Eyes on with T-Mobile's MDA Compact IV
By Thomas Ricker 
posted Mar 4th 2008 1:10PM
posted Mar 4th 2008 1:10PM
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A plastic dummy...yay?
But heck I like the sound of it!
What, no slide-out keyboard? Meh, count me out.
no slide-out keyboard? count me in.
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.
Wow, this phone reminds me of Samsung ultra series phones. ;)
an MDA without qwerty keyboard!?!
you're kidding right??! This is smartphone? so no touchscreen! wtf!?
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
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.
@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.
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 ;)
@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
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...
@Arne Hess
thank you, that's what I thought
i like the misspelling of the latest line *g* SPEicher hehe
should have been Speicher ;)
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of it for a long long time is because it will take quite a while for Tmo to release it, and in the meantime it will be out of date.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.
Ive heard T-mobile says this is coming out in May, which is not too far away at all!
Is this going to be the HTC Touch Cruise???
it looks similar... but the VGA screen makes me doubt it
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?
It's an announcement by T-Mobile *Germany* and they have 3G and 3.5G in place for years already...!
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.
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.
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.
Is that a stylus on the lower right?
Probably... seeing as the MDA compact line are Touchscreen devices...
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..
No go, I think. The Compact line have always been touchscreen only.
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.
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.
ooh, nice!! T-Mobile USA pretty please!!
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/)
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.
oh referring to my previous comment... it was directed to engadget for their biased reporting rather than to this product.
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.
This would indeed be a nice update on the form of the Shadow. With a little more solid construction. Rockin.
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.
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.
Isn't this the HTC Polaris? If so, it doesn't have VGA: it's still 320x240.
Actually when it comes to the states....this will be known as the HTC Tom Cruise.....