T-Mobile today announced their first 3G Windows Mobile phone, the T-Mobile Dash 3G. The Dash 3G was designed by HTC, the same company who created the original Dash, and in fact HTC has been showing off this very phone for a while as the HTC Snap. The new Dash 3G uses the same basic QWERTY slab design as the original, but this is a much more stylish and modern looking update. The phone uses a trackball for navigation, and includes a host of modern feature updates over the 2.5-year old original.
The new phone will use T-Mobile's growing 3G network for data service. The device will run Windows Mobile 6.1, and T-Mobile has yet to announce whether the phone will be upgradeable to the newer Windows Mobile 6.5, when it becomes available later this year. Of note, the original T-Mobile Dash shipped with Windows Mobile 5, and T-Mobile offered WinMo 6 as a free update later in the phone's life. Otherwise, the new Dash 3G will also get GPS for location-based services. T-Mobile has yet to produce their own, branded turn-by-turn navigation service, but hopefully the carrier won't neglect turn-by-turn navigation on this device.
Otherwise, the device seems mostly the same as the HTC Snap, though a few questions remain. First, the key selling point on the Snap is the Inner Circle menu. This brings together important e-mails and incoming messages from important people in your life, aggregating messages from numerous e-mail accounts into a single menu space. We think this might complement T-Mobile's popular MyFaves calling feature nicely, though the Inner Circle feature wasn't mentioned once in the official press release.
Second, we're curious how T-Mobile will handle radio bands on the device. T-Mobile's 3G network uses technology similar to AT&T's network, but different radio frequencies. We've been waiting for a T-Mobile device to offer roaming on AT&T's 3G network, but we're just as curious to see whether T-Mobile will package the Dash 3G with the radio bands used in Europe for the same HSDPA network.
Also included in the T-Mobile Dash 3G announcement was a short tease about an upcoming Android-powered phone, a follow-on device to the T-Mobile G1 with Google. Of course, we expect this will be a device similar to the HTC Magic that HTC showed us alongside the Snap at this year's CTIA show. Still, we're expecting some major expansion from Android this year, so we wouldn't put it past T-Mobile to surprise us with something different, perhaps the Samsung i7500, which will presumably also support T-Mobile's 3G network.
Pricing and specific availability for the T-Mobile Dash 3G have yet to be announced, but the carrier says the phone should start showing up in stores and online by the end of July. The current Dash is still available for $50 online, so we're betting the Dash 3G will go on sale for $100 to $130 at launch.
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