Thoughts on T-Mobile Shadow After Day 1 of Use

[Mike Temporale]

<p>My first 24 hours of Shadow use is coming to a close and so far, this phone has been nothing short of great. I won't lie to you, there are some issues, but the overall experience for me at this point is awesome. The phone is super small and very light. It fits nicely in my pocket and I don't even notice it. This was the same with my old BlackJack and it's something I'm missing with the s710. In regards to the slide out mechanism, it is actually really good. The slider on the s710 is a little on the soft side, like there's nothing holding it shut. The Shadow is not like that at all. It's a solid feel when the device is closed and it pops open with a quick flick of your finger. </p><p>The overall responsiveness of the Shadow is good. Data is slow that's thanks to the GPRS/EDGE connection. But the phone is still quick and nimble when it comes to navigation around the OS or launching applications. A number of times I was in the middle of an email or surfing and I closed the phone. Instantly the screen jumped to the lock screen and it took effect. Something that just wasn't that easy with the devices from yester-year. </p><p>So what's not so good? Well, the battery has me worried a little. I didn't spend more than 20 minutes talking on the phone today. I did mange to spend a lot of time surfing, doing email, and even general playing around with the device. In fact at one point I spent a full hour reading and surfing the web. I also have 2 email accounts set to sync email every hour all day. The battery was at 100% this morning and as of the time I'm writing this, it's down to 40%. That's still a lot, but remember, I didn't make more than 30 minutes of voice activity. It could be hard for some people who are using Exchange to make this phone live through the day. </p><p>Twice, I caught the Shadow searching for signal while in my kitchen. I've never had any problems with the s710, BlackJack, or any other Windows Molbile phone for that matter. So I'm not sure if this is related to everyone's Shadow, or if this is just my unit. If anyone else sees this with their device, please let us know. <br />Now, the one thing that everyone is going to be thinking - How is the SureType keyboard? I can truly say it's great. I found it easy and accurate when typing emails on the device. I was worried at first about how well it would work. It didn't take any real time to get used to the layout since it's pretty much the same as the keyboard you use every day. If you can get past the idea that 2 different letters are on the same key, then you're good to go. However, since it's a reduced keypad, there's no easy access to / and - without digging around the symbol menu. Both of these keys I use on a regular basis. The other thing is that it's not the best way to type in email addresses or URLs. </p><p>There's some quick thoughts for today. Let me know if there's anything specific you want me to answer about this device. <br /><br /></p>

[qyv42]

I played with a Shadow on two different occasions recently at a T-Mobile store, but since the working models were all tethered with a big piece of plastic attached to the phone, it wasn't a very useful experience (and forget about real-world scenario testing!). That said, right now I think I like my Dash better, and since you've had a chance to use the somewhat-similar BlackJack in comparison, I wanted to ask some follow-up questions:

1.) The Shadow's scroll wheel to me seemed waaaaay too slow. I felt like it only advanced one "tick" after moving it almost a quarter-circle. Do you use the scroll wheel a lot, and do you find it useful? Is there a setting (or hack) to change the speed? The concept is awesome - you need the 4-way movement to do much of anything in Windows Mobile, but the ability to scroll rapidly like a jog dial is also highly desirable. It just felt to me like the execution missed the boat.

2.) What do you think about the new homescreen? It's pretty cool looking IMHO but I wasn't sure it was as functional as the old-school homescreens.

3.) Do you find you use the phone mostly with the keyboard closed? With the Dash, I've grown very fond of having instant access to the full keyboard for navigation and input, so I'm leery of either a.) needing to slide the keyboard out all the time, or b.) trying to use the Dpad and softkeys exclusively.

4.) Do you miss landscape orientation coming from the BlackJack? Especially when browsing web pages, it seems like portrait would be more cumbersome - but that's something I don't know if you get used to easily (I haven't used a portrai screen since my SMT 5600, and that's been a while!

5.) I must confess I'm surprised to hear you prefer the SureType implementation to the full QWERTY. Is it the key size, primarily? I found the Shadow's keyboard to be surprisingly usable, but not to the level where I'd prefer it over my Dash (even setting aside URLs and other strings that cause problems with predictive software). Do you type on it primarily one-handed?

6.) I also had a chance to briefly use a non-functional demo model in the store without it being tethered to the counter, and I found I had trouble sliding the ikeyboard open and closed one-handed. The way I held the phone, it didn't feel like there was a natural place to put my thumb to push the keyboard open as I took it from my pocket. You mention it worked great for you, so I'm wondering if you're holding it differently than I was?

7.) The one gripe I have with my Dash is that it's definitely a bit sluggish at times. I was hoping for the Cavalier to get picked up in the US with its 400MHz processor, but sadly that doesn't look to be happening. So the biggest selling point of the Shadow for me from your impressions so far is the speed difference. I'm surprised that even with the same processor as the Dash, there's a noticeable speed difference (my sense was that WM was more processor-bound then memory-bound, unless you count actually having to re-open apps instead of simply hiding them). I'd be very interested in hearing more about where else the Shadow feels faster - in addition to closing the keyboard - and what your thoughts are about why it might feel quicker.

[Mike Temporale]

since you've had a chance to use the somewhat-similar BlackJack in comparison, I wanted to ask some follow-up questions:

Actually, I have a dash too. I've been switching between that and the s710 for a couple weeks. I'm not a real fan of the dash. But I've got one and I'm familiar with it. ;)

1.) The Shadow's scroll wheel to me seemed waaaaay too slow. I felt like it only advanced one "tick" after moving it almost a quarter-circle. Do you use the scroll wheel a lot, and do you find it useful? Is there a setting (or hack) to change the speed? The concept is awesome - you need the 4-way movement to do much of anything in Windows Mobile, but the ability to scroll rapidly like a jog dial is also highly desirable. It just felt to me like the execution missed the boat.

Weird, mine is nothing like that. It actually boots around pretty nicely. Much better speed than the BlackJack and way way better than the JOGGR found on the dash. I wonder if that was just a problem with the demo unit in the store.

2.) What do you think about the new homescreen? It's pretty cool looking IMHO but I wasn't sure it was as functional as the old-school homescreens.

The home screen is really nice. I wish they had allowed the scroll wheel to move up and down the list, but it only works when going left/right. It will be interesting to see what the dev community can come up with to extend and modify this homescreen. I don't need some of the things in it, and would rather have other apps listed. So if they can do that, it's gonna rock!

3.) Do you find you use the phone mostly with the keyboard closed? With the Dash, I've grown very fond of having instant access to the full keyboard for navigation and input, so I'm leery of either a.) needing to slide the keyboard out all the time, or b.) trying to use the Dpad and softkeys exclusively.

I've used the device in both ways. Of course, if you want to do any sort of input, you need to open the device. With the Auto Lock/Unlock feature, I've actually started to use it in the open mode more and more. Kind of like a flip phone. Slide it open to unlock the keypad and do your work. Then slide it closed to lock the keys and put it away.

Actually, let me put this way - the s710 is a pain to use. Because everytime you want to do anything you need to slide out the keyboard, turn the device and wait for the screen to rotate. The Shadow is not a pain. There's no waiting. It's instant access to the keyboard - when you need it.

4.) Do you miss landscape orientation coming from the BlackJack? Especially when browsing web pages, it seems like portrait would be more cumbersome - but that's something I don't know if you get used to easily (I haven't used a portrai screen since my SMT 5600, and that's been a while!

YES! Since my first landscape device, I don't care for the plain old protrait screen layout. If this device was made with a landscape screen, it would be even better!

Having said that, I don't find this screen cumbersome or hard to use in anyway. It's just not as nice a layout - for me personaly.

5.) I must confess I'm surprised to hear you prefer the SureType implementation to the full QWERTY. Is it the key size, primarily? I found the Shadow's keyboard to be surprisingly usable, but not to the level where I'd prefer it over my Dash (even setting aside URLs and other strings that cause problems with predictive software). Do you type on it primarily one-handed?

Given the size of this device, the SureType is the way to go. It's very usable and quick to type on. It's not when you need the extra characters that are easy to find on a full QWERTY. I would rather have my BlackJack keyboard back, but I can't see it working on this device. There just isn't the space.

6.) I also had a chance to briefly use a non-functional demo model in the store without it being tethered to the counter, and I found I had trouble sliding the ikeyboard open and closed one-handed. The way I held the phone, it didn't feel like there was a natural place to put my thumb to push the keyboard open as I took it from my pocket. You mention it worked great for you, so I'm wondering if you're holding it differently than I was?

Well, if I'm in a rush, I've been putting my thumb on the screen and sliding it open. Not the best thing in the world, but it works and it's quick. When I'm not in a rush, I've been working at placing my thumb on the top side edge and trying to slide it open. It works, but it takes a little more pratice.

With the s710, the keyboard has a loose feel, where you can kind of start to slide it but not fully slide it. It's a short space before it really grabs and pulls open. On the shadow, there's nothing like that. It starts to grab as soon as you start to push it. The other thing to try would be pushing more at the bottom where the buttons are, so I won't mess the screen up with my oily finger prints.

7.) The one gripe I have with my Dash is that it's definitely a bit sluggish at times. I was hoping for the Cavalier to get picked up in the US with its 400MHz processor, but sadly that doesn't look to be happening. So the biggest selling point of the Shadow for me from your impressions so far is the speed difference. I'm surprised that even with the same processor as the Dash, there's a noticeable speed difference (my sense was that WM was more processor-bound then memory-bound, unless you count actually having to re-open apps instead of simply hiding them). I'd be very interested in hearing more about where else the Shadow feels faster - in addition to closing the keyboard - and what your thoughts are about why it might feel quicker.

I'm no engineer so I can't say exactly why. The start menu loads a lot faster as well. I would have to guess that this is because the hardware is getting better and the OS is better tuned to match it. The dash is a year old - HTC has learned a lot in that time.

When I think back to my first Smartphone - the Tanager, it ran on a 200Mhz processor and it was dog slow! The smt5600 also had the same processor, and it was slow, but nowhere near as bad. While the CPU may be the same, I'm wondering if they've upgraded the bus and memory speed. Perhaps the slowness was not caused by the cpu at all, instead it might have been a poor chipset used in one aspect or another. Then you've got the OS - the code keeps getting tuned and eventually runs faster.

Intel has done a great job of making us think that the speed of your computer relates 100% to the speed of your CPU. And that's just not the case at all.

[Islanti]

Keyboards: I used two of the candybar-style phones before the Dash. I loved having the querty keys when I got it. Accuracy was a bit of an issue, but overall it was very fast. With practice I'm as fast on the Shadow for text input if not faster! Compared to a traditional phone xT9 is much better at guessing when it only has to pick between two words. The Dash implementation of xT9 just doesn't work as well... not sure if it's due to the Dash's available memory limiting the dictionary or something else but there's a definite difference between the two.

Screen Orientation: I found I had more applications going back to portrait. There are a number of things (especially games) that were never updated to work with landscape screens. For me it felt like Christmas getting a whole bunch of new applications for free (I'd already purchased them for a previous phone but they didn't work with the Dash). I do agree that Landscape is nice for web pages, but with "one column" mode it's not a huge difference. Everything is squished anyway. :D

Speed: Intel has done a great job of making us think that the speed of your computer relates 100% to the speed of your CPU. And that's just not the case at all.That or the extra 64MB of RAM! With my Dash I was always dying a slow death from 16MB down to 0MB. The Shadow has over 64MB of free RAM at boot and always seems to have that available if I close all my applications. That means the Dash has 48MB of memory in use at boot and the Shadow 64MB. Perhaps that extra 16MB of in-use memory contributes to the system performance, since whatever is running there doesn't have to be fetched from ROM.

[Mike Temporale]

The Dash implementation of xT9 just doesn't work as well... not sure if it's due to the Dash's available memory limiting the dictionary or something else but there's a definite difference between the two.

I would agree with this 100%. If you're worries about xT9 because of your Dash experiences, don't be.

Speed: That or the extra 64MB of RAM! With my Dash I was always dying a slow death from 16MB down to 0MB. The Shadow has over 64MB of free RAM at boot and always seems to have that available if I close all my applications. That means the Dash has 48MB of memory in use at boot and the Shadow 64MB. Perhaps that extra 16MB of in-use memory contributes to the system performance, since whatever is running there doesn't have to be fetched from ROM.

Yeah, that could be part of the difference as well. :cool:

[decodergrizzly]

4.) Do you miss landscape orientation coming from the BlackJack? Especially when browsing web pages, it seems like portrait would be more cumbersome - but that's something I don't know if you get used to easily (I haven't used a portrai screen since my SMT 5600, and that's been a while!

If you've tried Opera mini 4, which is the only mobile browser you'll probably ever need, you'll notice that it renders web pages to fit your screen perfectly when you zoom in from the full page view. I also had a Dash before the Shadow and while the landscape works, i like the Shadow's screen much better because its longer and i can see more of the page i'm on.

[rsilverst]

I got my Shadow 4 days ago and I am VERY close to returning it because of the battery issues. T-Mobile acknowledges there is a known issue (i.e. it must be serious), but there is no solution. They told me to not leave any apps running and to not set my emails to update automatically - so basically, to not use the device for its intended purpose!

To give you an idea of severity...

I had 2 applications running in background (Office Communicator and SmartPhlow, a traffic program). Neither of these was automatically getting data from the internet. I made one 30 minute phone call, played Solitaire for 30 minutes, and browsed the web for 10-15 minutes. Starting at a FULL CHARGE, the battery went from 100% to 51% during this 5 hour period. Then, during the night, while I was not using my phone at all (but it was presumably getting my Gmail, Yahoo, and Outlook email every 60 minutes), the phone went from 51% to DEAD by morning.

Today I turned off ALL email updating, and killed all of the applications. Charged the phone to 100%. I've done nothing except a 7 minute phone call and 3 text messages, and the phone has gone from 100% to 86% in 5 hours.

So clearly, the use that I had last night is the difference between 14% battery usage and 50%, but what I did last night would definitely constitute MODEST use.

Not sure what to do because it is a very cool design. But if I cannot even use it to do the things it is designed to do, what choice to I have? Plus I hear stories that Blackberry has respectable (2-3 days) battery life with moderate to heavy use.

[Mike Temporale]

Sounds like you never used a Q. ;)

The battery is small - 960 or something like that, but I never saw that kind of power drain. I had it set to check email every 30 minutes and talked a little on it each day. I also browsed for a good 1 hour or so each day. I had no problem getting through a day. I did plug it in when I went to bed - but I do that with all my phones. Why not let it charge and rest while I do? :D

[dizz]

I don't like it
I don't like it
I don't like it
I don't like it
I don't like it
I don't like it
I don't like it