T-Mobile Shadow Cell Phone Review - Value & Comparisons
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Alfredo Padilla Published on November 21, 2007 Comment on this |
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Value (7.0)
The T-Mobile Shadow is available for $149.99 with a two-year contract exclusively from T-Mobile. Without a contract it will set you back $349.99. We feel like the in contract price is a pretty good value. The Shadow has a lot to recommend it. It's a powerful smart phone with an innovative home screen that makes it more usable and an attractive form factor. It's certainly a better deal than some other Windows Mobile cell phones we've seen lately like the HTC Touch, and if $150 is still out of our price range you can probably expect it to fall down around $100 within three to six months.
Comparisons
HTC Touch on Sprint - The HTC Touch runs the Professional version of Windows Mobile, which includes a touch screen interface that the T-Mobile Shadow lacks. In fact the Touch, as its name suggests, is meant to be used primarily via the touchscreen using your finger. In practice this doesn't work so well, and the lack of any physical keyboard/keypad makes text input particularly difficult. We found the Shadow's interface much easier to use and really appreciated the SureType keyboard. Throw in the fact that the Shadow costs $100 more than the Shadow and we lean towards the the Shadow as the better device.
BlackBerry Curve 8320 - The BlackBerry Curve is one of the best smart phones out there, combining the traditional BlackBerry email and PDA functions with a decent camera and full sized keyboard that's slightly easier to use than the Shadow's SureType keyboard. Both devices have Wi-Fi and frankly we like both. The biggest factor for many users may be that the Curve comes in at $100 more than the Shadow.
Razr2 V9m on Verizon - With the Razr2 V9m Motorola has built a handset with good looks, great external screen and a decent camera, but under the hood its more of the same. It's not a smart phone so anyone who need a PDA like device with solid email functionality shouldn't look here. Throw in the fact that the Razr2 is $100 more than the Shadow and we have to lean towards the Shadow for anyone who cares more about features than looks, and the Shadow isn't bad looking either.
Helio Ocean - The Ocean takes a different approach to text entry from the Shadow's SureType keyboard. Instead of using a hybrid keyboard it has both a full QWERTY and regular phone keypad in a dual slide design. In practice this means that you have the tool you need for the job you want, and either one works better at its job than the Shadow's hybrid design. The drawback is that you need a fairly big device to fit all those keys into, and the Ocean is a significantly larger phone than the Shadow. The Ocean also isn't a true smart phone, so you can't do as much with it as you can with the Shadow, but on the other hand the Ocean has built in GPS functionality, which the Shadow lacks. In the end we feel like this ones a matter of taste, go with the phone that you like better.
T-Mobile Wing - The Wing is another Windows Mobile Professional with a device, but unlike the Touch is has a full QWERTY keyboard that slides out for your typing pleasure. There's a lot to like about the Wing, from its soft touch finish, large screen and powerful operating system. In many ways it's the Shadow's big brother, but there's one important thing we like about the Shadow more, responsiveness. We found the Wing to be one of the laggiest phones we've ever reviewed, everything moved at a glacial pace. By contrast the Shadow is pretty responsive and we also feel it's easier to use out of the box. The Wing is also twice as expensive as the Shadow, and frankly we're not willing to pay that much more for a device that's so unresponsive. Go with the Shadow on this one. | Previous Next | |
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