Sidekick iD reviewed

A Sidekick for the low price of $99 is enough to get any Danger fan excited -- but just what do you give up in exchange for the price break? That's precisely what T-Mobile is about to push out the door to give the cash-starved (and the frugal) among us a taste of the older, higher end Sidekick 3. LAPTOP Magazine had the chance to sit down and put the iD through its paces, pointing out the glaring lack of MP3 playback, camera, Bluetooth, and expandable memory. On the flipside, though, what's left is still Sidekick through and through: a messaging focus, mobile web surfing and the typical Hiptop form factor that makes voice calling just a tad awkward. More is lacking in the iD, though -- the lack of even 2.5G EDGE data is going to make serious surfing an exercise in frustration. Are there any old-school GPRS fans out there still? We thought not, but there probably are a few Sidekick-for-$100 fans. All told, LAPTOP was digging the myFaves integration (you're next, Sidekick 3 users) but found the nixed features a little tough to swallow, suggesting folks might be better served saving up a little extra coin for the 3 or a Motorola Q to get mobile multimedia done right.

[Bhopal84 @ Apr 13th 2007 1:06PM]

Why recommend the Motorola Q. T-mobile doesn't have the Q, is the Q GPS available yet?

I had to settle for the Dash.

[Jay @ Apr 13th 2007 2:46PM]

Settle for the Dash? Have you even used a "Q"... I had the Dash then switched to Sprint for the Q, well I am right back with T-Mobile. The Q is the biggest POS I have ever seen. Its lackluster missing almost everything that the Dash comes standard with. Not to mention the 1/3MP camera is sub par to the dash, the battery will last you all of 5 hours if you don't even touch it... But if you plan on actually using this "alleged" smartphone you better have a spare batery or charger handy. The Dash is 100 times better hands down. The only thing the Q has worth wild over the dash is its vast selcection of hi-quality ringtones, 30 to be exact.

[RyS @ Apr 13th 2007 1:25PM]

The SideKick itself is a nice idea (especially for younger people), nonetheless, I don't really see why they bother creating a lower end model.
The SK3 is fine already (you can always buy one from eBay or Amazon, cheapish.) and in my opinion the unlimited IM/TXT/Internet package is too expensive, simply because of the fact that you also have to purchase a seperate Voice package. *Whew*
If you can afford the $20 monthly data package for the SKiD and the 20-30 dollar phone bill, I fail to see why they couldn't afford a SK3.

[stevo @ Apr 13th 2007 2:18PM]

where can u purchase this sk id? couldn't find it on the tmobile website..

[kingjew @ Apr 13th 2007 2:32PM]

how much without contract??? 250-300

[Richard Sportwood @ Apr 13th 2007 3:24PM]

good lord, the phrase is "worth WHILE"......

[zorntastic @ Apr 13th 2007 2:48PM]

i think launch date is april 25?

probably why it's not on the T-Mob site

[denialG @ Apr 13th 2007 5:10PM]

good lord, it's not a phrase, it's a single word. . .

[kathy @ Apr 13th 2007 3:25PM]

I am a long-time Sidekick user. I have had a Sidekick since its very earliest versions and have steadily upgraded. I have not upgraded to the SK3 yet, and I'm currently searching about for an alternative. Why?

Well... your username on your sidekick is also attached to an e-mail address of [e-mail]. I get 100-200 spam messages a day on that account. Thankfully I don't pay for it, but instead I frequently accidentally delete "real" messages wading through the crap.

I have tried in vain with both Danger and T-Mobile to get them to put a simple spam filter on their domain, and they seem to not understand the issue. Their entire resolution is to "get a new username" -- and considering I didn't post messages with that tmail.com email address anywhere anyway, all that will do is give me a brief respite until the spam starts up on the new username.

Bottom-line: Sidekick and Danger are awesome. Spam sucks. At some point, the suckiness of spam overwhelms the utility of the Sidekick, especially when it would be SO SO SO simple and cheap for them to implement some spam filtering on their servers.

[nojok3 @ Apr 13th 2007 3:41PM]

You should tell them that you will switch if they don't change it. A lot of companies don't want to lose you as a customer and may take you more seriously.

[kathy @ Apr 13th 2007 4:33PM]

Thanks, nojok3. I've told them that repeatedly. I went on a month-long daily campaign of calling, e-mailing, and moving up the chain on both companies' tech support and customer care lines, and the only response I would get is some garbage about how they understand how much this problem must suck, but "at this time our remedy is to recommend that you change your username." I tried the threat.... apparently it didn't matter. Maybe there is some deep sinister technical reason why they can't install spam filters on their servers, but considering even low-end ISPs do it regularly, I don't get it. So now I'm just looking around for a device I like as much as the Sidekick (regarding functionality) so that I can switch providers to a better platform. They are idiots for not listening to people like me -- I LOVE the Sidekick and would be selling it to lots of people except for this ONE PROBLEM that has a KNOWN SOLUTION and they can't be bothered to apply it.

Check out these other comments about this:

http://www.crushcounty.com/sidekick3sucks.html

An enterprising owner has even offered some software to clean out your spam:

http://sidekick.troyphillips.com/

[nojok3 @ Apr 13th 2007 4:51PM]

What do you think of the Samsung SCH-u740? I have a friend who recently got it and he said he likes it, but I'm not sure if he would be critical of the phone either. The problem is you are stuck with Verizon, who in my area has great coverage but I don't like the limitations they throw onto their users.

[PEZ @ Apr 13th 2007 5:04PM]

Ben a user since 2002. Most sk users nowadays are stupid. They buy this device and expect it to do more than what it says on the outside of the box. IT DOES NOT! :) Now, I Can only imagine what every 13 year old is going to think this thing does.

In a phrase - everything very simply. As long as you dont need a wireless headset - who does? Need to take a pic - nope. Need a speedy browser? Not really.

In other words, RTFM.

[kathy @ Apr 13th 2007 5:43PM]

Thanks, nojok3. I've told them that repeatedly. I went on a month-long daily campaign of calling, e-mailing, and moving up the chain on both companies' tech support and customer care lines, and the only response I would get is some garbage about how they understand how much this problem must suck, but "at this time our remedy is to recommend that you change your username." I tried the threat.... apparently it didn't matter. Maybe there is some deep sinister technical reason why they can't install spam filters on their servers, but considering even low-end ISPs do it regularly, I don't get it. So now I'm just looking around for a device I like as much as the Sidekick (regarding functionality) so that I can switch providers to a better platform. They are idiots for not listening to people like me -- I LOVE the Sidekick and would be selling it to lots of people except for this ONE PROBLEM that has a KNOWN SOLUTION and they can't be bothered to apply it.

Check out these other comments about this:

http://www.crushcounty.com/sidekick3sucks.html

An enterprising owner has even offered some software to clean out your spam:

http://sidekick.troyphillips.com/