Several hundred thousand people across the country are now happy iPhone users. They’re also all AT&T users, whether they wanted to be or not. Until Apple shipped their wonder-phone, I was never that interested in phones focused on e-mail and web browsing — then it all changed. However, as a T-Mobile user, my options are limited. Much as I would like to say I’m glad that my service agreement will force me to wait until at least the second-generation iPhone, I’m not. I want a great phone. And so I headed to the T-Mobile store yesterday, in search of hope. And I found none. To read the gory details, hit the jump.
Up first was the T-Mobile Dash, also known as the HTC Excalibur. Though bargains can be had here with a two-year contract extension, the whole point is to ride out my contract in mediocrity, so we’re talking a cool $350. It’s very thin and fairly attractive on the whole. It runs Windows Mobile, which totally sucks, but that’s not a definite deal-breaker. To be honest, I think Windows Mobile is nicer than the BlackBerry OS. What doesn’t work about the Dash is that its creators tried to stick with an interface similar to what works on a fairly standard cell phone: a four-way control and a couple of action buttons. Fine for limited scrolling and simple functions. Almost unusable when you’re working with a device aspiring to stand in for a laptop.
The web browser wouldn’t work correctly in the store, and, much worse, I couldn’t actually figure out how to enter a new URL. Not that I would have been able to, anyway. Why? Because the keyboard on the Dash is horrible. How horrible? Put it this way: Working with both thumbs, I ended up with way more typos than the first time I used an iPhone. And the latter was not a joyous occasion, to put it mildly. Either way, the Dash proved once and for all to me that it is entirely possible to make a physical QWERTY keyboard that is too small to use. Or too small for my 7-year-old niece Sasha to use, either.
My next thought was the BlackBerry 8800, which is the current top of the line of the original e-mail addiction device. The guys up in Toronto’s Research in Motion also have the BlackBerry Curve out, but if I can’t have an iPhone I would much rather have a device focused on work than on sadly emulating the media features of the real deal. There are problems with the 8800, however. It’s huge — I think a good three feet wide. It’s also pricey — $400 without a contract.
It’s not for me. The graphic interface is odd and inconsistent, as I’ve always found to be the case with BlackBerry. The tiny scrollball isn’t as bad as I remember from using my fiancee’s BlackBerry Pearl (a $350 device whose bizarre combination of a phone keypad and QWERTY keyboard drives me crazy), but the keyboard is much worse than I anticipated. The designers apparently decided that an undifferentiated mass of keys at equal level with no spaces between them was the way to go. The inner edges are turned up, which I imagine is supposed to make typing easier, but my results were barely better than what I found with the Dash, and my fingers hurt. Not worth $400.
The Sidekick 3 is the baby of the smartphone family. From its magnet-latched, swing-out screen to its cartoonish interface, everything about it screams “teenager.” But, I kind of love it. The keyboard is phenomenal: Soft, responsive, large and intuitive. The screen is nice enough. The trackball is used better here than on the BlackBerry models, and the large buttons are set up to perform repetitive tasks simply. To be honest, I kind of love it — for everything except making phone calls. Then, I feel about is normal as if I were holding up a Nintendo DS to my head. It’s too thick, too large and too generally designed for features that have nothing to do with the simple task of taking and making calls.
If I were 15 and had a data-only plan, though. I would be all over this thing. Even for $300.
The very last option carried officially on T-Mobile is the brand-new Wing, also known as the HTC Herald. It’s an attractive-enough shade of blue, it squishes down to a tolerable size for making calls in your phone book, the touch screen works well enough for precision clicking, and the keyboard — my lord, the keyboard! This is a single-slider focused on typing out e-mails, texts and even editing documents, and it’s pretty killer. The keys are large and responsive, and my typing speed was by far the best of any mobile device I’ve ever used. The overall action is nice, Windows Mobile PocketPC isn’t horrible, and I was all-around fairly impressed. Except that it costs $500, and at that price, I would only buy an iPhone. I walked out of the store, disappointed by the slim pickings.
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So there you have it. I know there are a bunch of good and sophisticated Nokia models out there, particularly the n70 and e61i, but it just doesn’t seem worth the fuss. How are other folks getting by in the mean time?
Pete Mortensen is a design strategist for consulting firm Jump Associates and the co-author of Wired to Care: How Companies Prosper When They Create Widespread Empathy, a book and blog that are significantly more interesting than you might initially think. Pete’s particular Apple avocations are both around design–interface and industrial. Follow him on Twitter!
