T-Mobile Wing Review - Hardware
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Alfredo Padilla Published on June 05, 2007 Comment on this |
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Keypad
Text Words Per Minute (8.0)
To test how easy it is to type on the T-Mobile Wing's keyboard we time how long it takes to enter a sentence using two hands. We repeat this test five times and then take the average for our score. The Wing took an average of 23.94 seconds to enter our sample sentence, which works out to 40.1 words per minute (WPM), a solid score for a phone with a QWERTY keyboard. The Treo 750 scored 43.8 WPM, while the Blackberry 8800 managed 39.3 WPM. Of course the Helio Ocean blows them all away with a score of 53 WPM. We found that the Wing's keyboard was very roomy, however given our testers slightly smaller than average hands it may have been a little too roomy as we found ourselves stretching to reach keys near the center of the keyboard. Feedback when keys were pressed was good, with an audible click, but play could have been better. T9 and Auto Complete (5.0)
The T-Mobile Wing does not support T9 due to the absence of a standard keypad, it does however support auto completion of words, with suggestions popping up as you type. This is an excellent feature that can significantly speed up your typing and we are very glad to see it. Other smart phones like the Blackberry 8800 lack this feature.
One Hand Usability (2.94)
For those who like to type one handed we also do our words per minute (WPM) test using only a single hand. We found that this was almost impossible to do on the Wing due to the form factor. Holding the phone with a single hand while typing actually led to us almost dropping the device and we managed a paltry 14.7 words per minute. QWERTY phones are notoriously poor for one handed typing, however the Wing was particularly poor due to the form factor and size of the keyboard. We do not recommend trying to type one handed on the Wing.
Keypad Backlighting (4.0)
We found the keyboard backlight on the Wing to be generally good, with all the letters and symbols clearly illuminated. One place where it didn't do as well is with the soft keys at the top of the keyboard, which were only barely illuminated. The backlight turns itself off after 30 seconds with no use, and unfortunately you cannot change this setting without hacking the registry. You also cannot control how bright the backlight is.
Controls
D-Pad/Joystick (8.0)
The directional pad on the T-Mobile Wing is round with the edges raised significantly and a center select button that is also raised by not so much that you have mistaken presses. We found the D-Pad to be very usable and accurate. Our only concern may be that the buttons do take a bit more force than average to activate, however this may change with wear and we did not consider it a major problem. Touch Screen (5.0)
As with all Windows Mobile Professional devices the T-Mobile Wing has a touch screen interface. The touch screen had some issues with responsiveness, probably related to the overall lag found on the device. We found the accuracy of the touch screen to be sufficient when using the included stylus, but much less so when trying to use a finger. Many of the buttons are too small to be used accurately with your fingers. Having a touch screen interface is very useful in some situations, for example it allows you to easily access clipboard functions like highlighting text, copying and pasting it. You can also move files around more easily than on devices that lack a touch screen like Symbian Series 60 phones.
Jog Dial (0.0)
The T-Mobile Wing does not have a jog dial. This is an unfortunate omission as similar devices like the AT&T 8525 (HTC Hermes design) do include a scroll wheel.
Soft Buttons (6.0)
The soft buttons on the Wing are located on the top inner edge of a grouping of buttons that flank the directional pad. The buttons were very convenient to the D-Pad, however we found that they were a little small. We also found that their positioning was a little lower than we would have liked, in fact it would have been nice for all the controls to have been moved a quarter inch or so closer to the screen as holding the device so close to the bottom unbalances it a bit. The soft key provide an audible click and good feedback when pressed, however they do not have much play.
Volume Control (6.0)
The volume control is a slide switch located on the left side of the phone. It sits in the center position and can be slid up or down to switch the volume. The positioning of the button is such that you won't be hitting it by accident much while the device is in use and it did a solid if unremarkable job of fulfilling its function.
Power and Standby (8.0)
The power button on the T-Mobile Wing sits on the top of the device offset towards the left. Its a hard plastic button that sits flush with the surrounding plastic and provides good feedback when pressed. We did not find that it got pressed by accident much, which is an important feature of a power button. A single press of the button will turn standby mode on/off, which turns off the screen and all of the inputs. A long press will shut the device down completely.
Other Buttons (11.0)
In addition to the buttons discussed above the T-Mobile Wing has several other function keys. Below the soft keys are a Start key that opens the start menu and an OK button that minimizes programs and dismisses dialogues. On the right side of the phone are two additional buttons. The top one launches voice command with a short press or starts recording a voice note with a long press. The one below it launches the messaging application. On the left side of the phone near the top is a camera button that launches the camera application and acts as a shutter key. All of these buttons can be reassigned in settings, a feature that we commend HTC for including as not everyone will find the defaults to their taste.
Display
Primary Screen Gross Resolution (8.0)
The T-Mobile Wing has a QVGA (240 x 320 pixel) resolution screen. QVGA is the standard for mid to high end phones nowadays and is the same resolution found on the BlackBerry 8800 or the Helio Ocean. We can't help wishing for VGA displays to start appearing on devices however. Our score for screen resolution is standardized based on the total number of pixels.
Primary Screen Pixels per Inch (7.11)
Pixels per inch is a measure of pixel density. Phone's with higher pixel densities have richer colors and display less pixelation. The T-Mobile Wing has a pixel density of 142.2 pixels per inch (PPI). This is similar to the Treo 750's 141.7 PPI, but is lower than the BlackBerry 8800's 165.3 PPI. The lower pixel density means that we didn't get colors as rich as we would have seen on the Blackberry, or the T-Mobile Dash, which has a pixel density similar to the 8800. The lower pixel density of the Wing is a result of having the same resolution as the 8800, but a larger screen. Our score for pixel density is standardized based on the phone's PPI score.
Screen Physical Size (7.0)
The T-Mobile Wing's display is 2.8 inches diagonal. This is an impressively large display for a phone, larger than the 2.4" display found on the BlackBerry 8800, Treo 750, Helio Ocean and T-Mobile Dash. The larger display makes for a luxurious interface and allows you to choose a smaller font size, for example, while still remaining very readable. It also comes in very handy for web browsing where you can fit more of the page on the screen than a phone with a smaller display. Our score for screen size is standardized based on, well, screen size screen size.
Screen Brightness (7.6)
To measure screen brightness we set the screen brightness to maximum and point the web browser to a blank white page. We then measure the brightness from two inches away using a lux meter. The T-Mobile Wing measured an impressive 112 lux in our test. This is one of the brightest screens we've seen. It's brighter than the Nokia N73's 95 lux or the BlackBerry 8800's 90 lux. It is almost twice as bright as the Treo 750, which scored only 60 lux. The T-Mobile Wing has 4 brightness settings available and you can set this separately for when its on battery power or using external power. Unfortunately the Wing does not have a sensor to automatically adjust the brightness of the screen.
Screen Bright Light Performance (2.0)
To test how the screen performs in bright light conditions we shine 3000 lux of white light on the screen, equivalent to a bright sunny day, and judge how legible the screen is. We set the screen brightness to maximum during the test. We found that the T-Mobile Wing's screen did not do well under bright light conditions, with almost nothing legible on the screen. This is often the result with touch screen displays, and we've seen similar results with the Treo 750.
Color Depth (6.0)
Color depth is a measure of how many colors the display can handle. The T-Mobile Wing displays 65,000 colors, which is the maximum supported by Windows Mobile and is fairly standard for phones nowadays. Not that we wouldn't like to see a 16 million color display like the on the Nokia N95, but 65,000 should be sufficient for everyday use. Our score for color depth is standardized based on how many colors are supported.
Ports & Storage
Power & Data Ports (9.0)
The T-Mobile Wing uses a standard Mini USB port for both data and power. We were extremely happy to see this, although to be fair we're not surprised as HTC has been using Mini USB on its products for awhile now. We were also happy to see support for USB charging. Headphone & Jack Compatibility (4.0)
The T-Mobile Wing also uses the Mini USB port as a headphone jack as well. Although we appreciate the elegance of having a single port on a device, we would have preferred a 2.5mm or even better 3.5mm jack on the device so we could use our own headphones instead. Having a single port also means that if you want to charge/sync your device at the same time that you listen to music you will need to use the rather ungainly splitter that is included with the phone, although we do appreciate that it is included. For those who disdain wires the Wing also supports the A2DP and AVRCP profiles for wireless stereo bluetooth headphones.
Internal Storage (1.0)
The T-Mobile Wing comes with 128 MB of built in storage, of which about 40MB are available for use by the user. This is plenty for PIM information and a few hundred emails and small documents, but if you want to store large attachments or multimedia files you'll want to pick up an expansion card for additional memory.
Expansion Slot & Format (7.0)
The T-Mobile Wing sports a now fairly standard Micro SD expansion slot. The slot is located on the left side of the phone and is protected by a soft plastic cover that is attached to the device. Unlike some covers on other phones we found this one fairly easy to open and get out of the way as you get your card into the spring assisted slot.
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