T-Mobile's update to the popular Dash offers 3G networking and slick new look. Can this new Windows Mobile phone compete with the mighty BlackBerry Curve? Find out in our T-Mobile Dash 3G review.
Review summary of the T-Mobile Dash 3G:
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 The T-Mobile Dash 3G is the best looking device to come out of the HTC Snap family, perhaps because it remains closest to the original. But while we liked the look and feel of this device, when it came time to get to work, we had trouble with the trackball and the unusual button and keyboard layout. We liked the snappy interface, with an improved look from T-Mobile, and Microsoft's newest mobile Web browser on board, equipped with Flash Lite support. Plus, for business users, there's hardly a better tool for scheduling and productivity options. The T-Mobile Dash 3G also comes with a great software package, especially for messaging fans and GPS navigators. Still, the phone comes up short in multimedia capabilities, and other T-Mobile smartphones with Wi-Fi also get HotSpot @Home calling, a convenient option for cheap calls, especially in dead zones. T-Mobile hasn't seen a Windows Mobile phone this compelling in a long while, and the T-Mobile Dash 3G is definitely a slim smartphone that's worth a look. But we don't see it knocking the BlackBerry Curve off its pedestal any time soon. Release: July 2009. Price: $170.
Pros: Stylish, slim business device. Solid call quality and great battery life. Great instant messaging options.
Cons: Trackball was unresponsive, even cranked to highest sensitivity. Button and keyboard layout awkward. 3G service area still growing.
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Full T-Mobile Dash 3G Review:
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Design – Very Good
The T-Mobile Dash 3G is a very nice looking QWERTY slab phone. It's a great improvement over the original T-Mobile Dash, and among all the recently-released phones based on the HTC Snap model, the T-Mobile Dash 3G is closest to the original design (even closer than the HTC Snap on Sprint, ironically), and it's our favorite design of the bunch. The T-Mobile Dash 3G is slim and light, with a silky soft-touch finish on the back and pleasantly rounded keys on the face. The phone uses a trackball for navigation, and hides a miniUSB port on the side, which functions as a multi-port for sync, audio output and charging. A microSD slot is hidden under the battery door, but not under the battery itself.
Though the T-Mobile Dash 3G looks great, the design and somewhat unique button layout caused us headaches in usability. First, the trackball was not nearly responsive enough. We dug into the settings and cranked the sensitivity all the way up, but using the T-Mobile Dash 3G still gave our thumbs a marathon workout with all the flicking we had to do. Sometimes we had to flick the ball multiple times just to move up one level on the Today screen. You'll quickly find yourself wishing for a simpler 4-way button with an "up" or "down" that you can simply hold in place to navigate the device. Certainly HTC could learn a lot from RIM's BlackBerry devices, as trackballs on the BlackBerry Curve, and especially on the BlackBerry Pearl Flip, were much more comfortable and effective.
Second, the key arrangement of the buttons and the keyboard itself took some getting used to. The soft keys literally overlap the Home and Back keys, and this alignment means you'll have to focus to choose the right onscreen menu option, or you might accidentally back out of an app. The second row on the keyboard was strangely aligned farther left than the top row, and we frequently made typing errors, usually typing a comma instead of the letter "L."
The 2.4-inch screen on the T-Mobile Dash 3G was very nice. The display was bright and colorful, and it did a nice job handling the Windows Mobile 6.1 interface. Windows Mobile 6.1 is actually easier to use on non-touchscreen phones, with its sliding panels on the homescreen that present useful information right up front. In addition to the normal sliding panels, T-Mobile users get the convenient myFaves launcher, which presents your favorite 5 on the Today screen, just below the clock. From that Today screen, we could browse recent e-mail, check upcoming appointments and even control music playback. Once you dig deeper, things start to look more like a desktop Windows OS, but T-Mobile has spruced up some of the basic icons just a bit. It's still the same basic structure, but the look is slightly improved.
Calling – Very Good
Phone calls on the T-Mobile Dash 3G sounded very good. Though T-Mobile's 3G network may lag a bit in coverage, we usually found a solid signal and our calls benefited from the improved network. Calls on the T-Mobile Dash 3G sounded better than calls on its brethren phones on Verizon and Sprint, and except for a slight bit of hiss in the background on our end, we were happy with the sound quality we got from the phone. Battery life was also very good. We managed to get almost 6 hours of talking time from the phone. Though the T-Mobile Dash 3G lags behind competing BlackBerry devices just a bit in terms of battery life, it does use T-Mobile's 3G HSDPA network, which is a notorious battery hog. We think the slight trade-off of some battery life for dramatically improved network speeds is worth it.
For calling features, the T-Mobile Dash 3G gets some effective sync options through Windows Mobile, which let us synchronize our corporate Exchange contact list, as well as our desktop Outlook contacts. Mac users will need a 3rd party option, and we wish there was an online sync to access address books on Yahoo or Gmail. Like all Windows Mobile phones, the T-Mobile Dash 3G does a great job handling contacts. You can simply start typing a name from the Today screen, and the HTC Snap will initiate a search to find the person you need to call. The phone will also keep track of recent calls within a contact's address book listing, so you can look up your client to see how often you've really been in touch.
Conference calling on the T-Mobile Dash 3G was easy, and the phone does a nice job helping you manage calls during a conversation, letting you split and rejoin a conference easily. T-Mobile's myFaves is a nice shortcut for calling your favorite 5 contacts, and the discount T-Mo offers for myFaves plans is just another reason the carrier is known for its affordability. The T-Mobile Dash 3G gets voice dialing with Microsoft's Voice Commands, and it isn't our favorite voice dialing app, but it works okay once you've figured out the proper voice prompts. In our tests, the phone guessed our spoken requests about 7 out of 10 tries. Otherwise, the speakerphone was adequately loud, and we had no trouble connecting our Bluetooth headset to the Dash 3G.
Unlike the BlackBerry Curve 8900 on T-Mobile, the HTC Dash 3G does not support UMA calling over it's Wi-Fi connection. UMA is a feature that allows for cheap calls over Wi-Fi, and beyond the great bargain it also improves phone reception issues, since any Wi-Fi hotspot acts as a sort of micro cell tower. We wish the HTC Dash 3G had this option, but since it doesn't, true bargain hunters who spend loads of time chatting and folks who live on the outskirts of T-Mobile's network range might want to consider the Curve as a better option.
Messaging and Keyboard– Very Good
For messaging features, the T-Mobile Dash 3G gets all the great standard apps from Windows Mobile, and then T-Mobile went an extra step to please Instant Messaging users. Text messaging on the T-Mobile Dash 3G was straightforward, and we like that the phone will search our contact list from the "To:" field in the messaging app. Messages are arranged in a threaded style, so you can follow an entire text messaging conversation as if it were an IM chat. For instant messaging fans, T-Mobile has always gone farther than most carriers, but with the T-Mobile Dash 3G, the carrier has included more client support than we expected. The phone can send instant messages using AOL, MSN and Yahoo, as well as over Google's Gtalk service. We were also pleased to find access to MySpace IM. MySpace and Facebook are popular for their instant messaging services, so we think buyers will enjoy a dedicated IM app for these social networks. With the Dash 3G's business OS, we think Facebook might have been more appropriate, but it's a great move on T-Mobile's part offering a dedicated MySpace IM chat app.
T-Mobile has also beefed up its e-mail offering just a bit. In addition to the corporate e-mail support we found for Exchange servers, a Windows Mobile staple, we also found an improved e-mail setup app for users on other e-mail services. In addition to AOL, MSN and Yahoo e-mail, the app also has presets for Gmail, and we were delighted to find that the Gmail service on the T-Mobile Dash 3G supports IMAP, instead of the normal POP e-mail. IMAP works more like a simple push messaging system, and keeps your phone inbox better synchronized with the real inbox on the server, so we think users will prefer IMAP support for Gmail.
We definitely enjoyed the keyboard on the T-Mobile Dash 3G for the feel of the individual keys. The layout took some getting used to. As we mentioned, that second row of keys is poorly aligned, and we were constantly making typos. Also, the T-Mobile Dash 3G loses one of our favorite keyboard features of the original Dash. On the original, you could hold a letter to get the accompanying symbol, but on the Dash 3G, holding a key repeats that letter, which seems like a useless feature on a mobile platform. Even HTC's virtual keyboards on phones like the HTC Hero use the former method, so we wonder why the Dash 3G was left out.
Scheduling and Productivity – Very Good
Business users will be quite pleased with the T-Mobile Dash 3G. Windows Mobile phones do a great job with scheduling, and the T-Mobile Dash 3G was no slouch, either. The phone pulled all of our appointments from our Exchange account and presented them up front so we could run through the days events. We also like the robust features, including the ability to invite attendees to an event. The calendar and scheduling app isn't very pretty, it's mostly a wireframe with text strewn throughout, but it certainly gets the job done.
For productivity apps, the T-Mobile Dash 3G comes with a basic selection of Microsoft goods, including the Office Mobile suite. Unfortunately, on non-touchscreen phones, you still can't create a new Office document, but you can read and even edit Word and Excel files saved to the phone or sent as attachments. For features, these editing programs are surprisingly rich, but don't expect full desktop functionality.
Beyond the basic Microsoft kit, the T-Mobile Dash 3G doesn't come with any additional productivity software worth a mention. Unlike competing devices on other networks, the Dash 3G is not capable of acting as a tethered modem. In fact, none of T-Mobile's 3G phones are capable of establishing an Internet connection with a laptop. This is an unfortunate oversight on T-Mobile's part, and we hope that as their 3G HSDPA network builds out into more cities, tethering is an option they add to their 3G lineup. Until then, users who want a phone that doubles as a modem might be better off checking out Sprint's HTC Snap, or any Windows Mobile device with the Internet Sharing app pre-loaded, as these have proven to be the most reliable for tethered modem support.
Multimedia - Good
Music and video on the T-Mobile Dash 3G are handled by the Windows Media Player. Windows Media Player is an ugly app that can hardly handle today's media libraries. It does a poor job finding and organizing music, and offers few playback options or sound quality controls. In fact, it wasn't even good at displaying our album artwork. Though the T-Mobile Dash 3G can play music directly from the homescreen, this was hardly an improvement, as serious music browsing requiring delving into WMP, and this was never a pleasant or intuitive experience. In addition, HTC's aversion to standard 3.5mm headphone jacks continues with the T-Mobile Dash 3G. The phone ships with a generous adapter that offers expansion for 3.5mm, 2.5mm and even USB headphones, and HTC also includes a set of the latter style of earbuds. Still, most users would prefer a simple standard headphone port so you don't have to remember an adapter every time you leave the house.
Besides Windows Media Player, the T-Mobile Dash 3G comes with a dedicated YouTube app. The YouTube app looked pretty good on the Dash 3G, and streaming videos played without hiccups. We enjoyed watching clips on the YouTube player on the Dash 3G, and the app works smoothly over Wi-Fi or on T-Mobile's 3G network.
Web browsing - Good
The T-Mobile Dash 3G ships with Microsoft's newest mobile Web browser, Internet Explorer 6. Sure, that may be 2 versions behind the desktop, but IE6 on Windows Mobile 6.1 (so-called 6 on 6) worked fairly well, and was a significant upgrade over the older version that used to ship on Windows Mobile phones. If you've been burned by Web browsing on Windows Mobile in the past, rest assured that Internet Explorer 6 is now capable of rendering Web pages that look accurate compared to their desktop companions. It wasn't perfect, and some advanced layouts and functions didn't show up properly on the T-Mobile Dash 3G. The browser uses Flash Lite for video and multimedia. We've had mixed results using Flash Lite on mobile browsers, but on the T-Mobile Dash 3G it seemed to work fairly well. It wasn't nearly on par with the desktop experience, but we were able to watch YouTube videos on the desktop version of the YouTube site, and video playback was relatively smooth, so long as we turned off apps running in the background and didn't do any scrolling. Though Internet Explorer 6 might still lag behind the best mobile browsers, finally Windows Mobile has pulled ahead of RIM's BlackBerry platform when it comes to mobile Web browsing.
Camera - Mediocre
The camera on the T-Mobile Dash 3G was a little disappointing. It wasn't just the small sensor, though 2-megapixels is now at the low end for modern smartphones. Images also looked fuzzy, with some washed out colors and a general lack of detail. Outdoor shots were much better than indoor pictures, but at full crop, we still noticed a lack of detail and poor light handling in our pics. We did appreciate the easy uploading options, and if you're using T-Mobile's My Album online, it couldn't be easier to post pics with the T-Mobile Dash 3G. The phone can send shots automatically after each exposure, or give you a second to consider your photography skills. Sending MMS messages was easy, and pictures were certainly good enough for simple messaging or social networking apps like Facebook or Twitter. But these won't be good enough to use as a desktop wallpaper, let alone print on real paper. Check out our image samples below.
Rock Wall
No Glassware
Cactus and Spa
Self Portrait
The Best Toy Ever
GPS – Very Good
The T-Mobile Dash 3G gets a nice mix of location-based apps. The star of the show is TeleNav's turn-by-turn navigation app. For a monthly fee, you get access to TeleNav's directions and point of interest database, but new users will also get a 14-day trial to make the decision. We liked using TeleNav on the T-Mobile Dash, but the phone didn't have very good GPS reception. Without an open sky view, the T-Mobile Dash 3G was unable to locate us, even while similar phones, like the HTC Snap on Sprint, had no trouble finding us. When you do have clear skies overhead, the T-Mobile Dash 3G comes with a QuickGPS app that pre-loads satellite positioning data. This should make positioning much quicker, but it didn't seem to help us much.
In addition to TeleNav, the T-Mobile Dash 3G also gets Google Maps, as well as Microsoft's own location-aware Bing search tool. Both of these were good at finding nearby businesses, but Bing was much better looking, with built-in help for movies and gas prices, in addition to traffic information. In any case, it was nice to have abundant options for location-based searching.
Price and availability
The T-Mobile Dash 3G is available now from T-Mobile for $170 with a contract agreement.
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