T-Mobile Sidekick Slide

The latest addition to T-Mobile's Sidekick family is the Motorola Sidekick Slide. The Sidekick, long marketed to hipsters, gained popularity as an easy-to-use texting tool, with e-mail and AIM and Yahoo messaging services that go far beyond simple text messaging. Although a few changes to the Sidekick family are noticeable in the Slide--namely, the way it opens--the rest of the smart phone industry has taken off and now offers what was originally appealing in the Sidekick: easy messaging, simple Web browsing, and e-mail. And while we enjoyed its user interface, the Sidekick is beginning to look like a toy compared with other feature-rich phones on the market.

 

Unlike the swivel movement of other Sidekicks' displays, the Slide's display (true to its name) slides upward to reveal the keyboard. We weren't sure how well it would hold up, but the unit feels rock-solid, and the screen locks into its open position, so users won't have to worry about it sliding back down during a bumpy car or subway ride.

 

The Slide's 2.5-inch, 320 x 240-pixel screen is gorgeous and bright and rests in the center of a glossy black casing with purple accents, and the rear of the unit has a rubbery surface for gripping. The backlit keyboard is similar to the Sidekick 3's, albeit smaller, and the keys are circular. Those accustomed to frequent mobile texting will find themselves, in a matter of minutes, being able to type without looking at the keys. As with the Sidekick 3, users navigate through the Slide's interface using a 360-degree orbital joystick, which is also great for gaming.

 

The Slide comes packaged with a proprietary headset that provides acceptable call quality and sounds great while listening to music. Over time, however, the metal and plastic earbuds grew quite uncomfortable, and while the cord has a microphone as well, we don't recommend long phone conversations or music-listening sessions with the earbuds. The Slide supports Bluetooth as well, though not stereo Bluetooth. Music will pause for a phone call and resume after the session is over.

 

The unit features a 1.3-megapixel camera, which was subpar for its class. Images in our office came out blurry and lacked sharpness, and although you can make out objects clearly, the colors were washed out. On the other hand, the images in normal daylight mode weren't grainy. The low-light exposure setting improved the ability to snap photos of dark objects, but those pictures were grainy, washed out, and full of color distortion. Photos snapped outdoors were brighter, but in general, colors were still dreary and left us unimpressed. 

 

Indoors, we weren't able to maintain an EDGE connection and weren't able to browse the Web. Outdoors, and in EDGE environments, we were able to load CNN Mobile in less than ten seconds. However, sites like Gizmodo.com took excruciatingly long (more than two minutes) to load, so don't plan on visiting larger sites on the fly. The e-mail system worked fine for sending text out, but images often took a few hours to arrive in our computer's Inbox. When the Slide launched earlier this week, T-Mobile issued an over-the-air update to the Sidekick Slide, which enabled a tabbed e-mail account system, push AOL and Yahoo Mail, and full IMAP/POP3 support. We loved the ability to switch between tabbed e-mail accounts, and setup is simple: Just type in your AOL or Yahoo Mail user name and password, and you're good to go.

 

The Sidekick's call quality was nothing to phone home about, but we didn't have any complaints, either. Friends on the other end were able to hear us clearly, even while we were walking on busy Manhattan streets. Battery life was acceptable: We had the phone's backlight settings on high, listened to music, made phone calls, wrote e-mails, and then let the phone idle overnight, and the battery still had some juice left after a 24-hour period.

 

At $199, we would have liked to see video playback support; even the $129 LG Chocolate can play video. Also, the Slide lacks the reliability of other smart phones on faster data networks--larger e-mails may take hours to arrive, and Web surfing is only accessible on EDGE.

 

T-Mobile brings new features, like push e-mail for AOL and Yahoo, to the Sidekick Slide, and it solidly maintains the Sidekick's established reputation of being an easy-to-use text messaging tool. For that reason, older Sidekick owners and Sidekick fanatics will like the Slide. However, it doesn't offer any noteworthy new features, such as a touchscreen or Wi-Fi support, or even an upgraded 2-MP camera. As such, the Slide feels more like a bulky first smart phone for kids than a phone for hip twentysomethings. For the same price (and assuming you're not committed to T-Mobile), you can get the Motorola Moto Q 9h global, which offers 3G data, video playback, and a 2-MP camera and is every bit as hip as a Sidekick.

 

 

Editors' Note:

 

T-Mobile has stopped sales of the Sidekick Slide due to an error with the Slide feature. According to T-Mobile, " Some devices may inadvertently power off when the slide door on the front side of the phone is opened or closed." We attempted to recreate the  problem on our review unit but didn't have any difficulty. If you own a Sidekick Slide and are experiencing the power-down failure, you should visit a T-Mobile retail store or call customer service for assistance. While T-Mobile doesn't know how long the phone will be unavailable, current owners can opt to  do one of the following:

1. Keep your existing Sidekick Slide until T-Mobile has more information about the issue

 

2. Exchange for a T-Mobile Sidekick LX at no additional charge

 

3. Return the device and apply the value of the original purchase price to a different handset or device

 

 

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