Leaked documents appear to confirm that
T-Mobile will soon start offering original design manufacturer
High Tech Computer's Excalibur communicator in the United States. The smartphone, which earned
FCC approval back in August,
is slated to ship under the name Dash on October 16th.
Dash is a new communicator handset with a QWERTY thumb-keyboard built in the mold of the slim Samsung i320 and Motorola Q, except it is supposed to be even thinner and lighter. The handset runs on the Windows Mobile 5.0 for Smartphone platform, which means it won't have a touch display or be as powerful as, say, Palm's Treo 700wx, a Pocket PC Phone. Additional communicator-style smartphones include RIM's BlackBerry, the original, and Nokia's new E62, just introduced by Cingular.
The quad-band GSM/GPRS Dash is Wi-Fi-enabled unlike the Q, BlackBerry, i320 or Treo, which could be a real advantage in the marketplace. T-Mobile has the largest investment in Wi-Fi hot spots of any operator in this U.S., and the least in 3G, a technology Dash lacks. There is support for T-Mobile's 2.5G EDGE data network for 135 kilobits per second performance, however.
According to the leaked documents, from the blog engadget (see top image), T-Mobile will offer a comprehensive all-you-can-eat data plan for $29.99/month that includes access to e-mail and Internet through the carrier's 2.5G EDGE network and HotSpot Wi-Fi service.
Dash should run on a 200 MHz TI OMAP P850 processor, 64 MB of RAM, 128 MB of ROM, and a QVGA (320 x240 pixel) resolution screen in landscape mode.
The quad-band GSM Excalibur also integrates an innovative jog strip that replaces the typical thumbwheel found on these devices, such as the ones on the BlackBerry 8700 series and the Q. Located on the side of the device near the display, users slide their fingers up and down the strip (like you would with a touchpad on a laptop). At the top and bottom of the strip are places that lead to the Start Menu and go back.
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