T-Mobile MDA Vario IV and Compact IV: First Look

Two new devices were revealed by T-Mobile at a press conference held in Germany - the MDA Compact IV and MDA Vario IV, both close relatives to the recently announced HTC Touch Diamond.

Actually, the MDA Compact IV is the T-Mobile version of the HTC Touch Diamond with a revamped design - a bit larger, more rounded edges, and most importantly - a lot lighter at 98 g as compared to 110 g of the HTC Touch Diamond. The proprietary 3D TouchFLO menu is also changed - now it turns up in white and magenta colors. The system RAM however has shrunk to 128MB as opposed to 192MB in the HTC Touch Diamond.

MDA Compact IV

By the way O2 also have their own incarnation of the HTC Diamond platform called quite expectedly the O2 XDA Diamond.

MDA Compact IV vs. HTC Touch Diamond: the differences are only cosmetic

All the other specifications of the MDA Compact IV remain the same as those of the Touch Diamond so users can enjoy a GPS receiver, Wi-Fi and a 3.2 megapixel auto focus camera. Powered by Windows Mobile 6.1 Pro, the T-Mobile MDA Compact IV packs a 2.8-inch VGA display and is extremely thin at 12mm. It has a built-in accelerometer which allows screen auto rotation. Additionally, it would have the sweet 4GB of storage memory (no memory card slot though). FM radio with RDS and a proprietary HTC mini-USB port are also on board along with Bluetooth 2.0 with EDR.

The T-Mobile MDA Compact IV will be available in July at currently unknown price.

The T-Mobile MDA Vario IV is the other device which was revealed at the conference. It's based on the rumored and yet unannounced HTC Raphael platform. HTC themselves haven't announced a commercial device based on that platform, so the MDA Vario IV in a way gives a glimpse of a future HTC handset too.

MDA Vario IV

The T-Mobile MDA Vario IV will obviously hit on the HTC TyTN II since its main accent is the full sliding QWERTY keyboard - surprisingly the thickness of the device however has been kept to 18mm.

The MDA Vario IV is a communication expert, offering a tri-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE/UMTS support and full HSDPA 7.2Mbps. On top of this are the Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, USB, and GPS connectivity.

The device runs on Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional OS and is powered by the same Qualcomm MSM7201A 528 Mhz processor. The memory department has also got a boost to 256 MB RAM and 512 MB ROM, this time expandable via a microSD card slot.

The display remains the same as in Touch Diamond - 2.8" 65K TFT touchscreen, with a VGA resolution (480 x 640 pixels). Keeping the same 3.2 MP camera, the MDA Vario IV has got a major boost in the battery performance, thanks to the 1340 mAh battery as opposed to the 900 mAh one in the Touch Diamond.

The actual dimensions of the new QWERTY communicator are 103 x 52 x 18 mm and weight 158 g. The MDA Vario IV is due for release in the autumn, yet its pricing is still unknown.

Hands on MDA Compact IV and Vario IV

Now that we've introduced the players, hit the jump for more live impressions and some camera samples.