T-Mobile Wing Review - Imaging
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Alfredo Padilla Published on June 05, 2007 Comment on this |
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Resolution (1.26)
To test resolution, we take photos of an industry standard resolution chart and then run the photos through the Imatest software. Imatest measures how many alternating white and black lines can be resolved before they start blurring together, a measure called line widths per picture height (lw/ph).
The T-Mobile Wing scored poorly in our test, scoring 533.3 LW/PH horizontal and 422 LW/PH vertical. This is significantlly worse than the Sanyo M1, another 2-megapixel camera phone, which scored 859.9 LW/PH horizontal and 773.4 LW/PH vertical. This poor score means that in terms of resolution, the Wing is no better than the 1.3-megapixel cameras found on the Motorola Q or T-Mobile Dash. In fact, it might be a bit worse. For example, the Q scored slightly better on our resolution test than the Wing since it was able to discern 569 LW/PH horizontal and 515.2 LW/PH vertical. Unfortunately, the Wing's poor performance on resolution is just the first disappointment we saw from this camera.
Color (3.35)
To measure how well a phone's camera reproduces color, we take photos of the industry standard GretagMacbeth color chart that displays 24 different colors. We run these photos through Imatest, which compares the colors produced by the phone's camera to the chart's colors.
Imatest produces the chart above that shows the original colors in the small vertical rectangle, the adjusted colors in the middle rectangle and the captured colors in the outer square. It also produces the chart below on which circles represent the colors captures while squares represent where the colors should be.
As you can tell by the number of long lines on this chart, the T-Mobile Wing does a terrible job of reproducing colors correctly. All colors show some significant drift, with reds showing the most. You can also see that white is all over the place, this indicates that the white balance on the Wing does a very poor job of identifying true white. The Wing did significantly worse in our color test than T-Mobile Dash, Helio Ocean, and Treo 750. Its score is similar to the very bad cameras found on the Razr V3m and or Motorola Q.
Noise (1.1)
To measure noise produced by the camera, we take a series of photos at different light levels. We then run these photos through Imatest to measure noise and combine them to produce an overall score. As in our other tests, the T-Mobile Wing's camera did not perform particularly well in our noise test, with image becoming very noisy at even moderate lighting levels.
Live Preview (8.0)
The large 2.6" QVGA screen on the T-Mobile Wing does a good job of providing a live preview for photos. Color reproduction is accurate, and we noticed very little pixelation or noise. We were impressed by how good the live preview was given how large the screen is. It compares well with phones like the Nokia N95 or Sanyo M1. Unlocked Standby to First Shot (6.73)
To test how quickly you can take a photo if you are not in the camera application, we time how long it takes to go from the home screen unlocked until we have captured a new photo. The Wing took 2.97 seconds to complete this process. This is an excellent time for a smart phone, beating out the T-Mobile Dash's 5 second time and the Treo 700p's 4.5 seconds. It is much faster than the Nokia N95, which took 6.5 seconds, but it should be noted that the N95 has an auto focus lens, which the Wing lacks. We found that the camera application came up very quickly after we hit the camera button and that image processing was similarly quick.
Shot to Shot Time (6.9)
To measure shot to shot time, we time how long it takes to capture a series of photos. We use burst mode to capture the photos if it is available. The T-Mobile took 2.58 seconds to capture a series of 6 photos using burst mode, this works out to 2.3 frames per second. This is an excellent score; however, you should note that shots taken in burst mode come in at a much lower 640 x 480 resolution, as opposed to the 1600 x 1200 pixel resolution that the camera on the phone is capable of. If you want to take a series of shots at this higher resolution, your shot to shot time will be much higher as you will need to take each photo manually. Using the burst mode, you can take up to 30 shots in a row.
Shutter to Shot Time (4.65)
Shutter to shot time is the length of time it takes to capture a photo after you have depressed the shutter button. The T-Mobile Wing took 0.43 seconds from shutter to shot. This is a good but not great score. It's slower than the T-Mobile Wings .3 seconds but faster than the Treo 750's .88 seconds.
Interface (6.0)
The T-Mobile Wing's interface is good, providing the full screen as the viewfinder with indicators and controls superimposed on this in white. Along the top, there are indicators for camera mode, photo size, storage location and number of shots that can be taken. At the bottom are shortcuts for settings, album, brightness, metering, white balance and self timer. Most controls can be toggled through the options simply by hitting the icon. Your D-Pad switches between modes by using left/right when held horizontally and controls zoom by using up/down.
Photo Album Software Internal (7.0)
The T-Mobile Wing uses the Windows Mobile Pictures & Video application to manage photos. This shows thumbnails of both your videos and photos. The first thumbnail is a shortcut that takes you to the camera. The left soft key is assigned to view, which opens the selected item. You can accomplish the same by hitting the center select button on the D-Pad. The right soft key opens a menu where you can launch a slideshow, set the selected photo as your today background, save the photo to a contact or send it via MMS or email. You can also send the photo to your "space" provided by Windows Live. When a photo is being viewed, the left soft key is assigned to send while the right opens a menu. This menu offers many of the same options as the menu on the thumbnail view. From either view, you can choose to edit the photo. As with other Windows Mobile devices, we found the album software to be straightforward and easy to use. Manual Control (1.0)
We were disappointed by the lack of manual modes available on the T-Mobile Wing. There was no manual white balance as found on some phones, nor are there scene modes except for a sports mode. Other phones can offer several different scene modes. As with most camera phones, advanced manual controls like shutter priority and aperture priority are missing.
Zoom (0.5)
The T-Mobile Wing has a 2x digital zoom; however, it is not available at the maximum 2-megapixel resolution. For this reason, we only awarded half the points we normally would for a digital zoom, which isn't very useful anyways.
Focus (0.0)
The T-Mobile Dash has a fixed focus lens, which means what you see is what you get. We were a little disappointed since some camera phones, such as the Sanyo M1 or Nokia N73, are starting to ship with auto focus lens. At the T-Mobile Dash's price point, we feel like an auto focus lens could have been included.
Flash (0.0)
The T-Mobile Dash also lacks any kind of flash. Although, the LED flashes that often accompany camera phones are of limited utility, they can make a difference at short ranges.
Metering (6.0)
We were very impressed that the T-Mobile Dash includes two metering settings. Metering controls how light is judged in your photo, and the Wing gives you the option between average metering and center weighted metering. We have not seen this sort of metering control on any other camera phone we have reviewed, even advanced ones like the Nokia N95. In addition to these two metering options, the Wing also includes manual brightness settings. We were very pleased with the metering options compared to other camera phones but compared to regular cameras they are still sub standard.
White Balance (2.0)
As with many phones, the T-Mobile Wing has presets for white balance, including daylight, night, incandescent, and fluorescent. It does not have an evaluative white balance mode which uses a white card to calibrate white balance. However, this is not surprising as this is not a feature that we have seen on any camera phone yet.
Image Handling (6.0)
Video
Overall Video Score (3.0)
The T-Mobile Wing captures video at a low 176 x 144 resolution. Given the low resolution we found the video produced by the Wing to be not too shabby. Color reproduction was a little off, but tearing was less than we've seen from other low resolution video produced by phones and artifacts were minimal. Still, the video is only sufficient to send via MMS, you won't be able to display this on a TV or computer screen as it will become extremely blocky when you bview it on a screen bigger than the one built into the Wing. Video Resolution (1.16)
To measure video resolution, we take a video of the same industry standard resolution chart we use for still photos. We then run frames from this video through Imatest to produces the same line widths per pixel height (LW/PH) score we produced for still videos. As you would expect from the Wing's previous performance and the low resolution video it captures, the T-Mobile Wing did poorly in our test. It was able to distinguish 82.39 LW/PH horizontal and 141.3 LW/PH vertical. Only the LG Shine and Sprint Upstage did worse in our video resolution test than the Wing of phones we have tested to date. Our disappointment with the Wing's camera continues.
Video Compression (6.0)
The T-Mobile Wing can capture video in Mpeg-4, motion JPEG and H263 formats. We were pleased with the choice of formats, but frankly, no one but advanced users will probably choose anything but the vanilla Mpeg-4 format.
Interface (6.0)
The interface for the video camera on the T-Mobile Wing is very similar to the stills camera interface. One difference is that instead of using the entire screen as a viewfinder, only a small box in the center of the screen is used. As with the stills camera, there are icons along the top, bottom and left side of the screen to access various features. When you hit the settings icon, you are taken to a menu system with icons along the bottom and associated options listed above them. You can navigate this menu using the directional pad, but just like the stills camera, you will need to use the touch screen to manage the on screen controls when actually taking video. Manual Control (0.0)
As with most camera phones, the T-Mobile Wing's video camera does not provide you with any manual controls like manual white balance and manual gain.
Zoom (1.0)
As with the stills camera, the T-Mobile Wing provides a 2x digital zoom. Unlike the stills camera, this zoom is available at both resolutions, although given the small size of the video captured the digital zoom is more useless than usual.
Editing (0.0)
The T-Mobile Wing does not provide any editing options for video captured on the device.
Modes (4.0)
The video camera on the T-Mobile Wing does not have any scene modes available; however, it does provide a separate mode for MMS video as well as the same metering options available on the stills camera. We are again happy to see metering options available as we have not seen this on any other phone but were disappointed by the lack of scene modes.
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