I purchased my T-Mobile Dash in August of 2007 from an official T-Mobile store. They were able to price-match an online offer at Amazon.com, and so I literally paid one penny for it, with the two-year contract of course. This phone was a great value in terms of the features and durability you get, but really dropped the ball in terms of the life span of the OS.
The Dash is a feature-rich phone, with such high-end features as WiFi, Windows Mobile 6.0 (on later versions), HTC’s JOGGR volume control (a thumb pad that raises and lowers the volume by touch alone), mp3 player, Bluetooth 2.0, and a 1.3 megapixel camera with video capture. Pictures from the Dash’s camera were clean and crisp for 1.3 megapixels, and video was decent quality. The WinMo 6.0 OS was quick and responsive in comparison to many other WinMo phones. The JOGGR control was at times over-sensitive, and mostly remained disabled (I would change the volume by accident during calls). Multiple programs can be run at the same time, and are controlled through the task manager, where programs that did not close on their own can be ended safely. Overall I enjoyed this phone a great deal.
The major pros of this phone:
1 ) the phone speaks your appointment reminders into your Bluetooth, or onto the external speaker
2 ) profiles are managed by your calendar; when you have an appointment, the phone automatically enters vibrate only mode
3 ) the navigation on the phone is intuitive, with 4-way directional control and single-clicking during phone operation and web browsing
4 ) WiFi performance is exceptional, acheiving good browsing speed and finding signals easily
5 ) battery life was very good for a smartphone, and decent even when using Bluetooth or WiFi
6 ) Active Sync to the computer is seamless and automatic once connected
7 ) built-in editors for Microsoft Word and Excel are excellent
8 ) multi-tasking! multiple programs could be running at the same time
The major cons:
1 ) the 200 MHz processor is somewhat slow, though this does not affect the OS too detrimentally in practice
2 ) when working on a spreadsheet and taking a phone call simultaneously, the phone tended to freeze, and would ring continuously until the battery was pulled out… very annoying!
3 ) Windows Mobile 6.0; some of its strengths are unbeatable, but it is by nature a slow and unstable OS
4 ) the JOGGR control is too sensitive during calls, and ends up muting your call completely by accident unless disabled… completely useless control
5 ) the OS fragments over time… big minus in my book, and I will talk more about this next.
Although I enjoyed this phone alot, the Windows Mobile OS fell apart over time. After only 16 months of owning the phone, I noticed some troubles. Eventually, it started affecting components of the other devices in the phone, such as the Bluetooth and the calendar announcement feature. Eventually, the phone started sucking the battery dry in an hour or less, and also booting up multiple times when turned on. Finally, after a master reset, the phone just booted up endlessly until it would run out of batteries after five minutes. This phone’s untimely and tragic end has destroyed the reputation of HTC in my mind as a world-class smartphone designer. As a result, I will not buy HTC products again.
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