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MWg Zinc II ReviewAugust 22, 2008 When Mobile & Wireless Group (MWg) took over the defunct O2 Asia division of O2, there were plenty of questions on what - or if - they would produce new devices in the Windows Mobile arena. The last official O2 device, the Zinc, was less-than-well received by many mostly because of the device's size and somewhat buggy build of Windows Mobile 5 and later 6. While I found the original Zinc to be a decent device, compared to the device HTC were putting out at the time, it was not the ideal device. You can read my review of the O2 Zinc here. The first device released under the new MWg name is the successor to the Zinc, aptly named the Zinc II. It is at this point the comparisons of the two devices should stop. The Zinc II is substantially slimmer, sports an impressive blue backlit slide out QWERTY keyboard, a smooth, all glass front and impressively responsive processor. It's lines are smooth and it feels solid in your hand. Running Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional as its OS, the Zinc II is a real contender for MWg against HTC from a pure performance perspective and should earn a serious look-at by anyone who needs a powerful but slim device with a keyboard. Before getting into the device itself I should explain the history of MWg. Mobile and Wireless Group (MWg) is essentially born out of the ashes of O2 Asia. O2 Asia produced several successful devices in the Asian and European markets including the original O2 Xda Atom, the Xda Zinc, the O2 Flame and Atom Pure. When it came to the North American market however, O2 never had a solid distributor which limited - dare I say eliminated - their success in the market. When O2 Asia was taken over by MWg in 2007, they immediately began working on several key areas. First, they began bolstering and updating the existing O2 devices. This is reflected in my review of the Atom Life. Originally when the device was released under O2, it was running Windows Mobile 5.0 Professional. Since then, MWg has issued a Windows Mobile 6 Professional upgrade for that device and sell the device with that OS. Secondly, they began working on new devices. This is reflected in the new Atom V and Zinc II devices as well as the UBiQUiO devices. Finally, they have established a distribution arm here in North America. Expansys, the United States division of Mobile Planet, is the exclusive distributor of MWg devices in this market making these devices readily available in an unlocked and low price fashion. To begin, let's start with an overview of the physical aspects and internal functions of the Zinc II. The device measures 4.32" x 2.37" x .725" (L x W x D) and weighs in at 6.3 ounces with the battery installed. In comparison, the Zinc was 4.3" x 2.3" x .9" and weighed in at 6.17 ounces meaning the Zinc II is a little slimmer but slightly heavier thanks to its aluminum versus plastic chassis. The front of the device is dominated by a glass covered the 2.8" QVGA Transflective display. The glass cover gives the appearance that the screen is actually larger than it is when the device is powered off. The glass also gives a smooth stylus touch and scrolling with it but doesn't "give" like a plastic digitizer that is on most Windows Mobile devices. Still, the glass cover gives a very smooth and aesthetically appealing look to the device. It would have been great to see the display be VGA instead of QVGA but display quality is quite good on the Zinc II. Below the screen are the Call Send and Call End buttons as well as the round D-Pad and Action button. There are no soft key keys on the Zinc II which some users may find as a disadvantage for the device. Inside the Action button is the phone's microphone while the speaker is located just above the display. Inside the speaker are the LEDs to indicate GSM signal, Bluetooth and Wireless connectivity.
The right side of the Zinc II is where you will find the Power button as well as the Camera button while on the left side you will find volume control buttons, the Zinc Quick Menu button and the MicroSD card slot. Just above the camera button you will find the soft-reset button which you will need to use your stylus to push. Finally, the bottom of the device only has the MiniUSB connection for synchronization and charging. Around all of the edges of the device is a silver band which gives the device a good look and breaks up the all black look of the chassis itself. The back of the device - as is the front - is coated to provide you better grip. On the back you will find the speaker for the speakerphone function as well as the 2 Megapixel digital camera. I will go into the camera itself in more detail later.
Internally, the specifications of the Zinc II are impressive and should meet the demands of most users. The device runs on the Samsung SC32442 processor clocked at a zippy 500MHz. The original Zinc had an Intel PXA270 processor that was clocked at 520MHz but the Zinc II feels much faster in day-to-day use. I speculate that it has to do with the thoughts and efforts that were put into this model both from a physical (internals) and OS (Windows Mobile 6.1 versus 5.0 on the Zinc) perspectives. Along with the processor, the Zinc II has a 256MB ROM and 64MB of SDRAM. The 256MB of ROM is nice to see but the 64MB of RAM is a disappointment. It would have been nice to see them move this up to 128MB or 256MB as well, allowing for smoother operation when multiple applications are in use. The radio stack in the Zinc II is a Quad-band GSM supporting GPRS, EDGE, UMTS and HSDPA connectivity. The networks supported are GSM850/900/1800/1900 and UMTS850/1900/2100. This is a nice step forward over the original Zinc and assures the phone will work on nearly any GSM network in the world today. Here in the United States, I was able to use T-Mobile (EDGE) and AT&T (HSDPA) with no connectivity issues. Download speeds on T-Mobile were as high as 300Kbps while on AT&T they were an impressive 1.1Mbps. Additionally, the radio stack supports Bluetooth 2.0 and 802.11b/g wireless connectivity. The Zinc II also includes the SiRFstarIII GPS chipset which is activated on the device. While it does not come with a GPS application, you can use free applications such as Google Maps or Microsoft Live as your mapping application. The GPS receiver works quite well based on my testing while writing this review and I found it to be quite accurate. Note that for Google Maps or Microsoft Live you will need to tell the application to use COM4 to communicate with the GPS receiver. From a battery perspective, the Zinc II comes standard with a 1530mAh battery. I found that with normal Exchange synchronization about about 3 hours of talk time that the battery would last a solid 16 hours or so. If I kept the Bluetooth stack enabled it would shrink down to about 12 hours. All-in-all, not bad and MWg has provided a healthy battery to make sure you make it through the day. Given my travel schedule, I have found it no problem to be on the road from 8AM to 11PM without charging the phone. Sure I'm getting low battery warnings at that point but I can still make a call should I need to do so. Inside the battery compartment, which you access by sliding the back off of the chassis, you will also find the SIM slot. The nice thing is that you do not have to remove the battery to slide the SIM into the device which makes switching between cards quick and easy.
The digital camera built into the Zinc II is a 2 Megapixel fixed-focused CMOS solution capable of image sizes up to 1600x1200. The camera has a macro mode for close up detailed shots as well. Picture quality is acceptable but not outstanding. MWg, like HTC, seem to be struggling to catch up with Apple and the camera built into the iPhone. Color saturation is good and accurate, particularly outdoors. Indoor shots in average lighting are good. The macro mode was a pleasant surprise and does a great job.
There are several different effects and modes you can use the camera and video camera in on the Zinc II. Effects include Sepia and Black & White as well as a negative mode. As for modes, you can set the camera and video camcorder for MMS pictures and videos as well as portraits. You can also add a background to an image for various holidays including Christmas and Halloween.
In addition to the still camera, you also have a built-in camcorder as well. Video can be shot up to a 352x288 size and is stored as 3GPP or MPEG4. Like the digital camera, the video recording function in the Zinc II is acceptable but not exceptionally noteworthy.
From an expansion perspective the Zinc II allows you to use MicroSDHC cards which are currently available up to 8GB in size. In my testing I used a SanDisk 4GB Class 4 MicroSDHC card without any issues. I was able to read/write to the card as well as store photographs from the digital camera there by default. To wrap-up the hardware of the Zinc II, let's take a look at the keyboard. Although it has taken me some time to get use to the layout, the keyboard itself is fantastic. The keys are flush with the base with a small lip around each key so you get a feel for where the keys are located. The keys are outlined in blue which is very easy on the eyes when in a dark location. The keyboard is not haptic like that on the HTC Advantage but would be a perfect candidate for it. The sliding mechanism on the keyboard is smooth and easy to open with one hand. This is a vast improvement over the original Zinc.
The biggest challenge with the Zinc II's keyboard is getting use to the key layout. Many items like numbers and punctuation are accessed with the Fn key which can take a bit of getting use too. I fully admit that the first few days with it were very frustrating but after a week or so I was texting and typing with no more errors than with my AT&T Tilt. The bottom line is give the keyboard a few days to grow on you. Now that I have covered the physical attributes of the Zinc II, I will turn my attention to the software side of the device. As I mentioned earlier in this review, the Zinc II run Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional, the latest version of the Windows Mobile operating system. All of the features included in this new version are in the Zinc II including threaded SMS messages, the Getting Started wizard and a much more battery friendly Push Mail function when you synchronize your PIM data with an Exchange server. I am not going to cover Windows Mobile 6.1 itself in this review but rather those applications which are unique to the Zinc II that MWg has included as a part of their ROM image. As I mentioned before, the Zinc II has a built-in GPS receiver which will work with a variety of applications including Microsoft Live, Google Maps and CoPilot. Included in the device is a GPS Viewer application. This program allows you to see the number of satellites that your Zinc II is accessing, your longitude and latitude, altitude and your relative speed. While this is not a mapping application, it is a great way to "watch" yourself travel on a boat, train or, if permitted, an airplane.
One of the most welcome applications to the Zinc II, which has been in previous O2 devices, is the MWg AutoConfig wizard. This wizard launches when you insert a SIM card into the device and allows you to select your country and carrier that you are using. Once you have made those selections the wizard sets up your Zinc II for GPRS data connectivity as well as MMS. Until this point, MWg AutoConfig only worked in Asia and Europe as the US carriers were not included. This changed with the latest ROM for the Zinc II and works flawlessly with AT&T and T-Mobile. Instead of having to setup connections and MMS server settings, now I'm able to be up and online on the device in a matter of seconds.
The newest application from MWg in the Zinc II is a great edition: The Zinc II Quick Menu. The Quick Menu is accessed either by the hardware button on the right side of the device or through the Today screen plug-in. The Quick Menu is divided up into four items: Windows Media, Pictures & Videos, Games and Camera. The names of the areas in Quick Menu are somewhat self explanatory. The benefits of Quick Menu is that they allow access to these areas in a finger friendly manner without having to navigate the Start menu or Today screen itself. For sure the application needs to mature. For example, if you have games installed other than those those that come with Windows Mobile 6.1, you are not able to see them on the Quick Menu list. Likewise if you have an application set to be your media player, such as CorePlayer, Quick Menu will still open Windows Media player. Without question it's a step in the right direction and with a few enhancements could be a great applications.
While not a new application, the Communications Manager in the Zinc II is simple and easy to understand, strikingly similar to the Quick Menu. Instead of half-a-dozen icons and on/off switches, MWg make the Zinc II's Communications Manager simple with five large icons which allow you to turn on or off the major radio functions of the device. Now instead of having to turn on Push Mail and ActiveSync, simply tap the Permit GPRS icon and the Zinc II will figure out the rest. Likewise, for those who travel often, the large Flight Mode button is a life saver! You can turn everything off or on quickly and easily.
Overall there are a lot of things to like about the MWg Zinc II. It is a elegant looking device with smooth lines and all glass front. It has a bit of weight to it which makes it feel comfortable in your hands. The keyboard mechanism is smooth and feels sturdy. The display is bright and the overall responsiveness of the device is great. MWg has done a good job of updating the ROM on the device and will continually be updating it throughout the life of the device. The biggest challenge with the Zinc II is getting use to the keyboard layout. It is not something that should be a show stopper or should prevent one from looking at the device but it will take you time to learn if you have been using a HTC keyboard device. If the Zinc II is your first keyboard device then it should be no trouble at all to learn. Having used the Zinc II for nearly a month now, the sleek look and performance of the device makes it serious contender for anyone needing a keyboarded Windows Mobile device. What I Like What I Don't Like Price: $369.99 (US) with 2 Year Unlimited Voice & Data Contract with AT&T or $599.99 Device Only Website: MWg |
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