[8525, TyTN, MDA Vario II, JasJam General] njpollard:
Got my Vario II at the weekend. It's my first Windows phone, so I thought I'd give my first opinions for any fellow newbies that are thinking of buying the same handset.

I've always liked the idea of having a decent smartphone, but the size has always put me off. I finally took the plunge two years ago with a Nokia 7610, a Series 60 phone running Symbian OS. However, surprisingly, perhaps, for a Nokia, the user interface was unintuitive, the phone crashed on a regular basis, and some of the keys stopped working intermittently. I might have been able to put up with some of this if the phone lived up to its promise as a PDA/phone combination, but I found that it had little more to offer than any other phone, apart from a few third-party apps. I ended up using it as just a normal handset and couldn't wait to replace it with a SE K750i, which apart from some problems with the built-in joystick, was a much better all-rounder.

Anyway. On to the Vario II. It was T-Mobile's 'unlimited' Web'n'Walk package that got me interested in getting a smartphone again, but I must admit that based on my experience of iPAQs running PPC2003, I was worried about how stable a Windows-powered phone might be. Nevertheless, I ordered one online with the knowledge that I can send it back within 14 days if I had problems.

My first impressions of the handset were that it's bigger and heavier than I was expecting. Comparing it to My old 7610, it's only a couple of mm thicker, and slightly wider, but it still feels pretty big in comparison for some reason. Still, it fits in my pocket okay, so I guess I'll get used to it. It's probably just about small enough not to look too odd when held up to your ear, but I wouldn't want one much bigger.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that they'd included a stereo headset, spare stylus, screen protector and a leather case in the box. I can't see me using the case, though, as it adds a lot of thickness to the phone.

The user interface is very similar to my iPAQ. It's most certainly a PDA foremost and a phone second. There are also lots of buttons on the outside of the handset (well, five) and a wheel. It's too early to tell whether these will prove useful yet. The keyboard is easy to use and you can type emails at a reasonable speed with some practice. I'm also pleased that (so far) I've had no problems with the stability of the OS, but based on the reports on this forum, I'm praying that the screen alignment, stylus and keyboard issues don't affect me.

Although I've read the enclosed manual, and I've only had the Vario for a couple of days, I'm still finding it a little unintuitive to use for making calls and I still have no idea how to force the unit to connect to the internet other than starting Outlook or Pocket IE, so I have to start one of those two first before I used any other network-based applications. I'm pretty sure I'll get used to it given time, but I'd definitely not recommend it for anyone who doesn't have some degree of technical knowledge.

However, I guess a lot of this is missing the point. This handset has a full QWERTY keyboard, web browser, email, Word, Powerpoint and Excel in a (relatively) tiny package, along with Wi-Fi and a 3G connection which rivals broadband speeds. Even a year ago, it would be almost unthinkable to have that kind of functionality in a mobile phone. For the first time, I'd be confident not taking a laptop computer away with me when I go away, and that's really the point of this device.

I'll report back again with my thoughts once I've got used to the handset for a couple of weeks (and, presumably, some of the novelty has worn off), but my initial impressions are good.