HTC Dash / S620 / S621 (Excalibur)
Average Ratings
Went back to my Blackberry...
Before the dash, I used a blackberry 7105t, the best and most reliable phone i've ever had. The only reason I bought the Dash was for its camera and music capabilities, which I ended up never really using.
My main gripe is email. My blackberry email was set up in about 2 minutes and never failed me. The dash gave me so many problems I was on the phone with Tmobile about 6 times the night I got it trying to figure out how to get it working. I finally had to buy an exchange server account and sync it that way, which was RARELY reliable. (I know that is not the fault of Tmobile).
Windows Mobile 5 was quirky and difficult to use compared to Blackberry OS. The phone also froze and couldn't handle getting two calls at once most of the time. You can forget silencing the ringer most of the time since that feature is activated through the "touchpad" on the side, which also controls volume. The touchpad is awful.
The phone is very nice to hold. It's covered in a rubber like finish which makes it feel very secure in your hand. I never had any problems with the build of the phone.
There was a flaw in the software and/or the keyboard. If you were typing to fast, the software would get confused and start entering the last letter you typed over and over and over. the only way to stop it was to hit backspace and retype what you had just said. this wasted time.
After a day of 5 restarts and several missed calls, I decided to say goodbye to the dash and pick up my old blackberry 7105t, which i realized i had missed so much.
just make sure you really want to deal with windows mobile before you buy this phone. i recommend RIM.
DASH, DASH , DASH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
WELL I HAVE YET TO RECV MY DASH, I JUST OREDERD IT FROM TMOBILE AND I WILL RECV IT TOMORROW! BUT I HAVE 3 FRIENDS WHO ALL OWN THE FOEN , AND I WANT TO STEAL THERS! IN ALL HONESTLY TO EACH IS OWN , I APPRECIATE PHONE SCOOP FOR PROVIDING US PHONE LOVERS A SPACE WHERE WE CAN SPEAK UP, BUT TO EACH PERSON THE EXPERINCE WILL BE DIFFERENT! BUT FOR THE DASH IT IS COMPLETLY DIFFERENT! I OWN THE SIDEKICK 3 AS WELL, WHICH IS EQUALLY AWESOME BUT THE DASH HAS AWESOME SOUND, A GREAT CAMERA AND VIDEO RECORDER. I WOULD RECCOMEND IT TO ANY AND EVERYONE! I WILL BE LEAVIN MORE REVIEWS AS THE DAYS PAST AND I FINALLYT GET TO USE MY OWNB DASH!
The best wondows mobile phone
i´ve owned many windows mobile phones, and the best one was the mda until y phone the t-mobile dash, i bought it unlocked and i use it in Argentina and it is compatible with everything.
The size, the wifi, the bluetooth, the camera, the IM applications, email, everything is great and easy
the only yhing i can complai is the volume touchstrip which is too sensitive, and lowers the volume when i might accidentaly touch i during a call. it would be a great scrolling strip. anyway it is still the best phone i have ever had
Not good for pop email if you need t-mobile's server!
It's a great phone, and T-Mobile is a good provider - but they don't work well together if you have a pop email provider that requires you to use t-mobile's server for outgoing mail.
After 4 days of completely unreliable email (for the past 24 hours it's been unable to connect at all) ... i got to level 2 tech support at T-Mobile where a manager told me that there's a lot of dirty laundry about the Dash with Pop accounts. You'll hear the sales people incessently say 'it doesn't really have direct push technology' ... but that's not what they mean. Direct push only means you don't have to press Send\Receive to get mail (i don't care about that) ... the issue with the Dash and t-mobile's pop email support is that sending and receiving (sending especially) doesn't work. I'm a software consultant and I called their support enough times to get the issue escalated before I got the scoop - so this isn't coming from someone who just didn't know how to set it up. I know. It just doesn't work well.
One of my pop accounts doesn't restrict the outgoing server, so that one works fine - but if you're on a pop account that does (such as Road Runner, which is what I use for my main account) you won't have dependable service.
I asked the level 2 support manager what I could do to help make it more dependable. She told me I would only have dependable pop email support with T-Mobile if I got a blackberry.
I'm going back to Verizon today and buying a Q.
Great phone, but EXTREMLY FRAGILE
This phone was almost everything I ever wanted in a phone. It's slim and has full keypad which I found easy 2 use. I only have two suggestions if you buy this phone.
1.get insurance.
2. don't keep it in your pocket, this for some reason might cause the phone screen to crack (internal cracking, no marks/cracks at all on the outside).
I can't tell you how it happened, but after owning the phone for about 40+ days and having it crack just by me keeping it in my pocket showed a lot about the quality of the product.
Dash - with some work a Great Phone.
The Dash is not perfect by any means. But with a little work you can turn it into a great phone. But first lets talk about the pro's and con's.
Pro's:
Great Call Quality
Sexy Form Factor
Beautiful Screen
Easy to use (once you get used to WM 5.0)
QWERTY keyboard (i love this)
WM 5.0 is much better than any Palm OS
Easiest Email Setup Ever (Treo 650 sucks in comparison)
Con's:
PDA functionality isnt as great as other phones
Hard to get things done if not familiar with WM 5.0
Camera could be better
No included MicroSD card
Must BUY Missing Sync to sync with MAC OS X
Volume Touch Strip is really crappy
I purchased Mark/Space's Missing Sync program for $40 and it was the key to turning the Dash into a great phone. Without it the Dash is just a sexy looking phone with little function. Also I downloaded some other programs to help make the Dash better. The registry editor is great b/c it changes the Volume Touch Strip (horrible implementation) into a scroll strip so you can scroll up and down any screen. Missing Sync will allow you to sync iCal and Address Book and Music and Photos from your Mac to the Dash.
Some will say that the menus arent great but if you learn how to use them right its great.
Hold the # button (also the A button) and you can go from Normal profile to the Meeting Profile in one button click. So if you need your phone on vibrate in a hurry just hold 'A' and its done!
Explore the phone as much as you can and definitely download some 3rd party apps to maximize your Dash's capabilities. If there were some improvements here and there - this would almost be a perfect phone.
Beautiful but a lagger
This phone is built to impress. It has a solid construction and is really a beauty. The features are easy to use and overall the phone is really great. There is one major problem though - VERY SLOW RESPONSES. Especially bad when trying to hang up on a call - takes forever. Then the keyboard locks all the time and you have to push 2 buttons to unlock it. This can be very annoying at times.
PROS: Almost everything about the phone.
CONS: Lag, Lag, Lag
Freakin sweet
Honestly this is the best phone i have ever had and I have a new phone about every three months some times sooner. The dash as amazing reception, it seems every were I go i always have a signal, I love the huge screen that it has and that does not use the batter very much. i always have a full battery. i have owned various blackberrys including the Pearl 8100, i have gone through 2 razrs, k2, various nokia's all in 2006 and have found the Dash to be the best phone so far
hopefully this review helps you to make your decision
Adam
Make the Dash to get the Dash
This thing is awesome. This is the first smartphone I've owned and I am very impressed. This thing is so easy to use. Navigating through the menus is painless and pretty quick thanks to the numbered menus. At first I was bummed when I found out that I could download those cool ringtones, but when I found out that I can set the whole song ( not just a 5 sec clip) as my ringtone the coolness factor jumped up a notch for me. This thing is packed with way more features than just cool ringtones. I love having all my music with me and sound quality is great. The Wi-Fi makes internet surfing enjoyable and not frustrating waiting forever for pages to load. Texting now is cake thanks to the QWERTY keypad stuffed onto this thing and with the soft rubber feel, texting comfortable to.
As great as this phone is, there is a reason it's not a perfect 5.0. One of my major gripes is the volume control. The touch control might look cool, but i seem to always touch it and turn the volume up and down constantly. Another problem is that I seem to have the hardest time setting my home screen to fit without having a small void between the bottom of my picture and the tool bar at the bottom of the screen. That one is probably user error so I can't complain to much.
Overall, I FREAKIN LOVE IT!
Did I mention I have only had this thing for 3 days?
Pros:
Ease of use
Sleek Package
Multimedia Capabilities
Wi-Fi/ Internet browsing
Cons:
Volume Control
Home Screen Settings (I guess)
Go buy one if your in the market for a easy to use smartphone that will get the job done.
Just Amazing
I'd like to say that I never thought anything could beat the mda... but I was sold after I got this phone... its so much quicker... I thought i would miss the touch screen... but navigating through the phone is so quick and easy that you don't even need the touch screen... it's just a matter of getting used to... this phone practically has everything the mda has except excel and word... it can read word and excel documents however, you cannot edit them.. it also doesn't have a tasks program which I just bought for 15 bucks.... the keyboard is a tad small but you get used to it...other then that it's pretty much perfect.
I love that you can record anything you want and use it as a ringer! (no more spending tons on ringers).. the camera is great.. the camcorder is great.. my emails download so quickly .. the phone rarely ever slows down.. unless you put a bad program... external mem slot is great... (tip:when installing programs install only on memory card), bluetooth works excellent, conversations are clear... volume is very loud (volume bar is sensitive but you can change the settings on that or disable it so that it only works when on a call)... rubbery feel to the phone is different and great... well you get my drift.. I can go on and on lol - just get the phone!
