TMobile (US) Dash.
 

This is an upcoming Win Mobile 5 smartphone device from HTC that has a full one hand operated keyboard. Anyone have any hands on experience with this yet? Thanks.

Great looking device. Lots of bugs right now causing the launch date to be pushed back. I have played with the product several times and love the engineering of it. The product once perfected is in the same class as the BlackBerry PERL and blows away the Motorola Q. Unfortunately, there are alot of issues with the present software load. Once they fix these slowdown and lockup issues, you will have a fantastic product.

T-Mobile Dash Specs
MSNBC Review
ABC Review
PhoneScoop Review


Out of courtesy to T-Mobile, I will gladly answer follow up questions by PM only. This is a pre-release product and while I do not work for T-Mobile anymore, I work closely with them and respect their trade secrets.

I had some trouble with the device too, but think the launch will not be pushed out much.

I am surprised there are not too much fanfare about this phone. I went to a Tmo store 2 days ago to play around with it and it is surprisingly very very small, for a Windows Mobile phone. Since tmobile always had horrible phones the 7 years I have been with them, I always bought my phone elsewhere. But I chose to order this, will see how it goes when it arrives next week.

T-mobile doesn't get the marketing buzz some other operators do. When the "Q" was released the press went insane over it, like it was the best thing since sliced bread. The Dash is another well thought out device, adding WiFi was brilliant, and the scroll bar is surprisingly good.

good points. I thought about the HTC TyTn, but paying another $450 to add 3G is just not worth it at the moment

It isnt just 3G. It is a completely difference OS. The TyTN will gives you a touch screen and the ability to run more programs and read, edit and send Microsoft Office documents as attachments among other things. They are very different things really. If you dont need those things then the Dash will likely be great. After a while of using an SDA, same OS as the Dash, I went to a TyTN for the added features. Ive had the TyTN for less than a week but first impression is love at first sight.

Scott, what do you think of it as a possible replacement for the MDA?

Long time Tmo customer and been thinking about getting one of these or the MDA Vario or waiting until the next version of the MDA Vario.

How does the dash blow away the Q?

How is it better than something like the Treo?

How well does the sling player work? Will the kick me off the account if I watch video a lot?

I would think a touch screen would be an important thing to have in a device like this. I imagine using it mostly for email, web browsing (flight status, FT and other message boards, and IM), reading RSS feeds.

I'll tell you later ;)

Yup, you hit the spot, not in that sense :D

But I do not need to edit Office documents on the move in the near future. I appreciate the small form factor, the qwerty keyboard for IMing/SMSing on the move, and ability to browse internet pages. Oh also to watch Top Gear on WMP, but it's already in my video Ipod (that discussion is for later ;) )

Perhaps in 2-3 years when I become a more impt person in a company :D

Got mine yesterday
 

Feedback based on limited use (so far):

1. keys are a little small and close together. Easy to type the wrong letter. Not a big deal, as this is the price to pay for a small package and I will live with it.
2. Setup was fairly easy, except for some reason I can't respond to any emails on my corporate outlook account, keep keeting an error that the email address does not exist at the receipient location, but when I send it direct, it works just fine. Probably a set up problem on my side that I will figure out tomorrow.
3. Phone quality is great! So veeeery much better than the MDA! I think I will be able to use this thing without the bluetooth headset (which was a gotta have on the MDA).
4. Form factor is good. Not sure about the rubber back though, but time will tell.

So far I'm thinking that this is a definite replacement for my MDA, and my Blackberry may be in danger of being replaced as well. We'll see.

But then again, I really loved my MDA when I first got it.... :)

I spent all afternoon today in SAN trying to buy one of these. Nobody had them in stock except for the T-Mobile-official stores, and they refused to sell it to me without an activation. :mad:

It takes a few days for the indirect dealers to get them in stock, as they have to manually order them and wait for receipt. In contrast, the direct stores are on auto-replenishment.

Indirects almost never sell phones without a contract, you need a corporate store for that, and even then if stock is low they'll refuse to sell unless you take out service with them. They make their money selling service, not phones. It took corporates almost 3 months to get enough mda's and sda's in to sell unconnected.