First Look: T-Mobile's Shadow Stands Out as Ray of Light

Hands-on with the new T-Mobile handset finds a strong balance between cell phone and smart phone.

Let's face it: Windows Mobile 6 Smartphone devices often aren't . . . smart. The buttons and navigation controls can be confounding, and I won't even broach the subject of the Smartphone OS's cluttered home screen. T-Mobile drives deep to center field, though, with its well-designed T-Mobile Shadow ($150 with a two-year contract for voice and data services; the latter runs $20 a month). The phone benefits from its completely retooled Windows Mobile home screen; its middling audio quality keeps this phone from being a home run, though.

(The Shadow's rating is pending; we'll update this review once our battery tests are complete.)

At first glance, the elegant Shadow doesn't even look like a Windows Mobile Smartphone. When you first power up the Shadow, you'll be forgiven for being confused: After the Windows Mobile logo comes up, the home screen that greets you looks absolutely nothing like Windows Mobile, save for the familiar Start icon in the lower left corner. Its keypad with 20-key keyboard ( a la Research in Motion's design with theBlackBerry Pearl) is hidden beneath the slide-up screen.

T-Mobile worked with Microsoft and HTC, which manufactured the phone, to refresh the primary interface to complement the phone's physical attributes. The result is a phone that's organic and easy to use together with the device's controls, which include a back arrow to easily move back screen-by-screen no matter where you are in the phone, and a masterful jog-wheel that doubles as a five-way navigation button. Unlike other recent wheel designs I've seen fromLG's Chocolatephone and theSamsung u470 Juke(Verizon), this jog-wheel is a joy to operate: It's fast, smooth, and makes navigating a breeze. Spin the wheel clockwise or counter-clockwise to move through menu options or, for example, browse your photos from the main screen.

At the core of the redesigned home screen is an inverted L design. Five menu choices line the left side of the display; pressing down on the five-way navigation button lets you quickly cycle through the menu choices available there: MyFavesSM, Notifications, Inboxes, Calendar T-Zones, Media Player, Photo Viewer, and Settings. At right appears whatever submenu options are available to you for a given menu choice; spin the jog-wheel or press the wheel right or left to cycle through those submenu options.

This approach puts your most common activities right at your fingertips in an intuitive yet graphical way. For example, Notifications takes you to your new text messages, instant messages, voice mail, missed calls, and e-mail; Inboxes takes you to your text messages, picture messages, voice notes, and e-mail; the Photo Viewer lets you use the jog wheel to scroll through photos; and the Settings screen jumps you to the Windows Mobile Comm Manager, to battery and memory management, as well as shortcuts to changing your ringtone, wallpaper, and ring profile. The menu design, coupled with the location and precise operation of the jog wheel, made navigating the Smartphone seem smart.

T-Mobile Shadow

The phone's physical design is pleasing, as well. At 4.1 by 2.1 by 0.6 inches and 5.3 ounces, the phone feels comfortable in the hand. It supports quad-band (850/900/1800/1900 MHz) GSM networks, as well as GPRS and EDGE, and has built-in Wi-Fi. Other specs include a 2.0-megapixel camera; a microSD Card slot (which supports up to 4GB media); 128MB of RAM and 256MB of ROM; and a crisp, generous 2.6-inch 320-by-240-pixel QVGA display. The slider mechanism is extremely smooth; it glides effortlessly with the touch of a finger.

Operating the 20-key keyboard with predictive text took some practice, but it may be partly due to my personal preference for dedicated QWERTY keyboards such as those inPalm Treoor theAT&T Tilt(also built by HTC), for example. To me, the keyboard isn't ideal for composing long messages, but it's still a better bet than tapping away at a normal alphanumeric keypad. Of note: The large keys are clearly labeled.

T-Mobile and HTC clearly paid attention to design, and it shows in the little details beyond the new home screen and the jog wheel. The USB and microSD slot cover flaps are easy to remove, yet fit firmly back in place when you're done; the universal back button is conveniently situated; and the programmable shortcuts button at the upper right side of the device helps you further personalize the device.

With all that I found to like about the Shadow, I was all the more disappointed to discover some of the phone's weaknesses. The biggest of those was the call quality. The test unit T-Mobile yielded tinny, slightly echoed audio through the handset's earpiece, almost as if the caller was on speakerphone (even though the speakerphone wasn't activated). Likewise, the people I spoke with commented that my voice sounded a bit high-pitched compared with how I sound via another handset used on T-Mobile's network. Although this audio issue is tolerable, I was surprised by the call quality's mediocrity given the impressive audio quality I've heard recently from other HTC phones (includingSprint's Touchand theAT&T Tilt.

Here's another gripe: The Shadow's front face is cleanly designed, with the jog wheel flanked by three buttons on either side. Sadly, the topmost of these buttons--the context-sensitive soft keys--are just a shade too flush with the handset. The difference I'm talking about is fractions of millimeters here, but I repeatedly found those buttons annoying to use as my finger jumped from the slightly more raised up Home and Back buttons.

Finally, I was disappointed in the camera's operation. Pictures looked reasonable for 2.0-megapixel device, but I found the shutter lag frustratingly slow. I'd press the dedicated camera shutter button to initiate a shot with no car visible in the picture, then by the time I'd see the image on-screen, I'd also see I'd captured a car smack in the middle of the frame. Saving pictures between shots was slow, too.

At launch, T-Mobile has the exclusive North American distribution rights to the Shadow (available in "sage green" and "copper brown" colors). My concerns about call quality aside, I'm not convinced that the phone alone will convince anyone to switch to T-Mobile. Still, the Shadow's impressive design certainly distinguishes it from the muddle of Windows Mobile smartphones. So long as perfect pitch audio isn't a requirement of your next smartphone, I'd recommend the Shadow (the audio issue may be annoying, but it didn't keep me from clearly communicating during calls). With the Shadow, calling a Windows Smartphone friendly is no longer an oxymoron.