T-Mobile Wing Review - Multimedia
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Alfredo Padilla Published on June 05, 2007 Comment on this |
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Accessing Music Software (3.64)
To test how easy it is to access music on the T-Mobile Wing, we time how long it takes to go from the home screen until we get a song playing. We repeat this test five times and take the average for our score. The T-Mobile Wing took an average of 5.5 seconds to get a song playing. This is a little slow for a smart phone, the Treo 750 took 4.36 seconds while the T-Mobile Dash took 4.53 seconds. This score is a little more disappointing when you consider that one of the updates that come along with Windows Mobile 6 is a plugin on your home screen that allows you to control your music playback. This means that we were able to get a song playing simply by tapping the plugin, obviating the need for the multiple steps other handsets take to launch Windows Media Player. This means that almost all of the 5.5 seconds the Wing took to get songs playing is the time it took to launch Windows Media Player. This is another example of the unfortunate lag that effects this device. Dedicated Music Controls (1.0)
Although the T-Mobile Wing does not have any dedicated hardware buttons for music control, it does have the plugin on the home screen that we mentioned above. Because this plugin allows you to play/pause music as well as move between tracks we decided to award a point for it.
Music Software Functionality and Organization (6.2)
The T-Mobile Wing uses Windows Media Player for music playback, and despite an update to the skin, it retains roughly the same functionality as Windows Mobile 5 devices. Windows Media Player did not recognize our .pls playlist, however, it does recognize playlists from Windows Media Player on the desktop. One nice upgrade is that you can now save playlists on your device, as well as easily adding, removing, and reordering songs, a much needed upgrade from Windows Mobile 5. Tags for our test Mp3 and WMA files were recognized, however, our test AAC file's tags were not recognized.
The library allows you to view your music by title, artist, album, and genre, however, it does not allow you to search through your music as the player on Series 60 phones like the N95 does. You can rate your music, and these ratings are synchronized back to Windows Media Player on the desktop. Album art is supported and it will search your device for music and automatically add new files to your library. As a multi-tasking device you can play music in the background of course. Unfortunately, Windows Media Player Mobile is still missing an equalizer. We found the software to be generally usable and fully featured. We especially liked the added support for playlist creating and editing, but wish they had added an equalizer as well.
Online Song Downloading (0.0)
The T-Mobile Wing does not support any online song download services.
Streaming (2.0)
As you would expect as a Windows Mobile device, the T-Mobile Dash supports streaming Windows Audio. It does not support streaming Mp3 or Real formats.
Podcast Support (0.0)
The T-Mobile Wing does not have any dedicated software for downloading and organizing podcasts. There are third party options available such as the free FeederReader.
Music Sync with PC (7.0)
As a Windows Mobile device, the T-Mobile Dash can synchronize your music with Windows Media Player on your PC. Playlists and ratings are synchronized across, and you can set up an automatic synchronization list or do it manually. It does not support iTunes on a PC (duh) and Mac users will need to purchase The Missing Sync or something similar in order to synchronize music with iTunes on a Mac.
Music Formats and DRM (4.0)
Windows Media Player Mobile on the Wing is capable of playing AAC, Mp3 and WMA files. The only DRM supported is Microsoft's Plays For Sure, which is used by a wide variety of online stores like Napster or Yahoo Music.
Music Interruption (8.0)
The T-Mobile Wing playing back music with Windows Media Player Mobile handles incoming call interruptions passably well. The music is immediately paused; however, we noticed that when the call ended we missed a couple of seconds of playback before we started hearing audio again. This may be due to the lag that plagues the Wing in so many places.
Video
Video Software Access (2.3)
To test how easy it is to get a video playing on the T-Mobile Wing, we time how long it takes to go from the home screen until we have a video playing in Windows Media Player. We repeat this test five times and then take the average for our score. The Wing took an average of 8.7 seconds to get a video playing. This is a slow time, slower than the Treo 750's 6.88 seconds or the Helio Ocean's 5.5 seconds. We were slowed down by the fact that we could not use the plugin on the today screen to play video, so we needed to go into the programs screen and launch Windows Media Player from there. We then had to navigate the library to select a video. Of course, on top of all this we also experienced the same sort of lag that we've seen in other places. Video Controls (7.0)
When playing video in Windows Media Player Mobile, you have access to a good selection of controls. The directional pad controls play/pause with the center select button. Left/right is used to switch to the next or previous video or fast forward and rewind if you hold them down, while up/down controls volume. All of these controls are also available on screen, along with a couple of other buttons, including a full screen toggle and a link to windowsmedia.com. The left soft key takes you to the current playlist, while the right soft key opens a menu where you can acces more advanced features like properties, your library and options.We were generally pleased with the controls in Windows Media Player Mobile, most of the important functions are in easy reach.
Video Software & Organization (6.5)
As with music playback, the T-Mobile Wing uses Windows Media Player Mobile for video playback. This software provides a solid libarary to organize your videos, with automatic updating and ratings support. You can view video in full screen and landscape to take advantage of the Wing's large display. We found it very usable and simple to use.
Videos in Windows Media Player Mobile can be viewed by sorted by title or genre. There is no search feature, however you can both synchronize playlists over from your desktop and create and edit them on the Wing itself. This is an update that comes with Windows Mobile 6, and one we are very happy to see.
Video Sync with PC (7.0)
As with music, you can use Windows Media Player on your desktop to synchronize video across to the Wing. This is managed either automatically or you can move playlists over manually. There is no support for synchronization with other programs like iTunes.
Video Formats (4.5)
Windows Media Player on the T-Mobile Wing was able to handle all three of our test 3GP files, which are encoded with different video and audio codecs. It was able to play audio for our test MP4 file, but not the video, probably because it was encoded in H263. Of course, it supports Windows Media Video files; however, there is no support for flash, quictime, or real video. We were generally happy with the range of support, but wish that H263 encoded MP4 files were supported as they provide better quality at the same bitrate.
Video DRM (5.0)
The T-Mobile Wing supports Windows Media DRM, which is used by online stores like Amazon's Unboxed. It does not support Apple's DRM protected video or Real's DRM.
Video Playback Smoothness (10.0)
To test how well the Wing can handle playing back video we attempted to play five 3GP videos at increasing bitrates. The Wing was able to play back all of our test videos without problems, all the way up to 768 kbps.
Online Video Downloading (0.0)
The T-Mobile Wing does not support any online video download services that provide premium content like TV shows and major movies.
Video Streaming unscored
Because online video is not standardized, we do not score this section, we do however test the phone with a couple of sites. The Wing was easily able to play streaming windows media video from windowsmedia.com. Unfortunately, we were unable to play streaming 3GP video from www.zoovision.com.
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