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Photograph: Chris Manners
T-Mobile Sidekick II Phone
- Spec Navigator
- Processor
- Display
- Operating System
- Camera
- Form Factor
- Battery
- Storage
- Dimensions
- Carrier
- Cellular Frequency Technology
- Features
- Connectivity
- Included Hardware
- Media
- Messaging
- Sync
- User Interface
- Video
Display
| Diagonal Display Size | 2.4 inches |
| Display Resolution | 240 x 260 inches |
| Display Type | Color |
| Number of Displays | One |
Battery
| Battery Type | Lithium Polymer |
| Vendor Rated Standby Time | 60 hours |
| Vendor Rated Talk Time | 4.5 hours |
- Lab Tested
- How We Test Phones »
Pros
Swivel design makes this fun to use
Keyoard is comfortable for typing
Cons
Phone component seems poorly designed
Bottom Line
In an unusual design, this PDA phone sports a sliding LCD and a comfy keyboard that is fun to use for instant messaging.
T-Mobile Sidekick II
Sidekick II Phone Review, by Grace Aquino April 20, 2006
T-Mobile's Sidekick II is fun to use, with a comfortable keyboard and generally swift performance. But this PDA hybrid phone has a few weaknesses, mainly having to do with a poorly designed phone component.
Part of the Sidekick II's charm is its quirky design. The screen swivels up, exposing the QWERTY keyboard underneath. The side panels consist of a rubberized cover that makes the device easy to grip. It contains four navigation buttons on each corner of the screen area, for home, menu, close, and enter. A scroll wheel makes it easy--and snappy--to navigate menus icons. Unfortunately, the power button was difficult to press, requiring an emphatic nudge to turn the unit on or off.
The rubbery keyboard was terrific and comfortable to use, even for hours of exchanging instant messages or e-mail missives. The Sidekick supports AOL's instant messaging and e-mail apps, and you can set up Yahoo Messenger, and POP3 and IMAP e-mail accounts, too. Browsing the Internet was smooth, though the slow GPRS connection was a drag and the screen could use a higher brightness level. Another pedestrian feature is the VGA (640 by 480) resolution camera, which produced dark and grainy photos.
The unit's phone functionality has improved a bit over its predecessor's: It now has numbers on the keyboard as opposed to only on an on-screen dial pad. But the device is too bulky and feels awkward to hold against your ear. I also found the earpiece volume level too low. In a few of my calls, the incoming and outgoing voice quality sounded fine. But often I couldn't hear callers very well, and they said I sounded far away. Talk-time battery life, on the other hand, was terrific, lasting 9 hours, 27 minutes in our tests.
The Sidekick II is pricey, at $300 (as of April 7, 2006, with a two-year contract). Though I liked the text input capability, I would wait for the price to drop before seriously considering adopting this model as my mobile messaging sidekick.
Grace Aquino
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PCWorld Lab Results
- Rating Breakdown
-
96
-
64
-
70
- See Complete Lab Results »
Performance Comparison with Similar Phones
96
100
92
74
Performance
| Battery Life Average (hh:mm) | 9:27 |
| Battery Life Word Score | Superior |
User Reviews
Review Now! Already own it? Tell us What You Think
User Reviews From Around the Web
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Reviewed by: diamondnicole
Strengths: Easy to use, multi function, web access, love the key board and display
Weaknesses: No Mp3 player but the sidekick 3 is coming soon and it has one. Can't change font size
Overall: Granted this review may seem a little late since the sidekick 3 is just around the corner but I saw the low reviews and had to put my 2 cents in. I received this phone last year after my Motorola A630 broke on me like 3 times I told them to send the sidekick or blackberry the rep and I decided on the side kick. I had to laugh when I first got the phone because it did so much but didn't have a calculator or alarm clock. you had to download them which takes away from your 100 available blocks. the calculator is free but time traveler isn't. I LOVE the fact the email accounts are synced too my phone and I can reply to anyone anywhere using my regular account instead of my tmail account and since the sidekick doesn't get viruses i can also recognize a problem email before opening it on my computer. The catalog is very good they are updating it with useful things all the time they even have a study aids section for students. I don't like the fact that I can't really listen to music they way I want but that problem is being fixed. I LOVE the fact that everything (but text messages) is backed up on-line in case anything happens to your phone you can just sign on to your tmobile and have access to your emails, notes, photos. I wish all phones did this. my mother has carpel tunnel and hated trying to respond to us via txt I got her the SKII and you can get a old of my brother and I much easier. he still has the sidekick color. I had to replace my phone once and that was just recently after having it for about a year it was having network communication problems and I was able to get to all my info on-line so it wasn't that bad. I can't wait to get the newest generation of sidekick
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Reviewed by: bcoffman
Strengths: looks impressive
Weaknesses: breaks constantly,all data stored on server,longest one worked is 21 days, have had 3, hard to replace
Overall: by the time you figure out what garbage this is your 14 days are up and you are stuck with it, buyer beware! this does not do nearly what is promised
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Reviewed by: Gamer411
Strengths: great keyboard. decent browser. decent camera. email.
Weaknesses: almost everything else. expensive. brakes down.
Overall: I had this device for about a month. It only left my house a few times with it. never missused and then it says hardware problem. i went to t-mobile and they said they could not give me a new one. i had to send it to the warhouse repair center. it has been 1 and a half months and i still have not got it back. besides you cant even access corporate email
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