Could 2008 be the year when we finally get some decent competition in the Windows Mobile smartphone range? Expansys Hong Kong has revealed the MWG Xda Zinc II, a sliding-smartphone with QWERTY keyboard, quadband GSM/GPRS and triband 3.6Mbps UMTS/HSDPA. MWG also throw in WiFi in b and g flavours and Bluetooth 2.0, as well as a SiRF Star III GPS receiver and an FM radio with RDS.
Running Windows Mobile 6 on a Samsung-supplied 500MHz ARM processor, the two frustrations to my eyes are the fact that the 2.8-inch touchscreen is QVGA not VGA, and the onboard memory is just 256MB ROM and 64MB RAM. Yes, you can expand that with MicroSD cards, but when are WM-handset manufacturers going to learn from the iPhone and include some serious storage? At 2-megapixels, the camera is a little low-res too.
It’s available for pre-order, priced at HK$5,305 ($679).
