MWg Atom Life Review



Mobility according to dictionary.com is the "Quality of moving freely" a notion that with many cellular device users is often hindered by slow processing speed, and a lack of fully supported hardware and software applications for their units. Luckily the MWg Atom Life truly defines the above term, offering a set of Mobility applications, and hardware add-ons that showcase why the phone has been so popular in other markets, such as Asia and Europe. Now MWg has brought the device to the United States and has begun a campaign to compete with the worlds biggest Windows Mobile providers such as HTC and i-Mate.



Design



At first glance the MWg Atom Life resembled many of the HTC products on the market (This isn't a bad thing considering HTC's stellar reputation and strong build factors), which carry over well into the MWg device.



Looking at the front side of the device users will quickly notice at the top of the unit a long speaker followed by a VGA conference camera, one of two camera's features on the MWg Atom Life, next its impossible to miss the front display that takes up much of the phones front side realty. The screen measures at an impressive 2.7 inches and is accented nicely by the devices all black and glossy exterior.



Below the touch screen you will find two shortcut keys, which are programmed to the standard left side phone shortcut and the right side contacts, after all, why mess with a good thing.



Below the two shortcut keys users will find on the left side the Call answer key followed by a D-pad in the middle which is used to control media options and to toggle among the devices applications when not using the touch screen option, and to the right is the end call button.



Below that set of keys there are two final buttons, on the right bottom side there is the Windows Start button for easy access to Windows Mobile applications, and on the bottom right side is the devices Media launch key, this button will launch the user into the devices media applications and Windows Media player with the click of a button.



Looking at the top of the device the phone features three prominent areas, on the far right is the devices silver stylus which fits well into the units opening, while slightly to the left is the phones ON/OFF button which also takes the device out of standby, and to the far left is the units easy to access MiniSD slot, I really liked the MiniSD card slot which easily ejected the card by lightly pushing down on it from the top loaded SD card slot area.



Moving onto the left side of the device we first noticed the Volume control buttons which worked well for adjusting the device volume, while below those keys we found an IR Port for sending data, I will note here that I like the IR Ports which are quickly disappearing, while they may not be as fast as Bluetooth with EDR, they use much less power to operate.



On the bottom of the device there is the reset button, followed by a Mini USB adapter for charging and syncing the device, and then a very nice dedicated 2.5mm headset jack.



Looking to the right of the device we can next see on the bottom right side the devices quick launch shortcut key to the Atom Life's Camera/Video function, followed by a shortcut key programs as a quick launch to the devices notes section.



Finally the back side of the MWg Atom Life features a nice 2.0 megapixel camera with flash, and is accented by the MWg logo prominently featured on the unit.



Features



The MWg Atom Life comes equipped with one of my favorite features, a power saver mode, essentially by activating this feature you can actual slow down the devices massive 624mhz processor, thus saving battery life. This feature is perfect if you are using your device as a phone and not much more, if you are using the rest of the phones features I would suggest using the automatic mode as it tends to keep the device running smoothly while allowing for a lower power output.



Another nice feature is the units Media Shortcut key, a quick push of this front side loaded shortcut key allows for quick access to the devices media offerings, we'll talk about this more in the audio section.



I also like the new upgrade to Windows Mobile 6.0 which MWg announced after taking over the brand, with Windows Mobile 6.0 customers will now have access to HTML style emails, Microsoft Exchange Server 2007, and all other Windows Mobile 5.0 to Windows Mobile 6.0 upgrades.



Finally, The Media shortcut key leads users into the O2 MediaPlus console, which features several shortcuts including: My Music, My Photo, My Video My Settings and My Radio, all which are accessible on the device.



Display



The TFT Touch Screen on the Atom Life features a nice 2.7 QVGA LCD display that pushed out 240 x 320 dots of resolution, while color support for 262k colors is available with an effective rate of 65,536. I found the backlit to be ample on the screen, while the colors could have popped more, the overall effect was easy on the eyes, and the standby mode still allowed me to see the background without taking the phone out of standby, creating another power saving mechanism. As far as QVGA screens go the device was up to par with devices such as the HTC TyTn II and other Windows Mobile based devices.





Camera



The device features two Camera's the first is the backside camera that offers 2.0 mega pixel picture taking with the help of a built in flash via a white strobe light. The device also features Macro Focus for up close picture taking. While the main 2mp camera also offers the ability to take pictures and video captures. Overall pictures appeared about as good as I would expect on a 2 mega pixel camera phone, there were slight yellow undertones, but they were decent, while video overall was okay, but lacked fluid motion at certain times.



The front side secondary VGA camera doesn't offer the same quality as the 2mp camera, however it does a good job with standard video conferencing, and quick picture taking.





Audio



The Audio features of the MWg Atom Life are what really make the device shine, as previously mentioned accessing Media functions is as easy as pushing the front loaded media quick launch key. Click on My Music and you are brought to a menu that offers shortcuts to the following categories: Albums, Artists, Playlists, Songs and Genres. Choosing one of those features you can then select your song, which can be played in several formats including MP3, WMA, WAV, and 64-chord Midi.



Audio came through crisp and clear both over the phones speaker system and through the included Stereo Wired headset. The phones SRS WOW HD (Surround Sound Experience) offered one of the better options I've heard in sound playback as of recent. While A2DP Stereo Bluetooth playback was more than I could have asked for, I personally tested the Stereo Bluetooth playback over a Motorola S9 and found it to work with fluid sound and very little background noise interruptions. A colleague of mine said his S100 bluetooth headset also offered great playback over A2DP.



Calls over speaker phone were also well received with a louder than normal speaker output.



Overall I found the Audio to be one of the biggest selling features for the device, while the media applications on the device were well suited for the phones offerings, giving the user just enough to enjoy the full audio spectrum of the unit, without bogging it down with needless applications.



Internet



The whole keep it simple stupid approach of the device continued with the use of Internet connectivity, essentially there are three connection options with the unit, first users in Europe and overseas can connect with 3.5G wireless access, being in the U.S. I didn't get to test this feature, however the Edge/GPRS connectivity was fast, and loaded pages at a suitable speed, since this unit is a Tri-Band device 3G was not really a concern due to T-Mobile's current lack of the technology.



Where I really found the MWg Atom Life to shine was in the devices use of WiFi capabilities, the unit operates on the 802.11 b/g wireless spectrum, and offers WiFi use even without the sim card being inserted. If you check out our video review of the Atom Life you can see that the pages load at lightning quick speeds, even over a standard ADSL connection, and it runs even more quickly over a Cable connection. The WiFi is easy to configure, simple access the Comm manager which is located on the front side of the screen and you are ready to go after clicking on your wireless network, if a password is needed you simply enter it and hit finish, its that simple.



Messaging



The overall messaging package on the O2 is pretty standard, support for exchange server is available if you are receiving email from your company and they run an exchange serve via Microsoft Outlook Mobile with Direct Push Technology, emails are picked up quickly and with Windows Mobile 6.0 upgraded to the device you can even view them in HTML format. While POP and IMap support allow you to connect to your favorite email portal and have your emails pulled to your device.



Text messaging is easy to use although the screen for doing so is fairly small, I suggest using the hand writing recognition, or downloading a full size keyboard application that will give the device more of an Iphone type keyboard feel and size.



Overall the messaging is easy to setup, easy to use, and offers a nice set of options, especially for emailing. Also, since the device runs Windows Mobile, you always have the option of downloading any number of Third party applications that will work with your favorite IM platform.



Connectivity



The MWg Atom Life offers several types of connections, the first connection is a standard USB connector, this connection allows users to sync via active sync to their PC and download or upload images, contact, calendars and all the other features offered with Active Sync in a flawless manner (Vista users can use Device Manager which is downloadable from Microsoft).



The second feature is the units Infrared irDa port, while not as fast as Bluetooth connectivity the irDA port takes about 4 times less power to operate and is only active when in use.



Finally, the device features Bluetooth 1.2 if you are not familiar with the Bluetooth versions, this unit will essentially allow you to connect up to 3 different Bluetooth devices at one time using different Com Ports. The biggest feature for Bluetooth on this device is the use of A2DP Bluetooth Stereo, which I discussed in more length during our Audio section review.



Conclusion



If you refer back to the original definitely of Mobility that I described at the beginning of this review you will remember it's the "Ability to Move Freely" the MWg Atom Life definitely allows users to move freely while adapting to a number of environments, whether that environment is business based, personal based, or a combination of both, the Work related applications such as Exchange Server support blend well into the playful multimedia applications that the device offers to its users.



I have read many of the original O2 Atom Life reviews, and I was unable to notice any of the freezing issues, even after heavy use, or any of the other issues related to the device, and my co-workers have seemed to agree that the device is not only ample, but a step in the right direction as the first fully branded device for the newly formed WMg, throw in the free upgrade to Windows Mobile 6.0 and its easy to see why other markets around the world have so heavily endorsed the Atom Life, and the rest of the MWg product line.



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