Hot on the heels of testing the HTC Hero Android phone, I took a spin with the new Acer Windows Mobile 6.5 touchscreen phone and I can quickly summarise it – it cannot make it lah, seriously.
Why?
(1) Not only is 100-200 apps in its Marketplace pathetic compared to the thousands in iPhone and Android, the worst is that I tried connecting to it 10 x thru Wi-Fi and 3G and all I got was an error msg that says servers might be busy. Oh God!
(2) In the world of Android, and I suspect iPhone too, everything syncs in the background. Gmail on Android was like Blackberry Push mail without paying a cent – your mail gets updated in the background in seconds after it is sent or received. With Gmail on Win Mobile, it still had a schedule that asked me how long did I want to set the send & receive mail? SEND & RECEIVE??? Wake up Redmond, its push mail now, and no it’s not Blackberry I am talking about.
(3) My Phone – this is a very ambitious project by Microsoft to try to sync your phone contacts, photos, calendar and test OVER THE AIR instead of the old days of linking up a cable to do the sync. Guess what, you have to set the time time when you want the data to sync, just like SEND & RECEIVE mail!
My Phone appears to do what Google contacts do with Android phones – it combines your phone contacts and your Windows Live/Hotmail contacts into a common database as well as calendar too ! Hotmail/Windows Live is not match for Gmail but MSN Messenger (Windows Live Messenger now) is still No.1 when it comes to instant messaging simply because it was much earlier than Gmail and I have all my contacts in there. If Microsoft can combine Messenger, Hotmail/Windows Live Mail and Calendar into one common database that would rock!
Another cool feature of My Phone is the ability to locate your phone if it is lost and there are premiums services liek you can make your phone ring! Unfortunately, like Windows Market, it simply did not work for me!
(4) It still feels like I am running the latest version of Pocket PC!
Surely there must be something cool about Windows Mobile 6.5? Yes, they are
(1) Only WIn Mobile lets you use Skype-to-skype and SKypeOut calls without paying for the telco airtime charges and doing it over 3G.
(2) Windows Live Messenger works best on WIn Mobile phone, nor arguments there
(3) If you are using Outlook, again Win Mobile is the best platform, but Gmail users should really stay away!
rien is right, exchange sync works with gmail. gives you push gmail and also syncs you gmail contacts & calendar.
yes, marketplace is still fledgling. not many apps in there yet. but in total winmo probably has many more apps than iphone (you just have to download the cabs). as a bonus most of these apps are actually usefull… (i.e. not fart beer or lighter apps)
also, show me an iphone with a wvga screen? an iphone i can use as a usb host? an iphone i can use as usb mass storage?, an ihpone i can install different user interfaces on? (fair play, you could jailbreak and get some of these)
i’ve got an ipod touch and it’s a great device for media and games. but you can prise my TG01 from my cold, dead hands.
Uh, you could have picked the option to sync mail/myphone ‘as it happens’. But that would have screwed up your story, right?