They're thin, they're eye-catching and they're aces at messaging. Which one belongs in your briefcase? See what happens when we pit the immovable E62 against the irresistible Dash.
Review summary of the T-Mobile Dash:
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Round 1: Design
The Dash takes an early lead with its thin, compact shell. At 4.4 by 2.5 by 0.5 inches and just 4.2 ounces, the Dash is narrower, thinner and nearly a full ounce lighter than the E62, and it fits easily in a jeans pocket, a rarity for a smartphone. But the E62 pulls even with its roomy keypad; tapping out messages on the wide, flat keys was a distinct pleasure, especially compared to the smaller, stubby keys on the Dash. Meanwhile, both phones stumbled when it came to other modes of input: it was too easy to accidentally nudge the E62's joystick when pressing down to select a menu item, and we were continually setting off the Dash's trigger-happy, touch-sensitive strip on the side of the screen. In the end, the Dash steals the win with its ingenious head-smacker of a feature: pressing and holding a key has the same effect as tapping "Alt" first, a time-saving shortcut that our fingertips greatly appreciated.
Winner: T-Mobile Dash
Round 2: Messaging
Both the Dash and the E62 boast superb messaging features, including push e-mail, compatibility with corporate Microsoft Exchange servers and POP/IMAP e-mail access, although the E62 gets a slight edge with its BlackBerry Connect support. Each smartphone boasts multiple IM clients (AIM, ICQ, MSN and Yahoo on the Dash, while the E62 has all but ICQ) and intuitive, easy-to-use messaging clients. That said, neither phone features a contextual, while-you-type menu of contact names in the "To" field for new messages, something we've come to expect from the latest smartphones.
Winner: Tie
Round 3: Productivity
When it comes to mobile document handling, we have one simple rule: viewing is nice, editing is better. The Dash comes with the Windows Mobile Smartphone document viewer, which does a more than adequate job of opening and displaying Office files (although zooming in and out of documents took a few too many clicks for our taste), but while you can look, you can't touch. The E62's document editor can't quite match up to those we've seen on, say, the Windows Mobile-powered Palm Treo 700wx or the Palm OS Treo 700p, but you can indulge in some basic text and formatting editing, and you can even tweak formulas in Excel documents.
Winner: Nokia E62
Round 4: Scheduling
We weren't particularly wowed by the scheduling apps on either the Dash or the E62. The Dash suffers from a particularly dull scheduling interface, even compared to its Windows Mobile Smartphone brethren, with its confusing week view and list-only daily view. The E62's scheduling UI looks slightly more polished, and features pop-up windows when you mouse-over events. However, in our tests, we had trouble syncing all our desktop calendar items to the E62, with the all-important "Notes" field often turning up empty -- ouch. On the other hand, our attempts to sync the Dash using Microsoft ActiveSync went without a hitch.
Winner: T-Mobile Dash
Round 5: Calling
Both the Dash and the E62 pack in the latest and greatest calling features, including a speakerphone, conference calling, voice dialing (speaker-independent on the E62, voice tags on the Dash), and Bluetooth headset capabilities. Sounds pretty even to us, but the E62 noses ahead with its slightly superior call quality; testing in New York City, the E62's calls sounded relatively loud and clear, while calls on the Dash suffered from slight fuzziness and occasional drop-outs.
Winner: Nokia E62
Round 6: Connectivity
The Dash and the E62 are pretty even in the connectivity department -- with one important exception. Both smartphones run on 2.5G EDGE networks, making for speedy (if not quite bone-rattling) Web surfing and downloads, and each handset lets you sync with your desktop via USB or Bluetooth. The E62 has an IR port, but let's face it -- we haven't beamed a business card via IR since the turn of the century. We might have had another tie in the offing, except the Dash has an ace up its sleeve: built-in Wi-Fi (plus a data plan that gives you unlimited access to T-Mobile's ubiquitous HotSpots). While the Nokia E61 -- the European cousin of the E62 -- has Wi-Fi and access to blazing 3G networks, the U.S. version of the sleek Nokia smartphone is sadly Wi-Fi-less.
Winner: T-Mobile Dash
Round 7: Multimedia
Being a Windows Mobile Smartphone device, the Dash has the advantage of arriving with Windows Mobile Player, which makes for easy syncing with your desktop music collection (DRM'd files included), while browsing on the mobile Internet Explorer is solid enough. But while the E62's music player falls a bit short of Windows Media Player on the Dash, the Nokia Web browser puts mobile IE to shame. Pages loaded quickly, even over the phone's EDGE network, and formatting for standard HTML pages was the best we've seen on a U.S. handset, smartphone or otherwise. You also get the pop-up "mini map," which shows your position relative to the rest of the Web page, while the cool browser history displays thumbnailed versions of pages. We wish all mobile Web browsers were this good.
Winner: Nokia E62
Round 8: Performance
In our experience, the smaller the smartphone, the more likely that it'll suffer from sluggish performance (the classic example being the sleek but slow-as-molasses Motorola Q). While the Dash wasn't exactly what we'd call lightening quick -- we saw the Windows Mobile spinning beach ball more than a few times -- we found the slim handset to be relatively responsive given its size (and especially compared to the Q). The E62, however, was plagued by spotty performance. We regularly found ourselves waiting several seconds for apps to launch or screens to refresh, making us think twice about editing that Excel document on the phone versus back at the office.
Winner: T-Mobile Dash
And the winner is...
With its generous keypad, stellar Web browser, ability to edit documents and compatibility with Exchange and BlackBerry servers, the Nokia E62 makes a strong showing but finally stumbles with its too-sluggish performance. While the T-Mobile Dash lacks the E62's document-editing features, it ultimately breaks the tape by matching the E62's messaging prowess and throwing in Wi-Fi -- perfect for high-speed Net access in the office or your local Starbucks -- for good measure. It also helps that the Dash is the only smartphone we've tested (save the poky Motorola Q) that we'd actually consider keeping in our jeans pocket.
Champion: T-Mobile Dash
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T-Mobile Dash
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Score: 58% When: October 2006 Worth: $150 Carrier: T-Mobile
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Slim, light and a pleasure to hold, the just-announced Dash makes a play for the Moto Q's territory with its sleek design and Windows Mobile OS, while upping the ante with built-in Wi-Fi. Does it belong in your suit pocket?
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