Last Updated February 15, 2009   Product Rating   Attractive, useful design Free calls via UMA Wi-Fi Comfortable hybrid QWERTY keyboard Supports Stereo Bluetooth   Video-recording is sub par Not 3G compatible, only EDGE WM 6.1 is sluggish at times

T-Mobile has had its share of really nice cell phones on its network recently. They've had the G1 Google Android-powered phone, the Blackberry Pearl 8120, and now the T-Mobile Shadow (2009). This new phone features a sleek design, UMA-based unlimited hotspot calling, and a fast internal processor. This latest update to the Shadow line is a welcomed one and it certainly brings it up to par with others on the market.

The all new T-Mobile Shadow is an overall pretty sleek-looking phone that looks very well-designed and doesn't feel cheap at all. The device in total measures 4.1 x 2.1 x 0.6-inches and weighs 5.3, which is slightly heavier than other phones. On the left side, there a microSD card slot and volume controls. The right side has a shortcut button for text messaging and the camera and the top has a power button. The bottom panel has a mini USB port that has a little cover that goes over top of it. The front face of the device has a 2.2-inch QVGA screen that measures 240x320-pixels. Underneath the screen, there is a scroll wheel and a five-way control pad with two programmable keys and the usual Send, End, Back, and Home buttons. The slide-down keyboard is not a full QWERTY, but a half-QWERTY. On every key, there's two letters instead of one or the traditional three. This allows for fairly fast typing and the keyboard works pretty good and is comfortable to use.

The T-Mobile Shadow (2009) runs the latest version of the Microsoft Windows Mobile operating system, Windows Mobile 6.1 Standard. T-Mobile has customized the standard interface and they did a pretty good job at that too. The interface is very easy to navigate and use, but it can be a little sluggish and slow at times. This is not the fault of the phone itself, but of Windows Mobile. It is pretty widely accepted that Windows Mobile runs inefficiently and slow at times. With WM 6.1 Standard, you are running a mini-version of the Windows desktop operating system that is specially designed for running on mobile phones. At the home screen, you have one-touch access to the Start Menu and your contacts, including your T-Mobile myFaves contacts.

The T-Mobile Shadow can also read and edit, but not create, Microsoft Office Word and Excel files, and view PowerPoint presentations. It also includes functionality to sync with Microsoft Exchange Server and Outlook e-mail systems. You can also use corporate Direct Push e-mail on the Shadow. To browse the Internet, WM 6.1 comes with its own version of Internet Explorer, which does a mediocre job to rendering full-sized Web pages and a decent job with mobile-optimized Web sites. The Shadow also comes pre-loaded with instant-messaging software for AIM, ICQ, Windows Live Messenger, and Yahoo Messenger.

The T-Mobile Shadow is a quad-band (850/900/1800/1900-MHz) world phone that works with GSM, GPRS, and EDGE. You can also use T-Mobile's UMA-based unlimited hotspot calling service which lets you conserve daily minutes by making voice calls over Wi-Fi when available. This phone is not 3G enabled, but considering that T-Mobile is just beginning to roll out its 3G high-speed network, the overwhelming majority of their phones are not 3G capable. The fastest speeds you can get is with using EDGE, which will get you around 135-150 kbps. When available, you can connect to a Wi-Fi network and use that connection for much faster Web browsing speeds. It supports 802.11 a/b/g with WEP, WPA, WPA2 encryption. The processor inside the Shadow is a 260-MHz CPU, which is faster than its predecessor, but still not the fastest on the market, but much improved.

The 2-megapixel camera does lack a flash and any auto focusing feature. Pictures taken with the Shadow were tolerable in most conditions, but typical for most similar digital cameras. Pictures taken in dark conditions were not very good at all, so make sure you have adequate lighting when you take pictures with the Shadow. You can also record video with the phone at a quality of 176 x 144, which is pretty useless to be honest.

The microSD slot on the side of the device supports up to 8GB in size, which is pretty standard and useful for adding additional storage space to the phone. There is no headphone jack, but T-Mobile includes a mini USB pair of earbuds with the phone as well as a dongle with 2.5 and 3.5-mm headphone stereo jacks. The Shadow also supports Bluetooth 2.0 as well as stereo Bluetooth, which allows you to play music over a Bluetooth headset.