Eriq Cook
07-08-2007, 12:11 AM
After more than a month of solid use of the T-Mobile Wing, I have to say they took a number of steps back compared to the prior MDA. The spring assisted keyboard and WM6 OS are great, but the overall performance and terrible microphone outweigh the good in this after using a great deal. Here's my overall summary of the Wing's problems:
#1 - Memory: The Wing's memory management and lack of, overall is terrible. With only ONE application installed in main memory (eWallet), I still must constantly soft-reset the Wing in order to free up memory--for a few hours. Memory is especially a problem with the camera app. 90% of of the time when I start the camera for the first time, I get "Not enough memory to start camera" error and have to soft-reset the Wing, then it'll work. I If I've used the Wing for more than a few hours, somehow the program memory fills up and leaves me with 5MB or less of available program memory. And there's no way to manually manage the distribution of memory between storage and program memory as with WM5. Any Windows Mobile Pro device should come standard with 140+ MB of main memory. I never had so many memory problems with any of my Windows Mobile devices before like this. I’ve even gone into the memory control panel IMMEDIATELY after a soft-reset to monitor the memory, and before my eyes I watch the available program memory drop from 36MB to 7MB after ONE minute.
It’d be helpful if there was a memory management app that came STANDARD on the phone to easily clear your Pocket Internet Explorer cache and find large files in main memory. But overall, more memory should have been included on the Wing.
#2 - Processor: During the first couple of weeks, I thought the processor was no big deal and wasn't an issue until recently. I've now realized that with a slow 200MHz processor coupled with WM6, the Wing has issues keeping up with tasks, juggling apps and using the phone. Many times when calls come in, I have to wait 5+ seconds for the window to pop-up to see who’s calling. The standard for these kinds of phones should be 400MHz or faster. I hope this is the last 200MHz WM6 Pro phone I ever see.
#3 - VOICE COMMAND - VoiceCommand is utter crap on the Wing compared to how well it used to work on my T-Mobile MDA, Sprint Samsung i700 and HP iPAQ 6315. Because I heavily rely on VoiceCommand and have 700+ contacts in my phone, it's really my #1 issue. The problem is actually broken up between a bug in Microsoft VoiceCommand 1.6 and how it handles routing of incoming call announcements, and a problem with the Wing's microphone (I think). Whereas before I had a 98% success rate using VoiceCommand on my MDA, the Wing has dropped that to a 20% success rate. With the MDA, I could speak in a regular or low tone of voice and it worked flawlessly. Now, with the Wing I must YELL voice commands and/or repeat them 4-7 times before VoiceCommand successfully recognizes my commands. I don't know it's a software issue with the Wing or hardware (microphone) issue.
Regarding the incoming call announcement issue with VoiceCommand version 1.6, apparently Microsoft is aware of the bug and hopefully we’ll see a fix in 6-12 months (speaking sarcastically). To recap, if you use a Bluetooth headset, VoiceCommand 1.6 announces incoming calls through the Bluetooth headset WHEN YOUR ACTIVELY USING IT. This is a major problem because when I’m on a phone call and using my headset, the incoming call announcement loudly blares who’s calling, and mutes out the person who’s speaking to me. To make matters worse the other party can actually hear the incoming call announcement.
I’m aware of the setting that states “Announce incoming calls through the device speaker…”, but it does not work as it should. When NOT actively using my Bluetooth headset, calls are announced through the device speaker itself. But when I’m ACTIVELY using my headset, it routes announcements through the headset. VoiceCommand 1.5 never did this, only 1.6.
I also tried uninstalling MS VoiceCommand 1.6 and installing 1.5 on the Wing, but because VoiceCommand is embedded into Windows Mobile 6, it disabled VoiceCommand altogether when I installed 1.5. So don’t try this either.
#4 - Removal of Communications Manager button: I frequently use Communications Manager to quickly enable/disable Bluetooth (for my headset) or Wi-Fi. Since the Communications Manager is a control panel applet now (opposed to an application) on the Wing, you cannot even program a button for Communications Manager because The Buttons control panel no longer sees it (because it’s a control panel applet). On the MDA if I wanted to quickly disable bluetooth (so calls wouldn't go to the headset), I'd quickly hit the CommManager button and tap bluetooth on/off. You must now go to the Start menu / Settings, Connections tab / CommManager. Pretty inconvenient now.
#5 - Movement of the USB connector closer to the keyboard (lower): To clarify, because the USB connector on the Wing is located lower next to the keyboard, it’s more difficult to use the keyboard when a USB cable is plugged in (either to charge or when connected to my computer). On the MDA, the USB connector was located higher, in the right spot. I could easily type on the MDA keyboard when it was charging.
Now, for my T-Mobile/HTC wish list. The next Windows Mobile Pro phone for T-Mobile should include:
- Slide-out keyboard
- 256+ MB of memory
- 400MHz+ processor
- GPS (and of course Bluetooth & Wi-Fi)
- 3G (should be rolled out this year)
- Louder speaker
- Scroll Wheel
- 4 application buttons on the FRONT of the device. I miss having the Mail and IE buttons on the front in addition to the Start menu and OK buttons.
- WORKING MICROPHONE (VoiceCommand in mind)
- Return of the Communications Manager button
- Movement of the USB connector further up.
That’s my list of overall issues with the Wing. If I hadn’t sold my MDA I’d go back. Maybe I’ll sell my Wing on ebay and buy another MDA (or Exchange it) on eBay. The new Sprint phone isn’t looking too bad either.
They need to pay me to be a tester for HTC products LOL
#1 - Memory: The Wing's memory management and lack of, overall is terrible. With only ONE application installed in main memory (eWallet), I still must constantly soft-reset the Wing in order to free up memory--for a few hours. Memory is especially a problem with the camera app. 90% of of the time when I start the camera for the first time, I get "Not enough memory to start camera" error and have to soft-reset the Wing, then it'll work. I If I've used the Wing for more than a few hours, somehow the program memory fills up and leaves me with 5MB or less of available program memory. And there's no way to manually manage the distribution of memory between storage and program memory as with WM5. Any Windows Mobile Pro device should come standard with 140+ MB of main memory. I never had so many memory problems with any of my Windows Mobile devices before like this. I’ve even gone into the memory control panel IMMEDIATELY after a soft-reset to monitor the memory, and before my eyes I watch the available program memory drop from 36MB to 7MB after ONE minute.
It’d be helpful if there was a memory management app that came STANDARD on the phone to easily clear your Pocket Internet Explorer cache and find large files in main memory. But overall, more memory should have been included on the Wing.
#2 - Processor: During the first couple of weeks, I thought the processor was no big deal and wasn't an issue until recently. I've now realized that with a slow 200MHz processor coupled with WM6, the Wing has issues keeping up with tasks, juggling apps and using the phone. Many times when calls come in, I have to wait 5+ seconds for the window to pop-up to see who’s calling. The standard for these kinds of phones should be 400MHz or faster. I hope this is the last 200MHz WM6 Pro phone I ever see.
#3 - VOICE COMMAND - VoiceCommand is utter crap on the Wing compared to how well it used to work on my T-Mobile MDA, Sprint Samsung i700 and HP iPAQ 6315. Because I heavily rely on VoiceCommand and have 700+ contacts in my phone, it's really my #1 issue. The problem is actually broken up between a bug in Microsoft VoiceCommand 1.6 and how it handles routing of incoming call announcements, and a problem with the Wing's microphone (I think). Whereas before I had a 98% success rate using VoiceCommand on my MDA, the Wing has dropped that to a 20% success rate. With the MDA, I could speak in a regular or low tone of voice and it worked flawlessly. Now, with the Wing I must YELL voice commands and/or repeat them 4-7 times before VoiceCommand successfully recognizes my commands. I don't know it's a software issue with the Wing or hardware (microphone) issue.
Regarding the incoming call announcement issue with VoiceCommand version 1.6, apparently Microsoft is aware of the bug and hopefully we’ll see a fix in 6-12 months (speaking sarcastically). To recap, if you use a Bluetooth headset, VoiceCommand 1.6 announces incoming calls through the Bluetooth headset WHEN YOUR ACTIVELY USING IT. This is a major problem because when I’m on a phone call and using my headset, the incoming call announcement loudly blares who’s calling, and mutes out the person who’s speaking to me. To make matters worse the other party can actually hear the incoming call announcement.
I’m aware of the setting that states “Announce incoming calls through the device speaker…”, but it does not work as it should. When NOT actively using my Bluetooth headset, calls are announced through the device speaker itself. But when I’m ACTIVELY using my headset, it routes announcements through the headset. VoiceCommand 1.5 never did this, only 1.6.
I also tried uninstalling MS VoiceCommand 1.6 and installing 1.5 on the Wing, but because VoiceCommand is embedded into Windows Mobile 6, it disabled VoiceCommand altogether when I installed 1.5. So don’t try this either.
#4 - Removal of Communications Manager button: I frequently use Communications Manager to quickly enable/disable Bluetooth (for my headset) or Wi-Fi. Since the Communications Manager is a control panel applet now (opposed to an application) on the Wing, you cannot even program a button for Communications Manager because The Buttons control panel no longer sees it (because it’s a control panel applet). On the MDA if I wanted to quickly disable bluetooth (so calls wouldn't go to the headset), I'd quickly hit the CommManager button and tap bluetooth on/off. You must now go to the Start menu / Settings, Connections tab / CommManager. Pretty inconvenient now.
#5 - Movement of the USB connector closer to the keyboard (lower): To clarify, because the USB connector on the Wing is located lower next to the keyboard, it’s more difficult to use the keyboard when a USB cable is plugged in (either to charge or when connected to my computer). On the MDA, the USB connector was located higher, in the right spot. I could easily type on the MDA keyboard when it was charging.
Now, for my T-Mobile/HTC wish list. The next Windows Mobile Pro phone for T-Mobile should include:
- Slide-out keyboard
- 256+ MB of memory
- 400MHz+ processor
- GPS (and of course Bluetooth & Wi-Fi)
- 3G (should be rolled out this year)
- Louder speaker
- Scroll Wheel
- 4 application buttons on the FRONT of the device. I miss having the Mail and IE buttons on the front in addition to the Start menu and OK buttons.
- WORKING MICROPHONE (VoiceCommand in mind)
- Return of the Communications Manager button
- Movement of the USB connector further up.
That’s my list of overall issues with the Wing. If I hadn’t sold my MDA I’d go back. Maybe I’ll sell my Wing on ebay and buy another MDA (or Exchange it) on eBay. The new Sprint phone isn’t looking too bad either.
They need to pay me to be a tester for HTC products LOL