T-Mobile Shadow Cell Phone Review - Hardware
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Alfredo Padilla Published on November 21, 2007 Comment on this |
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Keypad
Text Words Per Minute (7.40)
To see how easy it is to type on the T-Mobile Shadow's SureType keyboard we time how long it takes to type a standard phrase using two hands. We do this test five times and take the average time for our score. We were able to type our test phrase on the Shadow's keyboard in an average of 25.92 seconds, which works out to 37 WPM. This is a little slower than most phones that have a QWERTY keyboard, as you can see below. It's about as fast as a very good keypad, although you'll notice that the Razr2 V9m, which has a very good keypad, was faster than the T-Mobile Shadow. We are sure that given a few more weeks use we could probably improve significantly, but after spending about a week with the device this is the best we could do. We did find the keyboard to be comfortable to use, with large buttons. Our only wish is that the software was better able to correct our mistakes as on the iPhone, as this slowed us down significantly. | Cell Phone | Words Per Minute | Score |
| T-Mobile Shadow | 37 | 7.40 |
| HTC Touch on Sprint | 25.9 | 5.18 |
| BlackBerry Curve 8320 | 49.8 | 9.96 |
| Razr2 V9m on Verizon | 44 | 8.80 |
| Helio Ocean | 53 | 10.60 |
| T-Mobile Wing | 40.1 | 8.02 |
T9 and Auto Complete (5.0)
The T-Mobile Shadow's SureType keyboard uses predictive technology to guess which word you are trying to type, however it lacks word completion. Given that the keyboard was a little slower in our tests than some QWERTY keyboard we wish word completion were on board to speed up the typing process a little.
One Hand Usability (6.48)
To see how well the Shadow's SureType keyboard handles when using one hand we do our words per minute (WPM) test again one handed. As with our two-handed test we type the phrase five times and take the average for our score. The T-Mobile Shadow scored an average of 32.4 WPM in our one-handed test. This is not as big a drop off as we see on true QWERTY keyboards, which is one of the benefits of the hybrid design of the SureType keyboard.
| Cell Phone | Words Per Minute | Score |
| T-Mobile Shadow | 32.4 | 6.48 |
| HTC Touch on Sprint | 24.2 | 4.84 |
| BlackBerry Curve 8320 | 26.5 | 5.30 |
| Razr2 V9m on Verizon | 39.2 | 7.84 |
| Helio Ocean | 28.3 | 5.66 |
| T-Mobile Wing | 14.7 | 2.94 |
Keypad Backlighting (3.0)
The keypad on the T-Mobile Shadow is backlit, however there's no way to control how long the backlight stays on, nor is there a light sensor to turn it on or off depending on lighting conditions. We did not find the backlit keypad to be very good, lighting is uneven and the light bleeds through.
Controls
D-Pad/Joystick (7.0)
The D-Pad on the T-Mobile Shadow is unique because there's a built in scroll wheel, so you can rotate the circular D-Pad to easily scroll up and down lists. Using it as a regular D-Pad is pretty comfortable, it's good sized with good tactile feedback when pressing in any of the directions. We like that we rarely hit the center select button by accident, but it was easy to find by feel and press when we wanted to. We also found that despite the built in scroll wheel we rarely had accidents when pressing the D-Pad in the direction we wanted. We were glad to see that such a solid job was done given that the hybrid design could have led to many problems. Touch Screen (0.0)
Windows Mobile Standard devices don't support touch screens, so the T-Mobile Shadow lacks this feature.
Jog Dial (7.0)
As we stated above there is a scroll wheel built into the D-Pad that allows you to rotate the outer part of the D-Pad to easily move up and down lists. In practice this works very well, and we like having this feature close at hand rather than in a separate jog wheel on the side of the device like on the AT&T Tilt. We did find that the scrolling action is a little slow, and unfortunately there's no way to adjust the responsiveness like you can with the Trackball on the BlackBerry Curve.
Soft Buttons (4.0)
The soft buttons on the Shadow flank the D-Pad and are the upper most of a set of three buttons on either side of it. The buttons are small and slim, and we found that they sit a little lower than the buttons just beneath them, which led to many errors. When pressed key travel is good, but tactile feedback isn't. There's plenty of room beneath the screen on the Shadow and we wish that the soft buttons had been better differentiated to cut down on the mistaken presses.
Volume Control (3.0)
The volume buttons on the T-Mobile Shadow are located on the left side of the phone near the top. It sits on the lower part of the slide so you don't have to stretch for them when you open the phone. The buttons themselves are only very slightly raised above the surrounding plastic and are a little hard to find by feel. We also found it difficult to differentiate between the up and down button by feel. When pressed they feel squishy, don't have very much key travel and poor tactile feedback. We think they could have done a much better job with the volume keys on the Shadow.
Power and Standby (5.0)
The power button on the T-Mobile Shadow is a secondary function of the end key. The button is fairly large and easy to reach. To turn the phone off you will need to press and hold the button. You also need to press and hold to turn it back on.
Other Buttons (5.0)
In addition to the buttons we've discussed above the T-Mobile Shadow has a few other buttons. Between the soft keys and the send/end buttons, flanking the D-Pad are the normal Windows Mobile Standard home and back keys. These keys are important to getting around the interface. Unfortunately we found that because of the way the buttons are arranged so close to other keys and with strange differentiation we would often accidentally hit the wrong button. This is poor design for keys that are used as often as these are. Both buttons have the same secondary function when you press and hold them, they bring up the Quick List, where you can change profiles and access a couple of additional functions. Because they both have the same secondary function, which is the same as that assigned to another button we decided not to award any points for secondary functions to these keys.
There are two additional buttons on the right side of the phone. Near the top is a button that launches the communications manager with a single press and the voice command software with a press and hold. We were glad to see that these functions can be reassigned in settings, but found it frustrating that you are limited to a short list of eight programs and functions. We would have much preferred the ability to assign the functions of this key to any program on the device like you can with Windows Mobile Professional phones. The button near the bottom of the left side is a dedicated camera key, that launches the camera interface when pressed and can then be used as a shutter key. The nice thing about this is that the camera interface is in landscape orientation so you can hold the phone like a real camera when using this button.
Display
Primary Screen Gross Resolution (8.00)
The T-Mobile Shadow's screen is QVGA resolution, meaning 320 x 240 pixels. This is standard for Windows Mobile devices and has also become the standard for most mid to high end devices. This screen resolution should be sufficient for most uses, it's high enough resolution that photos and videos look decent, but not as good as devices with higher resolution screens like the iPhone. Our score for screen resolution is based on the total number of pixels that can be displayed.
| Cell Phone | Resolution | Score |
| T-Mobile Shadow | 240 x 320 | 8.00 |
| HTC Touch on Sprint | 240 x 320 | 8.00 |
| BlackBerry Curve 8320 | 240 x 320 | 8.00 |
| Razr2 V9m on Verizon | 240 x 320 | 8.00 |
| Helio Ocean | 240 x 320 | 8.00 |
| T-Mobile Wing | 240 x 320 | 8.00 |
Primary Screen Pixels per Inch (7.69)
Pixels per inch (PPI) is a measure of how densely pixels are packed into the screen. Higher pixel densities lead to sharper images and richer colors, while lower pixel density can make the screen seem a little washed out. The T-Mobile Shadow's pixel density is 153.8 PPI, which is decent, but not great. Since all of our comparison phones have the same resolution the pixel density differs based on the varying screen sizes. You can see that the T-Mobile Shadow falls right in the middle of our range, with better pixel density than phones like the HTC Touch and T-Mobile Wing, but worse than BlackBerry Curve or Razr2 V9m.
| Cell Phone | Pixels Per Inch | Score |
| T-Mobile Shadow | 153.8 | 7.69 |
| HTC Touch on Sprint | 142.9 | 7.15 |
| BlackBerry Curve 8320 | 164.6 | 8.23 |
| Razr2 V9m on Verizon | 181.8 | 9.09 |
| Helio Ocean | 168 | 8.40 |
| T-Mobile Wing | 142.2 | 7.11 |
Screen Physical Size (6.50)
The Shadow's screen measures 2.6 inches diagonal, which is a nicely sized screen for a Windows Mobile Standard device. Many such devices have screen in the 2.2 to 2.4 inch range, so the Shadow's bigger screen real estate is very noticeable. The larger screen size means that it's more comfortable for reading or viewing videos on. You will notice below that Windows Mobile Professional devices like the Wing or Touch have slightly larger screens at 2.8 inches.
| Cell Phone | Size Diagonal (inches) | Score |
| T-Mobile Shadow | 2.6 | 6.50 |
| HTC Touch on Sprint | 2.8 | 7.00 |
| BlackBerry Curve 8320 | 2.43 | 6.08 |
| Razr2 V9m on Verizon | 2.2 | 5.50 |
| Helio Ocean | 2.4 | 6.00 |
| T-Mobile Wing | 2.8 | 7.00 |
Screen Brightness (2.7)
To see how bright the T-Mobile Shadow's screen can get we point the web browser at a blank white page, turn the screen brightness to maximum and measure how bright it is using a lux meter. The T-Mobile Shadow's screen measured 54 lux in our test, which is pretty low. You can see below that only the Razr2 V9m performed worse in this test than the T-Mobile Shadow, with some phones having screens twice as bright or more than the Shadow. We also found the screen brightness settings on the Shadow to be lacking. You can control how long it takes for the screen backlight to turn off, with separate settings for battery power versus charging. Unfortunately there's no way to adjust how bright the screen gets, and there's no light sensor to do it automatically.
| Cell Phone | Brightness (lux) | Score |
| T-Mobile Shadow | 54 | 2.70 |
| HTC Touch on Sprint | 105 | 8.00 |
| BlackBerry Curve 8320 | 105 | 9.50 |
| Razr2 V9m on Verizon | 52 | 5.85 |
| Helio Ocean | 63 | 4.35 |
| T-Mobile Wing | 112 | 7.60 |
Screen Bright Light Performance (5.0)
To see how the T-Mobile Shadow handles bright light situations we shine 3000 lux of light onto the screen, equivalent to a bright sunny day, and judge how legible the screen is. Despite its low screen brightness the Shadow didn't do too bad on this test. The screen was still legible, with both icons and text discernible, but we've seen better. In particular the BlackBerry Curve 8320 did much better in this test than the Shadow. In contrast the Shadow did do better than the HTC Touch or T-Mobile Wing, both of which have touch screens which tend to significantly reduce bright light performance.
Color Depth (6.00)
Color depth is a measure of how many colors a screen can display. The T-Mobile Shadow can display sixty-five thousand colors, which is the maximum that Windows Mobile devices can do and is fairly standard amongst phones. We are beginning to see some phones with 260,000 colors like the Helio Ocean, and some Nokia phones can display as many as 16 million colors. Phones with more color depth can better reproduce colors, which is important when viewing photos, for example. Still, sixty-five thousand colors should be sufficient for most users.
| Cell Phone | Colors (thousands) | Score |
| T-Mobile Shadow | 65 | 6.00 |
| HTC Touch on Sprint | 65 | 6.00 |
| BlackBerry Curve 8320 | 65 | 6.00 |
| Razr2 V9m on Verizon | 65 | 6.00 |
| Helio Ocean | 260 | 8.00 |
| T-Mobile Wing | 65 | 6.00 |
Ports & Storage
Power & Data Ports (9.0)
The T-Mobile Shadow uses a standard Mini USB port for both power and data transfers. HTC, which manufacturers the Shadow, has used this port for all their devices for quite awhile now, and we very much appreciate it. We also like seeing USB charging available and there's a splitter available so you can plug multiple Mini USB's in at once.
Headphone & Jack Compatibility (4.0)
Unfortunately the T-Mobile Shadow eschews standardized plugs when it comes to headphones. Instead of a 2.5 or 3.5 millimeter jack you have to use the same Mini USB port for headphones. This means you basically have a proprietary headphone jack, which we don't award points for. Thankfully the T-Mobile Shadow does supports wireless stereo headphones via Bluetooth.
Internal Storage (2.0)
The T-Mobile Shadow has a comfortable 256 MB of internal storage, which is double what older Windows Mobile Standard devices shipped with. This isn't enough to store a lot of media, but should be sufficient room for all your contacts, calendars and applications, with space left over so you can take a few photos.
Expansion Slot & Format (5.5)
The Shadow uses a Micro SD card for expandable storage, which is thankfully accessible without having to pull out the battery, unlike the HTC Touch. We did find opening the protective cover to be a little bit fiddly, but once open there's a spring loaded slot that makes getting the card in and out fairly simple. Micro SD cards up to 4GB are supported.
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