Read on for our full review of the T-Mobile Wing. If you’re on T-Mobile, this is your best bet for a PocketPC device, but is it good enough to draw people over to the carrier?

(I’ll spend a bit of time here comparing the Wing to the T-Mobile MDA - there’s a fuller Smackdown here, though. Check it out.)

The T-Mobile Wing (codenamed T-Mobile Atlas, henceforth just “Wing”) is another slider from HTC, meaning that it has a standard 240x320 screen, a few buttons beneath it, and a sliding keyboard. It’s a Windows Mobile 6 Professional-edition device, meaning it has a touchscreen and generally more power than the standard edition WM6 devices. It replaces the old, ugly, and underpowered T-Mobile MDA. I call the old MDA “underpowered” with a bit of chagrin, because spec-wise, the two are actually not all that dissimilar.

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Update: Go get it now (be sure to click where they tell you to).

Ah, the best thing about waiting for carriers to offer ROM updates isn't the actual official release, it's the leaking that happens beforehand. As Jimmie says below, it probably makes sense to just wait a bit as the official update is expected this week. But if you're not that sort, a bit of Googling should net you the update pretty quickly. In the meantime, you can check out them pretty WM6 screenshots.

Update: Gizmodo confirms that it's coming out for really real on Friday.

T-Mobile is expected to offer the Windows Mobile 6 upgrade to current Dash owners next week for download. It has been leaked on the usual sites known for obtaining these upgrades (I'm not going to list the sites). You're better off waiting for T-Mobile to officially post it for download, it is expected to be made available this week as a download for current Dash owners

Read: Gadgets on the Go: Official T-Mobile Dash Windows Mobile 6 Upgrade leaked

You'll be able to get it at http://www.t-mobile.com/wmupgrade/, SlashGear has the full text of the press release:

T-Mobile USA, Inc. today announced that T-Mobile Dash™ customers will be the first in the U.S. to download and experience the benefits of the new Microsoft Windows Mobile 6 software. Starting tomorrow, May 4,
T-Mobile Dash customers can upgrade from Windows Mobile 5.0 to Windows Mobile 6 via a free desktop download available directly from T-Mobile.

Read: SlashGear - Gallery - T-Mobile Dash Upgraded to WM6

Not much more to say, eh? Well, it does look, from the leaked version, that T-Mo has included at least a couple of custom apps in there beyond the standard WM6 fare: the MyFave's app (which is strangely necessary for their "my favorite 5 friends are free" plan) and audio controls on the today screen. I'm one of the cautious who's waiting for the official update to get WM6 on my Dash. Expect a review of WM6 on the Dash on Monday.

I've been using the YAQKWMS (Yet Another Qwerty Keyboard Windows Mobile Smartphone) tag for awhile now as a sort of inside joke - well, if a joke that only I get counts as "inside." Anyway, the punchline to this interior humor is that these phones are pretty tough to distinguish from one another. They all share Windows Mobile 5 with few (if any) software enhancements, they all have QWERTY thumbboards and 320x240 screens. And so on.

That's unfair, though, because the hardware differences between these YAQKWMS are more than just cosmetic - they have real world functional differences. I'm not just talking about specs, though of course those are important - slight differences in battery life, the addition (or subtraction) of side buttons, the inclusion of WiFi, and more all add up to making your decision a little more difficult.

Today we're going to ignore all that and focus on one aspect: thumbboards. And furthermore we're just going to focus on the big three here in the US, the ones with the most saturation in the US market right now: the T-Mobile Dash, the Cingular Blackjack, and the Motorola Q (available on several networks). Read on for a thumbboard smackdown between these big three Smartphones.

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