T-Mobile Shadow Review

Introduction

With how competitive the handset market is, each manufacturer have to make sure that theirs sticks out so that they don’t just blend with the rest. Some focus on one main feature, others look towards the design aspect, and then there are those that look towards an all-in-one type handset. With the Shadow, HTC has decided to go with the last option and pack as many features as it could into a stylish slider. So, will this help get your attention or is the Shadow destined to be just another handset that will be tossed to the side? Let’s read on and see how it does.

What’s in the box?



Design

The Shadow has really nothing that sticks out but comes off elegant and attractive instead of boring, despite its rather ugly Sage color. The other color variant is called Copper and is a darker variant. The upper portion is made up of hard plastic while the bottom is a soft touch rubber. While it does feel sturdy and we didn’t experience any play, the material used felt a bit cheap.




The 2.6 inch TFT display, which has a resolution of 240 x 320 with 65k colors, takes up the majority of the front. The picture looks great, colors are realistic and rich. This would be worthless if it is washed it out in bright environments but the Shadow’s display is very legible unless the Sun is shining directly at it. Below the display are the call buttons, a D-pad, soft touch buttons, and navigation buttons. While the D-pad can be used as a traditional one, there’s also the option of turning it, just like the iPod except it’s physical instead of digital.

Sliding the upper portion open is quite easy thanks to the spring loaded mechanism and will reveal a keypad that has a very similar layout as that of SureType used in many BlackBerry phones – 20 keys, situated in 5x4 grid. The center of each key is raised and with the added aid of the rubber material, they are very comfortable to use. Each one is just the right size so that fingers don’t go pressing other ones on accident. The L and M keys are the only ones which are single. Also, the caps lock, delete, enter, symbol, and space keys are present along with the main punctuations which means that less menus have to be opened making texting quick and easy.


The side keys keeps with the Shadow’s design, they don’t just out but are easy to find. On the left, are the volume rocker, microSD slot, and miniUSB port. The right holds the camera shortcut and function key, pressing it once opens the messaging menu while holding it opens the voice command function. The buttons are very easy to press despite being somewhat slippery but the covers to the connectors are a bit challenging to open.