Decision time - Another Vario II or MDA Compact III

[Guest jasthegooner]

Hi Guys, my Vario II recently got wet during our fantastic summer which we are experiencing here in England, and has died on me.

I bought the phone on Ebay (sorry) as I have a company mobile, which is very basic, so I always buy a decent phone and just simply put the sim in the phone I purchase. The SIM allows me to Text, MMS, Internet etc etc

Now I really liked my Vario II, and did buy lots of Third Party Software Apps for it, and pretty much had what I have always wanted in a phone.

That said this is an opportunity (possibly) to buy another model, and I quite like the idea of the MDA Compact III. I dont use Wi-Fi much so not too much of a problem, but am thinking of buying some Sat Nav Software which I understand can be put on the Compact III?

So I am looking for your opinion on what to do, another Vario II or Compact III? Or maybe you can think of another phone that I havent considered? The Sim is on T-Mobile so unless unlocked I assume im pretty tied to what phones are available from them.

Once again I look to your knowledge and experience! Cheers Jas

[Guest ickleruth]

Apparently the MDA Vario III is due out in the UK in September.

http://www.pocket-lint.co.uk/news/news.pht...Vario-III.phtml

Obviously it will depend on whether you can hang on that long but it looks like it might be worth it.

[Guest spangelsaregreat]

Hi,

Firstly what phone you can use is not determined by your sim card. You can put a T-Mobile sim in any phone the only limiting factor being whether the phone is sim locked or not. If it is it will be locked to its original network (not a problem if you stick with T-Mobile phones). You can pretty much unlock any phone anyway so it is not a major problem.

I have a MDAC3 and think it is a great phone. It works really well with GPS software and I use both Tom Tom for road navigation and Memory Map for the off road stuff. I even just upgraded it to WM6 with the new Touch Flo interface and it is running very nicely on this (look at XDA Developers site for more info). Having GPS is a bonus removing the need for another bit of kit to carry around.

My only observation would be that the Compact does not have keyboard which is something you may miss from your Vario.

I can't comment on any other phones other than the new MDA Touch which my wife has just bought. It is a very nice little phone (makes the MDAC3 look quite big) but lacks GPS.

Regards