T-Mobile myTouch Slide Android Phone, Black (T-Mobile)

"Awesome Phone" - My Best Phone Yet June 23, 2010

Reviewer:  M. Stewart "mackblu54"  (Fort Lauderdale, FL) -

After using this phone for almost a week now, I'm soo excited. This is one piece of device that is the best I've ever owned apart from my iPod Touch which I had for over a year. I needed an upgrade from my previous flip-phone that I had for a couple of years. Some of the reasons why I wanted a new phone are that I needed a phone with a good camera, applications to jot down appointments/notes, text messages with a full keyboard, a good sized screen for internet use, and something similar and as fast as my iPod touch. And let to you, this phone has and does all these features just fine. Let me start off with the Pros and Cons:

Pros -

- Customize interface to your liking
- 3.4" screen with trackpad
- Android 2.1 (latest)
- EXCELLENT 5MP camera (with LED flash)
- A full QWERTY keyboard
- Great video
- Many great applications
- Fast internet 3G/wifi
- 8GB memory
- EXCELLENT call quality
- Good speaker
- GPS system
- A total of 7 home/leap screens
- 600MHz processor
- Swype activated
- Genius button (voice commands)
- 3.5mm headphone jack
- Bluetooth 2.1 with stereo bluetooth support
- Slick, clean, beautiful design (solid build quality)
- Cool weather animations **
- Use as a USB Storage
- And much more...

Cons -

- A little expense at $179.99 (through T-Mobile)
- No phone case or screen protector
- Battery is ok but not bad

I came across this phone which came out on June 2 and I had done my research even before it came out. Wasn't too crazy about at first but when I went to the T-Mobile store few weeks ago just to look at it, I loved it. First off, I was surprised at how small it was compared to looking at it on video and picture reviews online (these things usually happen anyway). I liked that fact that it was surprisingly fast, I did not experience any lags or slow downs AT ALL and still don't. Also, the display is big, bright at 3.4 inches, and colors are vivid. I wanted a phone just like my iPod Touch mainly in its speed and the screen being in a decent size and actually got something better then what I expected.

There are too many features to cover but I'll do the important ones that everyone wants to know:

BUILD QUALITY: The phone is made out of a hard plastic with a high gloss finish which makes it look and feel expensive; although, it does attract finger prints. There are metal/aluminum elements such as the myTouch logo, the surfaces around the camera and flash lens on the back, and the camera button on the side of the phone. The phone on a whole, including buttons feel very solid.

SPEAKERPHONE: The speakerphone on this device is not the best I've heard compared to Blackberrys, being the best, but it is acceptable.

CALL QUALITY: Call quality is EXCELLENT. Loud, clear, no static, you name it, it's excellent.

KEYBOARD AND TOUCHPAD: Now, this is my first phone with a full keyboard but from using the Motorola CLIQ's keyboard in the T-Mobile store I preferred the myTouch 3g Slide's. The buttons/keys are nice and spaced out, and firm and very easy to press. A touchpad/trackpad is also included (located on the bottom of the screen) that can be used to navigate through the phone in addition to the touch screen. You can press on it for "Enter/Ok" gestures.

CAMERA: I was afraid that the camera quality wasn't going to be good because the fact that I'd experienced poor quality images off the HTC HD2. But the camera on this baby blows the HTC HD2's out the water. The picture quality is another EXCELLENT. I had a regular 5MP Canon Camera that took great pictures and I can easily compare this to that. I am really impressed. CNET has this phones camera quality as subpar, when really, it's excellent. Go try it out for yourself at your nearest T-Mobile store and you'll see.

BATTERY LIFE: Battery life is good but not best. From using apple products, you get used to long lasting battery life. But this phone does a good job for what it is. It is a phone with a big screen, so if you plan on using this phone with heavy usage - browsing the internet, making a lot of calls, playing games, etc., you need a charger with you on the road. However, this phone can last you all day if you're just a simple user, such as myself, just making several calls, browsing the internet and texting. It all just comes down to what and how you'll be using this phone. Another thing is that you can control the screen's brightness in three levels. I usually have mine on the lowest which reduces the battery life considerably well. The only problem is that when you're outdoors when the sun is bright, you may want to increase the screens brightness, but if you're indoors then it's fine. This would definitely be a great alternative to help you save battery life.

INTERFACES: The interface on this phone basically lets you customize your own phone to your liking. You have many apps on the phone and you can place them anywhere on your screen(s), whether you want them as little icons or as a big viewable icon with animations such as the clock, whether, pictures, message inboxes, etc. and they all look very cool. Icons can even be placed in sections on one screen. In addition, you have the option to add a total of 7 Home/Leap screens and all can be viewed simultaneously. Pretty cool!

INTERNET 3G/WI-FI: Browsing the internet on this phone is awesome, whether it's 3g or wi-fi, it does an excellent job. Its very sooth, smoother than my iPod Touch which is surprising and it's very fast browsing from page to page. Rotating the screen to change viewing position is at ease, no lags or cracks. I'm on the internet daily on this phone and can't get over how fast it is.

APPS: In this phone you have many apps that are included such as genius, GPS, MP3 Store, Peep, PDF Viewer, Quickoffice, and much more. They have the "Market Place" app, where you can purchase any apps and even "Free" apps in any category you desire. Apps are very easy to download. If you're familiar with apple products, such as iPhone or iPod Touch, you'll know exactly how to use this.

SPEED/PROCESSOR: The speed on this phone is awesome at 600MHz. It may not have the full 1GHz processor but I guarantee you that this phone will impress you. Their no lags, no slow downs, or freezes like you'll experience on other phones such as the Motorola CLIQ. This phone is fast just like my iPod Touch.

NEGATIVES: You would think HTC would include either a case or a screen protector for an expensive phone like they do for their other products. So now I have to waste more money for a case and screen protector. Another thing is the price, it's $179.99 after rebate and that's if you buy it through T-Mobile which is a little expensive if you ask me, but you can get a better deal else where.

ANOTHER GREAT FEATURE: When you press to answer a call and as you place your ear/faces next to the phone, the screen will automatically shut off to avoid misguided touch on the touch screen interface. In addition, the phone will turn on when ear/faces is away from the phone. Pretty cool!

Overall, I think this is an awesome phone, probably is T-Mobile's best; and I would definitely recommend this to anyone who's a Student, Business Professional, or anyone who wants a phone with an excellent camera.

I will update this review as I experience more.

Close Again Android, but no Cigar! June 26, 2010

Reviewer:  Always Samsung "ravereviews"  (New York, NY) -

[[VIDEOID:moQD05EK2KNCSW]]Close Again Android, but no Cigar!

For anyone who's feeling the itch to jump to AT&T to get an iPhone, but cant see themselves on the nations second largest carrier - the alternative has always been an Android powered OS phone. T-Mobile started off getting all the Android exclusives, but for someone who cant seem to ditch their G1 for an all touch screen device - Your alternative has finally arrived.

Now, Android is not that prestigious anymore and the exclusivity FACTOR is completely gone at this point since some of their OS can now be found on Sprint & Verizon Wireless (Moto Droid, HTC Incredible, and HTC EVO 4G). However, for those faithful T-Mobile customers, the MyTouch 3G Slide delivers on many levels, but are unfortunately still hammered down by some minor OS issues.

The MyTouch 3G Slide is an excellent smart phone and the best part is the slide out qwerty keyboard. I am one of those people that just cant go all touch. The design of the device is great. Its sleek, sexy, and a total eye catcher. Everyone on the street keeps looking at me when I take out my phone to talk, text, or browse the web. Now I know how Paris Hilton feels. The form factor is great and despite what some haters are saying - Its actually not that bulky or big at all. I have the white model and truly believe its the best of the three colors that are currently available. The black is a bit dull and the red is the wrong red. They should have made the color merlot like the original MyTouch 3G.

This is a full featured phone and comes pack with tons of customization options from wallpapers, to different themes, apps, and tons more. The menu system is gorgeous and the colors really POP and is just visually pleasing to the eye. One of the other highlights of this device is the GENIUS button. It lets you search, text, or call someone by simply using ones voice. You get to sync your email accounts to the device as well, but I found adding email accounts to be so much simpler on a Blackberry then I did on this phone. Synchronization has to be turned on for emails to be received quicker, but it never arrives on the phone as fast as a Blackberry. With sync turned on - It only kills the battery life even quicker. The device is running the latest Android 2.1 OS with HTC's sense UI built on top of the Android and it makes for a great combination. Plus, there isn't much lag time when switching between screens or exiting out of certain apps, etc. Android phones are probably the closest thing to an iPhone, but it still lacks behind the competition in many areas. I find the Blackberry OS to be so much more customizable with different ringers for email or text alerts, etc. Something the Android cant do. I gave the phone four stars and its just slightly short of five stars due to the extremely poor battery life. I don't know if its the Android OS, or Apps that still run in the background when one thinks that its OFF, but everyone that I know who has an Android phone always carries a spare UBS charger with them everywhere they go. Either the Android OS needs to be fixed or batteries need to get bigger, but if a smart phone cant last till the next morning before one arrives at work and gets a chance to start charging the device at their computer work station then its hard for me to recommend this as a full five star phone.

Pros
- Customizable interface to match your style and mood
- 3.4" screen with Optical Trackpad
- Android 2.1 (Not 2.2 yet)
- 5MP camera/camcorder with flash
- A full QWERTY keyboard
- Great music and video player
- Android market (Feels a bit bootleg compared to the BB and iPhone)
- 3G and Wi-Fi
- 8GB Micro SD card included (It should have been 32GB)
- Good Call Quality
- GPS
- 5 home screens (Can be changed to 7)
- Swype Text input comes installed
- Genius FEature (Voice Commands)
- 3.5mm Headphone Jack (YAY! No more adaptors)
- Sleek, Sexy, form factor
- MyFaves (Nice feature and beautiful to look at)
- USB charger
- Awesome WEB BROWSER (Best one since the iPhone)
- Pinch to Zoom

Cons -
- Price is a bit of a turn off (Get a RadioShack Flyer cause T-Mobile matches prices)
- No phone case
- No separate wall charger (Only comes with UBS and wall connector) Cheap BASTARDS!
- Battery is far from perfect
- Bad Speaker phone
- 3G can get real spotty and switches between 3G and EDGE alot
- Landscape mood is a bit buggy at times

A solid 3rd gen choice for T-Mobile G1 veterans. August 6, 2010

Reviewer:  Christopher Wanko "-C"  (Nutley, NJ USA) -

T-Mobile must have contracted a refresher for the G1 with HTC, and it's a weird one for sure. Armed with an ARM11 600Mhz processor, it's an upgrade over the 1st gen G1 processor in terms of speed and RAM, but the keyboard and optical trackpad are steps backwards from the G1, as is the microUSB connector away from the more-common miniUSB.

In searching for a replacement for my twice-bricked G1, I evaluated the Garminfone and MyTouch Slide. The conclusion I'm fast approaching is that the new Droid2 from Motorola looks like my long-term choice, but that means switching networks.

Within the context of T-Mobile Android phones with keyboards, this one is very good. Outside of that context, it hassome dubious design choices leaving me flat.

To begin, it has a good camera with a flash, it has Android 2.1, and an OTA update just hit it. Terrific. It has some built-in apps and makes use of HTC's Sense UI for an improved feel over stock 2.1 and 1.6. However, you will look in vain to change the desktop wallpaper directly; you'll either alter the "mood" as provided by T-Mobile, or you'll pick you wallpaper with an app that supports making it your desktop (Astro File Manager being your best bet for this and all Android tasks).

The keyboard lets you avoid fat-fingered input at every turn. If Swype and Graffiti and even Dragon Dictation fail you, the keyboard surely bails you out? Well, maybe, if you can decipher the bizarre, non-standard silk-screened letters and numbers. It's a four-row, not the five-row of a G1, but it's spaced a little more and has shift/function keys on both sides. However, the top row has numerals the same size and color of the letters, so you aren't reading QWERTYUIOP, you're reading Q1W2E3R4T5Y6U7I8O9P0, which screws you up when you are looking for a zero or "O". Like I said, bizarre. A second color for alt-keys or a smaller font would have helped immensely. You get used to it over time, but why do I need to get used to bad silkscreening? This should be fixed in later versions.

The Genius button is fun. You press it, and the Dragon Dictation listens and tries to figure out what you want. Call your wife, find pizza near your location, open an app, whatever. Over time the Genius button is likely to expand functionality, but for now, it is limited by its Dragon engine and its lookup ability. The more I try it, though, the more I like it. This may be a killer feature if the API is readily accessible.

In all, this is better than the Garminfone and original G1. I would love to keep the G1 keyboard and physical trackball but that's not going to happen; I would love to keep the thin form of the Garminfone but I need a keyboard. Compromises aside, this is a solid 3rd gen Android device and if you can get it close to zero on contract, you're coming out way ahead. T-Mobile is very good about OTA updates, so you can plan on 2.2 very soon as well.

--#

my thoughts on this phone. August 20, 2010

Reviewer:  Mo Cheng "good faith"  (new york, usa) -

I had the Behold and I can tell you that compared to the myTouch Slide, the Behold might as well be a paperweight. RE your comment about the lack of Snapdragon, you honestly won't even notice it. There are moments (however, VERY small) that you will wait for things to show up but this is normally due to the strength of your network or wifi....

Concerning battery life, I've been using it almost constantly so I can't give you any real thoughts on this until my consumption slows down. Then, I'll try to update you on the battery life under normal circumstances. I can already tell I'll be using it MUCH more than the Behold.

I haven't noticed any glitches--though I wouldn't doubt that they exist. Speaker volume seems great, both on speakerphone and otherwise. Signal strength depends on area so that is a N/A field. It does have flash but hulu doesn't allow videos on android--version 2.2 should fix this but it isn't certain yet. GPS with voice navigation is by far a favorite of mine--used with the Genius button, navigating while driving is quite simple.

Now for the not so good things, in my humble opinion--the Genius button is great but sometimes isn't exact when sending texts...Speak clearly and you'll have a better chance. The touchscreen is way more sensitive compared to the Behold so there is a learning curve there. Also, the Genius button has a connection time out for some reason. I can't think of any others at the moment, but I'll be sure to update you should I come across any more.

All in all, compared to the Behold, this phone will blow your mind. Android has literally thousands of apps and, unlike the Behold, they install painlessly.

Good tips at [...]

A few glitches, but a good phone November 27, 2010

Reviewer:  Ranga 

I've had this phone for a couple of weeks. Its a good phone, bottomline. Its good a good processor (never had problems), good display, a decent camera with flash and a good touch screen. Its glitches are the following:
(1) A wobbly hinge for the sliding keyboard- its a bit shaky, but the T-mobile store guy said its normal.
(2) Picture quality, even though its a 5MP camera, is not great. It softens lots of colors.
(3) The battery life... my biggest thumbsdown. If you use 3G browsing(average) and GPS (once in a day), the battery drops down to 20% at the end of the day. This is so horrible.
(4) The internal memory problem: this is another disappointing thing in this phone. The internal memory is just 512MB, of which just 148MB is for apps. Think about how much can you have in that space. A few games and apps and you'll get a low memory notification. Thus there's an app limitation... defeats the purpose of an android phone. This is what nobody told you (and me) about. Froyo (android 2.2) will apparently let you store apps in SD card but people have been expecting Froyo update for this phone for several months, and I have lost hope of Froyo on this phone anytime soon.
(5) The phone is a bit heavy, but that could be attributed to the sliding physical keyboard.