T-Mobile Shadow II takes the obligatory shady auction tour

We look at sellers of unreleased phones on eBay much the same way we look at the FCC's device approval database: fun for window shopping, but that's about it. We're not sure we'd personally part with enough cash to find out whether the seller of this particular HTC Shadow II for T-Mobile actually has the thing to sell us, though we can totally understand why well-heeled folk might be willing to give it a go (and if we had enough money to buy a phone straight off an FCC lab, we'd probably be living somewhere in a private archipelago with no phone service to start with). The long-rumored smartphone seems to change colors every time we see it, with this latest pack of photos suggesting a glossy black front with dark red gradient accents -- not bad, we'll admit. Like the original, the Shadow II packs WiFi and a 2 megapixel camera, but when it launches later this year it'll come out of the box with Windows Mobile 6.1 and a decidedly friendlier industrial design. Oh -- and hopefully, a friendlier price than a functional prototype is currently commanding on auction.

[Thanks, Fernando]

[Jonathan @ Jun 7th 2008 3:47AM]

Well that got snapped up quick.

[James @ Jun 7th 2008 9:42PM]

Well, last time a brand new phone was released for an insane price on ebay, someone not only bought it, but got it. Stands to reason here are more idiots in this world than we might think...

Grab your tin-foil hats now iPhone lovers. The Shadow 2 is on ebay!

[HeYo @ Jun 7th 2008 3:54AM]

LoL... pre-iphone design.

[BlissX @ Jun 7th 2008 4:47AM]

Although I don't plan on getting it, love the BB Curve as it is, I hope this phone will support UMA.

[Charles Han @ Jun 7th 2008 6:04AM]

it looks alright the shape reminds me of the old sony 700w

[Nomi @ Jun 7th 2008 7:52AM]

ew..

[Bob36104 @ Jun 7th 2008 8:32AM]

I have the current Shadow--love it except you can't turn off predictive texting--you can't just cycle through button number/letter values like any other cell phone. Hope they have fixed this, otherwise, I would never buy another one.....

[Blue43Fan @ Jun 7th 2008 9:23AM]

Actually, I'm pretty sure you can. I had the Shadow for a while, and I think it's done by pressing and holding the "*" key. You can scroll through the normal text modes.

I haven't used the Shadow in some time, but I'm pretty sure that's how it's done.

[Ian @ Jun 7th 2008 9:49AM]

I'm guessing this will have 3G, so I'm very interested in replacing my dash with this. I do wish T-Mobile would get some sort of more 'corporate' WinMo phones. I'm an Exchange admin, and we don't have, and never will have, a BES server, so RIM devices are out. What i'd like is my T-Mobile Dash (HTC S620) with 3G and a faster CPU... is that so much to ask?

[HD4ME @ Jun 7th 2008 9:56AM]

nice

[KEROLiUKAS @ Jun 7th 2008 1:36PM]

I got the first Shadow, and i'm loving it..This seems too round.

[Richard Lai @ Jun 7th 2008 3:56PM]

Well, it's nice to have a break from all the iPhone news, before they flood Engadget again on Monday.

[William @ Jun 27th 2008 12:54AM]

I really like the new version of this phone except for the red, not really a great color.
I'm most likely to wait to get this instead of the 1st version.
I hope the Shadow II will come in a variety of colors, colors that everybody will like unlike Sage & copper.

[Jessica @ Jul 24th 2008 1:31AM]

Has anyone noticed the tiny ass picture id on the shadow when you call someone? Its pretty pointless I dont know why it would be so small when this phone is capable of so much.

The menus and settings and all that are designed and setup a little weird. Definitely not as organized as most others. I hope they would fix some of this, I do love the keyboard and texting though.

[Hart @ Sep 4th 2008 2:37AM]

they should of kept the rectangle design of the first and hopefully we get a color selection of at least black and or gray.