T-Mobile Dash Smartphone (T-Mobile)

I didn't get my Dash through amazon. I got the phone from letstalk.com "free" (need to pay activation though for the sim card and send rebate back of course) because amazon has the setup of the $30 data plan. Neither did I do the upgrade with t-mobile because it will cost $150 for a two-year upgrade. Instead, I signed up a two-year for the promotion plan (I fulfilled my old contract). I somehow stay with t-mobile for ever. Why t-mobile is the best: cheapest and best service in America. Who else can give you 1000 minutes any time and unlimited night and weekend for $39.99 (promotion for now)? Customer service is best and shortest in wait time, compared to Sprint (Filipinos service reps) and Cingular customer service go home at 9 pm. Cingular would not unlock a phone for you while t-mobile does it for you every 90 days.



As for the phone, I haven't used all the neat functions. But the initial impressions are good: good rubber touch, big and beautiful screen (better put protection on it to prevent from scratch, also wearing case is recommended as so many people complained about breaking screen), descent battery life, clear talk with strong signal which I couldn't achieve with my previous Samsung t809. The volume strip is not a big deal. If you tap instead of pressing on it, you can achieve the right volume more easily. Actually for me I thought the function was not working when I press hard to increase the volume. Speaker is loud and clear and the other party won't even feel that speaker phone is being used.



In summary, pros:

good battery life

clear talk for both handset and speaker phone

big and nice screen

nice rubber touch



cons:

I read that screen are fragile for this one. SO use screen protector and a case.

This phone has functions beyond belief. I use it as my phone, organizer (which is perfect), and mp3 player. I haven't used it for email purposes yet, which I used to have on my work issued blackberry, but by just looking at this phone i doubt it would be as good. The windows mobile functions are easy to use and doesn't take much time to figure out. The phone overall looks great and I get a lot of compliments for it.

BUT!!!!! I had this phone for about a little over a month and never physically dropped it once. It slipped out of my hands one time since I've had it and dropped onto the floor (from about 3 feet from the ground). The screen cracked!!!! I brought it to a T-Mobile store and aparently since I didn't have the insurance (my fault because i failed to get it) T-Mobile and HTC, the company who makes the phone, would not cover it even though it was still under warranty. Luckily T-Mobile offered me a loaner phone, HTC wouldn't offer me one at all (in fact their customer service was terrible, i mean extremely terrible). I had to ship it to HTC myself. it took them 2 weeks to fix it and recieve it back, all together costing me $139 plus a $16 shipping cost.

I love this phone, but I wish this mishap never happened. now I've bought a silicon case for it and have gotten insurance for the phone just in case it were to happen again. I could go into detail about how much trouble I went through but I hope the summary explains how UPSETTING this was.

In conclusion: IF YOU BUY THIS PHONE, GET A CASE AND INSURANCE.

Our company recently switched from Blackberry to the Dash. The Dash is very nice and I like it better than the Blackberry. BUT you have to be quite tender with it so I can't rate it 5 stars. My screen broke after 2 weeks. It was on my belt under my seatbelt and it didn't survive a hard stop (no crash). A VP broke his the first couple days. As has my manager. Today another person on my team sat down at his desk, Dash fell about 18 inches onto the typically hard carpeted cubicle floor. Screen cracked in half. Of the many cell phones I've had over the years, all of them you could drop onto cement with no worries. Not the Dash. You best get one heck of a wty or replacement plan with this fragile smartphone.


"The Dash is the the perfect mobile office and mobile entertainment device." The phone is superb. The mere fact that I can watch music videos and movies from you tube on this makes it worth buying. Not to mention is the smallest and lightest phone with wi-fi. It just sucks that t-mobile has this phone and cingular does. I had to get it but I had to get a seperate phone plan for this. But no worries really I heard that you can unlock this phone and use it on cingular's cervice. Yay....... Great phone between this phone,the pearl, and b berry curve. You can't go wrong...

Well I came from a line of Sony Ericsson Phones so this was a leap at trying something new. I have had the phone now for over 2 weeks which I feel is long enough to make a judgement on it. First and foremost the size of the phone is great. Slim, sleek, slender and light are just a few ways to describe it physically. The rubber backing feels cool as well. The button layout is easly functional and to navigate. I like that the memory slot is in the inside since it makes it more sleek. I have 1GB card in the phone and it picked it up no problem. I really like the OS interface - its not complicated to navigate through and looks cool as well. At first there is a slight learning curve as to were everything is located but once you play with it its easy - plus with the shortcuts you can get to what you want fairly easy. The speakerphone at times can be hard to understand but over all it works well. Music throught the phone sounds good to. Not bad for one speaker. It has at times closed out applications for no reason but I usually just chuck that off to Windows. The overall performance isnt that bad. It does slow down at times but not drastically. Overall, I am impressed with the phone and would recommend it. It has alot of features as well to boot. Worth buying.

Consider yourself warned.

This review and the hosts of other reviews echoing the same sentiment should be enough warning.

The phone will have SOME good, even raving reviews, from owners who have YET to experience the cracked screen problem. I was one of the many DASH fans myself, until it broke on me last week.

The LCD screen on my dash just went bust all on its own. I treated this phone very carefully. I carry it in my pocket, and i always make sure its only in there by itself so nothing might scratch the pretty surface.

less then 6 month of gentle ownership, and the screen went bust. apparently *I* cracked the screen and Tmobile + HTC has zero interest in fixing this problem. no replacement phones, nothing.

and btw, even if you bought insurance, it would still cost you $110 to replace it, and they only let you replace your phone twice in a year i believe. and i have read of numerous cases where the screen went bust twice in a year.

Google "Dash cracked screen" before you purchase.

This phone is built like a lemon. Stay clear.

Great device while it's working. I loved using it and recommended it to many friends. However, after 6 months my screen cracked while the phone was in my pocket and I was watching TV. No rough treatment and not dropped. The warranty doesn't cover cracked screens regardless of reason. A phone that you can't put in your pocket without risking a cracking the screen and having to pay $200 for repair is very poor in my opinion. Search for "T-Mobile Dash Cracked Screen" before you make your decision.



I've had the Dash for about 2 1/2 months now andI can completely say am I am happy with my choice. Everything from the Calendar to the Wi-fi works perfectly. I even have a Mac and transferring files is easy with Bluetooth. I didn't get the data plan because it was expensive for me but my college campus has Wi-fi virtually everywhere so I'm not complaining :-) Playing music is a sinch and it's become my mp3 player

I had read reviews about how the touch-strip was one of the cons of this phone but what some people don't know is that people who purchase the Dash can call t-mobile and upgrade for FREE to Windows Mobile 6! After upgrading I realised that the touch-strip configuration was fixed to where accidental touches are very rare :-)

Get this phone. It's sleek and can be upgraded to edit word documents. The keyboard may look small but typing is so easy. Another good thing aout this phone is that you can use your own mp3's as ringtones so paying $1.99 for ringtones is unnecessary :-)

At first I liked this phone. But then I got annoyed by that slide bar that changes the volumne. The worst part came only after 7 months or owing it, the screen cracked for no reason. Tmobile won't warrenty that.

It's a great phone everyone who see's it wants it. It takes great pictures and it's very lightweight. Better than my boyfriend's Q. T-mobile tried to scare me into returning it and paying over double from them. They claimed that Amazon may charge me for the complete phone if I make any changes to the line. All is fine but I'm still waiting for the refund.

This phone was great, with good functionability, wifi, music player, organizer, and all that, until it broke.
after about two months, the LCD screen cracked, simply in my pocket in the car. i didnt drop it or anything, yet the LCD cracks, cant use the phone anymore. So i take it to the store, and this is apparently my fault, so no manufactor's warranty. They tell me to call a phone repair company in my area to have it replaced. I look online and find that many other people have had this same problem, as the LCD's on this phone are very thin and can crack with the smallest ammount of pressure.
That repair company says they are sold out of the screens now, as they have sold 50 replacements in the past 3 weeks. I didnt know that t-mo sold that many dashes in the area every three weeks. So i can wait around for the replacement LCD's to be restocked, then pay 150 for the same thin delicate screen.
Sorry, but i would never buy this again, seeing as i am sure that it will break again, and i will be completely out of luck, again.

I dont know the specifics, but the t-mo extended warranty has a deductable on top of the initial payment, so that isnt even a practiucle solution, in my opinion.

having previously owned a treo 650, nokia symbian phones, and numerous PDA's, been pretty happy with this phone (note i use it only for email/internet and not actually as a phone).

i upgraded from the treo 650 for a few reasons: wifi, outlook directpush. found wifi to be not that big of a deal actually.

considered treo 750 but it was so much bulkier.

the design is decent - wish the silver bezel was just black instead and the volume slider recess makes the product asymmetrical.

windows mobile 6 is a vast improvement although wish it was more responsive at times, but then again, it's checking email on 4 accounts constantly (outlook, gmail, yahoo and live).

not having a touch screen is actually helpful so don't have to worry about smudges on the screen. camera and camera app sucks, but that's expected.

battery life isn't great, but that's what you get for the thinness.

would purchase again.

I have had this for about 2 months now and I must say I am impressed so far. I had Verizon for 11 years and was a little hesitant to make the switch but after I did I have no regrets at all. I have had no problems with service anywhere I go and my bill for the same services with Verizon is less to boot. I know Verizon has the EVDO network for data which is slightly faster the extra cost was not worth it to me at all. I tether to my laptop all the time and the extra charge they wanted ($15 a month) seemed ridiculous to me for something I use an hour a day maybe two tops was something I was not willing ot pay. Also after rebates T-mobile PIAD ME to get this phone VS Verizon where the best I was offered was something similar for $150 at the low end to $300+ at the high end was a nice savings for me. This phone is a great bang for the buck and is definitely worth a look if you are in the market for a smartphone.

I'll try and make this quick, but I went from a standard flip-phone to the Dash. In the first few days, I admit that I was somewhat frustrated with the overhead that it took to operate using the same tasks as my old LG flip. -But- once I got the hang of all of the shortcuts, this phone is so much better. It functions wonderfully as a PDA phone. It seems that I can literally do anything I want on this! So to cut the commentary short, this phone rules all other phones.
My quick positive/negative (and let me stress, none of the negative ruin this phone for me).
positives:
- There is a ton of support on the internet for 3rd party software for free, to over-clocking the processor, to adding an NES emulator, to creating your own wallpaper (if I can add this link, check out http://mobile.surrealnetworks.com/DashApps.htm for all sorts of cool stuff)
- The phone works great as a Multimedia player - especially after adding a miniSD card. I can't wait to get a Bluetooth-compatible car stereo to use this in my vehicle.
- If you search on google, you can find quite a bit of custom 'homescreens' that fit your liking. I ended up writing my own.
- It's great having a task manager to kill all unwanted programs that get stuck running in the background
- Any shortcomings can be worked around, for instance, the volume Jogger bar can be reloaded to act as a scrolling slide, or disabled all together. Hopefully when Windows Mobile 6 comes out, it will solve a lot of the bugginess
- and many more

negatives:
- I'm not used to the shape and it feels awkward holding it up to my face as compared to a flip phone - maybe this is also because it's so thin.
- It is windows, so if you can handle your PC crashing, you can handle this phone locking up. It's not horrible, but there are periodic moments of slowness, locking up, etc. They usually can be solved by killing all tasks or rebooting.
- I wish that there was a direct audio out, instead of just the USB/Power out, but it is nice that you can charge from a USB cable. You can also buy a splitter for under $10.


this phone is the best phone I've ever owned. Coming from
a palm tungsten e. I felt that I should combine the two
devices together I am only 17 and I love my techs.
Pros. and Cons
Pros...
Camera is great(everyone says its so clear like a digital camera)
The keypad is great for texting(which I use most)
POP3 email it allows me to get my gmail emails directly to my phone's inbox
Internet is awesome
windows media player is great for watching videos streaming radio and mp3 playback
You can record sound clips and use them as ringtones
and they still sound very clear
Bluetooth works great
Cons
Not 1 but the touch volume can be irritating but once your used to it, its ok
I'm never bored with this phone. My phone is constantly in my site.

Well I read through just about every review prior to purchasing this phone and was almost thinking twice about it after reading some of the reviews here, but I decided to take the plunge and go for it. Well I'm glad I did. All I can say is this phone has been a pleasure to use from the get-go. It has its flaws but what phone doesn't? The question is whether you're going go flip out over an alarm clock or volume strip or is it a trivial issue for you. Most of the gripes others have had just seem little to me. Let's talk about the pros and cons:

Pros:

1. Call quality is excellent. No static what so ever. No dropped calls. My area has good T-mobile coverage so I can't complain. As a phone it does what it's supposed to do. Make good quality calls. It also pairs with my bluetooth headset (Plantronics 510) really well. Speaker phone is of good quality too.

2. Internet works great. I have the $5.99 plan and yes EDGE isn't the fastest but it gets the job done. It doesn't matter where I'm at I can check my email, finds restaurants or directions, or just surf the web when I'm bored. It really came in handy when I was out on vacation and lost. WiFi works well too. Didn't want to fork out the money for hotspots though.

3. The camera at 1.3 megapixels is decent quality. No it's not going to replace my regular camera but I found it really handy when I forgot to take my camera to my friend's wedding, but was still able to take quality pictures. I haven't tried videos yet though.

4. Mp3/Video player: Now the speakers on this phone aren't the greatest so I wouldn't use them for listening to music but when plugged into a headset it sounds pretty good. I bought a 2GB microSD card bought here at Amazon and now I can hold a ton music and movies. Videos looks pretty nice I'd have to admit. This thing is my travelinig entertainment center. I even found a way to play original nintendo games on this thing and have been trying Mike Tyson's Punchout like back in the old days.

5. Calendar/schedule: I had a PDA but for some reason I'm more compelled to actually use my calendar and keep my schedule on this thing than I did with my Pocket PC. Probably because of convenience reasons.

6. Smartphone applications: I'm in the medical field and I keep all my medical applications on this phone. I can quickly look up drug references or research diseases. I really thought I'd need a touchscreen in order to better navigate these programs and while it might be slightly easier with a stylus, I don't find that it's all that necessary and still navigate pretty well. I just wish the processor were slightly faster for some of these apps, but it's more than adequate. And I'm not sure why people don't think there are a lot of programs for the smartphone. Programs written for WM5 are compatable with PPC as well as smartphones equally. [...].

7. Appearance: Everyone who sees this phone absolutely loves its looks and so do I. It looks great and feels great. I saw this side by side with the Motorola Q and the Q just looked so much bulkier and...well... not as nice. The rubber backing feels awesome.

8. Battery: For all that I use this phone for it makes it through the day with plenty battery to spare which is all I can really ask for. I wouldn't go 2 days without charging the battery though. You should charge it every night.

Cons:

1. Windows Mobile 5: Mighty Microsoft needs to write a cleaner program. However Windows Mobile 6 is on the way and will be free to download for T-Mobile customer soon so hopefully that'll take care of some of the problems. I swear just to turn on the bluetooth and pair up my bluetooth device takes me a whole minute just because of how hard it is to navigate WM5.

2. Volume strip: Yeah like everyone says it sucks. I disabled mine. Adjusting the volume with this thing is tedious at best. Luckily my music/video programs as well as my stereo headset allow me easier ways to adjust the volume so it's not such an issue for me.

3. Alarm clock: Now I don't use this all that much but I see what everyone says about it and yeah it's a pretty idiotic written program. However rather than writing half a page on how bad it is I downloaded a free one from the internet that works great so my life now goes on.

Summary: So I use this device to make quality phone calls, surf the web, check email, play games, listen to music, watch movies, monitor my schedule, check my medical references, and take decent quality pictures. All this thing needs now is a laser beam that will cut through metal and it'd be the greatest gadget known to man.

I was carrying a PDA and a Razr cell phone. When I got this phone I gave my PDA to my brother and my Razr to my daughter. I love the full contact list with addresses, all the phone numbers and notes that are in my Outlook and it syncs with Outlook. The calendar is really nice and that too syncs with Outlook. I don't try to use it for browsing the internet, but I do use T-mobiles T-zones to collect all my email from all my various email address types. It took some learning to find the easiest way to get to everything, but it's there is you look, called and received numbers with one key press, extremely easy contact look up and my favorite applications stay on the screen so that they are only a push or two away. It has EVERYTHING that any cell phone has and works as well or better and easier. The speaker phone is great and one touch (or speed) dialing is great. I can store hundreds of phone numbers at numbers I choose, then use the spot number to make a call instead of looking up numbers (ie: Lee's cell is spot 5, home spot 15, office spot 25) I found a message board especially for the DASH and that helped me learn a lot about the phone. Coverage with T-mobile is as good as any. Some areas I have service where friends with other providers don't and some areas they have service I don't. All in all, I find that I have service across the country without much trouble and I drive. If you have T-mobile cell service, their t-zones for email and many other internet based services is only $5 and WiFi service is only $20 (monthly), can't beat that. The full keyboard makes text messaging and keeping notes MUCH easier and more fun. It's not a full PDA, but it does everything I did with my PDA. It's way more than a phone, really small and thin, easy to carry, easy to lock and unlock the keyboard. It takes nice pictures for emergencies if I don't have my camera and it uses a mini SD card, which I have installed and use to store pictures and videos. Personally, I can't think of a negative thing about it. It's not a laptop computer, but I think it's the best cell phone on the market. My cousin has the blackberry and he's jealous of me and my Dash.

I've had multiple PDA's that have crashed and multiple phones in the past. I had a great Nokia phone, but wanted to combine into one unit so I decided to try the Dash about 6 months ago. So far, I've had no issues with service. Been able to make and receive phone calls, call clarity is excellent and with TMobile, I have service in my office unlike other co-workers phones. Everyone is jealous - their pda phones are much larger and not as nice looking. I really enjoy having the email and internet feature. The only issue I've had at all is with the volume control - when I'm surfing the net or playing ball breaker, I hold the phone and often hit the volume control. Everything else works as described and I'm very happy with my choice.

When I was looking to combine my phones, I was comparing this phone to the blackberry and after reading many reviews, I picked this one. I'm very happy I did.

[...]

I love the way the phone looks and feels but that's about it. From finding contacts to dropped call this phone functions well below any phone I've ever owned. I've had it now for 3 months and my frustration level continues to rise.

First, let me say that I really wanted to like this device. I had patience and understanding for a while but it got me nowhere.
The main issue with this phone is its operating system: Windows Mobile 5.0.
This OS is a piece of fluff garbage. Simple things that should take a click or two have become so difficult to access that you basically just give up.

Main Gripes
-----------
Connectivity with T-Mobile is horrible: accessing the aim function doesn't work 9 times out of 10. E-mail functions are useless. I tried finding a solution for hours and the best I got was having my email checked every hour but deleted shortly after that. Internet explorer can NEVER find the page that I'm looking for and consistently tells me to try again. Even when connected to wi-fi this happens. Let me tell you also that this device does not let you choose between wi-fi and edge. If you already opened IE and you were using EDGE then it will continue to use EDGE unless you restart the phone with wi-fi enabled.

Calls
-----
Making a call was so difficult that I wanted to smash the phone on a daily basis. Usually, I would press talk to dial a call and it would immediately say "Call Ended." It's as if the device doesn't even want to try.
Also, when answering a call, well trying to answer a call, it would drop it as soon as I pressed talk. What the HELL is THAT!? What good is a phone if you can't make or receive calls? Keep in mind this happens around half the time. Also keep in mind that I live in NEW YORK CITY! My calls should not be dropping except for when I'm in the subway. The side volume button is extremely annoying causing the volume to go to both extremes within one conversation. Not only that, but when you disable it, you have no other method of changing the volume on the device. ARGGGHHH!

Keyboard
-------
While the keyboard is basically easy to type on, the phone is buggy. First off, the t9 sucks! It will completely change the word you are typing to a word that's in its dictionary while you're typing! EXTREMELY FRUSTRATING! Now get this, you can't even permanently keep the t9 off. So you have to keep going into the menu to change it to normal ABC mode. While I appreciate the ability to have faster typing, isn't the whole point of a QWERTY being able to type without using t9? When you actually get to typing, sometimes, the keys will "stick" and a character will continuously repeat until you stop it. This isn't a physical keyboard issue but yet another software issue.

Programs
-------
For all you techno oriented people out there (basically everyone buying this phone), the programs this device has available for download are minuscule. Not only is the catalog of programs extremely limited but when using a JAVA program (which most programs are coded in) the Dash's JAVA program will not allow you to open those programs. I ALWAYS get an error stating "A Java midlet is not responding" It then gives me the choice of waiting or killing the app. Neither of which solve anything.

This phone is so useless it's beyond words. I could go on and on about it's issues but I really don't care to.

STAY AWAY FROM THIS PHONE!
While T-mobile customer support is very helpful and friendly, their service/coverage is non-existent. Calls are constantly dropped, I get voice mails without the phone even ringing, and internet connectivity is never really available.
Please, do yourself a favor and wait for the iPhone.


I bought mine at a T-Mobile store, so I didnt' get the great deal that is being offered. But I was upgrading. I've been a customer since they came to America in 2002 (Voicestream).

The form factor is nice to the touch. I have not dropped the phone yet, and it has not slipped out of my hands. The buttons are easy to use and respond very well.

The software overall is good. What I have to do is resist the urge to compare it to my laptop. It is not a replacement for my laptop. One piece of software I purchased through Handango is called "Bankarama." I love this, because I can enter my ATM purchases on-the-go, instead of saving receipts for entry into the PC later. I can export my data into a CVS for use in Excel.

Back to the phone.

CALLS: I haven't had any problems with receiving calls or making calls. Haven't had a call dropped yet, and I end up driving through the mountains at times.

TEXT/EMAIL: Incoming and outgoing, it has been relatively fast and reliable, compared to my Verizon MotoQ.

WEB: Not bad, even though it's not 3G yet. Using the WIFI delivers the pages to the device really quickly.

BLUETOOTH: Haven't had any problems with the Bluetooth headset (H500). I also use the Bluetooth to sync the device (ActiveSync) with my laptop. Look ma, no wires!

EXTRA: It came with a 1gig memory chip. This thing is about the size of my pinky nail and comes with a converter so I can plug it into my computer and manage the files. The thing holds a ton of pictures and music as well. I have 7 music albums and 200 pictures on it right now.

WEB EXTRA: Since I have their data plan, it allows me access at any HotSpot. So when I take my laptop to Starbucks, it connects very easily and quickly. No extra charge. My data plan with T-Mobile is $30. Compared to the Verizon plan, which is $44 and does not give you any HotSpot access, it's a deal.

SYNC: The Dash and my Outlook are always in sync with each other.

BATTERY: I turn on the Bluetooth and WIFI whenever I need them. The battery holds up for a full 24 hours for me, but I'd not go 2 days without charging it. I charge mine up every night, just to be sure. I don't have a charger at work or in the car. At this point, I don't need them.

I've had my Dash for a few months and have been very happy with it.

In summary, Microsoft's software and T-Mobile's service have ruined a brilliant design (although with a couple of flaws) from HTC.

There are many pros and cons about this device and the service that it is shackled to. I will break it down to Hardware, Software and Cell Phone Service Provider.

Hardware Pro's:
A lot has been written about this aspect of the device, so I'll keep this to a minimum - The best form factor I've ever seen. This device provides you the power of a Blackberry without the bulky hardware so I can put it in my pocket comfortably and not have to look like a geek with the belt holster.
- A key selling point for me was the combined Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and quad-band connectivity that enabled me to connect a wireless headset, cruise web pages and have access to email when in the US or Europe.

- The phone quality is excellent.

- The keyboard layout is excellent and easy to use for medium sized emails.

- The battery life is great when Wi-Fi is not enabled and adequate when it is. (I've rarely struggled with a dying battery.) Stand-by power management appears to be excellent.

- Charging of the device is very quick.

- The display, while a little small, is crystal clear and surprisingly easy to use given its size.

- The camera is pretty good and it's been really great emailing photo's to people as I'm traveling around.

[After all of the cons that you'll read below you'll wonder why I ever bought the device and why I still use it. Well here it is:
1. T-Mobile locked me into a 2 year contract on a very expensive device.
2. It has great hardware that I can use in the US and Europe, I'm just hoping that Microsoft will finally get it right. ]

Hardware Con's

- The touch sensitive volume button is the most ill-conceived feature I've ever seen. Even after playing around with various settings it is still hard to quickly set the volume at the desired level. Even worse, when using the phone your ear or finger can inadvertently hit the control and randomly change the volume.

- The TI OMAP 850 at 201MHz is not beefy enough for the software that is loaded onto the device. However, the blame could well be laid at Microsoft's door for writing inefficient code and having poor scheduling software between tasks and applications. Either way, performance is very slow for some basic functions (see below) and I'm afraid some of the blame needs to be laid at the choice of processor.

Software Pro's
- Not many that really come to mind.

Software Con's
(I hope you're sitting comfortably)

- When a call is on call waiting the phone fails to give an option to the user to select which call to take and which call to put on hold or drop/ignore. On the occasions this problem has occurred with me the call that is dropped/kept appears random with a preference to switch to the incoming call no matter what is depressed. The other call is dropped and not put on hold.

- When a call is incoming and the keyboard is locked, if the user depresses the green phone key the call is dropped. This is extremely counter intuitive. If the user presses anything other than the "answer" key the call is dropped and sometimes the call has been dropped even when I have depressed the "answer" key.

- The contacts database is extremely rudimentary with a very limited number of views and filters that can be used. Even worse, upon selection, the contacts database takes between 5 and 8 seconds to open. Now, I have what some would call a large database of contacts, but considering that the Palm OS version responded immediately with a far more sophisticated use model this excuse does not wash. It's simply a poorly architected database.

- The user interface for entering a new contact is rudimentary (as are all dialog windows on this device.)

- One of the most annoying aspects of this device is the alarm clock. The user interface looks like it was written in 10 minutes and was clearly not verified for correctness. The digital watch I had in 1982 had the same degree of sophistication but with a more intuitive use model and was more thoroughly debugged. First of all, the user only gets to select a time and if the alarm is on or off. From the interface you would assume you could only set a single alarm....if only it were that obvious. The best way to explain this buggy piece of software is with an example: I set the alarm for 6am; the next day the alarm goes off at 6am. That day I set the alarm for 7am - the following day the alarm goes off at 6am and 7am. The next day I set the alarm for 7:30am and you guessed it, the alarm now goes off three times. The best that I've been able to deduce (of course, this type of behavior is not documented in the user manual that comes with the device) is that the user has to actively select "off" for the current setting before setting "on" for the new time. But there is no indication of what alarms are set, so after a while or a particularly busy week you can loose track of what's set and what isn't....the only way to clear all of the alarms that have been set is a hard re-boot.

- The calculator is a joke. If this took an engineer 10 minutes to write they should be fired. A calculator watch in the '80's had more sophisticated features. The user interface is so bad it's hard to describe it in words.

- Microsoft truly does not understand how a user would like to use the device and instead insists on using the same usage model that they've inflicted upon us since Windows 95. Most features or function have to be navigated through the Start menu button. Applications are nested and features are hidden behind several annoying menu selections. Some features are simply hard to find, but should it really take so many menu selections to find common tools or applications?

- The use of alarms or reminders is ambiguous - to put the device in "Silent" mode, but leave alarms on because you want to sleep and only want your alarm to wake you up, for example, does not work. Calendar reminders will be active as they are assigned the alarm property instead of their own or the notification property. The only way around this is to cancel reminders for all day events....otherwise you get an alarm at midnight.

- So, on my Nokia phone a thousand years ago, when I went to Europe my phone would have a simple selection for the new frequency I needed once landed. The phone would then automatically connect to the provider available. It wasn't completely automatic, but the user interaction was simple and intuitive. Not with the Dash. First of all T-Mobile doesn't help by keeping a radio button on your online account that you have to select to enable international roaming. The feature is free so why not add a selection anyway? All you know when you get to your destination is that your phone won't connect to the local network no matter what you do. Now, assuming that you worked this out, you are now faced with the challenge of actually connecting to the local provider's network. On my Blackberry this was automatic, but of course with Microsoft there are selections to make, searches to activate and various other contortions that need to be gone through before you connect to the provider of choice. Assuming that you get connected at all.

- ActiveSync: This is the most annoying piece of software in that it just does not work. Worse still, when it does not work it gives a cryptic error message stating that an error has occurred and some data will be lost next time you perform synchronization. It does not provide you with a fix, a hint or a path so that you don't lose data. It does not even tell you the data that was lost. So, I'm using a Microsoft Mobile OS with Microsoft XP and Microsoft Outlook and they can't get that right? (OK, it maybe serves me right for signing up to so much Microsoft, but come on.) This was another primary purchasing driver for me. I am very busy and want to have my schedule up to date between my PC and PDA - all the time. It's the only way to keep organized. I thought that with the same provider of all the software I'd be OK. Also, as this feature has been around for over a decade from Palm and perfected by Blackberry....how hard can it be?

There are probably annoying nits that I have with the software, but those are the major ones. And they are major.

Considering this is Windows Mobile 5.0 what on earth were they doing for 1.0, 2.0, etc.?

Service Provider Pro

- T-Mobile is useful to me for traveling in Europe. They have much better coverage over there than in the US (where I'm actually paying).

- Their package is competitive.

Service Provider Con:

- Coverage is not good enough. I'm in San Francisco and I have dead spots in my house.

- Their back-end connectivity with your email providers is terribly buggy. At random times you will get cryptic messages saying that you must have something wrong with your connection and emails can't be accessed. But you know there's nothing wrong with your connection because you've been on the browser. Also, there was a whole day that emails were not accessible. Because of the many issues that I'd had with email set up and maintaining a connection I went through various debug routines wondering what had failed. When I finally called technical support they told me that their service was down - no apology, no notification, no nothing. Certainly no minutes to make up for the inconvenience. (So, why didn't I call technical support earlier? read below...)

- Their technical support structure is terrible. I have collectively wasted over 12 hours of my life on their "help" line. I'm not going to go into details as it would just take too long. Bottom line, if you have a problem with your phone say "Dash" at the prompt and then ask for Tier Three Data support. Everything you get before that is a waste of your time as the technicians you'll encounter have inadequate training. If you are then put on hold and are given another number to dial - DO NOT DO IT - This cycles you back around to Tier Two Data Support and you have to go back to the back of the line for someone that understands the device.

So, should you buy it? Wait until Windows Mobile 6.0 comes out at least. Maybe another provider will pick up the device by that time. Then see what else is available.

This is my first SmartPhone and I've had a lot of fun with it so far. For being so small, the keys are remarkably easy to use. I often connect it to my laptop via a USB cable. If you have Windows XP along with MS ActiveSync 4.2.0, your PC/laptop will recognize it as a network device. A little bonus app on the Dash lets you share the Internet connection (granted you have the data plan) at no extra cost.

If you get the add-on micro SD card (about $80), you'll have no need to buy an iPod. Windows Media Player (which comes standard) works just as well.

It has a built in 802.11b (or g?) card. When I'm in range of wi-fi, I can use Skype and save my minutes. I hope T-Mobile doesn't read this since they'll probably patch that loophole :)

A few of the cons:

-There is no scroll wheel like on the Blackberry.

-The battery charge doesn't last longer than a day or so if you've got data push to Outlook enabled. If I forget to charge it at night, I'm SOL.

-The volume strip on the righthand side drives me nuts. I'm constantly hitting it by mistake. When I do, an annoying popup interrupts whatever I'm doing. You can disable the volume strip, but it's kindof important for certain apps like Skype and Windows Media Player. A simple classic volume dial on the side would be a huge improvement. The strip never seems to work right when I really intend to adjust the volume.

-The keyboard is nice, but a touch screen would be better for certain apps. There's no way to cut-and-paste.

My phone broke after a month or so. After spending 30 minutes on the phone during which time t-mobile continually wanted to blame me (did you put it in fluorescent light, did you put it in the sun, did you drop it, did you put it in your pocket and bend it, did you put it in your pocket and bump into something, did you drop it, did you break it, did you do something bad to it) they finally relented and agreed to send a new one with the oft repeated comment that if they determined that the phone was damaged then they would charge me untold sums of money.

The most amusing part of the conversation went like this: would you like UPS ground which will take 10 days or UPS 3 day which will cost $15? When I responded that the ground would be fine she said "OK, that will be $9.95". I had to laugh at their arrogance.



I have tried many many cell phones but this phone is unbelievable. I put a 1 gig memory card in it. Right now, I have a 140,000 word dictionary on it, the NIV bible, Star Wars, many videos of my son, about 100 wma songs, and a ton of pictures. It syncs up to MS Outlook like a charm so all of my contacts, appts, tasks, and emails are always up to date. It comes with bluetooth and works great with my logitech headset. It also has wifi which has been flawless with my wireless network and is very speedy. The screen is absolutely gorgeous. The camera takes decent pictures and video. One of the best features is the battery life. For all it does it lasts an incredibly long time. I have not found a smartphone that even comes close to these features especially for the price. I like it waaaay better than the treo, blackberries, Q, or any other qwerty device. It's glued to my hip and I use it all the time. I love it!!!

This thing does it all. Great phone, I've never had a dropped call. Email works like a charm.

The WIFI is a nice option. I have a Tmobile hot spot near my house and I get a cup a coffee and read my email.

The screen is clean and bright, buttons a little small, and whats the deal with the volume strip? But what do you want with a device this small!

I would highly recommend for an average to advanced user. If you are a "crackberry" addicted power user, this may not be the device for you.

I've yet to have an issuee with it.

UPDATE 3/28/07 - I've had this phone for over a month. I bought a Moto H700 Bluetooth headset for the Dash. It took about 10 seconds to set up and works like a charm. You cannot tell the difference between the headset and talking on the handset.

The one downside I did discover is that the battary needs to be charged everynight before I go to sleep. This device is a power hog. Make sure you have a charger at home, work and in the car. It has a mini-usb for the charger connection, so I can use the chaeger from my H700 at home and I keep the charger the Dash came with at work. the Dash also comes with a cable to synch with my lap top, that can also serve as a charger as well.

All in all - I'm very happy with my choice.

I bought this device and tried to sync with my outlook. After dealing with T-Mobile customer service for 12 hours, they told me it was a Microsoft issue and I should call them. Finally, they admitted their sales group just "pushes these out the door" and it wouldn't hold 2500 contacts.

Awful experience.

Used to be a staunch Nokia smartphone user, but gave up with the latest symbian based phones. Despite my dislike for all forms of Windows, the Dash is a terrific, powerful phone.

Fantastic Phone. Ok, Fantastic SMARTPhone.

Tons of great easy to use features
Simple navigational menus with Windows Mobile 5.0
Huge brilliant screen
Built-in Wifi
QWERTY keyboard
Small Size
Comfortable to Hold
Easily turn on/off bluetooth, wifi, etc.

Best of all, it is a great PHONE.

Yes, great sound! Wow, a Cell/PDA that actually works as a great Phone. Unbelievable!

And maybe it's just T-Mo or the phone/T-Mo combo, but the Dash has great service. In my twelve years of cell phone usage and different local carriers (PrimeCo-Verizon, Sprint, AT&T-Cingular, this is my first time I will say I have GREAT cell service. I was so used to dropped calls with Cingular, it feels weird not having dropped calls anymore; sometimes those dropped calls came in handy when the conversations lagged, y'know?

I don't even have to go OUTSIDE to use it! Previously I didn't even have indoor usage in my home, unless I stood still in one area without moving and hanging on to that one remaining bar before it too would disappear. With the Dash - Indoor calls!

I also love the feel of the Dash because unlike all my other phones which slipped from my hand, this phone stays put and it doesn't have that slippery feel of hard plastic on the back but instead feels rubberized. It also helps that this is slightly wider than my older clamshell and candy bar phones as I would constantly fumble and drop them, but maybe I am just a clutz.

It also comes with a very nice case, but you have to remove the Dash from the case for usage (which I prefer to do anyway, as all cases tend to make these tiny devices bulky) but it's convenient to easily slide onto your belt and I just pop/slide it out from my case when needed. It also comes with all the necessary cables/equipment for synching to your computer and charging.

The only "con" I found is the Volume "strip"; I disabled the volume strip since I keep the volume at one level and I would hit the strip with my fingers too many times accidentally adjusting the volume up or down. Disabling it is the answer for me.

Connecting to my bluetooth motorola was quick, as is synching to my computer for transferring files to the device.

The Dash is an awesome device and is highly recommended.