Eyes on with T-Mobile's MDA Compact IV

What will it be, the good or the bad news first? How 'bout the good. After an initial rebuff, we finally managed to grab some photos of that exclusive T-Mobile MDA compact IV. You remember: 7.2Mbps HSDPA, GPS, VGA resolution screen, WiFi and 4GB of on-board storage. It'll also launch "mit neuestem Microsoft Betriebssytem" which we can safely assume is Windows Mobile 6.1 at this point. Oh yes, and the bad news. It's only a plastic dummy and our photographs were restricted by a glass cube. Still, this is as close as most of you will get for a long, long time.

Gallery: Eye's on with T-Mobile's MDA Compact IV

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[SimonRichards @ Mar 4th 2008 1:12PM]

A plastic dummy...yay?

But heck I like the sound of it!

[patsy @ Mar 4th 2008 1:15PM]

What, no slide-out keyboard? Meh, count me out.

[james @ Mar 4th 2008 1:43PM]

no slide-out keyboard? count me in.

[john @ Mar 4th 2008 2:08PM]

Yeah, no physical keyboard/keypad of any kind == not interested.

Prefer a side-slide qwerty or a suretype, at that. But, at the bare minimum, a POTS keypad with something like T9.

Virtual keyboard/keypad only == no thanks.

[Cyon @ Mar 4th 2008 1:17PM]

Wow, this phone reminds me of Samsung ultra series phones. ;)

[Poonanny @ Mar 4th 2008 1:21PM]

an MDA without qwerty keyboard!?!

you're kidding right??! This is smartphone? so no touchscreen! wtf!?

[Phoenix @ Mar 4th 2008 1:56PM]

This is T-Mobile GERMANY

Germany and the UK use MDA for EVERYTHING. Such as my MDA Vario III, the same hardware as the TyTN II and Tilt.

The Compact series have always been touch screen only, no hardware keypad or anything

[Kris @ Mar 4th 2008 2:02PM]

Don't be stupid you moron. It'll obviously have some sort of keyboard input most likely in the form of a touch screen keyboard from the look of it.

[madeforidiots @ Mar 4th 2008 2:04PM]

@Phoenix.

That's not the case.

I have an MDA Compact either I or II, and it has a hard keypad that slides out from under the phone.

[Phoenix @ Mar 4th 2008 2:06PM]

Wait... are you calling him a moron or me O.o'

But I have to say, engadget should specify at the top that in Europe the MDA line is smartphones AND pocket PCs, rather than just smartphones.

So a hardware keyboard is not as important ;)

[Arne Hess @ Mar 4th 2008 2:08PM]

@madeforidiots: That were MDA Vario! MDA compacts never had slide-out hardware QWERTY/Z keyboards: http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=t-mobile+mda+compact&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi

[Phoenix @ Mar 4th 2008 2:10PM]

From every photo I can find on Google, as well as every review, the compact was always only touch screen.

The Vario I, II and III have slide out QWERTY keyboards...

although america might be different...

[Phoenix @ Mar 4th 2008 2:11PM]

@Arne Hess

thank you, that's what I thought

[Blackster @ Mar 4th 2008 1:26PM]

i like the misspelling of the latest line *g* SPEicher hehe
should have been Speicher ;)

[Chris @ Mar 4th 2008 1:39PM]

Is this going to be the HTC Touch Cruise???

[Phoenix @ Mar 4th 2008 2:07PM]

it looks similar... but the VGA screen makes me doubt it

[BioWare #1 @ Mar 4th 2008 1:39PM]

Yeah, would make more sense to call this SDA 2 or Shadow 2, not MDA. But hey... HSDPA!! More 3G phones coming to T-mo... must mean they're getting closer to rolling out some high-speed, right?

[Arne Hess @ Mar 4th 2008 1:53PM]

It's an announcement by T-Mobile *Germany* and they have 3G and 3.5G in place for years already...!

[bethel03 @ Mar 4th 2008 1:54PM]

When the Shadow came out there were rumors of it being its own spin-off (like the sidekick series), this looks to be another phone that will fall into that category. It looks pretty damn nice to me, and who knows, maybe is does have a slide-out QWERTY like the HTC-S710, that would be really nice. Only time will tell..

[Phoenix @ Mar 4th 2008 2:01PM]

No go, I think. The Compact line have always been touchscreen only.

[chris @ Mar 4th 2008 7:52PM]

I think Bethel may be on to something, notice the Home and Back buttons? Those are specific to smartphones, NOT to WM Professional editions. This clearly isn't a Touch Cruise, as its thinner, it looks to me like a revised T-Mobile Shadow.

[7on @ Mar 4th 2008 1:56PM]

Is that a stylus on the lower right?

[Phoenix @ Mar 4th 2008 1:58PM]

Probably... seeing as the MDA compact line are Touchscreen devices...

[john @ Mar 4th 2008 2:05PM]

heheheheh.... "Mit neuestem Microsoft Betreibssystem"

So, in the US where we would say "Microsoft OS", in Germany they say "Microsoft BS"??? :-) I'm gonna be giggling all day.

[PEZ @ Mar 4th 2008 2:19PM]

The reason you wont see or hear of it for a long long time is because it will take quite a while for Tmo to release it, and in the meantime it will be out of date.

Thank you.

[Surur @ Mar 4th 2008 4:37PM]

Ive heard T-mobile says this is coming out in May, which is not too far away at all!

[Kasona @ Mar 4th 2008 3:30PM]

ooh, nice!! T-Mobile USA pretty please!!

[-skyline- @ Mar 4th 2008 4:50PM]

funny how engadget doesn't immediately call this as vapourware or blatant copying of the iphone like how engadget always does with Meizu's M8 whenever they show anything short of fully working product (Read: http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/04/meizu-m8-mini-one-vs-iphone-fight/)

[Hung @ Mar 4th 2008 5:19PM]

I was going to explain why you're wrong and that I'm not defending Engadget or Apple in the process, but then I went "forget it, I'll just low rank him." Done.

[-skyline- @ Mar 4th 2008 5:22PM]

oh referring to my previous comment... it was directed to engadget for their biased reporting rather than to this product.

[Hung @ Mar 4th 2008 8:35PM]

Wow, I'm impressed that you didn't respond with a tone of anger or discontent. You're one of the few people on Engadget who wouldn't start a random argument and be unnecessarily angry. I'm more than impressed.

You're still wrong about the MDA, but I'll up rank you, regardless. Congrats.

[JasoniK @ Mar 4th 2008 5:19PM]

This would indeed be a nice update on the form of the Shadow. With a little more solid construction. Rockin.

[marcelol @ Mar 4th 2008 5:29PM]

Yet another cheesy phone from TMo.....a year too late, a couple hundred MHz shy. It'll probably be powered by another ANEMIC processor.

In short, it looks like a Shadow. with a bigger screen. PUH-LEEZE....this is what they're hoping to gain market share with in 3G here in the US ? With the iPhone 3G now rumored for May ?

Wake up TMO..I've been with you for 9 years ( someone say Omnipoint in the house ), but if this is your idea of 3G....sign me up SteveJo....it figures that after 4+ months of silence since the Shadow being delivered, would come to something this cheesy being displayed, much less, announced.

[Surur @ Mar 4th 2008 6:52PM]

So a 3G phone with a VGA touchscreen, 4 GB flash, not to mention GPS, in a thin form factor does not excite you? Damn! You're a tough crowd.

[marcelol @ Mar 5th 2008 8:56AM]

3G - It's about time !

4Gb flash - Uh, at least one comes with 16Gb now, and there's these things...they're called uSD's....everyone can have 4Gb.

VGA - Yawn ( how big is the screen again ? )

GPS - Ok, I'll give you that one.

TouchScreen - I didn't see that in the article ? Where did YOU read that ?

WiFi - As if it'd be allowed to NOT come with it.

What we're looking at here people is essentially an updated Dual Touch Cruise. Hint: Some people want built-in keyboards for faster input. Touch screen is ok for navigation, but after using stylus input for over 12 years on everything from a Palm Pilot ( yes you heard right ) to an MDA III ( G_d I hated having to import that over ), I think I'm due for something that has a reasonable keyboard.

TMobile should've released something like the HTC TyTn or TyTn II here in the U.S.. Longtime customers are fed up with TMO offering the Least Common Denominator smartphones ( SDA ) and runt of the litter ( TMO Wing ) PDA phones. It's time they realized that has the talk plans become ubiquitous, that their bread and butter will come from data plans and the handsets that support their data services.
Anyone can buy a handset that will give them unlimited talk time now for around $100/mo.

So yeah, after 9 years as a TMO ( can you say Omnipoint ) customer, I think it's high time they brought a "decent" PDA Phone to the U.S.

[Hung @ Mar 4th 2008 8:35PM]

Wow, I'm impressed that you didn't respond with a tone of anger or discontent. You're one of the few people on Engadget who wouldn't start a random argument and be unnecessarily angry. I'm more than impressed.

You're still wrong about the MDA, but I'll up rank you, regardless.

[dean @ Mar 4th 2008 9:13PM]

So from what I've gathered, Germany has 7mbps HDSPA? When are we in the US T-Mobile crowd going to get even 1mpbs 3G? As soon as there is 3+mbps available, I'm buying a phone and tethering it to my laptop. No more DSL or cable for me. I'll probably be 30 by then.

[ric @ Mar 5th 2008 8:05AM]

Isn't this the HTC Polaris? If so, it doesn't have VGA: it's still 320x240.

[Wyze @ Mar 5th 2008 9:26AM]

Actually when it comes to the states....this will be known as the HTC Tom Cruise.....