T-Mobile Shadow Review

Monday, February 2, 2009

Reviewed by: Bonnie Cha

The T-Mobile Shadow was first announced at CES 2009 as the replacement to the original Shadow, boasting a fresher look and some new features, such as a faster processor and UMA support. The Windows Mobile smartphone is now available through T-Mobile for $149.99 with a two-year contract, but we can't help but feel a bit disappointed. There are some nice design tweaks, but it's the negative elements, such as the shoddy dialpad, that leave a more lasting impression. Also, while we appreciate the additional features--especially the UMA support for making calls over a Wi-Fi network--we would have liked to see more, such as 3G support, integrated GPS, or a better camera. In short, the Shadow doesn't bring any real innovation over its predecessor and we don't think there's a compelling reason for current Shadow owners to upgrade. That said, the T-Mobile Shadow has a place and purpose. It's a good fit for T-Mobile customers who are ready to make the jump from regular cell phones to their first smartphones. It includes all the extra functionality of a smartphone, but offers a easy-to-use interface and still feels like a regular cell phone, making it a nice transition device.


Design
From afar, the T-Mobile Shadow looks like a hipper, more modern version of the original Shadow. By the numbers, it's the same size as its predecessor at 4 inches tall by 2 inches wide by 0.6 inch deep and 5.3 ounces, but the smartphone now sports curved edges, a shinier face, and a new paint job that gives it a fresh look. We received the white and mint version (it's also available in black and burgundy) and found it quite attractive, especially the back where it slowly transforms from white to mint.


However, that's about where the attraction ends. Up close and in the hand, the T-Mobile Shadow looks a bit like a toy, and we didn't really see any vast improvements or benefits over its predecessor. In fact, we almost favor the original model's design. For one thing, the new Shadow's 2.6-inch QVGA display doesn't look all that sharp or bright, showing just 64,000 colors at a 320x240 pixel resolution.

We do like the user interface for its cool animated effect and how it organizes the phone's applications into eight main categories, all of which are accessible right from the Today screen. For example, all your messages--text, multimedia, Outlook, personal, and so forth--are grouped into one section from where you can then scroll through each sub-section of messages. It just makes the Windows Mobile OS easier to use and understand, especially for first-timers.

To help you navigate the phone, there are a number of controls and shortcuts below the screen, including two soft keys, Talk and End buttons, a Home page shortcut, and back button, and a navigation wheel. The latter is similar to the one found on the first Shadow in that you can spin the wheel clockwise or counterclockwise to help you scroll through lists, photos, e-mails, and such. You can also use it like a traditional directional keypad and press up, down, left, and right. That said, the toggle felt a bit plasticky and cheap and we would have liked a bit more feedback when turning the wheel, since it feels pretty loose.

The Shadow offers the same slider design as the first Shadow. To access the SureType 20-button keypad, just slide the screen up. It requires a good push, but the sliding mechanism feels strong and the screen securely locks into place. What greets you when you finally open the phone, however, is a bit disappointing. Here's an example of what we mean.

Two co-workers happened to be around when the smartphone arrived (one who was actually considering purchasing the T-Mobile Shadow for herself) and as soon as I pushed up the screen, they both immediately went off about how worn down and ugly the keypad looked--that's never a good sign. But they're right. While the buttons are large and easy to press, the backlighting is really uneven, dim, and only illuminates about five buttons. It just looks bad. It's even more disappointing considering that HTC made the Shadow, and the company has quite a reputation for making some high-quality devices. It completely falls under the "What were they thinking?" category.

On the left side, you'll find a volume rocker and a microSD expansion slot, and a user-programmable shortcut key and a camera activation/capture button on the right side. The power button is located on top and there's a proprietary power/headset connector on the bottom. Obviously, we're not happy with the fact that there's no 3.5mm headphone jack, but it's even worse that it is not a standard mini USB port, so be sure to hang on to the included accessories. Last but not least, you'll find the camera located on the back.

The T-Mobile Shadow comes packaged with a travel charger, a USB cable, a wired headset, an audio adapter, a carrying case, a software CD, and reference material. For more add-ons, please check our cell phones accessories, ringtones, and help page.

Features
The T-Mobile Shadow brings a couple of new features to the table. To start, the Shadow now ships with Windows Mobile 6.1 Standard Edition out of the box. The update doesn't bring any major changes to the operating system, but it does include a handful of useful enhancements, such as threaded text messaging, more robust Windows Live capabilities, and pan in/out capabilities in Internet Explorer Mobile.

Of course, you continue to get the Microsoft Office Mobile Suite for viewing and editing Word, Excel, and PowerPoint (view only) documents. If you're looking for a little break from work, you also get Windows Media Player 10 Mobile, allowing you to enjoy your favorite AAC, MP3, WAV, WMA, MPEG-4, and WMV music and video files. There's a File Explorer utility to help you locate files on your device and media card. Other personal-information-management tools include a PDF reader, a voice recorder, a task manager, a calculator, an alarm clock, and more. There's a wealth of third-party applications available for Windows Mobile devices; check out CNET Download.com for some ideas and suggested titles for the T-Mobile Shadow.

The T-Mobile Shadow also features Microsoft's Direct Push Technology for real-time message delivery and automatic synchronization with your Outlook calendar, tasks, and contacts via Exchange Server. You can also access your POP3 and IMAP e-mail accounts, and like its predecessor, T-Mobile includes a set-up wizard for each of the popular e-mail clients, including AOL, Gmail, Windows Live, and Yahoo. The phone also comes preloaded with four instant-message clients: AIM, ICQ, Windows Live, and Yahoo.

The second addition that the new Shadow offers is UMA (unlicensed mobile access) support. This means that you can use the phone's integrated Wi-Fi to make and receive calls via wireless networks. The benefit of this is that calls made via Wi-Fi will not be deducted from your cellular plan, meaning you get unlimited calls as long as you're within range of the hot spot. However, there's a catch (isn't there always?); you will need to sign up for T-Mobile's Unlimited HotSpot Calling service, which starts at $9.99 per month, on top of an existing plan.

Regular phone features on the Shadow include quad-band world roaming, a speakerphone, voice dialing, and text and multimedia messaging. The smartphone also works with T-Mobile's MyFaves service, which gives you unlimited calling to five contacts, regardless of carrier. MyFaves plans start at $39.99 per month and your MyFaves contacts are displayed right on the Home screen for easy access. The address book is only limited by the available memory, and there's room in each entry for multiple numbers, e-mail and IM handles, home and work addresses, and all the other standard information. For caller ID purposes, you can assign each contact a photo, a group ID, and a custom ringtone.

Bluetooth 2.0 is onboard, with support for mono and stereo wireless headsets, object push, phonebook access, dial-up networking, and more. Unfortunately, the Shadow isn't compatible with T-Mobile's 3G network, so even if you were to use the smartphone as a modem for your laptop, you wouldn't get the fastest speeds.

Finally, the T-Mobile Shadow comes equipped with a 2-megapixel camera, which isn't any different from the original Shadow. In camera mode, you have the option of five resolutions and four quality settings. Other tools include a self-timer, white balance and brightness controls, a time stamp, various effects, and zoom. In camcorder mode, you get three resolutions, effects, and white balance and brightness settings.

Despite having the same camera, we actually found picture quality to be better this time around. While we weren't thrilled with the yellowish overtone, objects looked clear and there wasn't that hazy look that plagued the first Shadow. Video quality was also quite decent, as the picture had minimal blurring and graininess. Once you're done with shooting, you can view your images in a slide show and save them as your wallpaper or a contact photo. You can also send your images via MMS or e-mail, and there's something called Audio Postcard, which lets you title your picture and send along an audio note. The Shadow offers about 100MB of available storage, which can be expanded up to 8GB with a microSD card.

Performance
We tested the quad-band (GSM 850/900/1800/1900; GPRS/EDGE) T-Mobile Shadow in San Francisco using T-Mobile service and call quality was decent. Volume was fine and audio sounded mostly clear, though we could detect a slight background hissing and some warbled tones here and there. We were still able to carry on conversations without much distraction and successfully used an airline's voice-automated response system. On the other end, our friends said they could tell we were using a cell phone and at times, our voice could sound a bit digital, but otherwise they didn't have any complaints. Unfortunately, speakerphone quality wasn't the hottest. Calls sounded hollow, and even at the highest volume, the sound was very soft. We successfully paired the T-Mobile Shadow with the Logitech Mobile Traveller Bluetooth headset and the Motorola S9 Bluetooth Active Headphones.

Despite the faster processor (260MHz versus 200MHz), we ran into a bit of that notorious Windows Mobile sluggishness in the form of a pause or a few-second delay when launching applications and performing some tasks. It was particularly noticeable when trying to activate the camera and view our photo gallery. The onboard task manager can help you optimize CPU usage and will allow you to end tasks or close out of any applications you're not using.

The Shadow had some initial problems finding our Wi-Fi network, so we had to turn the radio off and then on again. Once we did that, we were able to connect right away. On T-Mobile's EDGE network, it took about 40 seconds for CNET's site to fully load, while CNN's mobile site came up in 10 seconds.

The T-Mobile Shadow has a 1,100mAh lithium ion battery with a rated talk time of 7 hours and up to 7 days of standby time. We are still conducting our battery-drain tests, but will update this section as soon as we have final results. According to FCC radiation tests, the Shadow has a digital-SAR rating of 1.38 watts per kilogram.

source : review.cnet.com

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