T-Mobile's new MyTouch 3G Slide hits the middle of the Android smartphone range bang on. I received some time with this new phone last week, and it looks like a solid addition to the Google-powered phone field.
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The MyTouch 3G Slide - let's just call it the Slide - initially feels like a standard, midrange, rather plasticky touchscreen phone, but the screen slides over to reveal a roomy four-row keyboard with well-separated keys. The keys owe more than a little to the design of the most recent Sidekicks, and they're easy to type on. The phone is an evolution of the MyTouch 3G, which HTC released in July 2009.
I'm really impressed with what T-Mobile and HTC did with the software. This is the first carrier-customized Android phone where the customizations enhance the phone, not weight it down with bloatware. The Slide starts with the latest version of Android 2.1, enhanced with HTC's Sense UI. That already gets you integrated social networking with Facebook and Twitter, and useful home-screen widgets.
T-Mobile adds some of its own software too, high-quality stuff that actually dovetails with HTC's programs. "MyModes" lets you change 'modes' based on time, day, or physical location, altering backgrounds, widgets and ringtones – for instance, knocking your Exchange email off the home page when you're not at work. "Faves" is a big graphical screen of favorite contacts – not to be confused with T-Mobile's old MyFaves – which shows you a user's most recent Facebook updates and various ways to get in touch with them.
The "Genius Button," a physical button on the phone, activates an extended voice-command mode that even lets you dictate the text of e-mails or text messages, as long as you have a network connection. You can trigger Genius mode through a Bluetooth headset as well.
In terms of more common stuff, the phone also has Microsoft Exchange calendars and contact integration and Swype, an alternative text-entry system which speeds up typing on touchscreens by letting you sweep your finger over several letters in sequence. (Of course, if you're not into typing on the touchscreen, you can slide out the keyboard.)
Users who feel overwhelmed by the Android Market's 38,000 apps can instead browse a smaller selection of T-Mobile-preferred apps through a variety of "app packs" shown on the phone. I took a look at the packs, and they seemed useful enough to reduce the tyranny of choice.
All of these features felt easy and well-integrated. Just like with the HTC Droid Incredible, HTC has taken Android and made it more usable, and T-Mobile's apps are a pleasant icing on that cake.
Other specs include a 5-megapixel camera, a built-in 8-GB MicroSD card, HSDPA 7.2 for high-speed 3G downloads, GPS with free turn-by-turn directions, Wi-Fi, and stereo Bluetooth.
The Slide's weak points are its screen and processor. Just like the MyTouch 3G, the Slide has a 3.4-inch, 320-by-480 LCD screen, and its 600-MHz Qualcomm MSM7227 processor falls behind market leaders like the Google Nexus One in power.
I really liked what I saw from the Slide's software. The question is really whether the hardware can keep up, or whether a 600-MHz, ARM11 phone with a 320-by-480 screen will end up slow and feeling crowded after heavy use.
The MyTouch Slide may end up being the best smartphone sold by T-Mobile – notice how I phrased that. By integrating the latest Android features and HTC's great Sense, it could vault past the MyTouch 3G and CLIQ XT. But T-Mobile still really lacks a high-end Android choice, as the Google Nexus One is not sold in T-Mobile stores.
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2363357,00.asp
