HTC - T-Mobile Dash: Hail the new smartphone
T-Mobile introduces the Dash from HTC and finally poses a serious challenge to the Motorola Q.
 It was only a matter of time that the Motorola Q would soon be dethroned. Today, T-Mobile with smart phone makers HTC finally unveiled the T-Mobile Dash. Dash is easily the smallest, slickest, smartest smartphone in the market today.
The Dash is small for a smartphone. The finishing of the handset is in a warm and fuzzy black suede color. The Dash has a brilliant, 2.4-inch TFT screen, which is slightly smaller as compared to Motorola Q (2.5 inch screen). It displays 65,536 colors and 320x240-pixel resolution same as the Motorola Q. Users can customize the home screen with preinstalled or personal background images. They also have the option change the backlight time, color theme, and font size.
The T-Mobile Dash has two LEDs just above the display that blink wireless connections, messages, and battery status. It gives the the Motorola Q a run for its money with its size and functions. The Dash fits in the palm comfortably with its dimensions of 4.4 X 2.5 X 0.5 inches and weighing in at 4.2 ounces. The smartphone is thinner and lighter as compared to 8700g (4.3 by 2.7 by 0.7 inches; 4.7 ounces). As compared to Motorola Q it is shorter (4.5 by 2.5 by 0.4 inches; 4 ounces).
What’s more? The T-Mobile / HTC Dash features soft-touch covering, which gives the handset a rubber like texture, as it becomes easy to grip and use one-handed. At the bottom of the keyboard quick-launch buttons are provided for the camera, T-Mobile's T-zone service, and messages. Dash comes ready with QWERTY keyboard, for emailing, input texts and dialing. The layout is spacious enough, so that users don't press the wrong key. The QWERTY keyboard is tactile and well backlit.
It also has a 1.3 Megapixel camera on the back and a self-portrait mirror too. The 1.3 Megapixel cameraphone does not come with a flash though. The Dash is a 4 - band GSM/GPRS/EDGE phone. This is usually for North American and worldwide frequencies.
The Dash has integrated Wi-Fi, which the Motorola Q and the BlackBerry lack. It gives you the freedom of surfing the web on the move with Internet Explorer Mobile. It also comes with Bluetooth 2.0, which requires less power consumption and offers faster transmission speeds. Compare this with the Motorola Q, which has Bluetooth 1.2. and connectivity making this smartphone a complete delight.
It has fast response time with excellent call quality. While its design may not appeal everyone, but its sleek nonetheless. The Dash has 64MB of SDRAM and 128MB of Flash ROM, supplemented by the Micro SD expansion slot, which can expand the memory up to 2GB.
Smartphones are more like all-rounders. The T-Mobile Dash is no different either. The Dash runs on Windows Mobile 5 Smartphone Edition. It means that users would get the portable versions of Outlook, Word, Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player and lots more. What it also means is that the Windows Mobile 5 Smartphone Edition does not support touch screen functionality. So navigating the mobile's menus and registering commands are done externally. The external controls are not difficult to use, but if you've used a smartphone before with the touch screen functionality, using the Dash would be a tad problematic.
Users will not get the full Microsoft Office Mobile suite to edit documents. Instead they are provided with ClearVue Suite (ClearVue Document, ClearVue Worksheet, ClearVue PPT, and ClearVue PDF) for viewing the mentioned type of files. Dash comes with productivity tools like a download agent, a voice recorder, a calculator, and a task manager. While the Motorola Q has Memory Manager utility found on the Q, which helps you keep track of used and available memory, Dash has nothing of that order. Dash also has a speakerphone, voice dialing, and a vibrate mode.
The Dash is seamless in syncing with modern-day computers. The Windows Mobile will automatically sync email, appointments and phone contacts wirelessly with Windows P running the latest version of Windows Exchange Server. Users also have an option of syncing via a USB cable with a PC and also for items like video, pictures and music files.
Dash has direct push capabilities which means users can receive message in real time. They can also access personal emails from POP3 or IMAP4 accounts, which includes Yahoo Mail Plus, EarthLink, and Comcast. A handy email wizard helps you to set up your account with utmost ease. T-Mobile has loaded Dash with four of the most popular instant-messaging clients like AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, and MSN. It also supports text and multimedia messaging.
Most of then not Windows Mobile smartphone do not have a powerful battery life. While for some other Windows Mobile phones, asking a battery life of 24 hours is a bit too much. The Dash springs a surprise in this regard. It can run for two days before needing a break for AC. That battery life is as good as Nokia e61/62 and Palm’s Treo 700p, which do not run on the Windows OS. The interface of the camera is not all great and un-necessarily confusing. As it is not clear which buttons to press to access certain camera functions. Another downside is the picture quality is disappointing as compared to other smartphones. Users can enjoy music with AAC, MP3, WAV, WMA, MPEG-4, and WMV files. The onboard Windows Media Player 10 Mobile is just about the right application for a smartphone like this. Two preloaded games viz Bubble Breaker and Solitaire would made available.
The T-Mobile Dash is expected to be available starting October 16 at a price of $199 with a two-year contract or $249.99 with a one-year contract.
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