Sharp TM-150 Review

It is very easy to give a glowing review on a new product. Quite frankly, when you review a product for a week or two, you are reviewing as much of the functionality you've been able to learn, as well as the potential you see for that product in the long run. Reviewing a product after some time however, is a different story because you should know all of the features that you are going to use, and at the same time, the potential is gone - it has either been realized or not.

In this vane, I am reviewing the Sharp TM-150 after about 10 months of use. While it is a decent phone (I do still use it every day), I must say that I am dissapointed in it overall. In general, while the megapixel camera function is decent, I found this phone to be lacking in overall features such as PIM synchronization, battery life and connectivity.

The primary reason I bought this phone, of course, was because it was one of the first Megapixel camera phones on the market. As camera phones go, it is a much better camera than most of its peers. I took the picture on the left in Megapixel mode with the camera (using the external LCD as a viewfinder). On several ocassions where I didn't have my digital or traditional camera with me, I was able to take several photos with the camera phone and print 4x6 prints with them. I have one of them (the pic just to the left of my head in the picture to the left) that I have hanging in my cubicle at work, and people still don't believe I took it with my phone.

However, it is still not a substitute for a real camera. Your arm and the subject need to be perfectly still while shooting, or else there is a considerable amount of blur. But as for the other features, this phone falls short - I can't go more than a day or two without needing a charge. But worst of all, as someone who needs a PDA, but doesn't want to carry one, this phone was useless. I bought the data kit for it - thinking that it would sync outlook and charge my phone at the same time, but all it did was enable me to load contacts onto my phone. It seems that the only way to load calendar data is by entering it using the phone's keypad, rendering it totally useless. Because the phone is only tri-band and not quad band, it suffers to get service in some areas.

In any case, this review is moot, because TMO, for the most part, doesn't even sell this phone anymore. I hope that even if I do stay with T-Mobile, that I will be able to replace this with a phone that has bluetooth outloook sync, and a much better battery life - oh, and a camera. I guess that's the only good thing to come out of this phone - I'm Jaded.