T-Mobile MDA Compact

Discontinued
14th September 2004

At last - an HTC handset that we haven't had in Mobile Gazette before - this time the HTC Magician under the name of the T-Mobile MDA Compact. You can bet that it won't be long until Vodafone, Orange, O2, i-Mate and Qtek hit the streets with identical models, but here we go..

..the T-Mobile MDA runs whatever the heck version of Windows Microsoft are shipping these days. We like Windows on smartphones, but when it's called something stupid like Microsoft Windows Mobile Pocket PC for Smartphones Second Edition or whatever Microsoft's nom de jour is it just gets frustrating. Let's say that we're pretty sure this is bang up to date in Windows terms, OK?

This is a very small PDA format Smartphone, measuring 105x59x19mm and weighing just 130 grams (bear in mind the O2 XDA II is 130x70x19mm and 190 grams).The MDA Compact doesn't skimp on features, with a 320x240 pixel 65,000 colour touch-sensitive display, 1.3 megapixel resolution camera, Bluetooth, SD/MMC memory expansion and SDIO peripheral support, quad-band GSM and GPRS. In fact, it's just as good as the older XDA II clones, just smaller.

Like the T-Mobile SDA / SDA Music, the MDA Compact is a good phone, and HTC in general produces impressive Windows-based phones for a variety of manufacturers. It has all the bells and whistles you'd expect, but we think the problem here is innovation. It's just that the MDA Compact is an evolution of a long, long line of phones we've seen before, and although each revision is better than the last, we haven't seen anything different from the HTC factory. For example, we haven't seen an HTC clamshell or 3G phone yet, two really big markets that are crying out for more choice.

As for T-Mobile, it seems they're playing catch up with their rivals. With the two SDA variant, this MDA Compact, the outgoing MDA II and the new MDA III, T-Mobile have quite a large range of Windows Smartphones up their sleeves. They've got tough competition from the likes of the Symbian-based Nokia 9300, 9500 and Sony Ericsson P910.. but in our view, we're happy to sit back and watch them come out with more and more clever gadgets.

Expected late 2004 in Europe.

Photograph: T-Mobile

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