I have got MDA Vario (HTC Wizard - communicator based on "Windows Mobile 5") for about two months, so I thought about writing down how it is to have such a device, maybe it can help somebody decide whether it is good for him or not (I know this is *not* an objective article, I admit I like "Windows Mobile". 😀 ). I was planning to get a "smart device" for long time and was always interested in experiences which other people had. So maybe others will be interested as well.

Since my old phone was "dumb" Nokia 6230 and I was very happy with it, I originally though about getting a Symbian phone (something from the Nokia N7x line). Though I wanted a DOS emulator and there is not any for Symbian (I spent a lot of time by searching). Also the touchscreen (for mouse emulation in the DOS emulator) is not available at Nokia phones (though I heard some Sony Ericsons Symbian phones have touch screen). I admit that the existence of DOS emulator is not something which most of people are interested in - but it also serves to show how it is with the availability of applications... People from Nokia call their devices multimedia computers, but most of the people still sees them only as excellent phones. A lot of people buying them does not care/know about any operating system... And this is visible in the application support. Recent move to Symbian 9 (Nokia series 60 3rd edition) produced a more competitive OS, but binary and in a many cases even source compatibility was broken. Also the security system of Symbian is a bit too paranoid (e.g. having directory which are partially or completely inaccessible in a way which cannot be overriden even by the owner of the phone). The Symbian certification is also overdone (there is certification for Windows Mobile as well, but it is usually not so enforced - as an owner of the device I can choose to ignore it). Well, it can be argued that normal user does not care about this - but it makes the OS unpopular among (especially freeware) programmers and it means less software.

Linux is virtually non existent on mobile phones yet (with a few exceptions), PalmOS is dying (yesterday I have heard about Palm sponsored compettion in programming "Windows Mobile" based appliocation - hell is freezing...), so I had only option - Windows Mobile. And I must say I am happy. I love my MDA Vario (a bit older - 200 Mhz CPU processor - but I got it cheaply from my phone operator). I am not paid by Microsoft, but if I was I could not write better 😀 It is really something to have a real computer at hand all the time. I admit it is a bigger than my old phone (Nokia 6230), but it pays off. I sit in a bus going from work browsing net, reading a book, playing a game or writing sms on real keyboard. I used to be distrustful of touch screen, but it works ok. And as long as do not need to write anything I can browse the internet without ever using touchscreen, just with hardware buttons (usefull in a bus when it goes over some uneven road when work with touchscreen is complicated).
I have found a lot off usefull emulators for old game systems - from Gameboy to SNES). SNES is already a bit slow slow, but still usable (I recommend SNES9xJ4U emulator, it is quicker than PocketSNES). There are two DOS emulators (DOSBOX - free) and PocketDOS (commerciall, fully functional demo with just nag screen is available - a few days ago version 1.12 was released). My configuration is good for PC XT games (so no Blood and similar games 😀 ). In my opinion PocketDOS is a bit better in speed, user friendlines and mouse support, DOSBOX has better compatibility.
There is no official version of the "Windows Mobile 6" for my device, but people on "xda developers" created already quite a few "unofficall" versions of WM6 for HTC Wizard. Additionaly now exists method to change the firmware safely and without the need to unlock the device (the bootloader lock is there to prevent loading of unauthorized firmware 😀 ). I am running with "Crossbow Reloaded" for a few days without any major issues...
At the beginning I mentioned I was thinking at first about Symbian phone from Nokia... As I can see it now, this is past and I will not ever go back. I like that "Windows Mobile" seems to becoming something like Windows in normal computers - universal platform with a lot of software. And the software compatibility is kept among versions (though it is true that there are exceptions) - unlike the above mentioned case of Symbian.

Just to get a bit of objectivity (I admit I am a fan of Windows Mobile 😀 ). Such a device is a computer and when installing/running a lot of different thinks, it can get to the situation where it frezes/crashes and the "soft reset" is needed (I never got to the situation where I would screw up so that "hard reset" would be needed - I used "hard reset" only when flashing a new firmware). But it is not often. Another problem is that especially a communicator with a touch screen is bigger than a normal phone (no issue for me, I was scared to carry in my pocket even my old small Nokia). Also if you need just to call/sms than it is uselesss to invest into a computer...
Well, I already wrote enough - if anybody reading this thinks whether to buy such a device, I can wholeheartedly recommend it.

Mirek