br />So far, in my testing, I've only noticed two things that are particularly of interest as far as negatives.<br /><br />The first problem is that the WiFi radio seems to have issues when it's not on "Full Power" mode. In the WiFi settings, you can lower power draw to increase battery performance. The default for the Wing is set at halfway between the Best Performance and Best Battery settings. In both my office test with a Linksys WAP54g and at home with the Apple Airport Extreme N, connections dropped frequently and performance was disappointing. Bumping the power up to full mode solved the problem, but be aware you're going to be chopping down your battery life if you do this.<br /><br />The second problem seems to be in prioritizing connections. For some reason, turning on the WiFi doesn't give priority to WiFi for data connections over EDGE / GPRS. After working out the power issue above, I noticed I was still having issues with speed. I went into Communications Manager, turned off the Data Connection, and left the WiFi running. When I loaded Internet Explorer, all was right with the world.<br /><br />I haven't tested any other Windows Mobile 6 devices, so I can't say for certain whether this is a bug with Windows Mobile or if it's a bug with the Wing, but it is something to be aware of.<br /><PAGEBREAK><br /><span><b>The Wing Recovers and Soars</b></span><br />As I stated earlier, performance is excellent and the overall form factor is a massive improvement over the MDA which was pretty good to begin with. The Wing gets high marks for having very good battery life, as well. At my office, my desk phone is forwarded to my mobile phone. After a day of calls, the Wing was at 75% of its battery life, and that's counting my experimentation and various clicking around to set it up. As it sits next to me, after being on for a full 12 hours and being used to surf the internet, text, and make phone calls, the battery sits at a comfortable 52%. You're probably not going to get days of life out of it, but charging it every night means you should have enough juice to get you through the day.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/ferrari_wing_3.jpg" /><br /><i>Figure 3: The mini-USB connector on the bottom of the Wing serves as the charging outlet and the headphone connector.</i><br /><br />T-Mobile also gets high marks for the bundle. Included with the wing are a pair of stereo headphones with a volume dial, an extra stylus, a leather holster, Activesync 4.5 and a trial of Outlook 2007. Also included are a USB cable for syncing, a power adapter with a mini USB connector, and a Y-adapter that allows you to plug the charger and headset in at the same time which is a thoughtful add on considering that both the charger and the sync cable plug in to the same place.<br /><br />Installation of the included software was standard fare. You pop the disc in, install ActiveSync, sit through the first sync, and you're done. Future syncs are as reliable as ever (which may or may not be good for you depending on past experiences) and I had no trouble whatsoever setting it up on my office PC. Caveat Emptor, though. There is no way to sync a Windows Mobile 6 device with a Mac, Intel or PowerPC. If you had any designs on grabbing either PocketMac or Missing Sync, don't bother. Neither one has Windows Mobile 6 support and no date has been set for either. If you don't mind not syncing for awhile, you should be okay. The word on the streets is that Parallels Desktop for the Mac will work with ActiveSync, so if you must sync, you can. Hopefully someone will fix this down the line, but I'm okay with not syncing for now.<br /><br /><span><b>Bull or Bear?</b></span><br />At a current retail price of $299 for new subscribers, the Wing has debuted at a full $200 below both its suggested retail, and the MDA's original launch price. If you're new to T-Mobile and looking for a Windows Mobile 6 phone, the Wing is really a no-brainer. Everything from its performance to its style screams refinement. It's exactly the kind of polish, fit and finish you'd expect from a second generation handheld.<br /><br />The MDA was good. The Wing is significantly better and it's definitely a keeper.<br /><br /><i>Vincent M. Ferrari is a blogger, photographer wannabe, digital media junkie, and Apple fanboy from the Bronx, New York. His most famous accomplishment is cancelling his AOL account which got him an inordinate amount of fame, something he still brags about to all his friends. When he's not taking down multi-billion dollar corporations, he's writing on his <a href="http://www.insignificantthoughts.com">own blog</a>, <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/vincenzof">taking photos</a>, and working as a Producer for the <a href="http://www.ilifezone.com">iLifeZone</a> podcast and the <a href="http://www.applephoneshow.com">Apple Phone Show podcast</a>. He also is the co-founder of <a href="http://www.ispnmedia.com">ISPN Media</a>, a podcasting network dedicated to giving regular folks a voice.</i>