T-Mobile Shadow with Windows Mobile 6 Standard
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Contents |
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Introduction
You'd expect something called the Shadow to be all black and sleek looking. Well it is very sleek looking, but this one has a brown "copper" paint job and it looks great. The Shadow also comes in a greenish "sage" color paint job. T-Mobile seems to have been experimenting with releasing abnormally colored phones that give you a nice unique feel. Adding to the uniqueness factor is the "Neo" Home screen user interface, the result of a collaboration between Microsoft and T-Mobile. What sort of Shadow does this device cast? Read on for the thorough review!
Review Date: November 26, 2007
Picture Highlights
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| The slide out keypad does both numbers and letters in a very efficient manner. | The second icon down shows notifications. Calendar appointments, emails, missed calls, and text messages will show up here. One extremely cool feature in this part is that when a specific person is associated with the notification, their photo appears (provided you've added a photo to their contact information in Outlook.) |
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| The Photos section of the Home screen is great for showing off some of your pictures. You can use the scroll wheel to spin through all of your photos right from the home screen. The interface cuts off the upper left corner, but pressing the action button opens the image full screen in the Photos Viewer. Shown here is one of my shots from a wedding in Mexico. | The last icon gives you access to a number of important settings and status indicators. |
Overall Impression
The T-Mobile Shadow has a great small form factor for when I don't want to carry the TyTN II, and the keyboard is awesome for one handed usage. Seriously, there's a much shorter learning curve for using this keyboard compared to the T9 Numeric keypads, Qwerty-bar type phones, and even full qwerty slider phones. Not only that, but this is the best one-thumb no-looking keyboard I've ever used. It doesn't take that long to get used to typing with the xT9 style that is most commonly used on the T-Mobile Shadow. Or, if you're not in the mood for xT9, you can use the ABC mode, which is similar to that of a non-qwerty keyboard phone.
Most people are saying that the new "Neo" home screen interface makes the Windows Mobile operating system easier to use. I'm not sure I buy it. The Neo interface requires a lot of scrolling and spinning to access the things that are much easier to access on a traditional home screen. I will say however, that the "Neo" interface certainly is fun, good looking, and an impressive design. If I wanted to show off something that looks cool, I would use the "Neo" interface. If I wanted to access my information without having to dig through animated icons, I'd use the traditional home screen.
The T-Mobile Shadow is also easily customizable. There are add-ons and applications all over the internet for Windows Mobile users, some quite specific to the Shadow. You can get the Weather on your home screen or have birthday reminders and Google Maps easily accessible in the Start Menu. You can download games like Tetris or download a Twitter client that makes checking your friends updates easy and quick.
Overall I really like the T-Mobile Shadow. If you don't need HSDPA/UMTS/3G internet access or a built-in GPS, the Shadow is it.
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