T-Mobile MDA Compact III

The T-Mobile MDA Compact III is T-Mobile's take on the HTC P3300 Windows smartphone with GPS Satellite Navigation.

Functionally almost identical to the P3300, the T-Mobile MDA Compact III comes with a 2.8'' 240x320 pixel touch-sensitive display, GPRS and EDGE data (but no 3G), a 2 megapixel camera, expandable memory, a multimedia player and FM radio. And because the T-Mobile MDA Compact III is a Windows Mobile 5.0 smartphone, it comes with a capable web browser, email client and it can also work with Microsoft Office documents.

As with the HTC version, the T-Mobile MDA Compact III comes with a GPS receiver and inbuilt satellite navigation.

The publicity pictures show the T-Mobile MDA Compact III running both TomTom software and the T-Mobile NaviGate system. NaviGate factors in things like traffic jams and currently costs 0.99 per route, or 9.95 per month for T-Mobile subscribers in Germany. T-Mobile say that ''memory cards or CDs containing digital street maps are not necessary'' for NaviGate, although HTC said that basic TomTom maps of Western Europe are preloaded for the HTC P3300. T-Mobile's press publicity shows both systems, but we can find no mention of the TomTom software in any official communication from T-Mobile.. so, check when ordering.

The HTC version of this handset has WiFi, and indeed the version of the T-Mobile MDA Compact III advertised in the Netherlands and Austria specifically says that the MDA Compact III has WiFi, yet in Germany none of the material mentions WiFi support. Have T-Mobile Germany crippled the MDA Compact III? We don't know.. so, check when ordering.

Amusingly (at least to us) in the publicity photos, the T-Mobile MDA Compact III appears to have navigated two blokes on foot onto what appears to be a busy intersection (and we were sad enough to work out that it is, in fact, Deisterstrasse in Hannover) using the TomTom. Is the MDA Compact III trying to get them both killed? Or is it just a quick cut-and-paste job by T-Mobile's publicity department? We'll leave that to you to work out.

What's actually in the T-Mobile MDA Compact III is a bit of a mystery. T-Mobile's publicity is either confusing or misleading. Does the MDA Compact III have WiFi? Does it have TomTom? If it does, then it's an attractive handset, and it's several months ahead of the somewhat similar Nokia N95. If not.. then T-Mobile have needlessly created a crippled version of the HTC P3300 for no good reason. As we said, if you're interested in the T-Mobile MDA Compact III, then check what you are actually getting carefully before ordering.
11/7/2006 8:46:40 PM
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