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Is this the first Microsoft phone with Bluetooth?

At the February GSM show, Intel showed a prototype Microsoft-based smartphone. Unlike all the others seen before, it showcased the much faster Intel XScale processor variant of the ARM core. At that time, it couldn't do Bluetooth; but at the IFA show in Berlin, T-Mobile showed an updated version ...

The manufacturer of the new version wasn't announced at the IFA, but the thing doesn't look much like the first Intel-based Windows phone, the Mitac Mio8380. It's almost certainly from a different phone maker - possibly HTC.

But Mitac appears to have rushed its phone out before the Microsoft upgrade from Smartphone 2002 to Windows Mobile 2003 - and you need the 2003 version of Windows CE to integrate Bluetooth. The T-mobile MDA-II will have that version, and does have Bluetooth.

The Intel processor is noticeably quicker in use than any of the earlier HTC-built SPV smartphones.

According to a review from MSmobiles, the phone is not due out till year end.

The reviewer hints that this phone may be built by HTC: "All in all it looks like "T-Mobile MDA II" will be one of the best Pocket PC devices ever! It has the same construction as "xda II" also to be released by the end of year 2003, but while "xda II" is made for O2 operator, the "MDA II" is made especially for T-Mobile operator."

The reviewer summarises: "If only the SD slot would allow for attachment of Wi-Fi SD cards, then it would be an almost perfect cell phone."