The T-Mobile Shadow is a sleek slider phone with a 4 x 2 x 0.6 in inches measurement and a weight of 5.3 ounces. This easy-grip phone also comes in copper and sage colors. The hip T-Mobile has a 2.6 inch screen with QVGA display that has 65,000 colors and a pixel resolution of 320 x 240. The screen can go from portrait to landscape viewing. One set-back is, its not touch-screen.

Aside from it’s easy to use alphanumeric keys that can be accessed by sliding up the front cover, owners can try using the navigation wheel which can go clockwise and counterclockwise. The QWERTY keyboard has 20 buttons that uses SureType hardware from Research in Motion. Using the two-letter keys, text can be inputted by XT9 or multi-press method.

The T-Mobile’s right side contains the shortcut and camera activation keys, while the left side has the volume rocker and the USB/headset port and microSD slot. Since it is a quad band, it has world roaming. Its other voice communication features are address book, caller ID, speakerphones, text and multimedia sending and receiving and voice dialing.

Though the T-Mobile Shadow highlights its phone functions more, it is among the Windows Mobile 6 smartphones. It has an integrated Wi-Fi for accessing the internet and a built-in Bluetooth that can be used with wireless and stereo Bluetooth headsets and hands-free kits. Users can get Windows Live Search as well, which helps in searching for directions and getting traffic conditions.

It is bundled with Microsoft’s Direct Push technology for real-time email and auto-synching with Outlook via Exchange Server. Users can have AOL, ICQ, Yahoo and Windows Live Messenger applications. It also has the Microsoft Office Mobile Suite for using Excel, PDF Reader, PowerPoint and Word.

A Windows Media Player 10 Mobile enables users to enjoy AAC, MP3, MPEG-4, WAV, WMA and WMV music and video files, as well as recorded television shows from a Windows Media Center PC. T-Mobile’s 2-megapixel camera can be placed in camcorder mode and in sports and contacts picture modes. There are brightness, resolution, quality setting and white balance choices among other effects. Storage is 140MB, but the microSD slot accepts as much as 4GB media.

It uses the Texas Instrument OMAP processor with 200MHz and has free program memory of 63MB making for a less speedy performance when heavier applications are in use. The T-Mobile has around 5 hours of talk time.

HTC SMT-5800 joins the group of smaller Windows Mobile smartphones. Its pocket-size feature was accomplished by making its mid-section narrow. The QVGA resolution screen’s size is maximized at 2.4 inches, but the navigation and separate numeric keys’ utility are affected.
It does manage to squeeze in a full sliding QWERTY keyboard to its 4.1 x 2 x 0.7 in inches measurement. It weighs a total of 4.2 ounces.
Texts and images are easily seen in its 65,536 color output screen with a 320 x 240 pixel. Though, the display can definitely seem washed out under bright sunlight.

The power key is on the left side together with the volume slider and a microSD slot that is without a cover. The SMT-5800’s right side contains the easy to locate and use camera button, while its bottom has the battery cover release. Tests have shown SMT-5800’s clear call quality and ability to sustain a signal. It has both EV-DO and 1xRTT connection. It also has standard voice communication features like smart dialing, speakerphone and voice command. It can have a talk-time of 3.5 hours.

Its EV-DO capability enables it to reach data speeds of 600Kbps which will be enough for smooth web browsing, downloading and streaming.The SMT-5800 uses Windows Mobile 6 edition. Its Outlook is synched with the contacts database, which can contain not only addresses and numbers but personal information like important dates and names as well. Owners not only have Microsoft Outlook mail at their disposal, they can also upload Google, AOL, Hotmail and Yahoo. They can also launch the Pocket Internet Explorer from its Start menu, but without a mini-map or RSS feed reader.

Like other Windows Mobile smartphones, owners can also view and use Adobe PDFs, Excel, PowerPoint and Word programs. Another plus to SMT-5800 is its Windows Media Player 10 Mobile that enables users to play AAC, MP3, MPEG-4, WAV, WMA and WMV files, as well as music and videos; and integrated Bluetooth 2.0. Add-ons are Bubblebreaker and Solitaire games. Bluetooth music streaming can drain this smartphone’s battery in a day, but limiting use to calls and web browsing can lengthen use up to 3 days.

This smartphone’s 2 megapixel camera feature can take still shots and videos fairly sharp from as far as 10 feet. You can make adjustments to ambience, capture, exposure, mode, size, timer and zoom settings, among others. It takes photos and videos well outdoors, but not as well indoors most likely due to the fact that it does not have a flash.

The Apple iPhone, which combined regular mobile phone capabilities with Apple’s iPod high quality MP3 player, has created hype in the world of smartphone fanatics with its sophisticated and sleek design. Yes, it looks a bit broad in its candy bar style and QWERTY keyboard layout. And looking bulky at 2.4 in x 4.6 in x 0.7 in and heavy at 4.8 oz. However, it surprisingly fits just perfectly nice in the hand. It is antenna integrated. It boasts of a whopping 3.5-inch glass touchscreen, which has a resolution of 480×320 pixels and 32-bit (128 colors) that gives a stunningly vibrant user interface.

As a full iPod Nano, it contains all the 5G iPod features, such as high-quality videos, iTunes music and podcasts. Moreover, it allows you to browse music from album to album, with cover in pretty artworks as you choose the song you want to listen to. It uses 4gb or 8gb flash memory for bigger audio and video storage capacity.

As a phone, it asserts to have 8hrs talk time and 250 battery hours on standby. It has all the essentials of a mobile phone such as automatic redial, call divert, call hold, call timer, caller ID, call waiting, volume control, ringer control, conference call capability, computer link, call transfer,  speakerphone, polyphonic ringer, voice mail capability, multimedia messaging service (MMS) and short messaging service (SMS). Of course, it also has a digital camera and digital player.

As for connectivity options, iPhone features WiFi 802.11b/g and Bluetooth 2.0. It also offers full internet browsing and push email options, which include IMAP and POP3 exchange services of Microsoft, and Push-IMAP or Push extensions for Internet Message Access Protocol. It uses GSM (Global System for Mobile communications, GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) and EDGE (Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution) for cellular enhancement protocol.

iPhone operates on Darwin, a Mac OS X version open source linux computer operating system; and is also quad band calling supported, with GSM) 850, 900, 1800 and 1900, taking you to more places around the world.

On top of all these a new, and rather ingenious feature called accelerometer, would surely impress you with its capability to recognize which way up the phone is, automatically reorienting itself when you flip the unit from portrait to landscape. The same feature, which uses motion/proximity sensor, also switches the screen off during a call to avoid accidentally pressing the buttons on the screen.

The iPhone services are provided by AT&T, formerly Cingular Wireless.

Calling and receiving messages around the world is now possible with Verizon Wireless’ release of the RIM BlackBerry 8830. The bland BlackBerry smartphone is now out with this phone’s integration of EV-DO support and multimedia capabilities but there is still no camera for this unit.

The BlackBerry 8830 has a dimension of 4.9 x 2.6 x 0.55 inches and a weight of 4.73 ounces. Although the unit is slim, it is one of the larger BlackBerry because of its taller and wider body, probably to give room to its spacious QWERTY keyboard and trackball that are reminiscent of the 8800. The 2.5 inch screen features a 65k color display at a 320 x 240 pixel resolution. Texts and pictures are sharp and bright and are still viewable even in darker environments, thanks to the automatic backlighting adjustment of the screen.

The volume controls are located on the right portion of the phone while the 2.5 mm headset jack, mini USB port and a predefined key for launching voice dial on the right side. The power and mute buttons are located on the top of the unit. One disappointment in this phone is the location of the miniSD expansion slot behind the battery cover.

The biggest feature of the BlackBerry 8830 is the dual-mode functionality that automatically switches between CDMA and GSM networks for international roaming, without changing the phone number. This means that users can get voice coverage in 157 countries and e-mail coverage in 2 countries, but these services of course, incur charges. Additional features include speakerphone, smart dialing, speed dialing and conference calling.

Connectivity options with 880 include Bluetooth 2.0 for wireless headsets and hand-free kits. The unit can also be used as a wireless modem for laptops. The unit’s support with EV-DO means that users can experience data speeds of 300Kbps to 600Kbps which makes web browsing seamless. The phone also has not only one, but two available GPS programs for driving directions

8830′s e-mail capabilities fared well with other BlackBerry models, especially with the retaining of the Push technology in sending and receiving e-mails real tim and synching with BlackBerry Enterprise server that support for Microsoft Exchange, IBM Lotus Domino, or Novell GroupWise. Messaging options include SMS and MMS. Instant messaging is only limited to the BlackBerry Messenger client.

Voice dialing is easy with 8830 and the quality of sound during calls is always excellent. Talk time can reach to five and a half hours. Multimedia features in 8830 include music and video players, although the lack of camera still results to a mixed reaction among corporate users and pure mobile enthusiasts.