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If you're still deciding between the MDA/8125 or the 8700g/8700c from either T-Mobile or Cingular respectively, this quick shootout may help you decide.

We are interested mostly from the standpoint of applications availabilty, web browsing (and associated apps such as instant messaging (IM) and all the features and functions that make the new generation of phones more like tiny PCs).

Each type of device has its own unique abilities whether it's the HTC Wizard platform, Palm Treo, Danger Hip-Top/"SideKick" or the Blackberry. In this article, we'll focus only on the MDA and 8700(x).

First things first, we have read many forum posts whereby people claim that all new phones come unlocked out-of-the-box. So let's see what happens when we put a T-Mobile sim in the Cingular 8700c..

Rejected:


So we put the Cingular chip back in the 8700 and turn it on. Within seconds (after asking us to enter in the unlock code for the phone) the phone has registered and is ready to make calls. This process while fast still isn't as fast as with a plain old cell phones have it right - register as fast as it can so it can be used as a phone!

Now let's look at the obligatory comparison views of the two devices and talk about its ports, etc.

Here's the main screen and front views of the two. Notice that the two are actually about the same size with the exception that the MDA has more screen real-estate making it also more suitable for touchscreen use.


Here is the back view. Note that the MDA has a camera. It's a 1.3 megapixel camera that's nothing to get overly excited about. It works and that's about all that can be said about it. Don't expect to be a quality shutterbug with the MDA. What's surprising about the 8700 is that it still lacks a camera. You would actually think that they would at least put in a VGA camera. This might spell doom for them as similar form factor devices like the Motorola Q running on Verizon's network has just come out.


Let's start looking around the two for ports and other hookups. The top shows that both have a power button. Here's where things get different and you can start to see where the two devices are headed. The MDA has a miniSD slot for expandable memory while the 8700 has a mute button (this is a nice feature since it really is a phone afterall).


On the right hand side we see that the MDA has two dedicated buttons - one for the camera and one for IM. This is difficult to see, but in the center of the MDA is an IR port and a reset button. The 8700 still has its thumbwheel and a back/cancel button.


The bottom of the devices shows nothing for the 8700 but a headset port, mini-USB port for charging and data and a battery panel latch (the 8125 doesn't have this). You can also see that the MDA has a loop for dangling a handstrap or the myriad tchochkies that kids love to hang from their phones. The expandable stylus is located on the right.


The left hand side of the 8700 is like the bottom of the MDA - mini-USB and headset port. It also has a programmable hard button. The MDA just has a hard button for the "comm manager" that let's you turn on and off the phone, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth.


Just how thick are the two? They don't differ by much. The MDA is thicker.


But the MDA is narrower with the keypad tucked in.


Let's look at the keypads. Obviously, the 8700 has stayed true to its design with the exposed keypad with its "dedicated" hard keys for phone dialing. The MDA clearly has a keyboard that's more for two-handed operation than one.


But what if you had to make a phone call? How do you do this with the two? The 8700 is simple - dial the numbers on the gray colored keys and you're off and calling! With the MDA, you press the hard key for the phone at the bottom of the device and the touch screen keys appear. If your fingers are chubby, you'll need to hack the UI to make the keys bigger like the ones on the Treos. If you're used to rapidly pressing keys to dial, you'll have to wait a bit for the MDA to catch up..


Now that we've determined that the 8700 is better suited as a phone, let's try some web browsing. They key difference here is that the MDA uses a HTML browser that you can also hack to view WML (WAP) pages. The 8700 on the other hand is WML (WAP) strictly. So, this is where the MDA shines. With it's ability to display in both portrait and landscape view, you can pick and choose which format suits your display preferences. However, the landscape mode is invoked only by sliding out the QWERTY keyboard.

Let's browse a few websites by starting out with Yahoo! (Please excuse the small pictures here)


Notice that the MDA displays everything as you would expect to see while sitting at your desk - only much smaller in size. The 8700 pulled up the WML version of Yahoo!

Now let's do a Google search:


Same result. We tried to locate the special GPS-enabled Google maps app for the 8700 and went around in circles trying to find it in from the 8700. This is highly problematic. Come on Google! Get your UI folks on this one. What good is your app if people can't find it? And it's the coolest and useful ones out there...

Oh well...

Time to read some news on CNN. The MDA has this already bookmarked.


Oops! The 8700 choked here. It appears that CNN doesn't have a WAP version of their site. No problem for the MDA. The error message from CNN was: "Could not translate HTML page into HDML - Error 12008: HTML page is too large to translate." HDML? I guess either CNN couldn't rewrite it or the phone choked trying to parse it into HDML (shouldn't it have been WML?)...

So what's our conclusion? Pretty simple really...

Well, it looks like if you wanted to browse the web as you normally see it, the MDA is the way to go. If you want a phone that works, go with the 8700. While the 8700 and BlackBerry in general dominates the market due to its "push" email, Microsoft has been working pretty diligently at making Exchange Server do the same (and quite successfully from what we've heard).

The MDA (HTC Wizard platform) has some major issues it needs to work out, but with the numerous hacks and tweaks you can perform on it to make it more usable for you, you can certainly make it do some pretty wild stuff. As a phone however, it could use more intuitive as well as better UI (bigger dialpad by default!). The cool thing is that you can talk while doing other things. Problem here is that by doing so, you could also bog down the device and if you crash it (it's been known to happen!), your phone call is also over...

The 8700 on the other hand is definitely much improved over older generation pucks, but it really is starting to show its age. Sure, it doesn't need a camera and expandable memory to entice the corporate finance/lawyer crowd, but at this rate, the writing is already starting to get written on the wall! Still, as a phone with email, the 8700 is hard to beat. Make it just a tad narrower and increase the screen size and it just might make it without a camera and other widgets. But if history serves as an indicator of the future, Microsoft will surely start squashing the competition until the next new BlackBerry shows up. Unfortunately, the Danger Hip-Top and PAlm Treo won't be doing that anytime soon.

Watch out for a future shoot-out between the MDA, SideKick, Treo 700w, and 8700g all on the T-Mobile network!