- Trim, stylish smartphone in sage green with Windows Mobile 6 and enhanced user interface for easy navigation
- Compatible with T-Mobile’s MyFaves service–unlimited calling to your five most called contacts
- 2-megapixel camera/camcorder; Bluetooth for handsfree devices and stereo music; MicroSD expansion up to 4 GB; digital audio player
- Up to 6 hours of talk time, up to 144 hours (6 days) of standby time
- Includes: handset, battery, charger, wired stereo handsfree headset, USB cable, Y cable, carrying case, user manual
Amazon.com Product Description
Despite being a feature-rich, Windows Mobile 6-powered smartphone, the T-Mobile Shadow is designed to reduce the complexity often associated with many smartphones while maintaining all the powerful calling, messaging and picture sharing capabilities you expect. The Shadow’s enhanced user-interface is based on the Windows Mobile 6 operating system, which enables you to view and edit Word and Excel documents as well as view emails in their original HTML format and enjoy quick access to contacts with the ability to search a call history and contacts database.
This slider phone offers a large, brightly colorful 2.6-inch LCD screen and spinning scroll wheel for easy navigatoin. Other features include a 2-megapixel camera/camcorder, Bluetooth for handsfree communication and stereo music streaming, MicroSD memory expansion (up to 4 GB), built-in Wi-Fi networking, quad-band GSM connectivity with EDGE data services, and up to 5 hours of talk time. The copper version of the Shadow comes with an extra extended life battery for even more talk time.
The easy-to-use T-Mobile Shadow smartphone provides access to personal email and IM buddies, ability to edit Microsoft Office documents, and quick connection to your Fave 5. |
T-Mobile Service
The Shadow operates on GSM 850/900/1800/1900 networks and can handle high-speed data connectivity via T-Mobile’s EDGE network (which stands for “Enhanced Data Rates for Global Evolution”). This high-speed, mobile data and Internet access technology is fast enough to support a wide range of advanced data services (with average data speeds between 75-135Kbps), including video and music clips, full picture and video messaging, high-speed color Internet access, and email on the go.
It’s compatible with T-Mobile’s myFaves service, which allows you to call up to five of your most common contacts–on any network, even landlines–without using any of your minutes. Learn more about myFaves from T-Mobile.
Download cool new games, HiFi Ringers (real songs by today’s hottest artists), MegaTones (instrumental versions of songs), and wallpapers quickly, as well as stay connected via the Web, instant messaging, and email.
With T-Mobile Contacts (formerly T-Mobile Address Book), you can store your phonebook on T-Mobile’s network so even if you lose your phone, you don’t lose your contacts. Contacts lets you import entries from Microsoft Outlook, .vcf files, or use .csv files to import from Yahoo!, Gmail, etc.; back up your phone’s address book on our server with enhanced safety features; and store additional contacts on the server.
The Shadow also features a 2-megapixel camera/camcorder, Bluetooth stereo music streaming, and MicroSD expansion. |
Phone Features
Teaming with manufacturer HTC, T-Mobile’s Shadow offers an innovative design and simple user interface that strips out the complexity of traditional multi-function phones for a quick learning curve to all of this smartphone’s communication and organization features. The 2.6-inch LCD screen has a 240 x 320-pixel resolution and support for a 65K color depth. The phone’s face has a scrolling navigator button–which you can spin for faster scrolling through applications and contacts–complemented by send/end, home, back, and two soft keys for navigation. It smoothly slides up to reveal the alpha-numeric keypad that uses Blackberry’s SureType keyboard layout, which places two letters per key.
The phone has an internal 140 MB memory, which can be expanded via optional MicroSD memory cards (up to 4 GB in size). The internal phonebook is only limited by the available memory, and it offers multiple fields for phone numbers, and email/IM addresses. A special myFaves feature is integrated into the shadow, where a lighted navigation wheel gets you to your Fave 5 quickly and easily, enabling you to call, text, email, or IM with a single touch. You can customize your Fave 5 witha photo and icons you create or purchase from T-Mobile, as well as choose a distinct ringtone for each Fave.
Access six email accounts–five personal and one work account–including Microsoft Hotmail, Yahoo!, Gmail, Comcast, and AOL. Receive email the instant your computer does–no delay–and view attachments in Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint plus Adobe PDFs.
This phone provides Bluetooth version 2.0 wireless connectivity with EDR (enhanced data rate), and includes profiles for communication headset, handsfree car kits, and audio/video remote control. With the A2DP Bluetooth profile, you can stream your music to a pair of compatible Bluetooth stereo headphones. You can connect your laptop (either via Bluetooth or wired USB) and enjoy dial-up networking–surf the Internet, send email, and access files from a server.
The 2-megapixel camera provides a range of five resolutions and four quality settings, and it features white balance and brightness settings, and several shooting modes. It will also capture video clips for as long as you have available memory.
The phone is compatible with text (SMS) and multimedia (MMS) messaging, as well as POP3 personal email accounts. It includes XT9 predictive text entry (the new version of the T9), with such features as a word prediction list and spelling correction that spots transposed letters and missed keys, as well as instant integration into all applications on the device.
Other features include:
- Wi-Fi networking (802.11b/g) for fast web surfing on home/corporate networks and hotspots (not compatible with T-Mobile’s Hotspot @Home service)
- Music playback: MP3, WMA, AAC, WAV
- Stay in synch with your Contacts, Calendar, and Tasks in Microsoft Outlook
- Send and receive instant messages with Yahoo!, MSN, AOL, or ICQ
- Reminder feature, so you never forget another friend’s or family member’s birthday or anniversary
- An array of lights and sounds that differentiate one function from another, whether you’re receiving an e-mail, picture message or calendar appointment notification
- Speakerphone
- Voice-activated dialing enables you to make a call with simple voice commands when your hands are busy
- Processor: Texas Instruments OMAP 850, 200 MHz
- Memory: 128 MB RAM, 256 MB ROM (140 MB user accessible)
Vital Statistics
The T-Mobile Shadow weighs 5.3 ounces and measures 2.1 x 4.1 x 0.6 inches. Its 920 mAh lithium-ion battery is rated at up to 5 hours of talk time, and up to 144 hours (6 days) of standby time. It runs on the 850/900/1800/1900 MHz GSM/GPRS/EDGE frequencies.
Powered by Windows Mobile 6
Microsoft’s Windows Mobile 6 updates the Windows Mobile 5 platform with a number of handy features that make searching through email, editing Microsoft Office documents, and staying on top of your most important communications even easier. Emails can now be viewed in their original rich HTML format and now offer the ability to visit embedded links. It also includes Windows Live for Windows Mobile, which provides a full set of Windows Live services, such as the Windows Live Messenger IM application, which now enables you to chat with more than one person at one time or send a file.
With Windows Mobile 6, your phone will finally be able to emulate the power and features of your PC’s Microsoft Office suite. You’ll be able to neatly view, navigate and edit Word documents and Excel spreadsheets in their original formatting–without affecting tables, images or text–as well as view PowerPoint presentations.
- Microsoft Office Word Mobile features include spell-check, Find and Replace commands, bulleted lists, text formatting, and support for tables for the first time.
- With Excel Mobile, you’re not just confined to editing charts: with the new Chart Wizard you can create charts quickly and easily.
- PowerPoint Mobile allows you to view the full presentation, rehearse timings, check the order and any live links you may have in your presentation. You can then email comments back to the team or communicate via MSN Messenger for an immediate response.
- After creating or editing a Word document or Excel spreadsheet, you can synchronize it with your PC and it will automatically be converted to the PC version.
All Windows Mobile 6 powered devices include Direct Push Technology for up-to-date e-mail delivery and automatic synchronization of Outlook calendars, tasks and contacts through Microsoft Exchange Server. It also offers a set of important device security and management features that include the capability to remotely wipe all data from a device should it be lost or stolen, helping ensure that confidential information remains that way.
I bought this device three months ago and love it. This is a great phone. It has a large screen without being large in size overall. It looks great and the slide up is a great feature. There are so many features in the phone I am still finding new things. Because its a Windows Mobile device I can use my Excel and Word documents from work to carry with me. It has a PDF viewer that is ok, but I fault Adobe for not finding a better solution for the scrolling problem on small screens.
The features I’ve used so far are the Internet Browser, Bluetooth to my GPS, Yahoo and Hotmail email accounts (I have both), IM, etc. I’ve installed my one CE applications using ActiveSync, installed Google Maps appl (superb). The phone uses Windows Mobile 6 (CE 5 OS) so a lot of software will work. It has configurable predictive text typing that almost makes the multi-letter keys a non-issue. All you have to do is touch the key once and keep typing. It figures out what you intended to type by how the rest of the letters combinations fit together. You don’t need to press the DF buttom twice to get the F character. Its not always perfect, but is 98% of the time! rarely gets it wrong and is easy enough to correct when it is. It was a feature I originally thought I would turn off, but it was way better that my last phone.
Wifi support is amazing. I have mine set up to connect to my wireless WAP when I am at home. You can set all the WEP key and IP info as expected. Very cool and many times faster that surfing on the phone network. The only way to download software for sure.
Get an extra microSD card so you can put all the mp3s on it instead of your phone memory. The internal memory doubles as application and running multiple applications will use this space too. I have a lot of music on a 1GB microSD and still have 300mb free. Thinking about getting a bigger one simply for storing larger GPS maps. They are cheap so go big I say. It uses an miniUSB adapter for data/PC connectivity and battery charging. Oh, and it uses the battery up, especially when you leave an application running in the background that does internet communications. Fortunately it tells you very clearly how much is remaining (like a laptop does) and alerts when getting low. I think this is all configurable too, though I stuck with the default settings.
I loved the ability to set up multiple email accounts. And this type of use does not classify as messaging in a text message plan sense. So it goes under the unlimited web plan classification. The Windows Live Messanger was very cool too, since I use that at work and home too. I can see my same contacts list and everything. They see me as (On Mobile) when I’m logged in to IM on the phone. It also doesn’t classify as text messaging in the phone plan sense. So I needed far less text messages per month that I originally thought I would to use IM on the phone. If you use the Text Message function built in the that will be classified as text messaging as it is phone to phone. Which I don’t do much of frankly.
The 2 meg pixel camera is great too. It orients sideways when you take a snapshot so it actually works more like taking a shot with a regular digital camera instead of a phone. It will also let you send photos to your Windows Live Spaces site if you use it. Which is very cool on vacations where you want to provide immediate feedback on what you are currently seeing. The pictures all go into a Mobile photo album it creates automatically. Easy stuff.
Basically the phone is packed full of usefulness. Partly that comes from the Windows Mobile aspect, which is familiar for a windows user. Heck I’ve even order something on Amazon using the phone. That’s a pretty complete package. It is basically like having a complete PDA only smaller and easier to carry around. I use it for everything now.
PROS
WIFI, Bluetoth, Windows IE, Multiple email accounts. Video, MP3 Player. Speaker phone, predictive text typing, Camera, Windows Mobile Smartphone.
CONS
no built in GPS. I got a bluetooth gps so I solved that problem. No touch screen (cool but not a show stopper)
Rating: 5 / 5
This phone is gold! everything I want in a phone is here. I can access my email, get on myspace (lol), instant message, txt message fast and accurately (love the keypad), and play Nintendo games on my phone when im bored. To all complaining about battery life, turn wi-fi off when your not using it and open the task manager to shut off programs that your not using. My battery life is waaaay better than my old RAZR. Call quality is better than what various reviews suggest; this was my main concern when purchasing this phone. I Definitely recommended this phone!
Rating: 5 / 5
t-Mobile Shadow
I have had my t-mobile shadow now for 4 months. I absolutely love this phone in spite of its shortcomings (which are significant). Let me give you the simple break down.
Pros:
-Form factor rocks! I have yet to find a smart phone on the market that comes even close to being as comfortable to use and easy to function with one or two handed operation. The size, look, and feel of this phone rocks in every way. It also seems like it is holding up fairly well considering how hard I am on equipment.
-Screen brightness and readability are superior to any phone I have used before.
-Phone Call Clarity is very nice on this phone. I have no complaints about volume or audio quality, and the phone seems to get fairly good reception.
-The custom interface that t-mobile has included for the MyFav’s is nice but I disabled it since I prefer the standard Windows Mobile interface and I don’t use my favs.
-MicroSDHC support. The phone uses the MicroSD cards and supports the HC cards so I currently have a 4gb card that works great. I haven’t tried the 8gb cards yet.
-Qwerty Keyboard is awesome. I have had not problem at all with the fact that there are two characters per key. The recognition system is awesome and after a week of use I am actually faster on this keyboard than I was on the full Qwerty keyboard on my BlackBerry.
Cons:
-Battery Life is my single largest complaint about this phone. If you plan on using a phone for two days or more without charging then this is not the phone for you. I use my phone to check email about 20 times a day and I make about 15 phone calls per day, I send about 10-15 text messages per day and that pretty much burns the entire battery by Midnight each day. For how much I use the phone I can expect about 18 hours of use before a recharge is required.
-Scroll wheel. The scroll wheel seems like it would be a nice addition but you have to turn it almost half a rotation to get it to scroll one position, so it is faster just to use it like a d-pad than a scroll wheel. I am hoping that a firmware update someday will fix this.
-Slightly slower performance. I have noticed that the phone does not handle some of the bigger applications I use as well. I use terminal services to remote manage some Microsoft servers that I have and it doesn’t work very well on the phone. Most of the standard mobile apps work just fine though.
I hope this was helpful. Good Luck!
Rating: 4 / 5
I have purchased this phone for a full price without extending my contract with T-Mobile. This phone has a very nice design and works very good as Smartphone (I have been using different Smartphones for the last 3 years) in terms of Windows mobile applications. But to do this, you have to charge your phone 2 or 3 times a day. The battery life is awful.
Even if I stop all running programs (I do it all the times), turn off bluetooth, Wi-Fi and don’t make any phone calls, the battery still doesn’t last more than a day. I contacted T-Mobile and they sent me a replacement battery, but this one is even worth. The other thing I hate about the Shadow is the location of the ExtUSB port. It’s on the left side of the device instead of the bottom, which means that the Shadow does not fit in any car dashboard cradle. I also hate the rubber flap that obscures this important port. The vibration mode is very low and you never feel it if it is in the case or in your pocket. Don’t ever buy this phone if you want to stay mobile!!!
Rating: 2 / 5
I’ve gone through two of these which I got from a t-mobile store. The first was riduculously laggy and certain themes showed up as blank white boxes when activated. So, I took it in for an exchange. This one Seems to be OK until I noticed how slow it still is. The phone would almost constantly freeze up if you’re running more than one app at a time. I;d either have to turn it off or take the battery out just to get it going again. The phone also seems to refuse to lock its keys after closing the slider to end a call. Under the right settings you could close the slide and the phone would ask you if you want to lock the keys, then, after a time-out period, it’ll lock the keys. So, there’s always a pretty good chance the keys will fail to lock if you do not lock them manually.
The battery life is horrid, as well. A full charge would last me about 6 hours with wifi and bluetooth off and little to no usage.
Rating: 1 / 5