T-Mobile Sidekick Review

Introduction:

While technology advances and handsets become more and more complicated, it’s sometimes hard to find models that fit our lifestyles. If someone is looking for a great messaging handset, a lot of the models pack features that will never be used or they just don’t have enough to satisfy all of our needs. Phones like the Sidekick fall in-between these categories. It provides that extra touch that’s missing from regular phones while not being bloated with software that will never be put to use.

Compared to the LX, the 2008' model has smaller dimensions (and screen, at 2.6" instead of 3.0") and can be personalized with color shells and even custom ones can be created and ordered from sidekickshells.com for $15. It also has Stereo Bluetooth, 2-megapixel camera with video recording and everything you'd expect to find in a Sidekick.

What’s in the box?

• Sidekick
  
• Charger
• Extra green shell
• Stereo headset
• MiniUSB cable
• 512MB microSD card
• Start Guide
• User Guide

Design:

One look at the Sidekick and it’s clearly obvious that it sticks to the layout of the previous models and is geared towards the younger crowd. It is smaller than the Sidekick LX, but the buttons are the same as before. The only keys that gave us trouble were the ones located in the top. They were overly sensitive for our taste and registered a click when our fingers would just pass over them from time to time. The rest performed much better and even though they are almost flush with the trim around it, we experienced no issues when trying to press them. Feedback is provided in the form of both an actual clicking feel as well as a sound when pressed.


You can compare T-Mobile Sidekick to many other phones using our Size Visualization Tool.



Navigation is possible through either the D-pad, which has a speaker in the center, or the trackball at the opposite side of the Sidekick. It takes a bit to get used to the latter being that it is very sensitive and can send you within menus when navigated quickly. Once we were used to this, we found that less errors were made, but it did not eliminate all of them. The D-pad provided much more accurate feedback but took longer to get to the intended spot.

Speaking of buttons, we can’t forget the most important ones: the keyboard. Despite its small size, we found that the spacing in-between the keys is just right to make it comfortable to use. They’re rounded so it’s easy to distinguish them apart from each other but we wish they were made up of a material that grips better.



The display works magnificently in both dark and bright environments, as long as you’re not wearing sunglasses. Brightness can be adjusted manually or just let the sensor do the work for you. Regardless of which method is used, there was not a time we couldn’t make out the picture.
The colors that were represented in photos, menus, and sites came through clear and realistic.

Like the Sidekick LX, this model features the swivel mechanism that works beautifully. Just a simple flick of the corner and it opens revealing the QWERTY keyboard. Since the display doesn’t swivel to the closed position on its own like it does to open, it has to be moved back. Here we found that if it’s pressed down on, the keys on the keyboard tend to get pressed. Our solution for this was to hold the sides or lift the display up just a tad while closing.

Customization is one of the biggest features found here, especially with the shells. While it comes with two of them, a black and green one, eleven more can be ordered along with matching backgrounds. If none of the eleven suits you, just go online and design a custom one instead.

The plastic material that the Sidekick 2008 is made out of feels cheap and isn’t too durable. Within a few days of normal usage, the body and screen developed several small marks. On the upside, the build quality feels solid so the handset should last a while albeit very marked up.

Interface:

The Sidekick sports Danger OS version 4.7 and looks similar to that of the LX. The menu is found on the left of the screen and is scrolled through to get to more options. Most of it is very user-friendly and easy to use. The only menu we found to be inconsistent was the one containing the organizer applications. This will be talked more about later.

Phonebook:

The phonebook on the Sidekick can store up to 2000 contacts. They are listed in alphabetical order with the name, number, and type of number (mobile, home, work, etc) displayed for each one. There are plenty of spots to fill in regarding information and all of it is neatly organized. Items such as the identity and personal information have their own menus to keep the clutter to a minimum.


Organizer:

The organizer section has three applications: the calendar, notes, and the to-do list. The time, date, and alarm have to be opened through the settings menu and such applications as the calculator or timer are missing until they are downloaded. Luckily, the basic ones are free but it does raise a question as to why they weren’t provided in the first place.



Messaging:

Since the IM and email clients are the main attraction to this handset, it’s no wonder that they work as great as they do. The IM client is easy to use and going between IM’s is smooth with the help of the top left and right buttons. Chats are limited to 10 conversions at a time that can be saved in a 10KB chat log or it can be emailed.


Speaking of email, the client is very user-friendly and straightforward. Up to three accounts can be added on top of the one that T-Mobile provides. It downloads the messages automatically and displays the sender, subject, and date or time received. Accounts can be setup through either a list that’s provided or with the POP3/IMAP settings incase your provider isn’t shown.


If messages or IM’s are received when not using the clients, the information will scroll across the top of the screen to let one know what has arrived.


Connectivity:

If only the HTML browser worked this well. It seemed to take forever to connect to the site and when it finally did, it still took a while to load the page. Things didn’t get any better once the site was loaded. The default zoom level organizes everything so it’ll fit into the screen’s width but as soon as it’s changed to view the site as one would on the computer, the words can’t be made out. This must be a great view for scrolling through large pages you may be thinking but nothing could be further from the truth. Instead of scrolling through sections of the page, scrolling is done link by link. We were hoping that this would only be the trackball and that the D-pad would scroll through sections at a time but it worked in the same manor while also adding zoom level. There is a mini-page that can be opened to scroll a bit faster but it takes up the center of the page blocking the view.

To be able to read the text, you have to zoom in very close meaning that a lot of scrolling must be performed to read the site. It’s not entirely a bad browser but instead simply a very disappointing one. The competition has browsers that are not only user-friendlier but display the pages better. Considering this is a major feature of the Sidekick, it needs to be able to go head-to-head with the others in its class.


Multimedia:

Of course, the media player could not be left out or skimped on, otherwise there would be a lot of angry customers. To make things simple, instead of opening the player through two locations, it's actually opened once the file is selected. The user is given the choice between music and videos via the same media menu and as soon as the selection is made, the player will open. It has the same shortcuts and controls, but the layout is slightly different between the two. When music is playing, the options menu will show the controls while it only displays the full screen settings when playing a video. It may not be a problem once the controls are known but a new user may be unsure on what to do. Even H.263 videos didn’t play, so you will be able to see only ones in 3GP format.



Sound through the speaker came out loud and clear although it was lacking bass. Still, the music sounds impressive considering the small sized speaker. Naturally, the headphones provided produced a much better sound although a little flat. For better comfort, users are not tied down to some strange proprietary connection but instead, have a 3.5mm audio jack. Since it isn't recessed into the body, there should be no worries about whether the headphones will connect or not. Stereo Bluetooth is also supported, if you want to use your wireless headphones or speakers.

Camera:

The new Sidekick gets a bump up to 2.0MP for the camera as well as video recording but it doesn’t help it out much. Photos were washed out and very blurry in all but the brightest environments. With the lack of any type of flash, taking photos in dark places is next to useless as they seemed to come out darker than how it really looked.

Software:

Not a lot of applications come preloaded with this handset. Instead, they have to be downloaded from T-Mobile in order to use them. It does come with one game that is a trial however. The general applications, such as the calculator, are free but other ones have to be bought.

Performance:

The Sidekick was tested around the Chicago and Madison areas and signal was generally strong. In our basement test, it performed very well and managed to hold one to two bars.

Sound quality wasn’t the best around and could use an improvement. Volume is loud but voices seem drowned out on both ends. This happened from both landlines and other cellphones in both cities. Talk-time was an astounding 7 hours and 43 minutes in our test.

The ringer volume is loud enough, even on the normal setting, to make sure that it’ll be heard when there is someone calling.

Conclusion:

So, apart from its smaller size, changeable shells, Danger OS version 4.7, and a slight bump from a 1.3MP to 2.0MP camera, we really do not see any reason to get this over the LX apart from having a newer phone. Sure it has the few features that are missing from the LX but not enough to justify it if you already have the older model.

Still, taking the LX out, the Sidekick 2008 certainly does follow in the footsteps of the other Sidekicks, which is not a bad thing at all. The wonderful IM client is there as well as a great email support and an easy to use QWERTY keyboard. It’s not as complicated as a smartphone but it provides many more features that are either lacking or non-existent on regular phone while still keeping everything simple.