MWg Zinc II

The Zinc II is MWg’s third new smartphone to launch in the UK this month. We were a little unimpressed with the first two, the Atom Life and Atom V – both were well specified and capable performers, but neither had the finesse of models from the likes of HTC. The Zinc II looks rather more promising though, at least on the surface – it’s a slider phone with a Qwerty keyboard that crams in a fare few features, yet still manages to be slimmer than most of the competition.

The Zinc II uses a similar sliding case design as the HTC TyTN II, but it’s only 18mm thick. This slimness is perhaps at the expense of a tilt mechanism and instead the screen stays resolutely flat when opened. This is perfectly fine for two-thumbed typing with the device held in both hands, though anyone hoping to use the handset on a desktop like a miniature typewriter will be disappointed.

The keyboard itself is a curious affair – it’s a flat, membrane type with ridged key outlines rather than actual keys (not unlike that on the old Atari 400 , if anyone is old enough to remember it). It just about works, but the small key size means it's all to easy to press more than one accidentally when typing –something that may improve with practice.

Alas, there's no getting around the space bar. Well, we say ‘bar’ – it’s no more than a key (albeit one that’s marginally wider than the rest) that sits between ‘C’ and ‘V’ rather than on the row below. It’s a truly awful arrangement, though one that’s probably unavoidable given the amount of space available. Still, MWg could have at least made the key a different colour to make it stand out – instead, it’s just labelled with an indistinct bar symbol, as found on some mobile phone keyboards.

MWg has also streamlined the buttons on the front of the Zinc II, and it makes do with has two that sit either side of the circular four-way control pad. This makes the front of the handset wonderfully sleek, but it only serves to make Windows Mobile even more annoying to use. Since there’s no OK key to minimise a window, nor a Windows key to open the Start menu, you need to use the touch-sensitive screen for such functions.

Sliding out the extremely slender telescopic stylus each time you want to start a program is pretty inconvenient, but fortunately, the touch-screen works almost as well with a fingertip. This is thanks in part to the fact that the screen sits flush with the case and there’s no raised bezel to get in the way. The topmost layer is plastic rather than glass, and rather soft plastic too – so we’d expect to see a fair few scratches after the handset has spent a few months in a rolling around in a bag or pocket.

MWg capitalises on the Zinc II’s finger-friendly screen with the inclusion of the Quick Menu application that offers quick access to various Windows Mobile functions and address book contacts. It’s nowhere near as polished as HTC’s similar TouchFLO application, but it works well enough if you hate Windows Mobile’s UI and don’t want to cough up for Spb Mobile Shell.

Unlike the Atom V and Life, the Zinc II feels solid and sturdy, and we like the case’s wraparound rubbery finish. Unfortunately, while MWg finally seems to have cracked the build quality, it’s still skimped on the specification.

The 520MHz processor is more than adequate, we can live with a 2 megapixel camera and the absence of a front-facing camera for video calls is hardly deal-breaking. What we like less, however, is the 64Mb of RAM. This will make running several programs at once problematic, particularly if you don’t slip in a microSD card to install third party applications onto. Windows Mobile 6.1’s only nod towards improved memory management is a new Task Manager application that lets you see running which programs are running and terminate them. It’s a bit of a hacksaw to crack a nut approach, but it’s better than nothing.

If the HTC TyTN II is a just a bit too rich for you, the MWg Zinc II might be worth considering – just bear a few things in mind. The TyTN II may have a slightly slower processor, but it has twice the amount of RAM, a significantly better keyboard and, thanks to a standard set of front-facing buttons, is much less reliant on its touch-screen for basic Windows Mobile functions. If text entry or multiple program performance is paramount, it’s worth the extra £65 outlay.