I bought a Dash to use as a PDA only. Was this a good idea?

[tidixon]

Hey,
I just bought one of these on ebay with the idea of using it as a PDA only. Can anyone tell me why this would be a bad idea? Like, ... it will still turn on and I can use it without a sim card, right?

The reason I went with the Dash was because I wanted something with:
wifi
bluetooth
skype capabilities
PIM
thumbpad
mic
stereo out
can play mp3's / video
expandable memory
cheap $$ <150

I looked at the Treo 650, the Mylo Com-1, Tungsten C, etc.
I also looked at a few without thumbpads like the TX and the dell pda and stuff.

I decided on this thing because it is really small, runs wm6.1 which seems to have an active community of developers, has an active community of users with useful forums like the one I am currently posting on.

This presents me with the obvious problem that this is not really designed to be a PDA... it is a phone, after all.

So, the question I present to you is this. Was this a good idea? Will I find the neutered phone too annoying for daily use as a PDA?

[stylez]

Hey,
I just bought one of these on ebay with the idea of using it as a PDA only. Can anyone tell me why this would be a bad idea? Like, ... it will still turn on and I can use it without a sim card, right?

The reason I went with the Dash was because I wanted something with:
wifi
bluetooth
skype capabilities
PIM
thumbpad
mic
stereo out
can play mp3's / video
expandable memory
cheap $$ <150

I looked at the Treo 650, the Mylo Com-1, Tungsten C, etc.
I also looked at a few without thumbpads like the TX and the dell pda and stuff.

I decided on this thing because it is really small, runs wm6.1 which seems to have an active community of developers, has an active community of users with useful forums like the one I am currently posting on.

This presents me with the obvious problem that this is not really designed to be a PDA... it is a phone, after all.

So, the question I present to you is this. Was this a good idea? Will I find the neutered phone too annoying for daily use as a PDA?

Sounds like you are getting what you want and cheap, pretty much is a personal digital assistant, you will want to put a sim in it but you can get the phone unlocked here @ http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=355789
So as to use any network except 3.
All in all i think you will be impressed with your purchase.

[spikey911]

My opinion.

If I were you, I would have have purchased a PPC...

Touchscreen and a better selection of programs are the benefit.

The Dash is great for a smart phone, but not so great as a plain old PDA.

Again, my opinion only.

[THE ICON]

In my opinion your a GENIOUS THE S620 IS FREAKING INCREDIBLE YOU CAN HACK THIS THING TO DO ANY DAMN THING A ppc can do PLUS ITS THE SMALLEST OUT THERE HECK AN EXTRA BATTERY IS 5 BUCKS IT RULES.....sorry for the caps I just Love THIS Smartphone ;)

[Billyvnilly]

I LOVE my dell axim x51v, awesome audio, video support. skype works well, SD and CF slot, so you can get a frigging lot of memory on there. And the community "has been" pretty active and the ROM is much better then the original.

But the dash is great for what you want. however if i did use my dash for audio/ video purposes, i would be disappointed by battery life, speaker placement, and cost of microSD.

I need to find something similar to sliding panels for my x51v, and I'd be set.

[tidixon]

Due to a shipping error my dash JUST arrived today (~$110 shipped). My accessories have been arriving slowly over the last week, so I was able to test everything pretty extensively.
I bought a 2gb microsd card ($5 shipped) to load up with roms for dual use between my homebrew wii (with microsd-> sd adapter) and my dash. I also bought an 8gb micro sdhc card(~$25 shipped) and a 3.5" headphone adapter (~$6 shipped)
I put some music on the 2gb card as I think I need an update before I use the sdhc. I played some mp3's with the WM software. Nothing fantastic - definitely not as good as a standalone mp3 player, but this could just be the software. I will try tcpmp later.
I turned the phone off in connection settings, turned the wifi on and set that up with my home router. My hope is that disabling the phone will mitigate some of the battery life problems I've read about using the wifi. I browsed around with ie a little bit. It was pretty quick. I will need to install a better web browser - i've seen a few mentioned here.
Other than that... i'm not sure where to begin. I'll need to load up one of these custom roms, install some applications, get syncing working with ubuntu, set up email, etc.
My initial impression is that this was definitely the right choice. I had never actually seen one of these until I opened my box today. I used Sizeazy.com to compare the size of the dash to other devices before I ordered, but I did not realize it was this small! The keypad is going to take a little while to get used to. But yeah, I think this is going to work pretty well as a PDA.

[jdoggraz]

it was a good deal man

[GJSmith3rd]

Seems like a great deal. The Dash is great for value, flexibility and connectivity.

A touch screen WM6 Professional with similar or more features and a slide out keypad would be better as a PDA. But it could be tough to find, especially without a contract, for the price of a Dash.

As mentioned above, you can get the Dash to do much of what a WM6 PDA can do. But I find my self wanting a WM6 PDA more and more.

And as for a browser, definitely install the Free Opera Mini. It's among the best.

[tidixon]

i just dl it (opera). it does work a lot faster. i kept trying to log in here to reply. i would thumb in my username and password and it would say i was logged in successfully, but, when i clicked the link to redirect me back to here, i wouldn't be logged in! after 5 tries i remembered to refresh the page (it was loading from cache). :p
thanks for the tips!
let me know if you think of anything else that might be useful to a new dash owner.

[jdoggraz]

i just dl it (opera). it does work a lot faster. i kept trying to log in here to reply. i would thumb in my username and password and it would say i was logged in successfully, but, when i clicked the link to redirect me back to here, i wouldn't be logged in! after 5 tries i remembered to refresh the page (it was loading from cache). :p
thanks for the tips!
let me know if you think of anything else that might be useful to a new dash owner.

Maybe a few games to keep you busy while you are bored.