Windows Mobile 6... a must have?

Posted by Mike Snyder on May 24, 2007  |  Comments (0)

Three weeks ago I posted about Windows Mobile 6 arriving for Dash owners. I downloaded the goods from T-Mobile on May 4th and ran the upgrade. It did crash and burn the first time through the upgrade, but I ran it again and it seemed to work fine. I've been using Windows Mobile 6 over the past few weeks and my thoughts are:

• The new graphics are very nice, it makes the system more enjoyable to use.
• It sounds silly, but I like the new message sound effect better in Windows Mobile 6!
• Sorry, no new games built-in.
• Some minor annoyances were fixed, such as the ability to "skip" the email account selection screen when you have a new message.
• They moved some of the functions around, so now you can delete an email message directly from your Inbox with one click. Before you had to select Menu and then Delete. Not major, but it is nice.
• The email viewer supports HTML, which makes is easier to read a lot of different messages. Much appreciated.
• Built-in Word, Excel and PDF viewers rock!
• The battery life seems to be a little worse, but not to the point where it is an issue. I definitely have to charge it every night though.
• The new calendar view makes it easier to check your schedule and flip from day to day.
• A few times I have had the phone "black out" for no apparent reason, the only way I was able to get the sucker working again was to remove the battery and turn the phone back on. Now sure what that is all about.
• I have not tried the new Live Search yet so no comment.

Overall, despite a few minor glitches I've really enjoyed Windows Mobile 6 and I would recommend that everyone such upgrade if their device supports it. In fact we like it so much better that Sonoma Partners made the decision to switch our employees away from the Motorola Q so we purchased all new T-Mobile Dashes. The Motorola Q can't be upgraded to Windows Mobile 6, plus the Dash has a much nicer form factor than the Q.

Out of curiosity, I did a few searches on "Windows Mobile 7" but nothing too interesting came up.