Win Mo 6.5: 7 reasons why we ain’t impressed!

Microsoft’s Windows Mobile 6.5 is finally out and finally the OS which which we know as a yesteryears superhit, in the age of Android and iPhones, it’s trying to adapt to the touch generation. Here are 7 reasons why we are not impressed with Windows Mobile v6.5:

• The today screen is a massive improvement over its predecessor, but hey, it is going to get papered over by the skins made by most manufacturers today. Can you imagine HTC giving up Touch Flo or Samsung pulling the plug on Touch Wiz. Get real, fellas!

• Yeah, we love the new icons, but at the end of the day, we still need that metallic toothpick they call a stylus. If the iPhone and Android can dump it, why not Win Mo? And don’t even get us started on multi-touch.

• Nice to see Internet Explorer get Flash support and the zoom bar, but it still does not do multiple tabs and has no download manager. We are sticking to Opera!

• Notwithstanding all the tom-tomming by the marketing guys, My Phone and Windows Marketplace are NOT a Win Mo 6.5 exclusive. Those using Win Mo 6 and 6.1 can use them too. And neither really does enough. 200 MB of cloud space for backup is laughable, as are 300-odd apps on the Marketplace.

• While the likes of Android, Symbian and the iPhone OS are working on Web applications and widgets, Win Mo 6.5 seems very much stuck in the “run it off the phone” age. Yes, they have a cool Facebook app, but that is hardly enough and even now,but that is hardly enough and even now, Win Mo lags behind its competitors when it comes to apps that run off the Web. Do not even dream of getting the kind of push notifications on your homescreen that you get on Series 60 (5th ed) and Android.

• The decision to let only a limited number of phones – all high-end at that – support the new OS sucks big time. The official line is that this is because only certain hardware configurations can support Win Mo 6.5. That’s pure bunkum! Many people have been using beta versions of 6.5 on HTC Touch Pro, a device that is officially not upgradeable to 6.5. Why should someone who has invested in a Win Mo 6 or 6.1 device recently be deprived of using the new OS? Has hardware changed THAT much?

• It seems all the changes have been reserved for the Professional edition, with the Smartphone edition getting short shrift. Come on guys, the keyboard ain’t dead yet.

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