Mobility

Image Gallery: A look at the MWg Zinc II Windows Mobile device

By // July 28, 2008, 2:30 PM PST

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  • MWg Zinc II retail box

    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.

  • Back of the MWg retail box

    MWg did an amazing job with the packaging of the Zinc II. The box is attractive and extremely durable.

  • Opening up the box, first flap

    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.

  • Here is the Zinc II

    The Zinc II appears in the center with the detailed specs off to the left of the device.

  • Specs list

    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.

  • Upper part of the inner box

    The upper tray contains an A/C adapter with a number of different plug adapters for usage around the world.

  • A/C adapter and plug fittings

    There are 3 different fittings for using the A/C adapter as you travel around the world.

  • Two small boxes in the bottom

    There are two attractive and well-designed boxes in the bottom of the retail packaging.

  • Small box labels

    The two small boxes are clearly labeled with white fonts detailing the contents inside.

  • Small box contents

    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.

  • Decent sized battery

    The MWg Zinc II comes with a rather large 1530 mAh Lithium Ion Polymer battery for hours of usage.

  • Larger box

    The larger of the two inner boxes contains the Quick Start Guide, User Manual, Getting Started CD and warranty statement.

  • MWg Zinc II

    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.

  • Hardware buttons

    There are minimal buttons on the front of the MWg Zinc II, send and end keys and a directional pad.

  • Left side of the Zinc II

    Along the left side you can find the lanyard loop, volume up/down buttons, Zinc Quick Menu button, and microSD card slot.

  • Lower left side

    The Zinc II Quick Menu is located above the open microSD card slot.

  • Upper left side

    Lanyard loop and volume control buttons can be found on the upper left side.

  • Top of the Zinc II

    There is nothing along the top, except for one part of the lanyard opening.

  • Right side of the Zinc II

    The power button, reset opening, camera button and stylus silo are on the right side of the device.

  • Stylus silo and camera button

    The stylus is a bit too short for my liking, but it does have decent heft to it.

  • Power button on right side

    The power button is indented just a bit so you won't accidentally press it when in use.

  • Bottom of the MWg Zinc II

    A standard mini USB port is found along the bottom of the device and is used for syncing, charging, and for the wired headset.

  • Back of the Zinc II

    The battery cover takes up most of the Zinc II back with the camera and speaker located on the upper part of the back.

  • 2 megapixel camera on the back

    There is a 2 megapixel camera and self portrait mirror located on the upper back of the device.

  • Back with display slid up

    There are two very solid sliders that let you slide the display up to reveal the keyboard. The spring has positive feedback that makes the display slide up quicker and stay up too.

  • Front of the MWg Zinc II

    As you can see the Zinc II is a slider QWERTY device that lets you enter text in landscape mode.

  • Right side of the keyboard

    The keyboard is only 3 rows in height and makes some serious compromises.

  • Left side of the keyboard

    The left side has the Start menu, FN key, and Shift/Caps button.

  • Closer look at the keyboard

    The keyboard is quite flat with a thin border outlining each key in blue.

  • See how flat the keyboard is

    The keyboard is quite flat and has little tactile feel to it. It also has a different offset than seen on other QWERTY keyboards.

  • Another look at the keyboard

    The keyboard can be used for minimal text entry, but requires lots of extra key presses to perform some basic functions.

  • Battery revealed

    There is a 1530 mAh Lithium Ion Polymer battery located under the back cover.

  • HTC Wizard and MWg Zinc II

    The HTC Wizard/QTEK 9100 is an older Windows Mobile QWERTY device that is thicker than the Zinc II.

  • HTC Wizard and MWg Zinc II side-by-side

    This comparison shows the global differences in the keyboard design.

  • Zinc II on HTC Wizard

    Here you can see the keyboard design differences between a couple of QWERTY devices.

  • MWg Zinc II home screen

    The Zinc II is a Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional device and comes with a custom background from MWg.

  • Available memory on the Zinc II

    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.

  • Zinc II hardware

    You can see that the Zinc II uses a Samsung 500 MHz processor that is actually very snappy. 256 MB ROM is also available.

  • Zinc II Quick Menu

    Pressing the Quick Menu button takes you to a smooth launcher that lets you quickly access Windows Media Player, Pictures & Videos, Camera, and Games.

  • More shortcuts in the Quick Menu

    Some default shortcuts include Messaging, Internet Explorer, Connection Manager, Calendar, File Manager, Notes, Calculator, and Settings.

  • Quick access to settings

    You can access your settings without diving into Windows Mobile using the MWg Quick Menu.

  • MWg connection manager

    You can quickly access and manage your phone, Bluetooth, and WiFi connections on your Zinc II.

  • Application shortcuts

    You can setup 14 application shortcuts in the Quick Menu with the bottom right tile used to modify the shortcuts.

  • Selecting an application for the shortcut

    You are presented with a simple selection screen after tapping the empty tile.

  • 36 available speed dial tiles

    There are 36 available tiles in the speed dial utility with 12 for three different categories.

  • GPS Viewer utility

    This utility gives you an interesting graphical view of the satellites, longitude, latitude, altitude, speed, and satellite status.

  • Headset volume limit utility

    You can set a limit on the volume of the headset using this MWg utility.

  • MWg Zinc II thumbnail 1

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  • MWg Zinc II thumbnail 2

    Image gallery 2

MWg Zinc II retail box

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.

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