Product Category: Smartphone
Manufacturer: HTC
Where to Buy: T-Mobile (after October 25; notification email sign-up site linked)
Price: $199.99-$299.99 USD, depending on contract; $29.99/month gives you unlimited GPRS/EDGE/T-Mobile HotSpot WiFi data on top of a voice plan
System Requirements: Windows 2000 or Windows XP; USB port
Specifications: 2.5" W x 4.4" H x 0.51" D; 4.2 oz; proprietary HTC AC/headphone/sync plug; 201MHz OMAP processor; 320x240, 16-bit screen; 64MB RAM (23MB free on startup), 128MB ROM; microSD slot; QWERTY thumbboard; 1.3MP digital camera; quadband GSM/GPRS/EDGE; Bluetooth 2.0; WiFi 802.11g; Windows Mobile 5 AKU3
Pros:
- Full QWERTY keyboard;
- Compact, slim device;
- Integrated WiFi;
- Excellent display.
Cons:
- Jog strip limited only to volume control;
- T-Mobile exclusive;
- No 3G support;
- Proprietary HTC extUSB connector.
Summary:
T-Mobile and HTC are attempting to make the notion of a QWERTY Smartphone go mainstream, and have partnered to sell the HTC Excalibur as the T-Mobile Dash. The unit is loaded with features and sports an attractive form factor. Is it a winner? Read on for more details!
A "Mini-Review"?
For better or for worse, I'm known for my voluminous reviews on Pocket PC Thoughts, including my reviews on the Samsung i700 and the Treo 700w . This review is going to differ for a number of reasons. First, I only got the device yesterday, so I won't be able to comment on long-term usability, battery life, etc., and the pictures aren't quite at the quality I'd like them to be. Second, I'm not a T-Mobile subscriber, so I can't do extended tests on data or coverage. Nevertheless, as a veteran Smartphone user (I used the Samsung i600 for about a year on Verizon) I sat down with the phone and put it through the paces.
Note that this review is primarily geared towards existing Smartphone users, as it glosses over Smartphone OS use and focuses on differences with other Smartphones. If you have questions about how the Smartphone operates, feel free to post it as a comment, and I'll do the best I can to answer it.
On to the review!
Box Contents and First Looks
Figure 1: The T-Mobile Dash packaging.
The Dash comes packed in a T-Mobile-designed cover, and it's clear that a significant branding effort was done throughout the product. The unit comes with the standard fare, including manuals and a CD, a belt-clip carrying case, the Dash itself, a US charger, USB sync cable, a headset, and the battery packed separately.
Figure 2: The unit as shipped.
Upon removing the unit from its plastic contents, it's clear how T-Mobile is consumerizing the device -- there's helpful shortcuts on the screen protector sticker, including the basics like figuring out one's phone number. (I presume that's particularly important for people who order the unit online.)
Figure 3: Sticker removed.
Removing the sticker yields a very glossy, 320x240 landscape display. Unfortunately, the days I've tested it have been cloudy outside, so I haven't managed to do an outdoors test yet. The styling, which looked a bit "toy-like" in some early pictures, actually manages to look reasonably classy. There is one dedicated T-Mobile button, which is used for their T-Zones WAP service.
Figure 4: Holding the Dash.
The Dash is extremely comfortable to hold in the hand. My first impression was, "hey! They took the iPAQ 4150 form factor and used that as inspiration for a Smartphone" -- it literally feels that svelte and comfortable. The back of the unit is slightly rubberized, giving a great grip. The device feels well-engineered overall; there are no creaks and the device doesn't flex anywhere. It's remarkable how far we've come since the first HTC Windows Mobile unit, the iPAQ 3650 (HTC Macaw, if I remember correctly).
Figure 5: Rear of the device.
The back of the device is simply arranged; there's the 1.3MP camera, a mirror, what looks like a speaker grille, and the battery cover. The battery cover doesn't have a fancy latch; to open it, you press it down slightly at the top middle and slide it down. While it doesn't lock in with a satisfying click, there's plenty of friction, and it does feel like it'll stay firmly in place.
Figure 6: Under the battery cover.
The battery, SIM, and microSD slots are all located under the battery cover. The SIM is actually at the top left, right above the word "HOW"; the SIM sits recessed. The microSD slot is on the right side, and is
not obstructed by the battery, which is a good thing, although you still need to remove the cover to switch microSDs. Not perfect, but better than having to turn the device off.
Figure 7: The famous touch strip. But wait, what's that volume icon?
Figure 7 shows a quick shot of the touch strip on the side of the device. However, if you compare this to the pictures of the touch strip on other versions of the HTC Excalibur, you'll notice the two buttons are missing and a volume icon has been added in the middle. I'll talk about this later in the review, but it appears that T-Mobile has removed the scrolling ability of the touch strip, opting to make it strictly a volume control now.
Figure 8: The charging LED, illuminated. The WiFi/BT led is on the bottom of that little earpiece oval. I tried to photograph it, but gave up trying to guess the time interval between blinks.
Two LEDs are cleverly concealed on the top of the Dash, at the top and bottom of the earpiece, representing the power/phone (orange/green solid when plugged in, and blinking when there's signal) and the WiFi/BT indicator (green for WiFi, blue for BT). Oh, by the way, the WiFi seems to be 802.11g; when I connected to my work network, it said that the receive rate was 54mbps. I doubt the unit can actually stream web content at that speed, but it's good to see the use of a "G" chipset.
Figures 9 and 10 show the bundled carrying case, which is designed to be worn on the belt. It's simply designed, and while it looks classy, in my opinion the Dash's value proposition is that it should fit in a pants or a jeans pocket without any noticeable bulge. In any case, the case uses a magnetic front flap, and has a simple belt clip on the back. The material is a nice (faux?) leather.
Figure 9: Front view of the Dash carrying case with the Dash inserted.
Figure 10: Side view of the Dash carrying case with the Dash inserted.
Up next: a few comparison shots, and pictures of the Dash turned on.
Comparison Pictures
As I arranged this review hastily, I didn't have many devices to compare against -- only a Palm Treo 700w and an iPAQ 4150. This happens to be pretty appropriate, though, since the 700w closely resembles the Dash form factor-wise and the 4150 resembles the Dash's size. Note that the Treo 700w has a screen protector applied, so the screen will appear a little less glossy. (I suspect the Dash could use a screen protector to enhance outdoors usage and protect the display, although I haven't tried one.)
Figure 11: The 700w and the Dash, side-by-side.
The 700w and the Dash look fairly similar in design, and I'm not sure that's a surprise -- this form factor, with the square or landscape screen and a full thumbboard right on the front of the device, i.e. the "Blackberry look", is all the rage nowadays. Another device that shares this form factor, of course, is the Q... however, I didn't have one to take shots against.
Figure 12: The 700w and the Dash height comparison.
This is where it becomes more apparent how thin the Dash is. I never realized my 700w was
that huge until I saw this picture.
As the image shows, the bottom connector on the device is HTC's extUSB, also present on the Star Trek and several other new units. As I mentioned previously, the unit comes with a power adapter, a USB cable, and a headset; none of them plug in simultaneously. The device does charge over USB, though, as with other HTC devices. It's also worth mentioning that the USB cable
looks very much like a miniUSB connector, although I haven't tried and would be reluctant to actually try a standard miniUSB cable.
Figure 13: The iPAQ 4150 and the Dash, compared.
As I mentioned earlier, the Dash's form factor feels like the iPAQ 19xx/41xx -- and here's proof. The two units are
almost the exact same size -- the Dash is ever-so-slightly thicker and ever-so-slightly narrower.
Figure 14: The iPAQ 4150 and the Dash height comparison.
Figure 15: The iPAQ 4150 and the Dash, rear. Do they look similar or what? 
Okay, time for a screen-on comparison.
Figure 16: The 700w and the Dash, on, with SPT's homepage.
Figure 17: The iPAQ 4150 and the Dash screens, compared. The iPAQ's is larger, but is far poorer in brightness and quality.
These pictures don't quite capture the striking difference of the units' displays, although I think you'll get a feel for it. The 700w and the iPAQ are at maximum brightness; the Dash doesn't have a brightness control, although it will dim when idle to save power. While it's worth pointing out the 700w's screen protector might be reducing the contrast on its screen, the Dash is still noticeably sharper, brighter, and better saturated overall. The screen is also higher-resolution, at 320x240; the text is extremely crisp and clear, and ClearType looks great. It's an absolutely top-notch screen, and you can't go wrong with it. (And, by the way, it's remarkable how similar WM5 Pocket PC Phone Edition and Smartphone look when you have two similarly-shaped devices next to each other.)
Figure 18: Comparing the 700w and Dash's thumbboards.
As you can see, the amount of real estate for each thumbboard is extremely similar, but the keys are arranged differently. The Dash keys are larger and have less space between them. As to which feels better, it's hard for me to say; I'm very used to the 700w's thumbboard by now, so it obviously feels a bit more natural to me, but I think the Dash's keyboard is pretty decent. The keys have excellent tactile feedback -- they have a "click" feel to them and no mushiness. The Dash's thumbboard lights blue when it's used.
Figure 19: Close-up of the Dash's screen.
Here's a closer shot of the Dash's screen. The picture isn't perfect -- my Canon SD550's optical capabilities are being stretched to the limit here -- but I hope this conveys how nice the screen is. I'll talk about some of the home screen components a bit later.
Next up -- a few screenshots of the device in action!
Using the Dash
As I mentioned earlier, this review is geared towards Smartphone users, so I'm not going to show most of the regular WM5 Smartphone screens.
Turning on the dash shows an extensively-animated T-Mobile logo, replete with sound. This was a little shock to me, because I was used to earlier static Pocket PC and Smartphone startup screens. I presume this is part of Microsoft's new efforts to enhance operator branding. Personally, I prefer static screens, but this is the way the industry seems to be going.
Figure 20: The Dash's default home screen.
Note that T-Mobile has added a "Set Up My Email" to the home screen. This launches an email configurator utility that, presumably, has preprogrammed settings for T-Mobile accounts, making it easier for the average user to configure their email account. I'm sure those of us that have our own third-party accounts can manage without it, and thankfully, they've added a "Hide Me" for that very reason.
Figure 21: The E-mail Setup tool. I didn't go farther, as my account is on my own server and is unlikely to be helped by this tool.
Figure 22: The Communication Manager.
Launching the Communication Manager from Start or by clicking on the WiFi status on the home screen brings up the above-shown app. I've watched the evolution of these Managers from the earliest versions on the JasJar, and it's gratifying to see the level of control you now have over controlling what the unit will do. Switching functions off and on is a snap.
Figure 23: The About screen.
This is the first device I've used that has AKU3. Good to see that T-Mobile used the latest AKU!
Figure 24: Among other improvements, here's AKU3's built-in Internet Sharing tool. About time this is standardized across devices, and the Dash is one of the first to have it.
Please, Palm, please release AKU3 for my 700w. Please...
Figure 25: System Information screen.
For those of you who are curious about details about the unit itself, here's the System Information screen with all of the low-level detail.
There's several other programs on the device beyond the standard WM5 fare, including a MyFaves tool to manipulate T-Mobile's new free calling feature for selected numbers (and which communicates your preferences over-the-air); T-Zones, which is T-Mobile's WAP portal, a T-Mobile HotSpot helper tool to enable you to easily connect to their service at Starbucks and many other locations, HTC's own (very decent) Task Manager, ClearVue file viewers, an extra Instant Messaging client, and a few miscellaneous tools.
Figure 26: Oz's Instant Messaging client.
T-Mobile bundled an IM client capable of AIM, ICQ, and Y! instant messaging. I think this is a great addition for those that don't use MSN Messenger. I've always perceived of T-Mobile as a "consumer-friendly" carrier, compared to the behemoths that are Verizon and Cingular, and this is a good example of just that.
Gripes
Overall, the experience of using the Dash is exactly what you'd expect a Smartphone to be. The unit is reasonably fast, the screen is gorgeous, the device is easy to use. However, there are two quirks, one minor, and one major. Let's start with the minor one.
Figure 27: The annoyance known as xT9.
The Dash includes a new predictive text input mechanism, xT9. This is an evolution from T9, and to be perfectly honest, it's actually quite a bit nicer than the T9 implementations in previous Smartphones. However,
I don't need it when I have a full thumbboard! Essentially, given a full thumbboard, xT9 acts as an autocomplete. Most of the time, it's actually right -- you can then hit spacebar to finish the word and continue onto the next. But then there are cases like the one in figure 26, when it actually gets in your way. It's completing Jason's last name here, and exiting it
without completing the word is actually very nonintuitive. In this case, I could just scroll to the left and hit Enter or Space. However, when there are no correct completions, I have no idea how to get out of it without completing.
Worse, you
cannot use arrows to scroll when xT9 is completing; it grabs the arrows' focus for navigating between the words listed at the bottom. This makes doing things like writing emails rather tedious for me, especially when I type a few letters and xT9 wants to helpfully, but wrongly, complete it.
Fortunately, I have a simple solution: hit ALT-SPACE, and switch to ABC. Problem solved.
The only catch is that while the input method sticks, it appears specific to the app in question, so you may have to switch a few apps once before you have all of them in regular multitap (well, singletap on a QWERTY), unless a registry hack is available. Now, some of you may actually like xT9, but I find that the whole
point of QWERTY is that I can type out all the words without thinking of completion.
Now for the big gripe: as I mentioned earlier, the scrolling touch strip, aka the JOGGR from the generic HTC Excalibur, is
gone. T-Mobile saw fit to replace it with a generic volume control. I guess this makes sense from a consumer standpoint, but I was
really looking forward to being able to scroll rapidly using the JOGGR .
Figure 28: The JOGGR/touch strip control panel has been replaced with a volume-only version.
You can basically set the strip to change volume in-call only, change volume everywhere, or do nothing. I am very hopeful that someone can release an add-on to restore the original functionality, because I think that was one of the coolest aspects of the Excalibur, and a nice answer to the jog dial of the Blackberries. As to if it's even a real "scroller" hardwarewise, it's hard to say, since there's so few positions for volume. You can essentially use it as a pair of up/down volume keys. Not much else to do.
Moving on... we're almost finished with the review. The next page talks about the Dash's phone quality and other last observations before concluding. What do I ultimately think of the Dash? Read on!
The Dash as Phone, and Other Tests
At the press event announcing the Dash, it was made clear that T-Mobile was looking for this to be not only a flexible Smartphone but
also an exemplary
phone. I was only briefly able to test the phone functionality, but the quality of both the earpiece and microphone were excellent. Reception seemed fine. I didn't get a chance to test in noisy/windy environments; hopefully one of the other SPTers will be able to carry it for a few weeks and give the device a full walkthrough.
I also didn't test GPRS/EDGE, as the SIM I borrowed wasn't provisioned for data. I did test WiFi though, and found both reception and bandwidth were solid. I don't think Skype will run on this 200MHz processor, but any other WiFi application should work just fine on this device without any issues. Note that the Dash does
not have 3G; T-Mobile doesn't have much of a 3G network at the moment, and the device is geared for their $29.99 all-data plan that offers unlimited GPRS, EDGE, and T-Mobile HotSpots. In my opinion, that's a pretty good tradeoff for casual use. Finally, this unit apparently has Bluetooth 2.0, but unfortunately I didn't have any stereo headphones to see how well that would work. We'll have to wait and see how others find the profile featureset to be.
Speaking of the processor, the device is reasonably responsive. When I first set it up, it seemed slow, but that slowness disappeared shortly thereafter. HTC devices often do a "preinstall" in the background the first time the device is set up; that's the only guess I can make, as subsequent power cycles did not yield any slowness. I did not have a chance to test battery life, so I can't really comment on it.
The camera on the phone is not revolutionary -- it's standard 1.3 megapixel fare -- but is decent even with indoor lighting. Click on figure 29 to see the original-resolution image. (This picture was taken with default settings.)
Figure 29: Picture of the animals sitting on top of my Dell 20" LCD in my office, with standard fluorescent lighting. Note the reasonable sharpness of the background features. Can anyone identify: a) the product in the poster on the very left; b) the source of the images on the posters in the middle; c) the teams pictured on the calendar? And no, I don't normally buy stuffed animals... these were gifts accumulated over the years.
Conclusions
My two gripes aside, I really, really like this device. If I was living in good T-Mobile coverage, I'd be sorely tempted to switch. It's not necessarily the flashiest or most insanely powerful Windows Mobile device on the market, but it matches an excellent feature set with a fantastic form factor. The unit fits so comfortably in your hand, the screen is to die for, the thumbboard is solid, the unit's WiFi works seamlessly, and the device just feels well-executed from start to finish. Alas, I'm going back to my brick of a 700w and its correspondingly expensive Verizon service. I'd never have called it a brick before now, but that just goes to show you what a svelte little Smartphone the Dash is. If you walk past a T-Mobile store starting on October 25, do me a favor -- walk in, hold it in your hand for a few seconds, and let me know what you think. I think you'll have the exact same response I did.
Janak Parekh is finishing up his Ph.D. in Computer Science at Columbia University in the City of New York. When not frantically performing last-minute research experiments or writing device reviews, he can be found catching a baseball game or hanging out in New York City with his friends... or, most likely, catching up on sleep.
Log in to check your private messages -> Log in 
My joey also lacks any appendages whatsoever. However, this one came from Brisbane as a friend of mine was attending a conference there.