Microsoft has announced Windows Mobile 6.5 during the Mobile World Congress. It will be available in most of the smartphone very soon. I have the chance to try the Windows Mobile 6.5 recently.
Nokia, Palm and BlackBerry have introduced a very nice touch OS. They have considered about the interface design. It is nice to see Windows Mobile also have improvements. Let’s take a look.
1. Home screen and start menu
The new home screen is similar to Zune. Use finger to swipe and choose different items. After you choose different items, you can swipe left or right for different options. Viewing schendule, photos thumbnails, email, messages are much easier. This is a definitely a better home screen. Note the right menu at the bottom. It changes when different items are highlighted.
After you click start, it will show the honey comb. It is not fancy but useful. If you click any item, it will show the related sub menus. Say good bye to the past start menu style. Some people said the new honey comb is easier to click. I can only say that it depends.
For lock screen, the design is pretty weird. It only shows a lock icon on the top of screen. Users can drag it to left or right to unlock. What do you think about the lock button?
2. Better menu design?
In Windows Mobile 6.5, the menu will be bigger. It’s easy to use fingers to choose now. But, sometimes the menu goes too long, and it needs to use more time to scroll to choose. The worse thing is that some old Windows Mobile programs does not work on 6.5 anymore. For instance, the screen capture software Vidya Screen, does not work. Old program’s interface may be ruined because of the bigger menu items in 6.5.
3. New Internet Explorer
Users expect to have the true internet on smartphones. Web pages displayed like desktops PCs on Nokia Symbian, Palm OS, BlackBerry and other touch phone OS. Windows Mobile users have to install Opera manually in order to have a better internet experience.
In Windows Mobile 6.5, Internet Explorer finally loads the web pages “completely”. There are four buttons at the bottom. It can now shows the webpage in full screen. Just use fingers to swipe from top to the bottom. Sometimes the scrolling does not work smoothly, I cannot scroll to the bottom of websites easily. The loading speed is better than the old version, though.
4. Internet Widgets
Besides the new Internet Explorer, Windows Mobile 6.5 also have 2 Internet Widgets. Live Search widget enable users to search on the device quickly using Microsoft search engine. Internet Explorer will then pop-up and show the result. Not sure why it becomes a separate widget, since searching from the default start page of Internet Explorer is also convenient.
Another Internet Widget is Microsoft Money. It displays the stock index by downloading the data in the real time. This seems really useful.
5. Improved File Explorer
In the new File Explorer, it will be able to display the image thumbnail instantly. There is no need to wait to open the Pictures program, just tap and hold the image file in File Explorer. It saves the memory which is important in Windows Mobile.
6. Other features that cannot be used at the moment
Currently, Microsoft Marketplace cannot be used. Not sure when will it becomes widely available. I also found a new Outlook Live feature. Outlook Live said it can help to sync phone’s data with web account. What is the difference between it and Microsoft’s My Phone service? It’s not sure since I don’t have the chance to try it in depth. Sorry.
Conclusion
Let’s not to compare Windows Mobile with iPhone. Nokia improves their Symbian OS in the first touch phone 5800 Xpress Music. Palm definitely brings excitement in the new Palm Pre webOS. And, BlackBerry have also done a great job on touch experience in BlackBerry Storm.
Windows mobile 6.5 lacks of exciting new features. To re-capture the lost of market share, Windows Mobile will need to add more interesting thing. It has to be more fun and user friendly. Take a note on HTC, they have the team to develop TouchFLO 3D on top of Windows Mobile. That’s what means to be “excitement”, and that’s the thing missed from the Microsoft team.
You may say Windows Mobile 6.5 is not a major upgrade and they still have a large market share, but Microsoft should always improve themselves. There are lots of competitors out there.
Trackbacks /
Pingbacks