Firstly an apology; I should have written this review before Christmas but with one thing and another it kind of fell by the way side. Sorry everyone!

The HTC Magician revolutionised the way people looked at PocketPC platform; with it’s small and relatively simple form factor, it became the new weapon of choice for most Smartphone users, including myself. However, the Magician had a problem; while people loved it for being small and light, most felt that HTC had done a poor job at enabling the device to be used with one hand.

Enter the HTC Wizard, a device which, while retaining the Magician’s small form factor, has the added bonus of a slide out keyboard, 802.11g wireless LAN and Windows Mobile 5.0. Surely this device is a huge improvement over it’s predecessor? Today we’ll be looking at T-Mobile’s incarnation of the Wizard, the MDA Vario, to answer that question.

Now, those that know me will tell you there are three things in this world that really grab my attention: cars, women and gadgets. If I were to compare the Magician to a woman, she’d be slim and pretty but my god would she be high maintenance. The Wizard? Pretty face but a bit chunky and also annoying. If we were talking cars, the Magician would be a MK1 Golf GTi: an awesome first attempt but lacking in something. The Wizard would be more like the MK4 Golf GTi: more refined but missing that special something that made the original so great.

As you may be able to tell, the Wizard has not impressed me that much.

Body

Look, feel and build quality do not seem to have been high on HTC’s list of priorities when creating the Wizard. At a glance the silver aluminium and the brushed aluminium plate around the screen used for the top half of the device are quite appealing, but the cheap plastic used for the other half of the body ruins the device the instant you pick it up. Gone is the half aluminium, half solid plastic found in HTC’s more popular devices such as the Typhoon and the Magician; instead the Wizard continues where the Hurricane left off with cheap, nasty plastic giving the device quite a horrible feel. Like the Hurricane, the build quality of the Wizard is questionable. Instead of a nice solid feel, the device seems hollow and from the first moment you slide out that all new keyboard, you can tell that within a matter of weeks/months, that slide action will become very loose.

Hardware

The two major advances over the Magician are the inclusion of not 802.11b but 802.11g wireless LAN and afore mentioned slide-out keyboard. Now I have to admit, for a device of this size having both 54g wifi and a keyboard is very impressive. The Wizard even sports stereo speakers. However, you do get the feeling that they could have squeezed more new technology under the hood. Gone is the old 400Mhz processor, it’s been replaced with a (much slower) 200Mhz unit. Some disagree with me that new processor is slower but trust me, try running terminal services and you’ll soon understand what I mean. The screen remains the same, a QVGA unit. The Bluetooth hardware is still 1.2. The camera is the same 1.3MP unit we all know and hate but this time with the addition of an utterly useless LED “flash”. I don’t care what anyone says, those LEDs are utter crap. The only time they are of any use is when you are try to capture an image in the pitch black when it is a few centimetres away…or when you’re trying to get your key in the lock at half four in the morning after a heavy night out. They’re gimmicky and useless; it can’t be that hard to add a real flash to a device like this.

Software

As with any new self-respecting device, the Wizard comes complete with Windows Mobile 5.0, making the experience of using the device much easier on the eyes. Of course arguably the most important feature of this operating system is the inclusion of persistent storage, allowing data to permanently remain on the device even if it has gone without power for over 72hrs. Apart from the standard software you’d expect to find on a WM5 device, the Vario also includes HTC’s streaming video application and CleaVue’s PDF viewer. Of course, being a T-Mobile-customised device, there’s also a fair amount of pink graphics, giving everything a bit of a girly feel. Now I’m not sure if this is true of all Wizard variants but the Vario does have one very handy little feature that makes one-handed use that little bit easier; when you are exploring the start menu and get to the MRU list (at the top), the highlight goes to the beginning of the list instead of the end. On the Exec it takes you to the end of the list and if you are going up the start menu to get to say the settings menu at the bottom, it can actually take longer. On the Vario, press up twice and you’re at settings, where as on the Exec you have to press up 7 times to get to settings if your MRU list is full. Little details like that are important in such a complex device. Nice one T-Mob!

Gallery

Interactivity

Click and drag the images below to interact with them! If you can't see them you need the Apple Quicktime plugin.

I'm still undecided as to whether I like this device or not. I hate the cheap feel of it but I love the fact it has both wifi and a keyboard in a compact form. It is certainly more usable as an everyday phone than the Universal but there's something about it that just really puts me off. What you have to remember here is that there are only two real advantages to having this device over say the Magician, wifi and the keyboard. If neither are important to you then don't bother with the Wizard. If they are important to you then you must take into consideration the appalling battery life you get while connected via wifi and the fact that because the keyboard slides out from the side, there is little or no improvement to one-handed use when compared to the Magician. However, it has to be said, using the Wizard with two hands is a damn sight easier than using the Magician full stop. Walking down the street trying to write a text message is a pain on the Magician but on the Wizard it’s a breeze.

When it comes to PocketPC Phones there is no “killer device”. You have to pick the best of what is essentially a bad bunch. None of them are perfect but some are close to it. The Vario isn’t perfect but you could do a lot worse than getting yourself one.

For more information or to buy T-Mobile’s MDA Vario, see HERE

You can compare prices of the MDA Vario Case and buy online today.

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