T-Mobile USA is expanding its lineup of 3G phones. On Wednesday, it announced the Dash 3G, which updates its popular Dash smartphone.
The Dash 3G, available in glossy black with touches of red, is built by HTC and uses the Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.1 operating system. It features a full QWERTY keyboard, a trackball, a QVGA 2.4-inch, 320×240 display, GPS, messaging, Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g), a microSDHC expansion card slot, Bluetooth 2.0, and a fixed-focus two-megapixel camera.
As one might expect from a Windows Mobile phone, the Dash 3G offers synchronization with Microsoft Exchange for coordinating contacts, appointments and other information.
Behind Competitors
Travis Warren, product marketing director T-Mobile USA, said the new Dash is the company’s “first 3G-enabled Windows Mobile smartphone to help customers stay connected, organized and traveling in the right direction.”
Avi Greengart, an analyst for industry research firm Current Analysis, said “there’s been a surprising lack of 3G phones” in T-Mobile’s product lineup.
The company has 3G phones, he said, but not with Windows Mobile, and not that many compared with its major competitors. “AT&T, Sprint and Verizon,” he said, “have 3G phones throughout their lineup.”
He described the new smartphone as a “welcome development,” but added that, since the company hasn’t announced pricing, it’s hard to tell where it fits in the lineup.
Greengart noted that, although he hasn’t personally used the Dash 3G, he’s used a similar model also made by HTC, the Snap. “The keyboard is much better than the one on the original Dash,” he said, “and the smartphone looks and feels a lot better in your hand than it looks in the photos.”
Coming in July
The Dash 3G is coming in July to T-Mobile retail stores and other dealers, as well as to T-Mobile’s online store.
This new model doesn’t offer touchscreen interaction, as do many…