T-Mobile Sidekick LX – A smart phone for the youth

Sum and Substance:

Thumbs Up:

High resolution display, lots of features like 3G, flash video support and GPS.

Thumbs Down:

Bad camera quality, the button to trigger the swivel is a bit hard to push.

Inside the Trunk:

Technology: GSM / UMTS
Band: GSM 850/900/1800/1900 (Quadband) / UMTS 85/1700/2100 (Triband)
Phone design: Slider
Caller ID: Yes
Other features: GPS, camera, music player, QWERTY keyboard.

The Whiz Kid Speaks:

The 3.2 inches display of the phone has a resolution of 854×480 pixels. Supported audio formats are MIDI, AMR, AAC, WAV, WMA and MP3. Supported video formats are MP4 and 3GP. For storing music, the handset can take up to 16 GB of memory cards. The handset has 128MB RAM and 256MB ROM.

The handset has a 3.2 mega pixel camera with LED flash. It has a maximum resolution of 2048×1536 pixels for photos. Video shooting is also available. Messaging features include E-mail, Instant messages, Multimedia messages (MMS) and Text messages. The 1250mAh lithium ion battery has rated talk time of 5.5 hours and for 3G is goes down to 3 hours. Standby time is 8 days and for 3G it is 6days.

Razzle Dazzle:

We won’t call the Sidekick LX compact simply because it is tall. The device is thin even with the slider interface. You would be also interested to know that the phone is durable and hence can stand shocks. We thought that the device was quite attractive with the large display and minimal buttons on the surface. The Sidekick LX feels good in the hand, it has a nonslippery texture which feels quite smooth. We hate devices which have cheap plastic body and fortunately this phone doesn’t have that. You get two color options for this phone, orchid and carbon.

Inside Dope:

This handset has a 3.2 inch WVGA display which gives a resolution of 854×480 pixels. The big resolution is great for watching movies, browsing the web and other phone activities. A big resolution exploits the big size of the screen to the fullest and we had no complaints with the display of this handset. The quality of the display too is good, it is sharp and bright and we had a great time watching videos on the handset. You can change the font size and the background on your Sidekick LX.

The user interface isn’t changed much from its predecessor. You have shortcuts for media player, communities, T-Mobile MyFaves, Web browser, and e-mail. There is also a Quick find function on the handset. The navigation controls too are the same as the previous mode. On the left there are Jump and Menu buttons and direction keypad which is also the phone’s speaker. On the other side, there is trackball navigator, OK button, Talk and End keys and Cancel button. On the bottom, there is a mini-USB port, power on/off key, volume buttons and a 3.5 mm headphone jack.

The highlight of the phone has to be the swiveling screen. You push the button on the top to swivel the phone open. However, as compared to the earlier model, we had to push the button harder and the screen didn’t lock back in to the place as smoothly. This is not a deal breaker but if you have used the previous Sidekicks you will certainly notice the difference. The spacious keyboard has still been retained and we thank the manufacturer for this. The keys are small but there is adequate spacing between them and hence we didn’t have any mishits. The keys also give a good tactile feedback when pressed.

The handset comes with reference material, recycling bag, protective pouch, stereo headset, 1 GB memory card, USB card, and AC adapter.

The music player hasn’t changed much from the previous Sidekick. It supports audio formats like MIDI, AMR, AAC, WAV, WMA and MP3. Supported video formats are MP4 and 3GP. For storing music, the handset can take up to 16 GB of memory cards.

The handset has capacity of 2000 entries for phone book. A single entry can take multiple phone numbers, notes, IM handle and an e-mail ID. You can attach a photo to a contact for photo caller ID, group your friends together and give a custom ringtone to a contact.

The camera has been improved to 3.2 mega pixel from the previous Sidekick which has a 1.3 mega pixel camera. But we thought the upgrade didn’t reflect in the quality of the photos. Usual options are there like auto-focus, flash, effects, white balance controls and choice of resolution and photo quality. Image quality was not that good, color representation was satisfactory.
The camera can record videos too, it comes with two qualities, low and high. But video quality, just like photos was pretty bad.

The call quality was really good in the Sidekick LX was really good when we tested it. We could hear our friends quite clearly and vice versa. There was a bit of echo but it didn’t come in the way much. There was no background noise either while on the calls. Speaker phone calls were really bad, there was hollowness during the calls and in places with high background noises, it was not easy to talk because the volume wasn’t loud enough. Bluetooth calls were fine but this depends on which headset you are using. We tried Motorola S9 Bluetooth Active Headphones and Logitech Mobile Traveller Bluetooth headset, the call quality was excellent.

The 1250mAh lithium ion battery has rated talk time of 5.5 hours and for 3G is goes down to 3 hours. Standby time is 8 days and for 3G it is 6days. In our lab tests, the phone battery lasted for six hours which is more than the rated talk time.

Nitty Gritty:

T-Mobile Sidekick LX is a great device for the youth, we will recommend this for the features it has like music player, camera (even if the photos are a bit disappointing) and plenty of messaging features.