HKC G1000 Dual Sim Windows Mobile 6

This is my first hand look at the HKC G1000 Dual Sim Windows Mobile Pocket PC WM6

Home Screen

The first plugin of the default theme is called TodayShortcut


The first icon shows the day of the week, date, and a big digital clock.

The second icon will show 5 shortcuts for the SMS folders namely Create New SMS, Inbox, Drafts, Sent Items, and the Deleted Items.

The third icon will give you shortcuts to Incoming Calls, Outgoing Calls, Missed Calls, All Calls, and Call Timers.

The fourth is an application launcher containing Search, Notes, Calendar, File Explorer, and Windows Media Player.
I haven't had the time to play around with the registry yet to determine if it is possible to change those shortcuts though.

The fifth icon is for the Settings. Owner Info, Power Management, Memory, Sounds, and Time.

The second plugin is the called Wireless Manager


This shows the 2 sim cards being used. For me, my SIM1 or main sim card is PH Sun Cellular, while my SIM2 or second sim is Globe Telecom PH.
A third icon shows the state of the Bluetooth connectivity.

Tapping on the Wireless Manager plugin will launch this window. From here, you can turn on/off the radio connection for one or both sim cards, and also the Bluetooth.

Dual SIM Function


The top bar shows 2 signal icons for both SIM1 and SIM2 which is fairly accurate. In between those 2 icons, the Data Connection Status for both sims is also shown.

When navigating to the Inbox, you will notice that the message icon includes a digit which is either "1" or "2". "1" means that the sms was sent to the SIM1 and "2" is for the SIM2. But all of the sms messages are stored in the PIM of the phone, unlike that of other dual sim phones.
I have experienced times when the digits in the message icon were not shown.

There is also an option to copy any sms message into either SIM1 or SIM2 memory.

When creating a new sms, if the "Send" (left softkey) menu is pressed, the main (SIM1) is used as the default sim to send the sms. The right softkey menu provides an alternative for the user to send via SIM1 or SIM2.

Yesterday, after installing a few applications, and doing some registry tweaks, i wasn't able to send or receive sms using both sims, so i had to do a hard reset.
This happened 3 times including this morning after i turned on the unit.
After the last hard reset this morning up until now, i haven't had that problem though. I'm still observing the phone right now, that's why i cannot go through with more application installations and more tests on the unit.

UPDATE: (April 30, 2008)
I've found the culprit! The OS somehow doesn't want to accept registry entries created by the message interception API.
Using message interception API, a "Rules" subkey is created inside the HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Inbox registry. When the device is restarted, and the subkey is there, you won't be able to send or receive any sms on both sim cards.

Calls

While using one of the sim cards to call, it is possible to receive another call from the second sim card. An alarm is heard when this happens. You can put the first call on hold and then receive the second call.

Sometimes after talking to someone, even if i press the END button on the screen or the RED hardware key, the phone still shows that the call is still connected. I have to wait for it to hang itself up.

CPU

During bootup, it takes quite sometime to load the default plugins. I have tried running CorePlayer, Windows Media Player, and playing a flash game simultaneously but never experienced a hiccup.
I installed SPB Mobile Shell yesterday, i thought it would slow down the device but it didn't.
The 200MHz cpu is quite low for a PPC but somehow the G1000 runs smoothly.

Battery

G1000's battery is 1500mAh. This is my second day after fully recharging the device and my battery is still at 40%. Although my calls and sms sending isn't as heavy as my normal usage.
(May 2, 2008)
After 2 days and more than 200 sms send and received, and 25 incoming calls (24 minutes total) and 42 outgoing calls (43 minutes total), i'm now left with 30% battery life.
So this means that it's battery life is comparable to other Pocket PCs.

Hardware


Samsung i600, HKC G1000, T-Mobile Dash

TransFlash cover

The Hot swappable memory card cover is better than some phone because it's not made out of rubber. The bd thing though is that it's made of plastic and it is susceptible to chipping.



to be continued.....