Review WM6.5 (and Mighty Mike 5) Review

[thacounty]

I have spent about 12 hours with WM6.5 and my TP and that for me is enough to tell you exactly what I think since I have probably spent 10 of the 12 hours playing with the phone haha. For all you guys scared to bite the bullet and make the jump, its very stable, and freezes only once in a while and only lasts about 3 seconds. Every option works, including GPS and Camera which I had heard didn't in previous versions. Mods if this should be somewhere else please move.

Rom: Mighty Rom 5 with Telus Radio on Sprint

WM6.5 has changed all the menus. Every time you press a soft key a menu comes up like touchflo has. Meaning it is big and finger friendly, very different from the 6.1 menus. The Titanium screen is very handy and coupled with titanium weather is a complete package that is much easier than TF3D, this is the only thing that has made it ok to turn off my TF3D.

I like the lock screen, the only things they need to change are these:
1. Needs an option to lock without asking for a PIN. The slider is very intuitive and I don't want to enter a pin if I just turned my phone off for a few seconds. I don't mean not lock, I just mean you don't have to enter a pin.
2. When you tap the slider it should pull down all the options that you get if you get a text or miss a call/voicemail/email etc... Even if you didn't miss a call or get a text. This means you tap it and they all come down, you can slide them left or right and open you screen straight to the apps, skipping the home screen completely. Possibly option to put in apps you can add to this screen? Where this excels above S2U2 (Not to take anything away from an app that was a must have for me for a LONG TIME!) is that you can slide to reply a text. When you hit a text on the lock screen and slide it asks for pin then you go straight to the message, not the text messages app.
3. Option to show another appointment. Other than that the appointment is perfect at the bottom. It looks professional and is one thing that doesn't need to be different, so it is probably what they will change haha.
4. Can I get a battery gauge on the lock screen? I mean even just a little one in the top or something! C'mon?! This is essential!
5. Not a gripe, I like that they let your today screen background be the background for the lock. Don't change this M$oft! It works great and is seamless when going from locked to home screen.


Slide 2 Answer is nice and needs to work in landscape, that's my only gripe.

I like Pocket Internet Explorer 8. It has an option to make it default browser!!! Seriously! This has been missing forever! Option to zoom is very intuitive and option to identify itself as a mobile or desktop browser right in the options! Wow. Microsoft, when did you start listening to us?!

Start menu is the honeycomb set up without the lines. I like this, only problem, it needs to be alphabetical again. Taking this away and going to the last installed = last on the list kinda hurts the interface. An option to set up in order of the way I want it would be perfect.

Notifications screen is a huge improvement. And I can't believe it, but if you dismiss the low battery notification it actually goes away!!! Wow, it blew my mind when this happened! I have never seen a winmo phone that actually did this and I was actually excited. But now on the notifications when you click the top bar you get a black screen again, except its put together and you have you notifications in list form. In 6.1 you pressed it and if you had more than one they came up under the top bar, insert stylus joke here, but you had to use the stylus or your girlfriends fingernail to even press the one you wanted.

Favorites on Titanium is almost useless I think this is going to be open for more apps or widgets soon, I hope at least haha.

Apps seem to work just fine for me. I have plenty of games and all of ageye's apps and touch response have worked fine so far. I was afraid it would cause problems, but hasn't so far. Twikini, Palringo, Skyfire, UCWeb, MusicID, Total Commander, Iris, Igo8, CleanRam, FingerKeyboard 2, and apptodate to name a few, also work great. I don't know if this is a Mike problem or if this is a problem with the game, probably the game because Mike has done an EXCELLENT job with his rom, but Need for Speed Undercover won't even start. I get an out of memory exception. All other apps work fine, even the registry edits seem the same, like wifi speed up, internet sharing, and the slidewakeup edit.

This ROM was made for finger use. I don't think I have had to pull my stylus out yet, excluding screen alignment (C'mon Micro$oft, thats way outdated!). I can't believe that, since in 6.1 I had to use it all the time for set up. The sliders on the right side that allow you to go up and down are HUGE! They are much improved over the tiny sliders that needed a stylus and they look better too! Also finger scrolling is way better and less buggy than it was in 6.1. Almost the whole rom is touch friendly and scroll friendly.

As always with Mighty Mike roms, this is very customizable already. Comes with I think 10 themes that are all great, right out of the box, nothing else to install! My favorite so far is the yellow, and I hope he doesn't take the theme capabilities out of his roms.

This is fast, about the same as 6.1 making me think that theres no reason that it shouldn't be brought to the TP except that it is going to be a big selling point for the TP2, so they may give us the shaft. As far as stability, I couldn't ask for more from something that is pretty much a beta. Mike has done a great job and ppcgeeks community has been incredible in getting this out to us to play with! I was scared to flash it because I need something stable, and I think its going to be ok! While I have a few gripes I can't wait for the next release! Like I said, I was scared to take the fall, but so far it has been a great experience. A little slower, a (very) little buggy, and I hope we can get NFS Undercover working because then it would have been a complete upgrade, no kidding! Thanks Mike for being a great and highly sought after chef. Thanks PPCGeeks for making this type of thing possible and bringing together the best minds of the CDMA world!


Update: The battery problem is NON-Existent today. It was my fault for being out of service for 1.5 hours. Sorry Mike don't want to slander your name haha.

[Leukay]

Originally Posted by thacounty

1. Needs an option to lock without asking for a PIN. The slider is very intuitive and I don't want to enter a pin if I just turned my phone off for a few seconds. I don't mean not lock, I just mean you don't have to enter a pin.

You can make it lock without asking for a pin, unless it's somehow a bug in MR5 which i seriously doubt. If you never want it to ask for a pin, go to start>settings>lock and un-check the "prompt if phone unused for" box. You could also leave it checked and change the minutes box to 1 minute or 5 minutes or more, to have it only ask for a pin after the screen has been off for that long. Hope this helps

PS: Nice review, i bet it has helped a lot of people on their decision weather or not to switch

[p-slim]

Originally Posted by thacounty

I have spent about 12 hours with WM6.5 and my TP and that for me is enough to tell you exactly what I think since I have probably spent 10 of the 12 hours playing with the phone haha. For all you guys scared to bite the bullet and make the jump, its very stable, and freezes only once in a while and only lasts about 3 seconds. Every option works, including GPS and Camera which I had heard didn't in previous versions. Mods if this should be somewhere else please move.

Rom: Mighty Rom 5 with Telus Radio on Sprint

WM6.5 has changed all the menus. Every time you press a soft key a menu comes up like touchflo has. Meaning it is big and finger friendly, very different from the 6.1 menus. The Titanium screen is very handy and coupled with titanium weather is a complete package that is much easier than TF3D, this is the only thing that has made it ok to turn off my TF3D.

I like the lock screen, the only things they need to change are these:
1. Needs an option to lock without asking for a PIN. The slider is very intuitive and I don't want to enter a pin if I just turned my phone off for a few seconds. I don't mean not lock, I just mean you don't have to enter a pin.
2. When you tap the slider it should pull down all the options that you get if you get a text or miss a call/voicemail/email etc... Even if you didn't miss a call or get a text. This means you tap it and they all come down, you can slide them left or right and open you screen straight to the apps, skipping the home screen completely. Possibly option to put in apps you can add to this screen? Where this excels above S2U2 (Not to take anything away from an app that was a must have for me for a LONG TIME!) is that you can slide to reply a text. When you hit a text on the lock screen and slide it asks for pin then you go straight to the message, not the text messages app.
3. Option to show another appointment. Other than that the appointment is perfect at the bottom. It looks professional and is one thing that doesn't need to be different, so it is probably what they will change haha.
4. Can I get a battery gauge on the lock screen? I mean even just a little one in the top or something! C'mon?! This is essential!
5. Not a gripe, I like that they let your today screen background be the background for the lock. Don't change this M$oft! It works great and is seamless when going from locked to home screen.


Slide 2 Answer is nice and needs to work in landscape, that's my only gripe.

I like Pocket Internet Explorer 8. It has an option to make it default browser!!! Seriously! This has been missing forever! Option to zoom is very intuitive and option to identify itself as a mobile or desktop browser right in the options! Wow. Microsoft, when did you start listening to us?!

Start menu is the honeycomb set up without the lines. I like this, only problem, it needs to be alphabetical again. Taking this away and going to the last installed = last on the list kinda hurts the interface. An option to set up in order of the way I want it would be perfect.

Notifications screen is a huge improvement. And I can't believe it, but if you dismiss the low battery notification it actually goes away!!! Wow, it blew my mind when this happened! I have never seen a winmo phone that actually did this and I was actually excited. But now on the notifications when you click the top bar you get a black screen again, except its put together and you have you notifications in list form. In 6.1 you pressed it and if you had more than one they came up under the top bar, insert stylus joke here, but you had to use the stylus or your girlfriends fingernail to even press the one you wanted.

Favorites on Titanium is almost useless I think this is going to be open for more apps or widgets soon, I hope at least haha.

Apps seem to work just fine for me. I have plenty of games and all of ageye's apps and touch response have worked fine so far. I was afraid it would cause problems, but hasn't so far. Twikini, Palringo, Skyfire, UCWeb, MusicID, Total Commander, Iris, Igo8, CleanRam, FingerKeyboard 2, and apptodate to name a few, also work great. I don't know if this is a Mike problem or if this is a problem with the game, probably the game because Mike has done an EXCELLENT job with his rom, but Need for Speed Undercover won't even start. I get an out of memory exception. All other apps work fine, even the registry edits seem the same, like wifi speed up, internet sharing, and the slidewakeup edit.

This ROM was made for finger use. I don't think I have had to pull my stylus out yet, excluding screen alignment (C'mon Micro$oft, thats way outdated!). I can't believe that, since in 6.1 I had to use it all the time for set up. The sliders on the right side that allow you to go up and down are HUGE! They are much improved over the tiny sliders that needed a stylus and they look better too! Also finger scrolling is way better and less buggy than it was in 6.1. Almost the whole rom is touch friendly and scroll friendly.

As always with Mighty Mike roms, this is very customizable already. Comes with I think 10 themes that are all great, right out of the box, nothing else to install! My favorite so far is the yellow, and I hope he doesn't take the theme capabilities out of his roms.

This is fast, about the same as 6.1 making me think that theres no reason that it shouldn't be brought to the TP except that it is going to be a big selling point for the TP2, so they may give us the shaft. As far as stability, I couldn't ask for more from something that is pretty much a beta. Mike has done a great job and ppcgeeks community has been incredible in getting this out to us to play with! I was scared to flash it because I need something stable, and I think its going to be ok! While I have a few gripes I can't wait for the next release! Like I said, I was scared to take the fall, but so far it has been a great experience. A little slower, a (very) little buggy, and I hope we can get NFS Undercover working because then it would have been a complete upgrade, no kidding! Thanks Mike for being a great and highly sought after chef. Thanks PPCGeeks for making this type of thing possible and bringing together the best minds of the CDMA world!


Update: The battery problem is NON-Existent today. It was my fault for being out of service for 1.5 hours. Sorry Mike don't want to slander your name haha.

Nice review, might help some people make the switch sooner.

I'm not running mighty rom 5, but i am running 6.5 and i can see my battery on my lock screen. I would take a picture but my phone is locked so spb camera can't be activated.

Also don't worry the tp2 is also 6.1 when it is released, but don't worry sprint is working on 6.5 updates for both the tp and tp2. Also its not up to sprint to promote winmo 6.5, that would be windows job. its not sprint job because winmo 6.5 will be released to all carriers, so technically sprint wouldn't use this as selling point.

[thacounty]

Originally Posted by p-slim

Nice review, might help some people make the switch sooner.

I'm not running mighty rom 5, but i am running 6.5 and i can see my battery on my lock screen. I would take a picture but my phone is locked so spb camera can't be activated.

Also don't worry the tp2 is also 6.1 when it is released, but don't worry sprint is working on 6.5 updates for both the tp and tp2. Also its not up to sprint to promote winmo 6.5, that would be windows job. its not sprint job because winmo 6.5 will be released to all carriers, so technically sprint wouldn't use this as selling point.

Review was written when tp was expected to not get the update, and now it is said to be coming which is great! Also I know that microsoft must promote their product but operating systems have been a major selling point for phones for the last year or two. Iphone, android, winmo, rim... I was just saying that maybe Sprint was using that. It was just mho haha. Thanks for letting me know you have the batt on lock screen I will check a new rom.

[thacounty]

Originally Posted by Leukay

You can make it lock without asking for a pin, unless it's somehow a bug in MR5 which i seriously doubt. If you never want it to ask for a pin, go to start>settings>lock and un-check the "prompt if phone unused for" box. You could also leave it checked and change the minutes box to 1 minute or 5 minutes or more, to have it only ask for a pin after the screen has been off for that long. Hope this helps

PS: Nice review, i bet it has helped a lot of people on their decision weather or not to switch

If I uncheck that box it doesn't lock my phone haha. Yea, and when I changed to 5 mins it only locks after 5 mins, as in no lock screen at all.

[p-slim]

Originally Posted by thacounty

If I uncheck that box it doesn't lock my phone haha. Yea, and when I changed to 5 mins it only locks after 5 mins, as in no lock screen at all.

to have your device lock by itself you need device lock 1.1 and then it will automatically use the wimo 6.5 lock and lock by itself. for instance if it turns off then when you turn your screen on it will be locked. do a search for device lock 1.1 and you will get the lock feature to work the way you want it.

[Leukay]

Originally Posted by thacounty

If I uncheck that box it doesn't lock my phone haha. Yea, and when I changed to 5 mins it only locks after 5 mins, as in no lock screen at all.

Originally Posted by p-slim

to have your device lock by itself you need device lock 1.1 and then it will automatically use the wimo 6.5 lock and lock by itself. for instance if it turns off then when you turn your screen on it will be locked. do a search for device lock 1.1 and you will get the lock feature to work the way you want it.

slim is correct. I thought you had device lock or a similar program already installed, and you were using that to lock it. My bad ha

[sheltem]

I used MightyROM 5 for a week. The hardware keyboard lag is pretty bad, so I ended up flashing back to latest version MightyROM4, which is barebones. I'm going to try it with PointUI and see if the lag goes away.

[thacounty]

Originally Posted by p-slim

to have your device lock by itself you need device lock 1.1 and then it will automatically use the wimo 6.5 lock and lock by itself. for instance if it turns off then when you turn your screen on it will be locked. do a search for device lock 1.1 and you will get the lock feature to work the way you want it.

Thanks, I was just thinking maybe Micro$oft would let this be an option out of box.

[Darkjedi]

I use pocketshield for locking, the default MS one sucks, hahah.