The T-Mobile Dash has a full qwerty keyboard. However, due to the tiny size of its buttons and the minimal space between keys, the keyboard was difficult to use. It was frustrating; we frequently depressed two or three buttons when trying to push only one. Morrison called the Dash's keyboard its worst feature and said she'd avoid typing messages on the device due to its cramped keys. Business users seeking a device with a full qwerty keyboard to frequently type messages will want to pass on the Dash, unless they've got very tiny fingers.

The Dash's UI is somewhat awkward. With its five-button navigation mechanism—which like the Treo 750 is composed of one "action" or "enter" button surrounded by "up," "down," "left" and "right" keys—we often had to click through multiple screens to find an application. Because the Dash runs on Windows Mobile, navigation is largely menu-based, beginning with the Start Menu for the majority of applications. That means users often must click through multiple levels of menus. Morrison, who is used to her BlackBerry's icon-based navigation, quickly became frustrated with clicking through multiple screens to find what she wanted. She also missed a track wheel or trackball feature that would've cut down on the number of times she had to click the device's navigation buttons.

With its ClearVue suite of office applications, the Dash can view Word documents, Excel worksheets, PowerPoint presentations and PDFs. However, you cannot make changes to documents using the Dash. Fortunately, none of the CIO reviewers felt document-editing capabilities were required for corporate smartphones.

The device should be a breeze to link to Microsoft Exchange Servers for access to Outlook e-mail and calendar information, but setup could be less than simple depending on your organization's Exchange settings, firewalls or additional security measures. Furthermore, your organization must have a Microsoft Exchange Server or Good server to link the Dash to Outlook or Lotus Notes corporate mail accounts. Due to a setting in her Exchange server that doesn't allow for wireless synchronization, Morrison was unable to wirelessly access her Outlook mail or other information. She was, however, able to sync Outlook e-mail from her PC via USB connection.

The Dash accesses T-Mobile's GSM/EDGE network, which means it is not a true third-generation (3G) phone. T-Mobile's EDGE network gives users download speeds of up to 168Kbps, the company claims. T-Mobile USA doesn't currently offer a 3G network like Cingular's Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UTMS) network or its faster high-speed downlink packet access (HSDPA) network, which offer average download speeds of 220 to 320Kbps and 400 to 700Kbps, respectively. If your users frequently download large files, or need to search the Web while on a phone call or send an e-mail message during a conversation, you may want to invest in a 3G device.

The Dash has a digital camera and expandable memory. It cannot be disabled by IT administrators.

One of our least favorite features of the Dash was its Volume Touch Strip, a small section of plastic that's used to turn the device's volume up and down. You can set the Touch Strip's "activation speed," or how hard you must press it to activate the control, and its sensitivity—how hard you must press it to adjust volume—but it was frustrating no matter what the settings. Our biggest complaint is that you almost always have to remove the phone from your ear and look at the screen to see if the Touch Strip is activated before you can make volume adjustments. Doing so interrupts calls. When the strip's activation speed is set to very slow, you have to push your finger on it repeatedly to register the command, and when it's set to "very fast," you can't hold the device in your palm without the Touch Strip being activated. There are three settings in between for both activation speed and sensitivity, but we had trouble finding a balance between the two, and decided to disable the control completely to avoid further frustration. We couldn't adjust call volume after the strip was disabled, but this didn't bother us too much because we just turned the volume up to its maximum level.

We also missed the presence of "convenience keys," or keys that are specifically meant to launch your most-used applications. Two of the four devices we reviewed have these buttons, which we appreciated particularly because we could set frequently used applications to the convenience key and eliminate the need for device navigation.

Finally, we know it's never intelligent to judge a book by its cover, but that doesn't mean it never happens. The fact that the T-Mobile Dash looks very much like a consumer phone—with keys that glow bright blue when activated, rounded shape and rubberized body—may turn off business users. If you want your business device to reflect its purpose, you may want to go with a less flashy phone.

Check out our additional review sections to learn how the Dash measured up to the Nokia E62, Palm's Treo 750 and Research In Motion's BlackBerry Pearl.

<< T-Mobile Dash: What We Liked    |   Executive Summary >>

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