MWg is a new player in the mobile market, but they have years of experience as they were previously known as O2 Asia. Expansys purchased O2 Asia and is launching a new brand of Windows Mobile device. The Zinc II runs WM 6.1 Professional, has quad-band GSM, and tri-band HSDPA/UMTS, but it is priced around US$750 so that may price it out of contention with some other new devices.
MWg did an amazing job with the packaging of the Zinc II. The box is attractive and extremely durable.
After opening up the top flap you see an attractive red inner covering that is made of durable paper material. The Zinc II sits nestled in a secure spot in the box.
The Zinc II appears in the center with the detailed specs off to the left of the device.
Here you can see the major specifications of the device and know it is close to a top-of-the line device, with a couple of exceptions.
The upper tray contains an A/C adapter with a number of different plug adapters for usage around the world.
There are 3 different fittings for using the A/C adapter as you travel around the world.
There are two attractive and well-designed boxes in the bottom of the retail packaging.
The two small boxes are clearly labeled with white fonts detailing the contents inside.
The smaller of the two boxes contains the battery, stylus, stereo headset, and mini USB cable. I like the use of mini USB for syncing and charging, but dislike the usage for the headset.
The MWg Zinc II comes with a rather large 1530 mAh Lithium Ion Polymer battery for hours of usage.
The larger of the two inner boxes contains the Quick Start Guide, User Manual, Getting Started CD and warranty statement.
The Zinc II is thinner than the AT&T Tilt/HTC TYTN II and actually has a good form factor for a device with a QWERTY keyboard. The casing is all soft touch rubber and feels great in your hand.
Along the left side you can find the lanyard loop, volume up/down buttons, Zinc Quick Menu button, and microSD card slot.
There is nothing along the top, except for one part of the lanyard opening.
The power button, reset opening, camera button and stylus silo are on the right side of the device.
The power button is indented just a bit so you won’t accidentally press it when in use.
A standard mini USB port is found along the bottom of the device and is used for syncing, charging, and for the wired headset.
The battery cover takes up most of the Zinc II back with the camera and speaker located on the upper part of the back.
As you can see the Zinc II is a slider QWERTY device that lets you enter text in landscape mode.
The keyboard is quite flat with a thin border outlining each key in blue.
The keyboard is quite flat and has little tactile feel to it. It also has a different offset than seen on other QWERTY keyboards.
The keyboard can be used for minimal text entry, but requires lots of extra key presses to perform some basic functions.
The HTC Wizard/QTEK 9100 is an older Windows Mobile QWERTY device that is thicker than the Zinc II.
This comparison shows the global differences in the keyboard design.
Here you can see the keyboard design differences between a couple of QWERTY devices.
The Zinc II is a Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional device and comes with a custom background from MWg.
One feature that may deter power users from the device is the usage of only 64MB of RAM, with only just over 30 MB remaining after a reset to run applications.
You can see that the Zinc II uses a Samsung 500 MHz processor that is actually very snappy. 256 MB ROM is also available.
Pressing the Quick Menu button takes you to a smooth launcher that lets you quickly access Windows Media Player, Pictures & Videos, Camera, and Games.
Some default shortcuts include Messaging, Internet Explorer, Connection Manager, Calendar, File Manager, Notes, Calculator, and Settings.
You can access your settings without diving into Windows Mobile using the MWg Quick Menu.
You can quickly access and manage your phone, Bluetooth, and WiFi connections on your Zinc II.
You are presented with a simple selection screen after tapping the empty tile.
There are 36 available tiles in the speed dial utility with 12 for three different categories.
This utility gives you an interesting graphical view of the satellites, longitude, latitude, altitude, speed, and satellite status.
You can set a limit on the volume of the headset using this MWg utility.
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