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T-mobile Mda Compact Ii Or Vario


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We are imminently transferring our work mobile phones from Orange to T Mobile. During the course of some discussions about the change with my supplier this morning, he showed me a dummy MDA Compact II (the pink one! :laughing: ). Although this will cost a bit more initially it's not as expensive as I thought, and the idea of PDA and Sat Nav for the car at such a good rice certainly appeals.

 

Browsing the T Mobile site I've also noticed the MDA Vario, which seems an even better option, particularly as it has wi-fi capability, but I do wonder if the pull out keyboard is a bit frail - I haven't actually seen the Vario yet.

 

My main concern is the functionality of the units, particularly the telephone applications (which will still be their main use for us), and I wondered if anybody would care to share their experiences, good or bad, with the phones, and maybe even plump for a recommendation - go for it or run a mile will do.

 

Thanks in advance,

 

Steve.

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I've always found separate phone and PDA is better, it's a bit like the Hi-Fi tower / Individual parts debate really

Aye. You can't easily take notes on a phone-PDA while you're holding the phone to your ear. It's a trade-off between things to carry and convenience. When my old Palm 105 died and I went looking for a replacement I decided I'd either have to get a phone-PDA or a GPSr-PDA. None of the latter seemed sufficiently rugged, so I went for the former, and got one of the afore-mentioned T-Mobile Varios. It's the first phone I've ever had that needed re-booting fairly frequently. And I mean take-the-battery-out re-booting...

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My Daughter has just got an XDA mini S, from O2. http://xda.o2.co.uk/ It's a good phone, only 200mhz pda tho'. orange do it under a different name. it's not as fast as my Acer n50 premium but runs most of the things i run on mine. It has Windows 2005, a slide out keyboard, syncs with outlook, has an sd card slot, wifi, bluetooth, infra red.

It works very well. She had a symbian phone before Nokia 6600, symbian is a pain in the a**e on the Nokia.

The XDA exec is also 3G compatable, and very smart.

I hope this helps.

 

p.s. The XDA mini S is more robust than my Acer N50 premium. Slide out keyboard is solid enough, and my Daughter uses it a lot for texts no problems at all.

(edited to add p.s.)

Edited by dpoet
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I've had a T-Mobile MDA Vario since the start of the year, when I got fed up with Orange's GPRS charges and limited phone choice.

 

I must admit it's the best thing since sliced bread. There are so few negatives and hundreds of positives about this phone.

 

I hardly ever use the slide out keyboard, prefering to use the stylus to tap out on the onscreen keyboard - its much quicker. Call quality is excellent, you can switch to speakerphone and make notes while you are in a call. The Wifi is solid (although you need a registry hack to connect to 'G' networks) Surfing is many times faster than I have ever experienced on Orange. Bluetooth is very solid, I pair with a Holux GPSSlim 236 and never have any freezing. Battery life is good, but as all apps stay running in the background, apps will need to be closed manually to avoid clogging up memory when it starts to slow down.

 

Oh, and you get cut down versions of MSWord, MsExcel, MSPowerpoint, WMP, MSNMessanger and a decent enough camera.

 

Just in case you think I work for T-Mobile, their customer service hotline is rubbish, and their interpretation of premium call charges are a great source of annoyance.

 

Hope this helps a little.

 

Wiz~

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We are imminently transferring our work mobile phones from Orange to T Mobile. During the course of some discussions about the change with my supplier this morning, he showed me a dummy MDA Compact II (the pink one! :laughing: ). Although this will cost a bit more initially it's not as expensive as I thought, and the idea of PDA and Sat Nav for the car at such a good rice certainly appeals.

 

Browsing the T Mobile site I've also noticed the MDA Vario, which seems an even better option, particularly as it has wi-fi capability, but I do wonder if the pull out keyboard is a bit frail - I haven't actually seen the Vario yet.

 

My main concern is the functionality of the units, particularly the telephone applications (which will still be their main use for us), and I wondered if anybody would care to share their experiences, good or bad, with the phones, and maybe even plump for a recommendation - go for it or run a mile will do.

 

Thanks in advance,

 

Steve.

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I know this is an old post, but may still be of interest.

 

When my old mobile started to fade I ordered a T-mobile MDA Vario with Co-Pilot on the internet, however, I had to order as a new customer to get it free, so I will be cancelling my old phone. The upgrade option was not free. (so much for customer loyalty)

 

I am absolutely delighted with it.

 

Always wanted a decent palm-top, and it does loads of things, like Excel, Powerpoint, e-mail, explorer, etc.

 

It connects to just about everything, including my BT total broadband wireless solution, which also came with free BT openzone minutes, so I can surf and e-mail using these from zillions of hotspots, e.g. those hamburger joints the kids love, and a few hotels and even pubs.

In fact, I used it to test a neighbours wireles network tonight while installing his new broadband, the MDA found it before we set up the computer, which proved the system worked.

 

I even found a load of free downloads that gave me mobile Quake which I eventually managed to install & run. There is also software for turning it into a dictaphone, a TV remote controller, etc. I had a download that actually allowed you to develop your own applications, but lost it in my piling system.

 

It plays videos and music. If only it would light my cigarettes.

 

It is the best toy I ever had. I LOVE it. I would just like to know how accurate the GPS is, I reckon I can get within 50 feet maybe, but would like it more accurate.

 

Having said that, in Route finder mode, blu-tacked to the dash of my car it works a treat. Fantastic.

 

The original poster asked if the keyboard was secure, I have had no problems, I actually use the onscreen keyboard a lot, and it pops up just when you need it, but I like to do my e-mails and text with the mini-keyboard, and it works great once you get the hang of it.

 

Oh, it also takes 1GB chips, and you can store a whole DVD on that.

 

It is also a great camera, and, I discovered today that maybe with that, I can use it for "BeeTagg" decoding, but that is very new to me, but could be great for Geocaching clues. (look it up)

 

£35 per month, and (I think) I seem to get £180 worth of calls for that. I was paying around that for my old phone, so I am very pleased with the deal.

 

To be honest, the only drawback I have found it that it feels like a computer with a phone function, rather than a phone with a computer function, so I don't find it easy to draw from its "holster" and answer the phone, so I have dropped a few calls, especially if it gets under my jacket or seatbelt. The solution is to get a bluetooth headset.

FYI I met a guy with the top range one, the larger model with a screen twice the size, but he hated it as it was too big for his pocket, and coveted my model, so I felt smug about that, as I had wanted the one he had till I spoke to him.

 

I can't rave about it enough, and my wife and kids are very jealous as they just got new phones, and didn't know they could have had this one. They are gutted.

 

I am heartily recommending it to all my friends, acquaintances and colleagues.

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