If you're looking for a low-cost smartphone alternative to the BlackBerry , T-Mobile could be on-message with its MDA Mail, an ultra-slim Windows Mobile device featuring a Qwerty keyboard. T-Mobile is launching it in the UK from today.
Based on the Windows Mobile 5.0 for Smartphone operating system, the MDA Mail is geared up for messaging with a Qwerty keypad under a large 320 x 240 pixel display, and supports both Microsoft Direct Push and BlackBerry Connect push email services. It's also just 13mm thin and weighs 130g.
The MDA Mail is T-Mobile's own-branded version of the HTC Excalibur. That phone has sold well in the USA as the T-Mobile Dash.
A regular suite of Windows Mobile 5.0 applications are on the device, including mobile versions of Internet Explorer - offering full web browsing - and Windows Media Player. The device also features a built in 1.3-megapixel camera, plus expandable MicroSD memory card support.
Low-cost push email
The device is aimed primarily at business users but will also be pitched at the consumer sector, with a relatively cheap price tag being part of its appeal. T-Mobile's head of Corporate Communications, Robin O'Kelly, told Tech.co.uk: "This is one of the first mass-market devices for BlackBerry email".
The MDA Mail will join T-Mobile's range of Web'n'walk -enabled handsets. It will be offered free on T-Mobile's Flext 35 tariff with a Web'n'walk option (£42.50 a month), with the price increasing on lower usage deals.
