My aging Blackberry 8700 was just getting too much for my pockets, and I needed to upgrade. I was debating between the Dash and the Pearl and decided on the Dash.
Why? For starters, T-Mobile released the Windows Mobile 6 update, which adds (among many other things), HTML e-mail support. This is really nice. I also missed OneNote Mobile too much.
Another big factor is that my company was slowly locking down 3rd party applications on the Blackberry, and I was told I would soon lose the ability to get both work and personal mail on the device. As it turns out, we're piloting GoodMail on the Windows Mobile platform, so with the Dash I'll actually be able to get my work e-mail after all. Unfortunately, they don't yet have a client that works in Windows Mobile 6, and I'm not about to downgrade to WM5.
Finally, it was actually thinner and only slightly wider than the Pearl, and yet has a full keyboard instead of the Pearl's SureType.
One thing I loved and missed about the WM platform is the ability to start dialing (letters or numbers) and automatically searching the contacts. For example, if I dial COR, I'll get my friend Corey, my friend Cory, and anyone in the 803 area code. That's cool.
The true separation between SMS messages and e-mail is also a nice benefit. I would all too often accidentally delete SMS messages on the Blackberry because they were mixed in with e-mail that I thought I had read. Along those lines, it's also nice that the Windows Mobile actually synchronizes with my Exchange Server. With the Blackberry, deleting something on the device would not delete it on the server and vice versa, nor would read status synchronize between the device and server..
One big downside is that it's only EDGE. Of course, T-Mobile doesn't have Hsdpa yet, and ALL of their phones are EDGE only (including the 8700), but I was a litle leery abut upgrading to a new device and not having that ability. With this caveat, I can at least use it (unlike the blackberry) as a modem so I can perhaps cut out my EVDO, which has been slow lately anways.
One thing that sort of bugs me is that the volume strip on the right side of the screen doesn't scroll. Perhaps there's a setting I haven't dug into yet, and I realize that WM needs to support all devices unlike RIM, but still it's annoying.
I still wonder why they don't include a standard headphone jack in these devices. Like the SMT5600, this the smaller jack which requires special headphones (a pair are included) or a converter (Radio Shack sells one but it's quite bulky). This renders is useless to me as a media device. You can be damn well sure that the iPhone won't use this smaller plug.
All that said, the only real complaint I have so far is absolutely AWFUL battery life. I had read that battery life wasn't great, and I was certainly spoiled by great battery life in the 8700, but I'm talking really bad. I'm talking 18-20 hours from a full charge with virtually no voice calls - just data connection and DirectPush. I was traveling last weekend with about 50% battery, and it didn't last 24 hrs even though I had it off the majority of the time. 10% drained while the device was off overnight. This is just unacceptable, and I can only hope that something is physically wrong with my battery.
On that note, does anyone have tips for improving battery life with this device? Or is there any must-have software I need for Windows Mobile 5/6 devices? (The last time I used a WM device was the SMT5600 running WM 2003).