The smaller a company is, the harder it can be for it to make attractive, high-end products. Shrugging off its growing pains, MWg has pulled off a good-looking smart phone with the Zinc II. Similar in size and weight to the HTC TyTN II, the Zinc II is a touchscreen phone with a slide-out keypad, available for around £450 SIM-free.
Design
From the moment you take it out of the box, it feels like you're holding a quality product. There's a rubbery finish to the casing and a glossy front section with a flat slide-out keypad underneath that looks very cool.
The keypad isn't the easiest we've ever used, unfortunately. Each key makes an attempt at uniqueness with a very subtly raised edge, but the overall flatness of the keypad makes it tough to easily distinguish between each one. We got used to it after a while but we prefer the TyTN II's keypad.
Whenever we got too frustrated with the keypad, we fell back on using the Zinc II's touchscreen. MWg has implemented an HTC TouchFLO-style menu for fast finger-friendly
access to certain apps but you will need to use the stylus to type comfortably. Also, because the Zinc II runs on Windows Mobile 6.1, don't expect to use your fingers when it comes to texting.
If you're a seasoned Windows Mobile user, you might not find the Zinc II that big, but it's not exactly a small device compared to something like the Sony Ericsson W890i. Steer clear if you're looking for something to slip into a tight pair of jeans.
Features
It may be big but it comes packed with features. The Zinc II boasts HSDPA and Wi-Fi, so you can stay connected almost everywhere. We downloaded Opera Mini on to it and surfed the Web in the park and office with ease.
Built-in GPS means that you can also use the Zinc II as a sat-nav system, but we did find it took some time before picking up the satellites. Signal strength will depend on where you are, of course, so don't expect an instant sat-nav.
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