In this work, miniaturized tunable two-antenna MIMO systems composed of printed F-slot shaped is developed to operate in the GPS, PCS, DCS and UMTS bands. The two-element MIMO antenna occupies a volume of 50 × 37.5 ×1.6 mm 3 , and is printed on an FR4 substrate. Initially, the frequency tunability of the MIMO antennas was verified by lumped capacitors with values between 0.75 to 2.75 pF to achieve a tuning range from 1.55 to 2.07GHz while the low mutual coupling between the radiators was accomplished by adding an I-shaped branch to a cut-away ground plane. The two antennas are then loaded with varactors to simultaneously achieve miniaturization and tunability. Simulation and measurement results demonstrate the successful implementation of a tunable MIMO with coupling reduction mechanism for a portable handheld wireless transceiver. The channel capacity of the proposed antenna is investigated and found to be close to that of an uncorrelated system with efficient diversity in which the mutual coupling across the full bandwidth was better than -13dB. Owing to the compact size and ease of manufacture, the proposed antennas can be a promising solution for adaptive MIMO systems in handheld devices.