T-Mobile MDA Vario Review

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T-Mobile MDA Vario
4 stars
Average rating for this product is: 4 out of 5

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rarinrob's Review of T-Mobile MDA Vario

4th Oct 2007

Overall Rating

3.5 stars
  • Value for money
    4.5 stars
  • Time Phone Owned
    Over 1 Year
  • Battery Life
    4 stars
  • Reception
    4.5 stars
  • Reviewers Network
    T-Mobile
  • Screen Quality
    3.5 stars
  • Features
    4 stars
  • Style
    2 stars
Good Points

Number of features
Large screen
Keyboard


Bad Points

Magnetic pouch (see review)
Slow processor
Bulky


General Comments

This is an update to the review I wrote last year (see further down). I've owned the T-Mobile MDA Vario mobile phone for around 18 months, so I wanted to share my experiences following my early impressions.

First things first: it still works! The phone never suffered a malfunction during its time with me, although the screen does occasionally go into 'zebra' mode (black and white stripes) without warning, so I suspect it was on its way out towards the end (I recently bought a K610i, so I now use that). Battery life was still good - I could go four or five days without recharging.

Now for the gremlins - and there aren't many. Actually, the first problem I encountered wasn't with the phone but the 'pouch' it came with. It's designed with a flap that's held in place with a couple of concealed magnets. Trouble is, those magnets are pretty strong and caused me all manner of hassles in car parks for the first few weeks of ownership, because they 'wipe' the information on tickets with a magnetic strip. It took me a while to put two and two together, but when I did I found myself having to be very careful to keep the phone in one hand and ticket in the other. Annoying to say the least, because every time the ticket was wiped I had to press the 'assistance' button on the car park payment machine. The magnets had no effect on my credit or debit cards.

The other annoyance was the speed of the processor in the MDA. I never updated the software on it because: a) I didn't want to lose any of the data on it, and b) I didn't really know what to do anyway - I've read that speed does improve if you update it. Anyway, it meant a short delay in everything you did with the MDA. Not hugely annoying, but a pain nonetheless.

A final gripe of mine was the MDA's size. Yes, I knew how large it was before I bought it, but as I'm not a woman and don't own a handbag, I had to carry it everywhere I went. Putting it in your pocket just isn't feasible. You can clip the pouch onto a back (or front) pocket, but it sticks out a mile and you feel a bit of a berk wearing it like that. I guess that's what you have to put up with when using a PDA.

These gripes aside, I still like the MDA, but I have gone back to 'candybar' phones for the time being. Thanks for reading.

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