T-Mobile Dash Cell Phone Review - Messaging
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Alfredo Padilla Published on March 22, 2007 Comment on this |
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Supported Email Services (8.0)
The Dash uses the pocket version of Microsoft Outlook for messaging, and this supports a reasonable range of email services, including standard protocols such as POP3 and IMAP. When we tried it with popular services such as Yahoo mail and Gmail, it was able to set up these account without us needing to enter specific details for the servers, which we count as a success. It did not work, however, with our AOL account. The Dash also comes with Pocket MSN, which allows you to log into your Hotmail account and will set it up your Hotmail inbox automatically in Pocket Outlook.
Push Email (3.0)
The T-Mobile Dash supports push email via Microsoft Exchange server. The Dash does not support any other push email services out of the box, however you can add some additional services with third party software.
Multiple Email Accounts (10.0)
The T-Mobile Dash supports up to 6 email accounts, including the Outlook account, which synchronizes with either your desktop inbox or an Exchange Server. As a messaging focused device we are glad to see support for multiple email accounts, although the Blackberry 8703e supports more with up to 10.
HTML and Attachments (4.0)
The T-Mobile Dash does not support HTML email. It does support viewing of attachments via the pre-installed ClearVue document suite. ClearVue allows you to view, but not edit Word, Excel, Powerpoint and PDF documents. The more advanced Pocket PC version of Windows Mobile 5 as found on devices like the Treo 750 supports document editing.
Email Customization (2.0)
The T-Mobile Dash running Windows Mobile 5 Smartphone Edition has few email customization options. You can choose to show the date and time in the message list, as well as sort messages by date, subject, sender or message type. You cannot change the font, views or add colors to your email. You can however create signatures for outgoing emails.
Time to a New Email Message (7.91)
To test how easy it is to send email messages, we time how long it takes to go from standby to a new message window. We repeat this test 5 times and take the average time for our score. The T-Mobile Dash took an average of 2.53 seconds to complete this procedure. This is a very fast score, faster than the Blackberry 8793e’s 3.04 second average but a little slower than the Treo 750’s 2.23 seconds. The T-Mobile Dash is helped by the fact that it has a dedicated messaging button on the bottom left of the keyboard.
Email Usability (5.0)
Messages in Outlook Mobile on the Dash are organized into a simple chronological list by default. Each item shows the email address and name of the sender and the subject. You can choose to sort messages by date, subject, sender or message type and can also add the time and date to the message in the list. You move up and down simply by using the directional pad, while left or right switches between accounts. When you are in a new message dialogue you can move up and down to move between fields. The Cc and Bcc fields are located above the To field. Overall the email program on the Dash is easy to move around, but not as quick or intuitive as the Blackberry’s interface.
Supported IM Services (2.0)
The T-Mobile Dash ships with an instant messaging client that provides access to AOL, ICQ and Yahoo instant messaging services. In addition Pocket MSN allows you to access MSN’s instant messaging service. We appreciated the support for multiple instant messaging services on the Dash, however the T-Mobile client uses an SMS gateway, charging you for a text message for each IM sent or received. We do not award points for services that use SMS gateways, however we will award points for the MSN IM client.
MMS Support (9.0)
The MMS client on the T-Mobile Dash is integrated into Outlook Mobile, allowing you to take care of MMS, SMS and Email all from the same application, which we love. Creating an MMS on the Dash is simple, with visual fields for entering a picture/video, text and sounds. You can also send an MMS message directly from the camera and picture & video applications. We were very pleased with MMS integration and usability on the Dash.
SMS Smiley Face Interpretation (2.0)
To test smiley face interpretation we send 4 test smileys to the phone and see if they are appropriately interpreted in graphical format. We were disappointed to find that the T-Mobile Dash did not recognize any of the test smileys. The Dash also does however allow you to insert smileys automatically as they several are listed in the symbols menu.
SMS/MMS Ease of Use (5.0)
The SMS and MMS interfaces on the T-Mobile Dash are built into Outlook Mobile, providing a consistent user interface across all messaging applications. You are able to move up and down a simple list by using the up/down buttons on the directional pad, while left and right moves you between your different messaging accounts. When creating a message you can navigate the fields using the directional pad, the left soft key is mapped to send, while the right soft key gives you access to all of the menu functions. We found the interface to be straightforward and easy to use.
Time to New SMS Message (4.72)
To test how easy it is to create a new SMS message, we time how long it takes to go from standby to a new SMS message dialogue. The T-Mobile dash took an average of 2.12 seconds to get to a new SMS message dialogue. As with getting to a new email dialogue, this test is helped greatly by the dedicated messaging key located on the Dash’s keyboard. 2.12 seconds is a good score, faster than the Treo 750’s 2.36 second average and much faster than the Motorola Q’s 5.1 seconds. It is not as fast as the Treo 700p’s 1.4 seconds though.
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