T-Mobile SDA review

As we noted in the Design section, the lack of a QWERTY keyboard makes the T-Mobile SDA better for viewing e-mails rather than sending them. However, thanks to the integrated Bluetooth, you can pair your device with a Bluetooth-enabled keyboard and fire off messages that way. Aside from Bluetooth, the SDA is equipped with Wi-Fi and EDGE support, so you can hop on to a hot spot while you're on the road and surf the Web using Internet Explorer Mobile. EDGE should also allow for high-speed data connections; indeed, cruising the Web on the SDA was a pleasure, thanks to the great screen and the faster upload times.

The T-Mobile SDA's phone book is limited only by the available memory and is quite robust, with room in each entry for up to 12 numbers, three e-mail addresses, and more; the SIM card holds an additional 250 names. For caller-ID purposes, you can pair a contact with a photo or one of 15 polyphonic ring tones. You can also assign them to caller groups. Other goodies include a vibrate mode, a speakerphone, a task manager, a voice recorder, and a calculator.

The T-Mobile SDA isn't just about helping you be more productive on the road; it's also meant to entertain. It's armed with Windows Media Player 10, so you can listen to MP3, WMA (including WMA DRM), and WAV audio files, as well as WMV and MPEG-4 video files. There's 64MB of ROM and 64MB of RAM on board, but we suggest you save that for other applications and load up a Mini SD card with your multimedia files. The phone also includes two games: Bubblebreaker and Solitaire.

The T-Mobile SDA's 1.3-megapixel camera takes pictures in four qualities (Basic, Normal, Fine, and Superfine) and four resolutions (160x120, 320x240, 640x480, and 1,280x1,024). For getting the best shot possible, the SDA gives you a 2X zoom and brightness controls, and while there's no flash, you can adjust the settings to Auto, Daylight, Incandescent, Fluorescent, or Night, based on the type of light you're in--or Ambience, as the phone calls it. If you're feeling a little artsy, you can add a picture frame or change the tone of the picture to Grayscale, Sepia, or Cool. We also appreciate the little details, such as the option for a time and date stamp, as well as a photo counter. The video camera records clips with sound in MPEG-4, H.263, or MJPEG AVI format and offers two resolutions (176x144 or 128x96). You also get many of the same tools as the still camera, such as the Ambience settings and 2X zoom.

Overall, the T-Mobile SDA's picture quality was good for a camera phone, sporting bright colors and crisp lines. The Night mode even did an admirable job, with images taken in dark environments. Once you're done with your masterpieces, you can save them as wallpaper or send them to friends and family via multimedia message or e-mail.

To really make the T-Mobile SDA one with you, you can customize the phone with different wallpaper, color themes, and sounds. Of course, you can always download more from T-Mobile's T-zones.

We tested the quad-band (GSM 850/900/1800/1900; EDGE) T-Mobile SDA in San Francisco, and call quality was excellent. Conversations sounded clear and volume was loud, and our callers reported the same. They also said they couldn't tell we were using the speakerphone, and we had no problems hearing them. We paired the SDA with the Logitech Mobile Traveller Bluetooth headset, and audio quality diminished slightly, but that may have more to do with the headset than the phone.

The T-Mobile SDA is great for all the Chatty Cathys of the world, thanks to its extralong battery life. The smart phone is rated for 4.5 hours of talk time, but the SDA blew that out of the water by lasting for a total of 11 hours. Standby time is rated for five days, and the phone had no problem reaching that mark.