Windows Mobile 6.1 Standard and Professional Reviewed!

[Rocco Augusto]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://pocketnow.com/index.php?a=portal_detail&t=reviews&id=1050&p=2' target='_blank'>http://pocketnow.com/index.php?a=po...ews&id=1050&p=2</a><br /><br /></div><em>&quot;The latest Windows Mobile upgrade brings minor, but very welcome additions to the platform. In this article, we'll cover both the Standard (non-touchscreen) and Professional (touchscreen) editions and show you what's to love about the Windows Mobile 6.1 update. Now, you'll notice this is not a full version upgrade, but just a &quot;.1&quot; upgrade so you know you can't expect a full overhaul. It really feels like just a quick update intended to fill in a couple of gaps between the Windows Mobile and Apple iPhone functionality. You'll notice some similarities between the Standard and Professional operating systems (such as the Internet Explorer and Text Messaging updates), but you'll also notice some odd differences. Read on for our thorough rundown of the next version of Windows Mobile to hit your phone!&quot;<br /><br /></em><img border="1" src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/500/spt/auto/1207074645.usr8.jpg" alt="" /> <img border="1" src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/500/spt/auto/1207074653.usr8.jpg" alt="" /><br /><font size="1"><em>[Windows Mobile 6.1 in the flesh! From left to right - Standard and Professional]</em></font><br /><br />Pocketnow.com has brought us a quick review of Windows Mobile 6.1. This review contains a ton of screenshots and two videos of WM 6.1 in action on both the Standard and Professional handsets! All in all, I'm really excited to get my hands on either a device that is equipped with this new update or a Windows Mobile 6.1 ROM image for my Emulator. Oh man, good times! You guys have no idea how relieved I am that this didn't turn out to be a huge April fool&rsquo;s joke from Microsoft!<br /><br />You can see the videos (I promise it isn't another Rick Roll) for the Standard platform <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEKX58xL49Q">here</a> and the Professional platform <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXk2H9buhOQ">here</a>. Enjoy!

[ajwalker]

Yeah!

Glad to see I was wrong about this one :)

Hopefully, however, the updates to my Motorola Q9h will appear via AT&T sooner rather than later.

(Still wish Microsoft would take the bull by the horns and issue updates directly themselves (yes, like Apple does for the iPhone). I don't see how any of the 6.1 improvements would "break" any of the "homebrew" AT&T or Motorola put on the Moto Q Global. :mad:)

[Fritzly]

Regretfully I see the usual issues: the upgrade is not available to customers; MS still place the buyers at the mercy of hardware manifacturers (they mak profit selling hardware, do not they?) therefore few lucky people will be able to upgrade exisiting devices. Even worse in the ancient and obsolete US market, the one still ruled by Carriers, the chances to see 6.1 available to users are even slimmer.
Finally it seems that these "enhancements" will not be available until the end of 2008; sorry guys but this should have been available at least 1 year ago.
I used WM since Motorola shipped MPx200, I have used all the other releases of the OS and I got more and more frustrated by the lack of innovation and the worsening in both performances and usability.
Finally I switch to the iPhone and so far I do not miss WM; it looks I will be able to sync it with Exchange and use PocketInformant well before WM 6.1 will be available and this shows how slowly MS is trying to catch up.
Sure when WM 7 will be out I will check it and if it is good I will switch back; and I will do it again and again because phones OSes are not article of faith, just tools.

[acharn]

I didn't see anything in the 6.1 Professional video that made me go "wow", I need that! Actually, the zoom out function on IE looks like a pain.

I would love to see bigger, finger-friendly buttons and interface for WM. It would be nice if they took a page from SPB Shell. I HATE having to use my fingernail (or pull out the stylus) to push menu options in WM 6.0. Or better yet, close one eye and use my thumb to stabalize my index finger to touch a menu item. They need to make a new mantra at Microsoft-- "Is this finger friendly?" If no, then delete. If yes, then continue.

Microsoft could easily and quickly outshine the iPhone if it thought about design as well as functionality.

[Rocco Augusto]

Yeah, I kind of got the impression that all of the cool visual updates were only on the Standard platform. :confused:

[ajwalker]

Regretfully I see the usual issues: the upgrade is not available to customers; MS still place the buyers at the mercy of hardware manifacturers (they mak profit selling hardware, do not they?) therefore few lucky people will be able to upgrade exisiting devices. Even worse in the ancient and obsolete US market, the one still ruled by Carriers, the chances to see 6.1 available to users are even slimmer.
Finally it seems that these "enhancements" will not be available until the end of 2008;

Fritzly: According to the press release, any recent Windows Mobile phone (shipped with Windows Mobile 6) will get the update, the list is available on a number of sites already.

Albeit, there is no news on when this will happen but they have all commited (Sprint, AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon) that it will happen during the second quarter.

New devices are the one cited as before the end of 2008.

Now, if it will happen soon, is anyone's guess. But I didn't see anything in the update that should cause issue with what the carriers and OEMs have placed on the phones (I call it "homebrew").

Hopefully Microsoft has had a few discussions with CEOs of the carriers and *impressed* upon them how important this it to happen ASAP.

I'm hoping for (and expecting:rolleyes:) a speedy deployment.

[efjay]

Cant wait to get to those "improvements to internet explorer mobile". They look pretty pathetic compared to opera and the iphone browser, I would be ashamed to even mention those so called improvements if I was MS. Once again they show their utter incompetence and lack of understanding of what WM users want.

[Fritzly]

[QUOTE=ajwalker;681276]Fritzly: According to the press release, any recent Windows Mobile phone (shipped with Windows Mobile 6) will get the update, the list is available on a number of sites already.

Albeit, there is no news on when this will happen but they have all commited (Sprint, AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon) that it will happen during the second quarter.

QUOTE]

While, being a MS shareholder, I hope that you are right I still do not have much hope; btw although I live in the US I do not buy Carrier locked phones so I will wait to see what HTC will do for my Touch Dual.

[ajwalker]

While, being a MS shareholder, I hope that you are right I still do not have much hope; btw although I live in the US I do not buy Carrier locked phones so I will wait to see what HTC will do for my Touch Dual.

HTC has also said they are going to get/give the update.

Here's a blurb about it from MobilitySite
http://mobilitysite.com/2008/04/htc-touch-dual-is-coming-to-america/

[Prosper]

Fritzly: According to the press release, any recent Windows Mobile phone (shipped with Windows Mobile 6) will get the update, the list is available on a number of sites already.

Albeit, there is no news on when this will happen but they have all commited (Sprint, AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon) that it will happen during the second quarter.

New devices are the one cited as before the end of 2008.

Now, if it will happen soon, is anyone's guess. But I didn't see anything in the update that should cause issue with what the carriers and OEMs have placed on the phones (I call it "homebrew").

Hopefully Microsoft has had a few discussions with CEOs of the carriers and *impressed* upon them how important this it to happen ASAP.

I'm hoping for (and expecting:rolleyes:) a speedy deployment.

C'mon Palm, do something good to your customers!! :)
*Sending a mail to Palm as we speak* :D

[Prosper]

Just talked to a "Chat Analyst" on the Palm support chat - and he was sure that Microsoft would get the update out, not the manufacturer. o.O

Not sure how much information he actually had about WM in general and the WM6.1 release specifically though.

[Perry Reed]

It's not bad and I'm glad that my brand new (as of yesterday) Sprint Touch will be among those upgraded. Still, there are a few things I would have liked to see...

- Improvements to the Today screen on WM Pro. Even with add-ins like the HTC panel, it's getting a bit dated.

- Better flagging of messages, to include dates when an item is due, much like in Outlook 2007.

- Better integration of flagged messages and to-do items, again like Outlook 2007.

- I use Exchange server for my email and also Outlook 2007 as my RSS feed reader, which means my RSS feed entries end up as messages I read in WM as emails. With WM5 I could forward them as emails, but I lost that ability in WM6. I'd like it back!

- Support in IE for Flash and Silverlight is great, but I'd really like to see better Javascript support so that AJAX pages will work. Actually, not just AJAX; many sites use Javascript to process logins, like Facebook and Livejournal, and without it you simply cannot login to those sites in WM.

- One thing that bugs me in the email app is that when on the message list, you can use the left menu key to delete a message, but from within a message, you have to hit the right menu and then the action button to select "Delete" from the menu. I wish it were more consistant so that the left menu key always deletes. I don't mind pushing "Reply" to the right menu, especially if it's the top, default item.

- This one may be just a pipe dream, but with all my email getting custom sorted into various folders, and my RSS feeds all going into their own folders, one of my favorite and most used features of Outlook 2007 is the "Unread Mail" search folder. I'd sure love to have that on WM!

- And really, I'd like all-over search on WM, much as in Vista.

- And more finger-friendliness everywhere. This is the age of iPhone, after all! :)

[Eriq Cook]

Eh. I could care less about this update. It's amazing I'm caring less about Microsoft updates these days. I used to be excited whenever a new ".x" update came out by Microsoft. They've lost their energy it seems. This is the first Windows Mobile update that I could care less about upgrading to. Aside from the relocated Task Manager, nothing stands out--and certain features like removing "mark unread" option that was easily accesible is plain silly. What is really going on @ Microsoft???

[alese]

I'm using WM 6.1 on my HTC Trinity and there is just one thing that is really good in WM 6.1 compared to WM 6.

It is faster, noticable faster...

[martin_ayton]

Y-a-w-n.

I'm with Eric - there doesn't appear to be anything substantial to this update and I honestly couldn't care less whether T-Mo release this for my Vario 3 or not.

Unless it really is faster... but that wasn't apparent from the YouTube video that Rocco referred to.

Martin.

[adamz]

- Support in IE for Flash and Silverlight is great, but I'd really like to see better Javascript support so that AJAX pages will work. Actually, not just AJAX; many sites use Javascript to process logins, like Facebook and Livejournal, and without it you simply cannot login to those sites in WM.


Facebook works for me. It automatically goes to the mobile version, which is great.


- One thing that bugs me in the email app is that when on the message list, you can use the left menu key to delete a message, but from within a message, you have to hit the right menu and then the action button to select "Delete" from the menu. I wish it were more consistant so that the left menu key always deletes. I don't mind pushing "Reply" to the right menu, especially if it's the top, default item.


Oh, no! That would be horrible! People are much more likely to REPLY to an open email than delete it. I have excellent spam protection on my accounts and see very very little use of the delete command at all. I would much rather see the "New" command on the message list left softkey and put "Delete" back into the menu where it has been in WM 5.0.


- And really, I'd like all-over search on WM, much as in Vista.


This has been in WM Pro since, I believe, 2000. Well, it doesn't search applications though.

[eNigmolysis]

Does anyone know if the 6.1 update will be available in the UK? As a design student I get annoyed with the mediocre effort microsoft put into the design of the WM interface and the continuous recycling of very irritating methods of navigation and alphanumerical input. Having installed the SPB keyboard I have bypassed that problem. When will MS realise that an easy to use interface will improve their product greatly?

[mrasmuss]

Question - I have the Blackjack I with WM 5.0, will I be able to upgrade to 6.1 when it is available? OR will I need to upgrade to 6.0, then upgrade again to 6.1??

[Rocco Augusto]

Question - I have the Blackjack I with WM 5.0, will I be able to upgrade to 6.1 when it is available? OR will I need to upgrade to 6.0, then upgrade again to 6.1??

There will be no official Windows Mobile 6.1 ROM for the original Samsung Blackjack. You will have to switch to the Blackjack II if you want an official ROM

[Rapide_23]

Will there be an update for the SGH-i608, since it already runs WM 6?

[rlwoodruff]

How can I get the upgrade from 6.0 to 6.1 (standard) for my Moto Q9m on Verizon Wireless?

[dmullins]

I don't get it...why does WM Std have a better UI than Pro?

I own a Tilt which has the full keyboard and touchscreen, but still like to use the unit one-handed as much as possible.

[stevew]

There will be no official Windows Mobile 6.1 ROM for the original Samsung Blackjack. You will have to switch to the Blackjack II if you want an official ROM

Don't ya just love it. Want the update buy a new phone.