Alright, I'm writing this from the perspective of never having used touch-anything up to this point with a phone (and never really desiring to, either). This weekend, I upgraded from my old Razor to the Dare and I must say... I really, really like this thing. The battery life seems to be phenominal (then again, I AM upgrading from a Razor) and the reaction time of the interface is quite fast. Just about everything I'd like to access is placed in very intuitive places - but for anything that isn't immediately available - the shortcut/favorite tab/flipout thingie is very handy. Even better is the click and drag feature to pop applications on the main screen. (Those features may be present on other phones of this type but this whole thing is news to me)
The speaker sounds great and the camera is an excellent happy medium in terms of deciding whether or not to take my camera to certain places/events (concert tonight, for instance). All in all, I've pretty much just about got it all figured out and I'm currently waiting to see what the talented developers of BitPim come up with. Up to this point, I have absolutely no complaints about this phone other than it being a little difficult to touch text boxes to enter data on web pages, such as log in and password boxes on email sites, etc. Because of this, I went ahead and got a Stylus (which I just walked right into Verizon, inquired about one and they just gave me a free spare one they had in the back). I just carry it around in my pocket and find myself using it a majority of the time (no thanks to my OCD and not wanting my screen to be smeared at all, lol). Also, a lot of the sites I'd like to visit are fickle and/or incompatible but they aren't important enough sites to have swayed my decision.
Lucky me, I received a fairly massive discount ($100.00) on the phone thanks to who I work for! That brings up the point to never forget to ask if Verizon has discounts for where you work! Lastly, I definitely purchased a pack of screen protectors and a protective case. I've got a good feeling this phone will happily tide me over until the end of my next 2 years with Verizon!
-Stephen