July 23rd, 2009
King of the QWERTYs: T-Mobile Dash 3G
We posted the first of three parts of the King of the QWERTYs feature with the BlackBerry Tour and now are moving on to take a look at the T-Mobile Dash 3G. You can check out my earlier review for some other thoughts on the device since this feature will look at a few specific categories across all three forward facing QWERTY devices and won’t cover the device in detail. The three selected devices are the RIM BlackBerry Tour, T-Mobile Dash 3G, and Nokia E71x. You can check out a few photos of these three in this image gallery.
Microsoft smartphones began a few years ago with non-touchscreen candy bar form factor devices that had a slightly different flavor of the OS compared to the Pocket PC OS. These smartphones were highly focused on phone calls, with data as a secondary need. We then saw more touchscreen Pocket PC phones launch alongside these non-touchscreen smartphones and over the last couple of years the trend in the Windows Mobile world has been on optimizing the touch experience. The T-Mobile Dash/HTC Excalibur was an extremely popular form factor and device across the spectrum of users. I know several serious mobile phone enthusiasts, who have access to just about every device available, that swear by the Dash and were very disappointed to see no apparent follow-up over the last two years.
I think all of these people, including myself, breathed a sigh of relief when we saw HTC announce the HTC Snap/T-Mobile Dash 3G device last month. The T-Mobile Dash was successful because of its form factor, battery life, optimized phone experience (smart dialing) and stability and I am pleased to see the T-Mobile Dash 3G improves on just about every area of the Dash, except for the display resolution. It turns out the display resolution (240×320 pixels) is a current limit in the Windows Mobile Standard OS so there is nothing else HTC could have done with the Dash 3G/Snap in this area.
Operating System
The T-Mobile Dash 3G runs the Windows Mobile 6.1 Standard operating system. It may be possible to upgrade to the upcoming 6.5 OS, but there appears to be very little changed in non-touchscreen devices with this update. Thus, I doubt carriers will be quick to provide an update to 6.5 for the Dash 3G, or other HTC Snap variants.
The Windows Mobile 6.1 Standard OS is highly optimized for phone functionality and has been one of the most stable operating systems I have used on smartphones. Most of the grumbling you hear about regarding Microsoft’s mobile operating system is related to the Professional (touchscreen) operating system that is not as sleek and snappy as the non-touchscreen variant. The distinction should be gone with Windows Mobile 7.
Some of the phone optimizations include smart dialing (start typing a name from the home screen to call a contact), profile support (now being provided by HTC and others on touchscreen devices), and easy one-handed capability. If you like Windows Mobile I recommend a Standard device for heavy voice users and a Professional device for heavy data users.
Windows Mobile Standard includes quite a few utilities and applications in the OS, but one area that continues to drive me crazy is the inability to create new Word or Excel files in the Office Mobile suite. There is a free and easy utility (MoDaCo DoNew) you can add to enable this, but this should be provided out of the box by Microsoft or HTC.
Exchange email support is excellent with the ability to search your server, create appointments with attendees, and more. Internet sharing (tethering) is a provided utility on the device, but usage may vary by carrier.
The 6.1 Standard home screen sliding panels are very efficient at getting you to your data and status quickly and easily.
I with that Microsoft would improve the native shortcut capability of QWERTY Windows Mobile devices though since there are only a couple of keys provided that launch applications. The Samsung Blackjack II had excellent keyboard shortcut support that I would like to see implemented on all of these front facing QWERTY devices.
Similar to the 90s era Settings found on the RIM BlackBerry platform, Windows Mobile Standard still has a very basic look and feel to their settings. On the T-Mobile Dash 3G you will actually find five screens of available settings. This is great for the geek and tweaker, but may appear a bit daunting to a standard consumer and needs an overhaul.
Let’s check out the Hardware ยป
Matthew Miller is an avid mobile device enthusiast who works during the day as a professional naval architect in Seattle. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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