T-Mobile Wing Review - Messaging
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Alfredo Padilla Published on June 05, 2007 Comment on this |
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Supported Email Services (8.0)
As a Windows Mobile device, the T-Mobile Wing has support for both POP3 and IMAP4 email. There is also a Windows Live application that allows you to easily get your Hotmail email on the device in the same Outlook Mobile that is used for other messaging services. This application does attempt to automatically get connection settings for email addresses. Unlike the Treo 750, the Wing was able to automatically set up our Gmail, AOL, and Yahoo accounts. We were pleased with the support provided by the messaging client on the Wing and especially pleased to see that it can automatically configure popular email services.
Push Email (3.0)
The T-Mobile Wing supports push email using a Microsoft Exchange Server. You can set this service up by using Activesync on your device, but note, that you will need to have the appropriate server settings and passwords for the server. Although, the phone does not ship with any other push email services you can add support for services like Blackberry, Good, and others by installing their specific client.
Multiple Email Accounts (10.0)
HTML and Attachments (12.0)
Email Customizations (2.0)
We were disappointed that the upgrade to Windows Mobile 6 did not bring any upgrades to email customization options. You can create signatures to be included with different accounts, and you can even control whether they are included with replies or forwards. There is no support for formatting text however, nor can you change the default height of emails in your inbox or the viewing font size. Although, you can change the viewing font size globally.
Time to a New Message (2.68)
Email Usability (10.5)
The email interface on the T-Mobile Wing is straightforward and will be familiar to anyone who has used Windows Mobile devices. Messages are organized in a simple list by date received but can be resorted by message type, from or subject as well. You can move up and down the list by using up/down on the directional pad, or using the up/down arrows on the keyboard. Left/right will switch between accounts, including the sms/mms messaging account. Unlike previous versions of Windows mobile where the left soft key was assigned to a new message, Windows Mobile 6 devices like the Wing assign the left soft key to the delete function. The right soft key opens a menu where you can access various options and functions. Each account has a set of folders associated with it, you can create new folders to organize your messages if you like.
When you are in a new message dialogue, there are fields for Bcc, Cc, From, To and Subject, as well as a space to write the body of the message. You can move between the fields by using up/down. The left soft key is assigned to the send command, while the right soft key opens a menu where you can access items like inserting attachments and a spell check, amongst others. We found Outlook mobile to be simple to use, with understandable commands and easy to navigate.
Supported IM Services (2.0)
The T-Mobile Wing includes an instant messaging client that allows you to access AOL, ICQ and Yahoo instant messaging services; however you can only be logged into a single messaging service at a time. As a Windows Mobile device, the Wing also allows you to access, Microsoft's Live messaging service using the Windows Live client. If you want a unified messenger that allows you to be logged into multiple services at the same time you will need to purchase one like Agile Messenger. Unfortunately T-Mobile will charge you at the same rate as text messages for instant messages sent or received on their messaging client. We do not award points for pre-installed instant messaging clients that use an SMS gateway. We feel that customers already pay for the data to access internet services like this and cellular companies should not charge you again simply because they can. The Wing does get points for the Windows Live messenger, which does not use SMS messages.
MMS Support (8.0)
MMS is integrated into Outlook Mobile on Windows Mobile devices like the T-Mobile Wing. Both MMS and SMS messages come into a single inbox. Unfortunately, you cannot turn an SMS message into an MMS message, instead you must choose the type of message you want to create. MMS is well integrated into both the camera and album applications, you can create a new MMS from either of these. When creating a new MMS message, you are presented with a template with clear fields where you can insert a video/picture, audio and text. Other than that, it looks just like any other type of message you create on the Wing. We were generally happy with the MMS integration on the Wing, but we wish that you could easily turn a SMS into a MMS like on the Treo 750 with its excellent Palm messaging client. SMS Smiley Face Interpretation (0.0)
To test whether the messaging client can correctly interpret smiley faces as icons rather than text we send a text message to the phone with four popular smiley faces. Unfortunately, the Wing only displayed the smileys in text format. There is also no option to insert smileys automatically, instead you have to type them out.
SMS/MMS Ease of Use (7.0)
The SMS/MMS interface is fully integrated into Outlook Mobile on the T-Mobile Wing. This means the interface is very similar to the email interface, with messages organized by date but able to be resorted by type, subject, or from. You move up and down the list using up/down on the D-Pad, and left/right moves you to other accounts. We already discussed the new MMS message interface above, with new SMS messages you have fields for To and the body, with a counter showing you how many characters you have used. If you go over the 160 characters, the Wing will automatically split your message up into multiple ones. As with email, we found the interface straightforward and easy to use. However, we would have liked to see things like threaded messaging as found on the Treo 750's excellent messaging application.
Time to a New SMS Message (1.41)
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