MDA Vario IV Gets Bigger Battery than HTC Touch Diamond

The HTC Touch Diamond is one beautiful smartphone, but it’s still lacking in a couple of departments. It turns out that the MDA Vario IV addresses more than just the issue of a sliding QWERTY keyboard; it’s got a juicier battery as well.

The MDA Compact IV from T-Mobile, which is based on the HTC Touch Diamond platform, gets equipped with a 900 mAh battery. This helps to keep the profile nice and slim, adding to the aesthetic appeal of the touchscreen smartphone. The MDA Vario IV, also known as the HTC Raphael, gets a bigger 1340 mAh battery instead. Does the QWERTY keyboard use that much more power or should we expect improved battery life on the MDA Vario IV?

The rest of the specs between the Compact IV and Vario IV appear to virtually identical, including dual-band 7.2Mbps HSDPA, Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional, 528MHz Qualcomm MSM processor, and integrated Wi-Fi connectivity.