There's no reason not to like T-Mobile's Shadow. But stick it into the currently strong T-Mobile lineup or put it up against the exciting array of smartphones that have hit U.S. shores in recent months, and the Shadow just doesn't stand out. Despite its brand-new Windows Mobile interface, ultimately it's no more capable or stylish than the competition.

The device is simply another stab at a consumer smartphone: a silvery, rectangular slider with a big, bright 320-by-240-pixel, 2.6-inch screen and a hybrid two-letter-per-button keyboard like the BlackBerry Pearl's. The Shadow runs Windows Mobile 6 Standard (without a touch screen), but T-Mobile decided to make the operating system friendlier by laying an animated interface over it.

The new interface uses the Shadow's hybrid scroll wheel/cursor pad to whirl through eight main icons, each on the left hand side of the screen: Home, Alerts, Message Center, Calendar, Internet, Music, Photos, and Settings. Once you get to the selection you want, you click the right-hand side of the wheel to get to your exact option. For instance, Message Center offers Text Messages, Picture Messages, Voice Notes, and E-mail.

The goal is never to expose users to the Windows Mobile program list, and it works. You can even quit programs to free up memory without digging into the Windows Mobile start screens. Since the menu isn't user configurable, though, you'll have to hit the Start button to jump to add-on programs like SlingPlayer Mobile.

There's a design issue with the Shadow that I can't quite put my finger on. By the numbers, the device isn't bigger than the BlackBerry Pearl—just heavier. The Shadow is 4.1 by 2.1 by 0.6 inches and 5.3 ounces, while the Pearl is 4.2 by 2 by 0.6 inches and 3.2 ounces. But the Shadow just feels less sleek than the Pearl, with dowdier lines and less of the Pearl's streamlined visual accents.

The Shadow's user interface also feels a bit slow—a problem here, as it is with every Windows Mobile device running a 201-MHz TI OMAP 850 processor. When you're paging through the menu, the phone sometimes struggles to keep up with quick clicks, and Internet Explorer feels a bit slow to respond. The device had no problem keeping up with my typing, though. Its XT9 predictive text system was able to decipher what I was trying to say fairly accurately. The built-in 140MB of storage and 72MB of program memory are positively roomy, and I upped it with a 4GB Kingston microSD card tucked into the slot in the bottom. The Shadow punched well above its weight in video performance, delivering surprisingly good scores on our CorePlayer video benchmark tests considering its slow processor. MPEG-4 videos played in full-screen mode jumped a bit occasionally but didn't stutter or freeze, and SlingPlayer Mobile worked well over Wi-Fi.

You get the usual complement of Microsoft Windows Mobile software—including a version of Pocket Office that lets you edit simpler Microsoft Office documents but tends to choke on graphics-heavy documents, and it doesn't let you create new documents. There's a Yahoo/AIM/MSN instant-messaging client, and T-Mobile's new over-the-air address book backup system, plus the usual Windows Mobile e-mail app, which supports non-push POP3/IMAP and Direct Push mail from Exchange 2003 or later servers.

As a phone, the Shadow is just about average. During calls made over T-Mobile's EDGE network, the earpiece was a little trebly and not tremendously loud, but certainly acceptable. The speakerphone has enough volume but sounds a bit tinny. Transmissions from the microphone sounded somewhat robotic on the other end. Reception wasn't terrible but wasn't great, either. The Shadow supports both mono and stereo Bluetooth headsets. To attach a wired headset, though, you need to attach a stiff little dongle (included) to the phone's USB jack. You can voice-dial names in your phonebook over a Bluetooth headset without training, but the system is less accurate than the Nuance VoiceSignal system seen on some other phones.

Like most T-Mobile smartphones, the Shadow has Wi-Fi to back up its EDGE cellular networking. I connected to WPA-protected networks without any problems. You can easily use the device as a modem on T-Mobile's EDGE network, but you'll only get speeds around 120 Kbps—a fraction of what you'd get with the three other major wireless carriers in many cities.

To get good photos with the Shadow, you have to stand still; the flashless 2-megapixel camera has a 0.9-second shutter delay and a problem with blurring in low light, but when I held perfectly still I was rewarded with sharp, dramatic indoor shots. On outdoor shots, bright areas were overexposed. The Shadow's video mode is nearly useless: It takes jerky, grainy 176-by-144 videos that aren't compatible with either QuickTime or Windows Media Player for playback. I had to use VLC, a relatively obscure open-source player, to watch the videos properly.

Sure, the Shadow is a contender, but given the bigger picture it's difficult to see why you'd choose this smartphone over the competition. T-Mobile's BlackBerry Curve is a stellar messaging device and a better voice phone; in addition, it makes free calls over Wi-Fi. And the Pearl is much more visually attractive. Windows Mobile aficionados may want to stick with T-Mobile's venerable Dash, which has a full QWERTY keyboard and otherwise similar performance to the Shadow.

Benchmark Test Results
Continuous talk time: 10 hours 48 minutes

Compare the T-Mobile Shadow with several other mobile phones side by side.

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