T-Mobile SDA smart phone

Posted by T3 Online on Thu 25 Oct 2007

Black and businessy, like Gordon Gecko's cold, asset-stripping heart.

T-Mobile is moving fast to get its name on some of the fanciest Windows Mobile smart phones around. We've already seen the PDA-shaped MDA Compact, and now we have the tri-band SDA (which stands for Smart Digital Assistant, but we're not sure why). It's made by Taiwanese powerhouse HTC, and a similar model was first seen in the UK as the i-mate SP3i.

There are no problems with the design - shiny black says business with a twist, and the addition of new hot keys for messages and Internet marks an improvement on the older model. It's small too - around the same size as the i-mate SP3i - so it won't create an unsightly bulge in your pinstriped suit.

The on-board CMOS camera offers decent enough cam-phone pics, if not in the same league as those of the newer megapixel models, and they're decently displayed on the 65,000-colour screen. Video capture, meanwhile, will last as long as you like, or at least until you've filled the 32MB of built-in memory (which will take about ten minutes). There's room for expansion too, with a miniSD card, though you'll have to remove the battery to get to it.

Connections-wise, it's pretty well endowed, with Bluetooth, infrared and mini USB cable options, and syncing with your PC is straightforward with ActiveSync, enabling you to drag and drop PowerPoint, PDF and WMA files, as well as sync your emails using Pocket Outlook. Unlike the MDA Compact, however, the SDA doesn't come with Pocket Word or Excel.

Overall, this is a neat little business phone that looks the part and does most things you'll need when you're out and about.