HTC Excalibur (aka T-Mobile Dash)

I purchased the T-Mobile Dash (aka HTC Excalibur). It’s a swell phone with a QWERTY keyboard running Windows Mobile 5. I was going to get a new BlackBerry but I had two requirements that BlackBerry couldn’t fulfill together:

1. QWERTY Keyboard

…plus…

2. Camera

They have phones that do one or the other, not the same together. It seems like a good move so far. The joystick is WAY better than the jog-wheel on the BlackBerry! Now, when in a grid, instead of using two keys, or using the jog-wheel like crazy, I just press the directional pad “down”. It truely is a revolutionary idea. WTF.

The must-have applications for the phone???

1. Google Maps (even though the j2me on this phone crashes and makes me reboot the damn thing)

2. Google Email (ditto)

3. Skype - Needs WIFI though. Lag? 1 second.
4. Windows Live Search Mobile – works like google, but by microsoft. No faster or slower. Just different.
Oh, and the manufacturer has a wiki for their product. That’s nice: Here.