SlashGear Takes You To T-Mobile's Wing Launch

When he's not sneering at crap gadgets, our man Vincent Nguyen is flitting between launches and trade shows picking out the best in the worlds of cellular loveliness and electronic pleasantry. Today he's attending the glittering launch of T-Mobile's oft-rumoured Wing; not, as you might presume, a singular version of the wretched Paul McCartney soft-rock group, but a replacement to the popular but ageing MDA.

Shaving almost 7mm off the girth of the MDA, as well as upping the camera to 2-megapixels, the Wing keeps the EDGE, Bluetooth 2.0 and WiFi in b/g flavours and adds Windows Mobile 6, making it the first smartphone in the US to ship with the OS.

The lack of 3G data connectivity is a pain, but T-Mobile are hoping that the inclusion of their myFaves service will sweeten the deal: unlimited calls to five elected numbers that can be changed every month.

A full slide-out QWERTY keyboard should make taking advantage of the Wing's push-email simple, something HTC's cellphones generally do well at, and entertainment hasn't been ignored either with MP3s, video capture and playback and even MP3/video ringtones should those stiffen your nipples. The screen is the same 2.8-inch 65k 240x320 as the MDA, and HTC have obviously listened to feedback and added Windows Start and OK keys on the front rather than just on the keyboard, meaning one-handed use should be a little easier.

It's fair to say that the Wing is an incremental rather than revolutionary upgrade, but you shouldn't assume that means it's pointless. WM6 is a great step up from its creaky predecessor, and the various usability improvements in the software environment are matched with tweaks to the hardware it runs on. The MDA proved highly successful for T-Mobile, and there's little to make us doubt that the Wing will prove any different.

Available now from T-Mobile, the Wing is priced at $299.99 with a two-year contract. Look for a review on SlashGear soon!