T-Mobile Dash Cell Phone Review - Organizer
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Alfredo Padilla Published on March 22, 2007 Comment on this |
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Synchronization (6.0)
Synchronizing with a PC using the T-Mobile Dash is a fairly straightforward affair. Install ActiveSync from the included CD as well as Outlook if you don’t already have it. Then, simply connect the device using the included USB cable, ActiveSync will automatically detect the Dash and walk you through the process of deciding what will be synchronized. There are a couple of caveats though, if you have a firewall you may need to open some ports so that ActiveSync will work properly. If you have upgraded to Windows Vista, you will need to download the newer Windows Mobile Device Center from Microsoft.
The T-Mobile Dash supports synchronization with your computer both over USB and Bluetooth. We were also happy to see that the Dash can use a standard Mini USB cable and supports Bluetooth 2.0. Contact photos are synchronized with Outlook, plus it supports calendar appointments and task synchronization. We were disappointed that there was no support for notes synchronization, but there is third party software that add this in. The T-Mobile Dash will only synchronize with Outlook on your PC. There is no support for Eudora or Macs. You can purchase third party software to synchronize with your Mac, check out Mark/Space’s excellent The Missing Sync for Windows Mobile.
Alerts (8.0)
Alerts on the T-Mobile Dash can be set for calendar appointments. When an alert goes off the sound that you have assigned to alerts in the current profile goes off. You can also assign vibrate to go off in your profiles, you cannot however choose a unique sound and add vibration when creating the appointment. The full screen is taken up by the alert, with information available about the title, times and notes of the appointment. You can choose to snooze the event, and are able to choose from several preset lengths of time. When you miss an alert the next time you check your phone the alert will be on the screen waiting for you to deal with it.. Overall we found a good range of functionality with alerts on the T-Mobile Dash using Windows Mobile 5, it compares well to other smart phones.
Over the Air PIM Sync (2.0)
With the T-Mobile Dash you can synchronize your tasks, contacts, calendar appointments and email over the air with an Exchange server. Simply enter your exchange account information into Activesync on the device. The Dash does not support over the air synchronization using any other services, although you may be to add third party software to do this.
Address Book
Adding Contacts (7.44)
To test how easy it is to add contacts we time how long it takes to add 5 different contact names and their phone numbers from the home screen. We take the average as our score. The T-Mobile Dash took an average of 13.44 seconds to add a contact. This is a very good score for a smart phone, faster than the Motorola Q’s 17 seconds or the Treo 700p’s 17.7 seconds. The Dash is helped by the fact that the left soft key on the home screen is mapped to the contacts application.
Sorting/Search (5.5)
You can view your contacts by last name or company. You can also view them by category. You can simply search through your contacts by typing a first or last name in the name view, or typing a company in the company view. The Dash does not provide as many options for sorting and searching as the Treo 700p or the Blackberry 8703e provides.
Fields (11.0)
The T-Mobile Dash has 55 different contacts fields for your to enter almost any piece of information, including things like birthdays and anniversaries, which are automatically added to your calendar. You also have a notes field where you can enter any miscellaneous information, but you don’t have the ability to create a custom field. We were very pleased with the range of information that you can enter for a contact.
Speed Dial/Voice tags/Voice command (4.67)
You can add a contact to one of 99 speed dial spots, the number 1 is locked to voice mail. You can also add a voice tags to contacts, however there is no voice command software available. Voice command software is becoming a standard feature on mid to high end phones and we were disappointed to see its lack, especially as the Motorola Q, one of the Dash’s closes competitors, did have it.
Calendar
Adding Calendar Items (13.55)
To test how easy it is to add calendar items we time how long it takes to add a simple lunch appointment from the home screen. We do this 5 times and take the average for our score. The T-Mobile Dash took an average of 7.38 seconds to add our test appointment. This is an excellent time, better than the Blackberry 8703e’s 11.1 seconds and much better than the Motorola Q’s 19.1 seconds. The Dash was helped by the fact that the 15 minute reminder we add to our test appointment is added by the default settings.
Calendar Views (3.2)
The T-Mobile Dash has 3 calendar views. The Agenda view is a simple list of of upcoming appointments. All day events are at grouped at the top of the list. Other appointments show title and time, but no indicators for things like recurrence and reminders. The week view shows a 5 day work week by default, you can change this in the options. The week is shows in a grid, with days along the top and hours on the left. Appointments are indicated by blue blocks, no information about the appointment is included. Clicking on any hour block or appointment will take you to that day.
The month view shows 6 weeks at a time. The current day’s date number is highlighted in black. You use the directional pad to move among the days, with your selection highlighted in blue. Days on which you have appointments is indicated with a small triangle, while all day events are indicated by a small box around the triangle. You cannot filter your views by category. We found the agenda view to be the most useful, with the month view not very useful and the week view almost completely useless.
Fields (8.0)
The T-Mobile Dash has 12 calendar fields, including recurrence, reminders and the ability to add notes. You can also set sensitivity and status for each appointment; however you cannot set appointment categories, which disappointed us. The fields available are not as exhaustive as those found on the Blackberry 8703e, which allows you to set time zones amongst other things. They are also not as good as the Treo 750, which runs the Pocket PC version of Windows Mobile 5.
To Do/Tasks
Adding ToDo/Task (0.0)
To test how difficult it is to add a task to a phone we time how long it takes to go from the home screen and add a simple task. We repeat this test 5 times and take the average for our score. The Smartphone Edition of Windows Mobile 5 that the T-Mobile Dash runs is unfortunately unable to handle even our most basic appointments. You can only add a task title and mark tasks as complete or not complete. Because the Dash couldn’t handle our test it receives a zero in this section. You can add more powerful task functionality through third party software, check out Papyrus from SBSH.
ToDo/Task Sorting and Prioritizing (3.5)
You can sort tasks by status, priority, subject, start or due date. You can also filter your views by category. We were pleased to see support for these features, however you might be wondering why they are present given that you can’t edit them when on your device. The answer is that it is because the T-Mobile Dash and Windows Mobile Smartphone Edition are meant to be used in conjunction with Outlook, where you can set these items. Despite that, the sorting and prioritizing options on the Dash are of limited utility, and as such we only awarded half points in this section.
Fields (2.0)
As mentioned above the T-Mobile Dash only has fields for an appointment tile and complete/not-complete. This is a poor set of options for a smart phone, and again points out the limitations of the Windows Mobile Smartphone platform.
Notes
Adding Notes (0.0)
The Smartphone Edition of Windows Mobile 5 that the T-Mobile Dash runs does not include a notes program. This is an unfortunate omission as almost all smart phones and even many regular phones allow you to create simple text notes. You can add this functionality with third part software, however we review phone based on their capabilities out of the box, as such the Dash will receive zeros in many of these sections.
Note Interface (0.0)
No text notes application.
Note Formatting (0.0)
No text notes application.
Voice Memo (3.0)
The T-Mobile Dash includes two voice memos program, a standard one that is found standard on handsets manufactured by HTC and another that has been installed by T-Mobile. Both of these handsets offer only basic recording functions. Apart from that the only thing that distinguishes them is that the HTC application allows you to set recordings as ringtones, while the T-Mobile application allows you to send voice notes via MMS. We find it a little ridiculous that there are two voice note applications while no text note application was included. Multimedia (22 Scores)
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