This review is based on Emulator Image. Not a real phone experience.
Windows Mobile 6.5 Standard is a Non-Touchscreen version of Windows Mobile 6.5 OS.
Why Standard?? It is still very popular today due to its ease of one handed navigation though real buttons, instead of touch controls on touchscreen based phones. Entire OS is fine tuned to let a user access most features one handed though tactile feel. After sometime using the phone most common operation do not require looking at the phone - which is Impossible with touchscreen based phones. I have been using this as my favorite OS for almost 5 years, with breaks to suffer WM Professional devices. Also, this was first real Smartphone from Microsoft; not a Pocket PC Phone Edition ;-)
Samsung Jack is first announced 6.5 Standard Upgradable phone, and it is a beauty to hold and use, also has a really fast 528 Mhz CPU. The 6.5 update date or price [if any] have not been announced.
To preface the review: WM 6.1 Standard UI and UX was so far ahead of WM 6.1 Professional, there is little left to change.
So what’s actually new?
-New Default Style & Home Screen Time-out mode
New Black Default theme, goes with same look that WM Pro 6.5 chrome does, but is not as exciting on WM Standard.
Because WM Standard does not get highlight effect or new upsized Menus, it’s just for product styling consistency.
There are 4 new wall papers, that came with Emulator. You see water in my screen shots, others make text unreadable, with out black text theme.
-IE6Mobile
Due to no touch screen, we have SkyFire-like navigation with mouse cursor on the page:
The mouse in the screenshot is actually there. When you type into textboxes, you are actually typing into them.
User must hit a softkey once to see the chrome. Then again to select a menu item. Clicking on Zoom, brings up the zoom bar.
To navigate across the the page when zoomed in, use the Up Down Left Right rocker, moving the mouse close to the edge of the screen.
You will only have to be in the right not that far off the center of the page to start scrolling. There will be an indicator where on the page you are.
It’s impossible to Print Screen so no screen shot, sorry. It’s very intuitive though and shows you where on the page you are.
Bing is the default search engine, right now. And looks fairly good on the device.
Also in the menu up and down arrows [indicating that more menu items are then screen shows] looks different, and we finally have “Exit”, no more “End Task”!
A new address bar icons. The progress bar is light blue behind the address text, left to right progress.
Browsing Modes:
To quickly switch from Desktop to Mobile UAs, check out Menu -> View. [Thanks for letting me know ]
But I really don’t like how there isn’t a fast way to switch desktop to mobile version. Desktop is default mode.
It takes 6 clicks and navigation steps needed to get to this part:
Here is where you can switch the default browsing mode:
And Favorites Home screen Item, let’s you quickly navigate to selected sites from your IE Favorites list.
-Widgets Support
Widgets install almost like apps, download the .wgt file or get it from Marketplace, locate it on device and run.
[ The green check icon is mine, and does not indicate anything related to being Certified or Approved. ]
Unfortunately, for some strange reason, I am not able to see the Icons form the Widget.
Even the built in Live Search Widget does not show it’s own Icon, hoping it’s an Emulator bug.
This was confirmed to be a bug in Emulator version. WM Standard uses .ico files. Read more here.
I will do a Widgets Tutorial soon. For now read this one: Getting started with widgets on Windows Mobile 6.5
To remove a Widget, simply go to Remove Programs in general Settings Menu of the phone itself.
I also noticed that I was able to install same Widget, twice and have both of them…Devs - read up on fix for that here.
-Windows Mobile Marketplace
Screen shot says it all at this point. It did open in IE btw…
-Minimal UI Refresh
Reworked a few elements in menus and settings, new Loading/Busy Icon, very Windows 7 Beta boot-up like:
What can I still do:
-Run 6/6.1 Standard Apps, like Live Search Mobile, Google Maps, SkyFire and others.
-Change the style and home page back to WM 6.1 look. I enjoy the Grey and Samsung Green on BlackJack II.
What I could not find:
-How to change my Start Menu Style to be a scrolling list in All Programs, not having to press “More” for next page. This might be something that is only specific to my BlackJack II with WM 6.1 and not the OS itself.
-Widgets are only listed in the Start Menu Program List. Not very differentiating at all, especially when custom icons did not work. [Once again, hoping it’s an Emulator bug]
Overall:
As an upgrade from 6.1 it’s 3.5 out of 5 stars.
As a Smartphone OS, it’s now 4.5 out of 5 stars!
All in all, I like it!
And I want it on my BlackJack II. There is no compelling reason why I would need new hardware for it. Especially since AT&T seems to have locked the Samsung Jack phones down so harshly.
Mostly because there is not much new for WM 6.1 Standard owners, but Standard already had it so good :-)
In fact that is actually the problem - 6.1 Standard was so polished, that not much needed to change.
I like the addition of IE6Mobile.
But it seems a little buggy in the Emulator, Ex: I could not type digits in it at all !?!
But I had trouble pulling up some mobile sites, this is most likely due to new Browser ID, so I simply get rejected and re-directed to search engine.
Hope this goes away soon. Or is an issue because I am browsing though Cradled Emulator…
And of course lack of Silverlight or Flash still puts IE6Mobile behind newer Mobile Browsers.
I’d be happy to use 6.5 Standard on a device like Samsung Jack [ if that device comes App unlocked AT&T :( ]
Widgets:
Love them. But, they can’t be added as Favorites on Sliding Panel home screen, this would have been huge!!!
I created a favorite pointed to the file, but it opens in IE, as expected. Safe to say this is IE Favorites home screen tab, bummer!!!
The widget is usable, but one looses the custom soft key menus and it just feels wrong.
Here are some more screen shots:
Default Color Theme, Sliding Panel Homepage, Water wallpaper:
Here is something new – Display time out, there are no icons shown, just Wallpaper:
This is how the default emulator looks like, when it’s first booted up:
Anyways, let’s hope next version would look more like this:
