T-Mobile Dash Cell Phone Review - Multimedia
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Alfredo Padilla Published on March 22, 2007 Comment on this |
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Accessing Music Software (4.42)
To test how easy it is to access music we time how long it takes to go from the home screen to a song playing. As with all Windows Mobile devices the T-Mobile dash uses Windows Media Player Mobile to handle music. The Dash took an average of 4.53 seconds to get a song playing. This is an average score; slightly faster than the LG Chocolate at 4.72 seconds. Our average time includes the time it takes to enter the menu system to launch media player. If you use the application a great deal you will find it in the shortcuts at the top of the home screen, which makes it even faster to access your music.
Dedicated Music Controls (0.0)
The T-Mobile Dash has no dedicated music controls. Because the touch sensitive volume strip is only active when in a call by default, you don’t even get volume controls.
Music Software Functionality and Organization (4.4)
Windows Media Player Mobile on the T-Mobile Dash supports playlists that are synchronized over from Windows Media Player, however it did not recognize our standard .pls file. It did recognize the idv3 tags of our mp3 files, and also recognized the tags on our test WMA file. It did not however recognize the tags from an AAC file encoded in iTunes.
You can sort through your music by title, artist, album and genre. You cannot sort by rating, nor can you search through your music. It did not display album art from our test files, nor are their visualizations available. You can automatically update your library to find all of the media files on the phone or memory card. You can also set ratings and play music in the background. There is no equalizer available.
Overall we found the options on Windows Media Player Mobile to be good. We would have liked to see album art support, better handling of playlists and an equalizer, but its more than adequate to be your mobile music player.
Online Song Downloading (0.0)
The T-Mobile Dash does not support any music download services.
Streaming (2.0)
The T-Mobile Dash using Windows Media Player Mobile supports streaming windows media audio. It did not support streaming mp3 or AAC audio. Streaming windows media can be found on many website, however we would have liked to see support for more formats.
Podcast Support (0.0)
The T-Mobile Dash does not include any podcast management software. You may be able to add this support in with third party software.
Music Sync with PC (7.0)
Because the T-Mobile Dash is a Windows Mobile device you can synchronize your music via ActiveSync with Windows Media Player on the desktop. This is a very nice feature; however it does lock you into Windows Media Player as your desktop management system. The Dash will not synchronize files with iTunes or any other desktop media player.
Music Formats and DRM (5.0)
The T-Mobile Dash using Windows Media Player supports Mp3, AAC and WMA music files. You can also play wav files on the device. The Dash supports Microsofts PlaysForSure DRM, meaning that you can purchase music from any number of compatible online stores and play it on your device. It does not support Apple’s Fairplay DRM or Real’s Rhapsody DNA.
Music Interruption (4.0)
Windows Media Player Mobile on the T-Mobile Dash mutes your music when you take an incoming call, however it does not pause it. This means that when the call ends the music will have moved forward an equivalent amount of time. This is a poor implementation of the music interruption feature.
Video
Video Software Access (4.14)
To test how easy it is to get a video playing on your phone we time how long it takes to get a video playing starting at your home screen. The T-Mobile Dash took an average of 4.83 seconds to accomplish this task. This is slightly faster than the Palm Treo 700p, which took 5 seconds and significantly faster than the Motorola Q’s score of 8.6 seconds. As with music access you can get to the program faster if you use it a lot and it is listed in the recently used applications list at the top of your home screen.
Video Controls (9.0)
When playing videos on the T-Mobile Dash, Windows Media Player Mobile gives you a good selection of controls. The center key on the D-Pad is a play/pause button. Left and right take you to the next and previous track, or act as a fast forward and rewind when held down. Up and down control volume, the # key mutes sound and zero takes a video to full screen. In addition you can reassign these controls in the options, an option that we were very pleased to see as most cell phones don’t offer it.
Video Software & Organization (6.0)
As with music the T-Mobile Dash uses Windows Media Player Mobile to manage your videos. This software provides a good range of functionality, allowing you to update your library automatically, rate your videos and watch them in full screen. Unfortunately, as with the music side, you cannot create or edit playlists on the device; however you can use playlists that are imported from Windows Media Player on the
desktop.
Windows Media Player on the T-Mobile Dash can organize your videos by title or genre. You can also view all videos that are designated as TV shows. Playlists are supported, but only those that have been synced over from Windows Media Player on the desktop; you cannot create or edit playlists on your device. We were also happy to see that you can play video in the background, allowing you to listen to the audio if you need to go to another application for a bit.
Video Sync with PC (7.0)
The T-Mobile Dash can synchronize videos with Window Media Player on your desktop using ActiveSync. This provides an easy way to create a list of videos you want on your device and automatically have them moved over when you sync. As would be expected the Dash does not synchronize with iTunes, so if you want easy synchronization you are locked into Microsoft’s software.
Video Formats (4.0)
Windows Media Player on the T-Mobile Dash was able to play back all 3 of our test 3GP files, encoded with different video and audio codecs. It was also able to play back our test WMV file. It played back audio for our MP4 file, but was unable to play back the video. It did not recognize our test flash, quicktime or real media file. We were happy to see support for 3GP, as it is a standard for mobile video, and of course we expected the WMV support, however we were disappointed that our test MP4 files did not play back. This is especially true since the Treo 750 and Motorola Q, two other Windows Mobile devices, were able to handle it without trouble.
Video DRM (5.0)
The T-Mobile Dash can play back video that is protected by Microsoft’s Windows Media DRM. This is used by online stores such as Amazon’s Unboxed service. Not surprisingly it does not support videos protected by Apple’s or Real’s DRM. Most phones do not support any video DRM, so we were happy to see support for anything on the Dash.
Video Playback Smoothness (10.0)
To test how smoothly a phone can play back video we test 5 different 3GP files encoded at different bit rates, ranging from 48k to 768k. We were pleased to see that the T-Mobile Dash had not problems playing back our high bandwith files, even in full screen. The Treo 700p by contrast had some jerkiness in the high bandwith files when played in full screen.
Online Video Downloading (0.0)
The T-Mobile Dash does not support any video download services.
Video Streaming (unscored)
Because there is no standardization of streaming video we do not score this section. We do however test a couple of sites to see if the phone is able to handle them. We were unable to stream a test 3GP file; however the Dash was able to handle streaming WMA video. Most phones can’t handle most types of streaming video, so don’t expect to watch youtube on your device any time soon.
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