I just got my new MDA Vario IV – you may also know it as HTC’s Touch Pro. It features a keyboard, a VGA screen, Wireless LAN, GPS and more. During the next days, I want to note down my daily thoughts about and experiences with the device here.
My first thought, when I opened the box, was: it is … very small. Smaller than my former PDAs / phones, like the Palm Tungsten C or MDA III (HTC Blue Angel). I don’t see it as a real problem, but normally, I prefer bigger devices with a bigger screen – especially if they have a VGA screen. The form is a bit different to the HTC one, but also looks good. I inserted my battery and five seconds later, it showed its T-Mobile logo for the first time. The booting lasted about 30 seconds before a green Windows Mobile 6.1 appears. Then, the special T-Mobile (branding, Webnwalk, …) and HTC (YouTube, TouchFlo 3D, …) applications were being installed automatically. After another reset, it displayed a video how to use the TouchFlo 3D interface. Now it was ready.
When I saw T-Mobile’s magenta version of TouchFlo 3D, I knew what to remove first. In my opinion, the HTC design looks better. The first things I tried were the FM radio, turning on Wireless LAN for Opera, Google Maps and YouTube. And all these programs worked fine and looked nice (especially YouTube and Google Maps) on the display with VGA (480 x 640 px) resolution.
I also consider the keyboard rather small, but I can already type fast on it. However, I miss a “Start” and an “OK” button on it – like the MDA Vario III (HTC Kaiser) has them. Also, I miss the “Start” button on the frontside (see HTC Blue Angel).
The article of the second day will cover the camera, the GPS receiver and more.
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