A couple of weeks ago, I moved my mobile life back to a Blackberry Bold 9700 from T-Mobile after being on a Dash 3G  for the last 6 months.

It’s like breathing air again.

Admittedly, I am not the typical modern smartphone user. I prefer a full keyboard over a touchscreen, and I still operate in a mainly text-based world. So the Blackberry is exactly what I need to get through my day. I get my work email fast, the GMail app is fantastic, and UMA is really an astounding thing.

When you compare the Bold 9700 to its predecessor in my life, it is like moving from a broken Windows 3.11 486DX to a new MacBook Pro. WinMo 6.5 is not a modern mobile platform and on the Dash 3G, it only gets worse.

It’s not T-Mobile’s fault that they have the Dash 3G. But I am glad it’s not with me anymore.

I’ve now had my T-Mobile Dash 3G for nearly a month, and I can say that it is a very useful little mobile computing platform for someone who doesn’t need all the power of an iPhone (and who doesn’t what to pay the AT&T tax on mobile computing). After a month of use and thought, I thought it was time to update my first impressions.

The Good

• Active Sync works like a dream with our work Exchange 2007 Server
• Evernote Mobile is great for collecting stuff and works flawlessly.
• Skype Mobile over WiFi rocks, and will be very useful if I ever get to travel outside the US and Canada again.
• Threaded SMS conversations remind me of the old Treo 600 I once had. It is a nice touch that the Blackberry really didn’t do well.

The Bad

• I’m not always sure where I am in the interface. The Windows Mobile platform that the Dash 3G uses makes it darn difficult to figure out where you are and how to get to where you want. I sometimes find myself navigating through a number of layers to find out how to get back to certain apps.
• Files? Where are my files? It shouldn’t be this hard to figure out where images/videos/audio files are stored by the default applications.
• Camera can too easily be set to video mode, and it is not intuitive how to switch it back to camera-only mode.
• Lack of native Google Mobile app for email. I loved the GMail app for Blackberry. The only option I appear to have on the Dash 3G / Windows Mobile platform is their native IMAP client which is a clunky hack, IMHO.
• No intuitive way to sync Google and Active Sync calendar and contacts, a la Google Sync for the Blackberry.
• No intuitive way to join PEAP WiFi networks. The wireless network at my office uses PEAP to authenticate, which Windows Mobile, despite being a Windows-like product, appears to have no clue about. I have helped at least one person setup their iPhone to join the PEAP network without difficulty.

The Ugly

• Why can’t the Shortcut key launch any app, not just the ones Windows Mobile wants you to launch. Mobile IE sucks compared to SkyFire, but I can’t immediately start SkyFire without going through those nasty, non-intuitive Windows to find it.
• Why is sending an MMS so hard? It isn’t clear if you are doing the right thing, and I’m never sure if the damn thing has worked properly. This is a key functionality that needs to be fixed, ASAP.
• Why offer the option to check for Windows Mobile Updates if you can’t connect to the server?
• And, despite trying to hide it, it is still Windows. Occasionally apps just crash without warning, especially if the device has been on for more than 3-4 days continuously. I only had to restart my Blackberry when installing some apps and updating the firmware/OS.

As a smartphone, it is a good starter phone.

However, I am having some pretty large pangs of envy and regret about the myTouch, with full knowledge that the Android OS is not yet ready for the modern office environment, i.e. no ability to Active Sync. If Android gets Active Sync capabilities anytime soon, I will truly regret my decision to go with the Dash 3G.

Ratings:

OS: 4/10 – Still Windows. Can we hack Android with Active Sync onto this platform?

Apps: 4/10 – Complex menus. Lack of an App Store location or interesting/goofy utilities. Lacking Google apps (Google Sync and an independent GMail app).

Hardware: 7/10 – No light for the camera, keyboard a little small for Jolly Green Giant Hands, proprietary HTC plugs for headsets and power

Call Quality: 8.5/10 – Some fade out in quality when switching from 3G to EDGE

Data Quality: 5/10 – Mostly because I paid for 3G and I’m getting EDGE/GPRS in the Boston ‘burbs. T-Mobile’s slow roll of their 3G infrastructure shows

UPDATED: Impressions after the first month can be found here.

For the last 12-14 months, I have carried a Blackberry Pearl 8100 on my hip. And, as far as smartphones go, it served as a good, basic started phone. There were some issues though, including:

• No push email, due to limited corporate licenses for the Blackberry Enterprise server and an addition $30/month cost for Enterprise Support through T-Mobile. I did get my work email, but it was through a hack, and my work calendar and contacts had to be supported through Google Sync on the desktop and on the phone
• Poor camera. It was a 1.3MP camera. The quality of the camera varied over time, especially through various OS upgrades I put the phone through.
• Slow media support. Showing me the picture folder took up to 10 minutes, and got worse as more media was added

I was in the market for a new phone. The qualifications were:

• Better Camera
• 3G Support
• Active Sync Support
• Full physical keyboard
• WiFi (optional)

As a T-Mobile customer, the Active Sync and physical keyboard ruled out the new myTouch. The battery life on the G1 ruled that machine out.

Then I learned about the Dash 3G on Monday. It was exactly what I wanted.

Based on the HTC Snap, this phone is a serious upgrade to the old EDGE/GPRS Dash, which had always interested me. But, I was not willing to settle for EDGE/GPRS speeds. And though the T-Mobile 3G network may not be as built out as the AT&T 3G network, it is likely to improve over time.

Now, I have had the Dash 3G since Wednesday night. Comments so far?

• Moving contacts. This was sort of difficult, but it took only a few minutes once I had it sorted. Keeping my BlackBerry contacts synced with Google made this easy, as I exported my Google contacts, and imported them to Outlook
• GMail support. It’s done through IMAP, which is great, but it created a whole bunch of new labels in GMail that weren’t there before.
• Speed. Very fast, even when looking through folders of images.
• Camera. While 2MP is pretty low-end these days, it’s perfect for what I’m looking for.
• Ease of Use. Moving from one OS to another is always a challenge. But, Windows Mobile 6.1 benefits from being like Windows. And as much as you might disagree with that, it is a model that most of the world is used to.
• Battery life. Not bad, but I am always power-conscious. I only turn the WiFi on at home, and I haven’t fire up the Bluetooth yet. Using mainly the 3G network, battery life appears to be quite good. I plan to put it through a drain test over the next 36-48 hours to see how long the battery truly lasts.

Overall, through nearly 2 days, I am very happy with the new phone. If you are looking for a work-ready phone on the T-Mobile network, I highly recommend moving to the Dash 3G.

We got Samantha a new T-Mobile cell a few weeks back. But it came with an unwanted and expensive feature: every morning at 11:00, she receives a weather update from Windows Live Alerts.

Apparently the previous owner of the number had these alerts programmed. And of course, there is no way to shut them off because we have no clue who this person is/was.

If anyone out there from the Windows Live team or the T-Mobile support team can try and help us, it would be very much appreciated.

Technorati Tags: Windows Live, T-Mobile, TMobile, Windows Live Alerts, help, sms

Samantha’s second Samsung A560 died last week, so I got mad and called Sprint to try and get out of the contract. No way — a kidney and my eldest child is the only way to get out of this deal with the devil.

So, until March 2008, the phone will be powered down and stuck in a drawer. We will grudgingly pay the bill, knowing that we can then tell them to take a long walk off a short pier and not re-subscribe.

On Sunday, we added Samantha to my T-Mobile plan and she now has several fine phones to choose from out of my existing collection. I really don’t see us going back to a CDMA service…ever.

Got my T-Mobile Rizr Z3 unlocked yesterday and it is now running the stock Z3 Software…looks like for Malaysia!

I hated all the extras that came with the T-Mobile Software. Now, I am happy.

Last night, I spent over an hour on the phone with three very friendly and helpful T-Mobile tech support representatives, and guess what? The troublesome Samsung T619 I slammed a couple of weeks ago is now able to send and receive text messages.

I was impressed with the efficiency of the T-Mobile team, and the Tier 2 team I ended up with was thorough. It took two Over-the-air updates to fix the phone, but it’s done and I’m happy.

Can’t take back the bad comment, but hope I can counter it with some good words.

Tags: T-Mobile, TMobile, Samsung T619, SGH-T619, Samsung

I actually upgraded my phone through T-Mobile about a month ago, and it was a mistake. I went with the Free upgrade (mistake number one) and chose the Samsung SGH-T619.

It’s a piece of crap. I guess I should have known that when I chose the free upgrade.

My biggest complaint: it won’t send text messages. That’s right, one of the core features of any mobile phone, and this lousy hunk of plastic won’t do it. Every time I try to send a message, the phone says it couldn’t do it, retry?

So I send an email to the customer service at T-Mobile. Complete form letter reply.

I’m going to throw this lousy phone in a drawer, and likely pay the penalty to switch to Cingular/ATT Mobile.

I am finally fed up.

Tags: T-Mobile, TMobile, Samsung, T619, SGH-T619, SMS, Text message, lousy service

Dear T-Mobile USA:

I have been a dedicated customer of yours since 2004. I have become an advocate for GSM services, and think that my brethern who continue to use CDMA services are not looking to the future, and don’t see the world coming at them.

That said, as a customer who likes gadgets and all the bells and whistles, your upgrades are pathetic.

And no, that level of emphasis is not used lightly.

I have just returned from the UK. Over there, the phone choices offered by providers stagger the imagination. Bells and whistles are yesterday — people base their lives around their phones, and the quality and range of phones available are, to say the least, impressive.

They also know that to retain customers, they have to provide astounding FREE upgrades. The latest, greatest are available as free upgrades just for becoming a slave to their contract.

I went and checked the upgrades you offer right now, T-Mobile. They suck. There is no motivation for me to stay with your service, no motivation for me not to move to another GSM provider and kiss my customer fidelity goodbye.

A simple thing: upgrade your upgrades. Please.

Thank you.

Just got MIDPSSH to work on my Razr. Had to perform a few hacks to get around the T-Mobile Firewall (SSHD now listens on port 110), but there is some perverse pleasure in seeing a linux command prompt on my Razr.

Maybe I need to do some real work now.

Technorati Tags: Razr, SSH, MIDPSSH, T-mobile