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I absolutely despise this phone. the alarm goes off randomly throughout the day, it takes at least 7 minutes to completely load and function after it's been turned off, and now, my phone won't even turn all the way on.I have never had so many problems with this phone. I thought it was great when I first got it, but now that I have had it for a while, I think it's the biggest piece of garbage I have EVER wasted my money on. the phone is SLOOOOOOW. I even talked to people at T Mobile and they admitted that this is a poor purchase.I am completely dissatisfied with this product. I'd rather have a land line than have this phone.
User manual is an experiment in minimalism so austere and contentless that it borders on the surreal.Pros: It's paid for.Cons: See above. The short version:This phone and system stink. The t-mobile Dash is such a constant source of petty tech hassle that it's likely taken a year off of my life in unrelieved stress. I endure regular coverage deadspots in such remote out of the way places as midtown Manhattan and downtown Brooklyn, constant email connection error messages when all bars are showing, the single most counter-intuitive alarm clock in the history of technology (which can only be cleared by upgrading the operating system), home PC synching that simply doesn't work, a volume control that's only adjustable by accident while talking on the phone, a completely inaccurate and unreliable power indicator and battery charger, really poor sound quality and outgoing reception, a call contact menu that regularly appears empty despite a sim chip with a hundred contacts on it, and about a dozen other software bugs that can only be addressed by rebooting which can kinda cramp your style when it's required for every single thing you need to do with your phone. Customer service is pretty uniformly useless but then imagine if you had to deal with questions about all of the above 24/7. T-minus 7 months and counting until my contract is up and I bid this rotten phone, lousy network, and irresponsibly inept and greedy company goodbye. I'll gladly pay more per month for a phone that reliably performs half of the functions that the Dash is supposed to but doesn't.
Supposedly, the better phones that HTC makes are the HTC Touch and the HTC Touch Diamond, but T-Mobile doesn't sell these phones. I bought this phone because I had read good things about the hardware created by HTC. This allocation is fixed, and cannot be changed)-Memory clogs occur after opening and closing programs throughout the day (Internet Explorer, Messaging, Windows Media Player, almost any of the programs that came pre-installed)-The phone requires a reboot every morning to clear its internal memory from clogs-On boot, the phone only has 16MB RAM to use for program loading-Sometimes the camera function won't load due to "low memory" even when all the programs are closed and ended-Internet Explorer will unexpectedly quit because the memory has become "full and unable to continue" even when there are no other programs running-The phone is not good at multi-tasking, it runs very sluggishly when playing Windows Media Player, text messaging, and checking the weather simultaneously-Upon turning on the phone (after it has been turned off), it may automatically reboot itself 3-4x before actually going to the user Today Screen.-If the phone freezes (due to unable to clear a memory clog), the only way to reset it is to remove the battery, which can be a hassle if it is in a tight-fit caseAll in all, I have found this phone to be a let down. Windows Mobile (previously named "PocketPC") has been around since 2002, and I would think that these companies that make these phones would be more efficient in their hardware by now. I've read the reviews for the Samsung Omnia (GSM World Phone Unlocked) and its reviews have been beautiful. The major issue is the RAM, or internal memory.
If you want a good smartphone running Windows Mobile, invest in one that T-Mobile doesn't sell in their store, and also make sure it is running with at least 128MB internal memory (RAM) to help reduce freezes. OK, I also bought this phone because it was free after rebate.The upsides to this phone:Synchronization with Push E-MailsEDGE Network compatibilityCrystal-clear phone conversationsAdequate Text/E-mail messagingGreat for basic e-mail surfingThe downsides to this phone:-Lack of internal memory (the software setup splits the internal 64MB RAM into two allocations, the user storage, and the actual amount the phone can use for program loading. Solution. I mean come on, it has 64MB, but only 16MB available for program usage. I am a tech geek, and this phone is way below my standards; I wouldn't recommend this to even a 13 year old. Also, keep all personal data on a micro-SD card, this will help keep that internal memory free for the phone to use for program usage.
It may not be cost effective, but it seems to be that it will fit my needs better than this phone by far when it comes to reliability and stability.
Where this phone really shines is it's durability. Of all the software bugs in the phone i'd have to say the main negative of the device resides in the hardware in the form of the touch volume control. This phone has some quirks of which 95% has to do with the software (Windows Mobile 5 or 6). I swam for a good 20 minutes with the phone completely under water.
Quicks aside, Windows Mobile still allows you to be productive on the run and i've learned to live with these quirks. I've had the same T-Mobile Dash for 3 years now. Sure, the battery door has a tendency to come loose since it doesn't really snap in that tightly, but on July 4th 2008 the phone really demonstrated it's durability. Miraculously, the phone worked and has worked ever since. The volume control is so annoying, if you put the phone to your left side (which I believe most users do) the volume control will inevitably lower your volume.
I had my phone on and jumped in the pool at a party I was hosting, forgetting that the phone was in the pocket of my swim trunks. There is not one button on the phone that doesn't work, however, some of the buttons require a little more pressure to register when pressing them than they did before the phone went swimming. windows mobile 6 did fix some of the inconviences however, some it also added some such as slower text messaging (more steps to compose a new message, etc). Needless to say the phone was dead when I got out of the water. Putting the phone on the right side of your face (which I personally hate to do) works much better.
This is the only major annoyance/bug of the physical hardware. I couple days later I removed the battery and stuck the Dash in the vent of my air conditioner for about 2 weeks to dry out. Overall, i'm very happy with my Dash and i'm so used to it and quick and efficient with it that I would hate to change phones anytime soon.
My ringtones that are not MIDI do the same thing. It's a mostly fine implementation of a Windows Mobile phone. Like during the startup sequence, it plays fast, hiccups, plays normal. I've used up my "sign up for a couple years and get a discounted phone" on this baby, and I wouldn't do it again.
Sometimes it's like 300baud Commodore 64 days. I only bothered checking the speed once, and it was something like 96k which was plenty for getting a little work done and checking email. Actually, just the top 20% of the screen, but that was enough to render it pretty useless and they replaced it under warranty. My first one had a screen go bad. iPhone/Blackberry/Whatever, if you're considering a phone like this you've probably already got an opinion.
The processor seems very slow, my Palm from 10 years ago felt faster and my Philips Nino WindowsCE machine also blew it away. Again, if the phone basically worked, I'd live with it. I prefer it to my brief exposure to iPhone type touch interfaces, but everyone I know with an iPhone seems to get used it quickly so who knows. My second one has had no screen problems but is horribly glitchy and unreliable; it restarts by itself 20 times a day, loses all internet and cell connectivity which forces me to pull the battery and restart every time I use it, and there's something funny with the audio - it plays stuff about 15% too fast sometimes, and then pops back to normal even mid-play. Some of the time, they play way too fast, some of the time they're normal.
Not the trickiest thing in the world, but awfully inconvenient if it dies while I'm away from home.The camera is OK; the interface to it is a little clunky so don't expect to change from still photos to video quickly or anything like that, but it's serviceable. I won't go into any "Windows Mobile" vs. The internet speed is a little better than I would have thought. Sometimes.
I have a hunch that that's the quality of my local connection and not the phone's capability because I don't live in a bigger city. When I've used it as a tethered Bluetooth internet connection from time to time it was better than I thought it would be, probably just shy of twice as fast as a 56k modem. In hindsight, I'd take the bad reviews a little more seriously when I was researching.
My main problem with the phone is that it's horribly unreliable. I guess I expected some compromise in the phone because it was cheaper than Blackberries and iPhones, and I guess I got what I paid for. Usually I can yank the battery and restart it and it's fine, but every 2 or 3 months, I have to hard-reset the phone and replace all my personal info.
Once you get used to fingernail typing, the keyboard is OK. I'm not sure if I'm going to bother to get a third, I'll probably limp along with this one until I can afford a different phone. I just didn't expect the compromises to be in basic reliability; saving a little money doesn't do me much good when I can't use the phone a lot of the time.
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