T-Mobile Wing Smartphone

I started with tmobile less than a year ago. I had metro pcs before this. I had no issues with them except that they had no service in some of the places I go. I also wanted to get rid of my land line and I wasn't sure I trusted that setup to get it all going again if there was an emergency. My first tmobile phone was a MDA, which for its time was a great phone but tmobile, despite promises to the contrary, never followed through on promises to bring this phone up to windows mobile 6 and it also came out before tmobiles' new my faves plans (thus no support for that). I really like my MDA, it's a solid little phone but there were some unresolved bugs with it on tmobile's sytem. I really wasn't all that interested in a Wing until recently when I decided that I talk enough to the significant other that a my faves plan might be worth looking into. The MDA doesn't support My Faves (again tmobile could most likely fix that with a rom update and software but they've apparently pretty much completely abandoned this phone as of now). There are many articles on the net about new pda phones from tmobile but you won't find anyone saying when they "will" be available and tmobile apparently doesn't tell their own staff anything until the month before anything new is released either.

I really didn't want to lay out nearly four hundred for this phone but when I sit back and consider all I can do with it I supposed it's justifiable in the end and since I have a business I can probably justify writing off half of it to the business since it gets used for that as well. It's really the only game for tmobile if you want to be able to run software such as a gps package on the phone and have to have touch screen, if you don't care that much about that then a dash might be closer to what you want (but not a whole big bunch cheaper). Tmobile at some point is supposed to be rolling out a 3G speed internet network, they've bought the bandwidth but there's no information about when that will be available, this phone doesn't offer that support right now it's just GPRS/EDGE for the moment (hopefully they can upgrade it to handle it, not sure).

What's in the box: Phone, charger, USB cable, manual, cd with activesync and trial outlook (boy is ms cheap they used to give away outlook with earlier pda's I've bought). The charger is the same as off the mda, so I just left the new one in the box and save it for a spare.

Software: This phone uses the full wm6 professional for pocket pc version so you can run pocket pc applications on it. I run google maps, much handier than the stupid windows live that comes on this phone (if you ask me) and iguidance for my gps software. They also give you an application that links to handango store for other goodies to buy (over priced if you ask me, $15.00 for a game is nuts for this if you want my opinion). There's a lot of crap on here and you may want to consider uninstalling what you don't need, while I have not had a problem yet, memory is at a premium on this beast so get rid of crap you don't need.

Phone layout: It's similar to the MDA in button layout but different enough to need getting used to. They moved the buttons I used to accidentally hit all the time taking it in and out of the case and the micro SD slot has been moved to the side instead of the top (and the MDA used MiniSD not micro SD so that's also different) and has a rubber cover to keep crap out of the drive. The power button stays on top, the camera button, volume control, reset button and sd drive are on the left side and the mail button and voice record button are on the right side, the bottom is the mini USB connector also covered by a rubber cover and this unit adds a spot for a wrist lanyard too. Apparently earlier versions of the phone may have had the micro sd drive inside the battery compartment, which would be fine with me since I don't plan to change the card a whole bunch but I suppose if you want to use this like an MP3 player you'd like to be able to change chips out (2 gig holds a lot of songs) if you want to. On the bottom front you get the familiar but differently designed multiple use joystick type button with a button in the center and the call start/end buttons and also two application dependent buttons (one either side) and a windows and ok button.

Desireable features on this phone: Unit has wifi and bluetooth although for whatever reason, doesn't offer hotspot at home support. I for one, really like the slide out keyboard, I wouldn't willingly buy a phone without a thumb keyboard, I like that a lot and won't do without it again. Don't let yourself get convinced this phone can't use "custom ringers" because it can. The wing offers wma and mp3 support, you can make a ringer out of anything and use it that way. I have a bunch stored on the memory card to save system memory, works just fine, they don't have to live in phone memory.

Setup:
The sim card on this phone was the same as the one in my old MDA, all the store did was change a few things in the computer and send me off to charge the new Wing and install the sim card from the mda in it to get it working. The sim card must be installed before the battery is installed, nice little arrangement locks it in and you can only unlock the sim card with the battery out of the unit. Of course charge your phone for a few hours. I bought an extended battery immediately, you'll want more than the stock battery for this beast.

What else to buy: Get a micro sd card, when first released it does not support SDHC but updates issued apparently changed that situation because now 8 gig cards are reported to work just fine. I had to get this right off for my gps package that has a 1.5 gig map file that is too big to live in the phone memory. (See below, Tmobile did issue a rom update that makes SDHC cards work, folks reporting 8 gig cards work fine.)

Windows updates: Mobile 6 pro has a "update" web page just like regular windows. I believe some updates can be set to run automatically but you can also open the icon and choose to search for updates yourself, nice, wm5 you had to download updates and install them over activesync.

Tmobile changes the plan for me: For whatever reason the store could not change my plan probably because I got in on a special promotional thing awhile ago so I had to call them. Within two days of the change they'd gone through and figured out what calls were my faves since the beginning of the month and took the non-faves calls off my anytime total, about what I expected, can't expect them to miss a chance to charge for an overage can you? (Like I thought most calls were to the significant other, the rest were about 250 minutes to miscellaneous things so I ended up ok in the end on the 600 minute plan with my faves). The system automatically sent the myfaves info/software to the phone and then I could add the my faves from the phone or from the internet page. I was pretty amazed, usually I'm told 24 hours or more for changes like this, perhaps that's another new feature of the WING not sure but I did like it that they were able to change it all over so very fast, was all done in less than thirty minutes. Note tethering to a laptop etc. is available here too if you need it, actually works a bit easier than it does on wm5 phones; not much faster than dialup but if you're just checking your email or having a chat session that's all you need.

Everyday usage: I think the wm6 professional on this phone has it all over wm5, no question. Some of the apps like the calendar are slightly redesigned and work better. Some folks gripe because there is no ability to edit word documents or spreadsheets etc., I don't need that so it's no issue for me (the phone still has Notes and that's plenty for me, if you want a note off the phone that's very easy and they can be dumped into word if you want to). I had no problem loading all the contacts I have off my desktop outlook onto this phone, it just sucked it over and voila...all there. I have surfed the internet a bit and made a few phone calls (of more than a few minutes duration) hasn't dropped a call yet and the internet is tons smoother than it ever was on the mda. I have yet to see the battery life..........the way I use it I will have it on the charger a lot till my new battery arrives but this isn't an issue at all because it uses a stock usb cable that delivers power (as well as data). I can charge this off that cable or use an external ac adapter at work if I don't want to lug the ac adapter along with me. Battery life so far, you need to charge it everyday; but my extended battery when it gets here will be better.

I really like the phone over all, it does feel a bit less solid than the MDA and I suspect the screen on the wing may be a tiny touch smaller. I've dropped my mda a few times and it survived just fine, not sure I think the Wing would do as well. Overall I think this phone runs smoother and runs regular web pages not designed for pocket PC tons better than what I had in WM5 with the MDA. There's some kind of rule of thumb in the computer world that every so many megahertz increase in cpu speed is actually a certain percentage increase in performance...even though this unit is only a couple of megahertz faster than the MDA the combination of that and the better OS makes this phone just feel tons faster and smoother than the MDA ever was. I think tmobile should have waivered on the price a bit because of all my complaining about dropped calls but I guess that beggars can't be choosers..in a couple of days of using this I have had a couple of calls drop but I really think it's mostly because of the fact that I'm in an old concrete/rebar house up on a hill with tons of trees (all those things kill reception) so I won't gripe to awfully much. When I'm at work in downtown st. petersburg I haven't had a dropped call ever with this or the MDA. I will write more on this phone later for now I really like it.

update: Had this phone for a couple of days now, it's quite an improvement over the MDA in a lot of ways. Even though the cpu is only a couple of megahertz faster in combination with the improved OS it's just plain a much faster and smoother operating device. I did have a little problem with my gps package not working properly haven't had a chance to work on that yet but I may have just messed it up when I installed it. Got my bluetooth gps working with it (you need to make sure you setup com ports in the bluetooth setup before it will work since these units are some variety of serial communication even today). Battery life, unlike the mda power management is superior here, even with bluetooth running the device can sit idle for a whole day and not exhaust the stock battery, the MDA couldn't say that. I got my extended battery, charged it up haven't had a chance to see how long it will last yet. Apparently early models of the Wing may not have included office mobile (word, excel, powerpoint) where this one does have that (so you do get editing capabilities on word and excel at least). I have sent a few media messages and text messages and made phone calls mostly to the significant other and only had one or two call drops. The TZones features on this phone are more than what was available on the MDA for whatever reason as well. I'm overall very happy with my purchase even though it was way more than I wanted to spend.

Update: The extended battery easily gives three days without charging for the way I use it, bluetooth does not seem to drain the battery any faster, haven't had a need to use the wifi so I can't speak for the powermanagement when that is running. Apparently the issue with the iguidance gps package is that all the extra wizbangs on the WING means it always has less free resources than the MDA had. Iguidance states that if I can get it working it won't work well because the machine really doesn't have enough free resources for it. So apparently I'll be buying new software, I've looked at a couple of packages that claim to work right on the WING not sure which I'll get yet but if you get one you should most likely look for one that says it will run entirely off the memory card and only sips at machine memory because even after deleting a ton of notes and cleaning out my message folders I've only got about 12MB free program memory and 20MB free storage which apparently is a bit low for these types of programs that announce turns, reroute, etc. It's a little disappointing but a new software package is cheaper than one of those standalone navigator devices and this is all in the phone so it's less to carry too. I've paired several bluetooth hands free devices with this phone and all work fine, as well as the itrek bluetooth gps. The gps software package is a minor annoyance but while the iguidance was ok, there are things I don't like about it anyway so it's an excuse now to replace it. In the meantime google maps runs great on it with or without a gps (google maps can come close to your location just triangulating from the nearby cell towers).

update: I've got a 4 gig sdhc card in my wing but web folks report the 8 gig cards work too. No reports on whether the new and expensive 16 gig cards work yet (they should but they're probably just too expensive yet).

update: Bluetooth stereo support, I expected the wing to have the bluetooth stereo headset support but I didn't really expect my ancient motorola 820 to work right but so far it does, it paired right away and it sounds pretty darn good. When a bluetooth stereo headset is active you get an extra icon on the wing screen indicating stereo music support. On my 820 it works when first paired but when you shut off the headset the stereo setup goes away and the wing doesn't seem to know how to get it back, BatteryStatus utility fixes this with an option to turn stereo function on and off.

defective device: When you get your wing take a close look while at the store, mine felt just a bit "too sloppy" when the keyboard slides in and out. Had one mysterious reboot didn't really know what I did so I thought if it was an issue it'd show again...and it did. Occasionally when opening the keyboard the device would reboot, acted like a short, took it back to the store within 14 days they replaced it right there no issues. Popped a 4 gig SDHC card in there it works fine no issues, have seen folks say the 8 gig cards work too but so far no one with a 16 gig card saying they got it to work (those are still mucho expensive no wonder). Glad they gave me so little problem would have been a big stink if they'd made me mail it off and wait for it however they do apparently have some sort of loaner program for those with sick phones.

update: Been doing some research on the Wing as far as available tweaks and the low memory issue for the gps software. Apparently when tmobile customized the os for their use they did their usual sloppy half-way job. There is a section of memory on this beast known as the "pagepool" that has something to do with software coming off the ROM (read only) memory of the machine, tmobile set this for 12 mb by default which is way more than is needed. Folks have reported a smooth running device with as little as 4 mb pagepools (mine seems to lockup with that little however) but most folks seem to see the most stable results with a 6 mb pagepool. Making this chunk of memory smaller also seems to result in a faster device (something like a properly sized virtual memory cache on a desktop machine, more is not always better). There are several utilities available on the internet (usually found in forums for pocket pc)or a couple of customized ROMs to deal with the pagepool situation. I found one that didn't require a ROM update (which can be a scary dangerous process) and it's made an already great device even better (so why isn't tmobile making this fix themselves is what I ask). With the pagepool fix Program memory went from a miserable 8-12 mb to 17-20 mb when the adjustment is applied (and it stays unless you do a hard reset too). Another useful utility you may want to look into is one of the utilities that will allow the cpu to be "overclocked" the wing is supposedly capable of a stable 247 mhz when overclocked with a software utility or a rom update, people are reporting they can run skype with no issues when the cpu gets this boost (where at stock settings skype won't work because the cpu isn't fast enough). You ask is it safe to overclock? You'll get a lot of argument about that but many computer geeks have been overclocking desktops for years and this is no different. The issues are cooling and battery power, an overclocked cpu will suck more power, but folks are saying they are not seeing that much difference in battery usage (so buy an extended battery they're 18 bucks on ebay). When a cpu is manufactured they do not make batches of different speed processors, what they do is make a billion with maximum speed specs and then test the batches, those that fail full speed tests are tested progressively slower until they pass all tests and then sold as lower speed processors, however, if the manufacturer has a need for ten billion 201 mhz chips and all they have laying around are 250 mhz chips those faster chips will be branded and sold as the slower models (but overclockers have figured that out and while some chips are locked at speed, there are often ways around those locks) the only big issue with overclocking is cooling as a rule, a too hot cpu is going to break down faster. The third useful utility you want to look into is a package that will move such items as the internet explorer cache off the machine memory and onto a memory card, there are a couple of pocket pc browsers that already offer this function but if you don't want to add another application the ability to move your ie cache off the system memory will save a lot of space and these same applications also allow you to move other stuff that doesn't necessarily need to be using up system memory such as ringers and pictures etc. I've downloaded odyssey 4 gps software to test out and I will probably be buying that after the trial period runs out. I've used the onboard music player a little bit, I believe it may be a slow cpu issue (need to get that overclocker utility to test that theory), but it hiccups a bit when playing back music tracks.

update: I don't know if they cut it out because this device has a keyboard or if it was cut for other reasons but the version of Notes that comes with this device no longer offers handwriting recognition. That's a shame, it worked quite well for me on the MDA under mobile 5. Perhaps if we yell loud enough it'll get put back; I just suddenly realized this when I went to do a note a few days ago. That's an annoying change, apparently it may still be present in some versions of the OS but the one provided on the Wing doesn't have it any more.

Tweaks I'm using: You immediately want the pagepool cache fix, set to 6 mb much more software will run on this phone. Another useful utility (not free unfortunately) is Memaid, it will clean out the crap in your registry, old temp files, allow you to change what comes up on startup and show you where onboard memory might be wasted (i.e. you can copy stuff to your memory card and save the machine memory). You also want BatteryStatus (search on BatteryStatus home page, it's written by a person in europe apparently, it is currently donateware, and well worth the fifteen bucks I sent him) which not only puts a nicely visible battery indicator on the screen it also gives a temperature readout, a program memory redout and power usage readout. Batterystatus also overclocks the cpu without a rom update, I've suggested to the guy that if he adds pagepool adjustment to this he'd have a HIT on his hands. I've been using this a day or two it has not appreciably cut battery life that I can tell and I have bluetooth running most of the time also. I have mine oc to 247 but others have reported theirs as high as 280 but it's best to stay conservative, most folks have best luck at 247 but it depends on your machine and where and when it was manufactured apparently. I did have mine going at 260 for a bit but it seemed to be sucking the battery a bit hard, the latest version of Batterystatus also has cpu "throttling" functions, my ancient Dell Axim X5 with pc2003 on it had that and it made the battery last forever when it was sitting idle; throttling cuts cpu speed when full speed isn't needed. I still have my X5, it was a helluva machine and it still works great even though the OS on it is now pretty much outdated (wish it could be updated, perhaps a future project, people do have some version of linux running on some of these machines).

Other little miscellaneous observations:
I've got a plantronics bluetooth paired with this no issue, a hands free for the car paired with it no problem, my bluetooth itrek gps works great, only thing giving me issues is my motorola 820 stereo bluetooth headset (this thing is problematic on several phones I've had and it's several years old also). When using just the bluetooth that comes on the phone I have a continuous problem with the "stereo" function this headset supports just going away. The BatteryStatus utility offers the ability to turn A2DP (which is the stereo support stuff in the bluetooth) on and off from the bluetooth icon, now the headset works properly because apparently the built in bluetooth on the wing doesn't address that right or just not right for this headset; so I turn on the headset and pull up the bluetooth menu from battery status and click on A2DP and it works again (stereo icon appears on the wing). If Tmobile was smart they'd buy license for this from this guy and sell it with the phone it really makes the phone sooooo much better in so many ways.

Little surprises with tmobile:
My particular plan has free minutes after nine and before 7 during the week and free weekends; however apparently their computers are not smart enough to apply things property. If your call starts before nine and goes two hours it sucks on your minute bank for all of it, conversely if you start your morning call at 6:58 the whole call is free.....aggggggggh I had a two hour converstion with a friend the other night thinking that I was only using 20 minutes since the call started at 8:40 but no I got spanked for the whole two hours off my minute bank. So lesson learned, pay attention to the clock because their computers aren't smart enough to figure it out, I didn't make much of a stink when I called but I just thought it was kinda stupid they don't tell you this stuff.

Update: Switched cpu back up to 260, and dropped pagepool to 4mb, wing is running stable and doesn't seem to be killing the battery now because I'm also using the throttling functions of BatteryStatus so when it's just sitting in the case it's not running full speed...I love this utility! When I donated to the author he sent me a registration number and he promised to look into adding the pagepool size controls...this will be one awesome tool if he does that. Still haven't picked a gps package...been making due with googlemaps. Googlemaps doesn't offer active guidance (i.e no little voice to tell you to turn left at the next intersection) but it does access the gps and it's free (probably advertiser supported and it's very cool because you can ask for the cocoa beach sports complex in cocoa beach florida and it'll find it without having any clue where it might be)....well what more can you ask for but it does have the disadvantage of not working if you don't have cell internet access. Tmobile is currently having an issue with the Tzones not working on the wing, I suspect they messed up something in the last software update, this is a kind of handy little thing I hope they fix it...it lets you check minute balances from the phone and access such things as your picture storage (off the phone) and some other little stuff.