The Windows Mobile 6 platform has been out for some time now, but we are just starting to see devices available in Canada now.  I’ve been lucky enough to get my hands on an HTC 5800 smart phone running WM6 and I tell you it’s a phenomenal device and OS combination.  Given that many of us in Canada are already running WM5 devices or Black Berry’s but perhaps haven’t had an opportunity to check out a WM6 device I wanted to highlight my favorite features of this OS and the HTC device.

1.       HTML email – the ability to render HTML email on the device is a really powerful feature.  Beautiful colour, rich layout like tables and inline images, all very excellent features and makes email pop again on this small form factor.  The one downside, large formatted text can be  harder to read and scroll through with the small screen.   There is an easy menu option to “Get HTML” versions of email if you set the default to be plain text, however I do wish there was an option to “view as plain text” when you already have the HTML version.

2.       DRM email – WM6 also has the ability to decrypt email that has had digital rights management applied.  Every now and then I will get confidential email that has been locked down with DRM which in the past I couldn’t read at all.  Now with WM6 it’s read just as easily as regular mail.

3.       Calendaring – As an individual who has always had a packed calendar, having my cell phone tell me where I’m supposed to be has always been my number one feature, even above email.  With WM6, my biggest feature request of WM5 is solved; the ability to see who I’m meeting with and the ability to send new meeting invites from the phone.  This may seem like a small feature request, but both features are ones that I cannot live without.

4.       The device – HTC did a really great job on this dual mode form factor.  The candy bar form with alpha-numeric dial pad is phone optimized. I’m really thankful that the numeric keypad also has the standard phone 3 character alpha labeling on it.  I’ve been stuck before on QWERTY based phones where I couldn’t figure out the conversion from telephone alpha to the actual number. The slid-out keyboard and landscaped based screen are very slick. I’ve been impressed with the speed at which the OS toggles the screen from portrait to landscape layout when you slide the keyboard.

5.       Text input – T9 is absolutely awesome on this device and improved from previous versions.  I’m still not as efficient on this keyboard as I am on other devices as the wider key layout and soft click is really taking some time to get used to.

Overall, this is a solid device and OS combination that is miles ahead of older WM5 devices and worth the money to upgrade.   For more info on Windows Mobile 6 in Canada take a look here: http://www.microsoft.com/canada/windowsmobile/wm07/default.mspx

Thanks,
Jamie