January 8, 2009 7:38 AM PST

T-Mobile Shadow makes official appearance

by Bonnie Cha
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T-Mobile Shadow II

T-Mobile Shadow revisited: not just a rumor anymore.

(Credit: T-Mobile)

We've been hearing rumors about it for a couple of months now, but the T-Mobile Shadow (yep, just the Shadow, not Shadow II) had its officially coming out party on Tuesday night at CES 2009.

Taking over for the original T-Mobile Shadow, the updated version, which was manufactured by HTC, sports a fresh look with curved edges, a shinier face, and comes in two new color combinations: black with burgundy and white with mint. The other major additions are a faster processor (260MHz) and UMA support, so you can now make calls over Wi-Fi using T-Mobile's HotSpot service.

Aside from those differences, the T-Mobile Shadow is very much like its predecessor. The smartphone features a QVGA non-touch display and a slider design with a SureType-like keypad. Under the hood, it runs Windows Mobile 6.1 Standard Edition and features integrated Bluetooth (stereo Bluetooth supported), Wi-Fi, a 2-megapixel camera, and a microSD expansion slot that supports up to 8GB cards.

Though T-Mobile did not announce an official availability date or pricing, the carrier did say it would be released in the coming weeks and we're guessing the pricing will be around the $149.99 range. In addition to the Shadow, T-Mobile also added the RIM BlackBerry Curve 8900 to its lineup earlier this week. Good to see some new smartphones at T-Mobile finally.

Bonnie Cha is a senior editor for CNET, covering smartphones and GPS. When she's not testing the latest gadgets, you can find her chasing after her crazy lab or surfing in the chilly waters of Northern California. E-mail Bonnie.
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by Rod Roddy January 8, 2009 9:27 AM PST
Oh God!, T-Mobile has to get with the times....seriously. Nowadays it's all about texting on qwerty keypads or on-screen via touch. As soon as my contract is up in March, I'm jumpin' ship.
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by AZNpeoples January 8, 2009 5:06 PM PST
the new shadow looks great!<br /><br />and tmobile is with the times<br />touch screens: g1<br /> samsung behold<br /> samsung memoir (coming soon)<br /><br />qwerty: sidekicks<br /> samsung gravity
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by Rod Roddy January 8, 2009 7:14 PM PST
Sidekicks = Teen phone<br />G1= Big, Ugly, expensive and a test vehicle for Android<br />Behold = Poor mans' iPhone, NO Wi-Fi<br />Memoir= Never even heard of<br /><br />Point I'm trying to make is that T-Mobile like Metro PCS, lacks really, really good phones...no offense.
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by SnittyKitty January 26, 2009 2:38 AM PST
My family and I have been with T-Mobile 11 years now and the Shadow II has been mentioned up and down the web for almost a year and as of January 26, 2009 there is not one mention on their website of what we believe is the Shadow 2009's release on Wednesday 1/28, but we all remember the G1 and currently the upcoming Curve 8900 "Coming Soon." We own the Motorola z3 RIZR, Blackberry Curve, and T-Mobile Shadow which I own and have modified enough to be the upcoming Shadow 2009's equal which is my pet peeve with T-Mobile. I don't understand their logic. And worse, their 3G network is proprietary which means other unlocked 3G phones and smartphones won't work on their network. Every new piece of hardware is always the same - 3G and no Wi-Fi, or WiFi and no 3G. There are those of us that enjoy Windows Mobile. I would like to see for instance the Motorola Q11 as a replacement to the aging dash; it darn near looks like the new paint job the Dash has today; why not? Don't get me wrong, I see from some leaked HTC documents that HTC has updates for all of TM's aging smart phones, but with the exception of the G2, they're at least a year away; God knows we waited long enough for what we thought was to be the Shadow II, but please any future Shadows one wish, a full QWERTY and a crystal case to fit over Shadows with extended batteries and to not smear the display; thanks!
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by HershFam5 January 28, 2009 6:48 AM PST
I have the old Shadow, and in comparing, the only difference I can tell is the rounded corners. <br />It already has Mobile 6, what's the big deal with the .1? <br />If I could find the specs, MAYBE, the speed is faster, but the ROM/RAM are the same, display and camera are the same and weight &#38; size are the same, so what was so major that they stopped with the Shadow &#38; made Shadow 2009?
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