Advantages: All round PDA, compact
Disadvantages: Low battery Life for heavy use.

...My girlfriend recently upgraded her contract with T-Mobile, and in the process chose the MDA Vario II. I'm going to get one as soon as my current contract expires. Its that good. Whilst being larger than a normal phone its fairly compact for a PDA, which, in my opinion is a good thing. The screen has a good resolution, is bright, and I've never had any difficulty in seeing/reading anything from it. It comes with a large range of features on it - such as Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, MSN, a calculator, calender, and laods more. In addition to this you can add programs yourself. All you need to do is search the web for the "MIDlets" you want, and then either download them directly to you phone, or, if you want to download them to your PC, and then transfer them across to your phone to install them. With T-Mobile... Read review

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Advantages: Nice size/weight, bright screen, very connctable
Disadvantages: Short, light stylus

...I've had my Vario II (also known as HTC Hermes, HTC TyTn, Orange SPV M3100 among others) a couple of weeks now and am very pleased with it. It's currently running Windows Mobile 5 (which it comes with as standard), which handles all tasks fine. The screen is nice and bright and very easy to read, despite being smaller than a normal PDA. It's a nice size and makes my old Acer n10 seem big and bulky. Loads of connection options - IrDA, bluetooth, wifi, usb2, GPRS/3G mean you've got loads of was of using it. Being on T-Mobile it also comes with MSN Messenger (other networks remove it but you can get it back with an upgrade to Windows Mobile 6) which along with email, texts and mms mean it's easy to keep in contact. It runs Tomtom 6 nicely (although it needs a small patch available on the net) and gives you a Transflash/MicroSD slot... Read review

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Advantages: Big Screen, Easy to Use
Disadvantages: Battery life

...-Basics- To look at the MDA Vario II you have a very stylish and sleek mobile phone. Looking at my phone you have a large screen (2½” by 2”) in full clear colour with only minimal buttons underneath it, give it a gentle push to the side a full QWERTY keyboard is revealed with easy to use buttons whilst on the back you have a 2 mega pixel camera with a flash and mirror for self portraits. On the edges the phone has various short-cut buttons, a limitless scroll wheel, a memory card slot (microSD) and a stylus holder. Within the phone you have the basic platform of Windows Mobile 5, and within this you get a large amount of features including; Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft PowerPoint, MSN messenger, Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player, an organiser, and many more. All of these are easy to use and can either be used... Read review

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Advantages: Look, Application, Handset Capabilitys, Expandable Memory
Disadvantages: Low Handset Memory,

...This is one of the best windows mobile devices I have used. It does lack the Wi-Fi that the o2 \"own branded\" XDA Orbit has, however they are all but similar if it were not for this fact. The addition of GPS makes the handset a very usable device, for example I have added Co-Pilot Satellite navigation and Google Maps which mean when me and my partner borrow a car once a year for our holiday, we never get lost. Email and Text message functions are similar to all windows mobile phones, that the T-Mobile MDA falls under, the on screen keyboard can be a little fiddly for sending text messages, so I would say this phone is not aimed at the texters out there, however once you get use to the onscreen keyboard its not bad at all. The one good feature that T-Mobile have added is an email set up assistant, which makes it really easy to set... Read review

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Advantages: Unbeatable connectivity, intergrated keyboard, has full WM 5.0 OS, great camera, excellent build quality
Disadvantages: Battery life, screen attracts fingerprints

...to carry a seperate device around for making calls too. The MDA Vario II promised to combine the two with a more up to date model, newer version of Windows Mobile and - something I loved - an integrated QWERTY style keyboard. So.... with the introduction out of the way, let us begin! NOTICE: The T-Mobile Vario II is a rebranding of a generic handheld created by HTC. The Vario II is in a family of the HTC Hermes. If you want more reviews on this device I recommend searching for not only the MDA Vario II but for the HTC Hermes 300 =) Packaging and un-boxing ------------------------------------ The MDA Vario II comes inside a rather square looking box which, along with its removable cardboard sleeve, reminded me of an old 4th Generation iPod box. With the cardboard sleeve removed I was able to swing open two little 'doors' which... Read review

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Advantages: GPS, Windows Mobile, Good Input Features, Solid GPRS, Clear Calls, Compact, Great Screen
Disadvantages: No 3G, No WiFi, MicroSD, Sometime GPS is very slow to find satellites

...mini versions of many of the Office suite (Word, Excel etc). The phone itself is branded as T-Mobiles own MDA range. It is however produced by the up-and-coming HTC, who also create the SPV range of Orange phones, Vodafone's Jam range and 02's XDAs! Input 90% of the interaction with the phone is carried out using a stylus (similar to a Nintendo DS) that slots neatly into the bottom right of the phone when not in use. You use the stylus to prod the screnn and select items. For text input you can even write directly onto the screen and with some practice this can be very a very efficient way of working. For those times when a stylus isn't appropriate there are two other navigation methods. First, and most usefully, there is the scroll wheel which works a lot like theiPod interface - where spinning clockwise moves the selector... Read review

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Advantages: Excellent grapics and business management capabilities
Disadvantages: Large and cumbersome. Missing the basics that come with most new phones.

...The T-Mobile Vario is in effect a smart phone incorporating a pocket PC with some interesting features. It was probably designed to try to counter the stronghold that the Blackberry had on the UK marketplace as a business machine capable of running an appointment diary, accessing the internet, sending and receiving emails and of course being used as a mobile telephone amongst a range of other features. As a working machine the Vario is very good at what it does. With a sliding keyboard it is possible to type relatively quickly and accurately and also has a number of touch screen features with excellent graphics. The touch screen also incorporates a keyboard or it can be scribbled on with the stylus which has a number of ways of recognising the graphics and words written onto the screen. As a phone it is practical, albeit... Read review

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Advantages: Great gear!
Disadvantages: Heavy and large

...As soon as i like the MDA I,II,III i decided to try them MDA IV or MDA Pro for one week. On the first look i was amazed by functions. This MDA is not looking like an ordinary PDA - it is closer to the small laptop. Display is great and i was able to read web pages very comfortable because of high resolution. 2 cameras had no use for me while i take photos by photocamera and i dont use skype for camera that is inside. The keyboard is excellent - very comfortable and fast to write a message and seemed durable. The backlight is automated - when you are on the spot with worse visibility the keyboard backlight turns off and the keyboard is very well backlighted. After first amazing day i saw that this is not a mobile phone. When the phone rings it has no second display so you dont see who is calling. If you want to talk you have to open... Read review

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Advantages: Multifunctional, great deals, user friendly - like a baby pc
Disadvantages: you look like you've got a toaster to your ear when you're on the phone

...internet and emails. This costs £25/month. I'm sorry to say that I cannot remember the hard drive size, but the memory card proves very useful for all the photographs and videos. A big however (however) is that T-Mobile have had to replace it twice - once because they thought the signal problems I had at home were handset related (they were not) and once because the hard drive was wiped (which kind of might have been a little bit my fault!), but good customer service was received This review calls the handset the MDA IV, but it is also known as an MDA Pro.... Read review

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Advantages: Good screen and keyboard, WiFi, packed with features.
Disadvantages: A bit chunky and a bit buggy.

...This phone is made by HTC and is actually a "Wizard". It is called "MDA Vario" by T-mobile, but it's branded differently by other providers, e.g. "Qtek 9100", "i-Mate K-JAM", "Orange SPV M6000", "O2 XDA Pro Mini". It comes with a carrying case, USB cable, charger, a spare stylus, stereo hands-free earphones, a decent manual, ActiveSync and Outlook. I chose it because it is a combined PDA and phone, based on Microsoft "Windows Mobile 5" (Pocket PC) operating system. The processor in this phone runs at a slower clock speed than similar Windows Mobile phones that have preceded it, but the architecture and the new operating system should make this fact unnoticeable most of the time, while providing better battery life. I've actually found the battery life to be adequate and no more. I can reliably drain the battery by the end... Read review

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