How would you change T-Mobile's Sidekick LX 2009?

T-Mobile's Sidekick LX 2009 represented a huge leap forward in the hiptop sector. Not only was the swiveling motion as smooth as ever here, but this was the first Sidekick that seemed to really take its user interface seriously. To that end, we're interested in knowing how you -- the opinionated consumer -- feel about Danger's latest effort. Are you impressed by the grown-up features? Does the form factor still have a place in your life? Is the UI snappy enough? Do you still get enough stares from potential mates when you whip it out on the subway? The floor's yours, make it good.

[eddie @ Jun 21st 2009 7:43AM]

i would def add wi-fi. i love mine. ive been using for over a month now and its an amazing phone.


the other thing is when im on the main screen scrolling between icons it seems kinda slow. idk.


andddd lastly i want to be able to change the backgrounds on the sms screen. that is all :)

[eddie @ Jun 21st 2009 7:46AM]

oh yeah i forgot the battery life is terrible terrible terrible.

i cant make it more than 7 hours with aim on.


AND TMOBILE IMPROVE YOUR DAMN 3G I NEVER GET 3G SERVICE

[Quantumphysics @ Jun 21st 2009 10:38AM]

The Sidekicks are the phone of choice for these pre-teen kids who care mostly about texting on Aol Instant Messanger and being able to use the internet on demand.

The problem I see with them is that unlike IPhone, G1, Pre, etc is that they don't have a true "app store" feature with functionality similar to the iphone for on demand downloading of demos and full versions - as well as the fact they don't have processors powerful enough to give users functionality like the newest smartphones either.

The sidekick doesn't need a touchscreen but it does need a faster browser, a faster CPU, more built in RAM and the ability to use YOUTUBE, MYSPACE, FACEBOOK and SKYPE clients.

If these had WiFi, they'd be awesome because users - especially those in school - could wijack in their schools/colleges, etc.

[seamonkey420 @ Jun 21st 2009 11:47AM]

the main thing that killed the sidekick for us older geeks; locked down dev key system.

with a developers key, you could basically unlock the potential of what the sidekick could be. heck, most of the stuff i do on my jailbroken iphone is what i used to do on my color color sidekick (first gen)

danger and its closed system is what turned most adult modders/customizers off the hiptop.

however i still is a great device for txting addicts though; keyboard is just right. :)

[SwineFlu @ Jun 21st 2009 2:13PM]

I would change it by not buying it and just getting an iphone. The sidekick is whack and T-mobile's entire nationwide 3G network is covers the total space that occupies a state the size of Delaware.

[ShogunMaster @ Jun 21st 2009 4:45PM]

Does it come with naked pics of Paris Hilton? If not, I would add those.

[venom98 @ Jun 21st 2009 7:50AM]

i wish you could create a message from the phone screen.

starting to type a name from the idle screen will launch the phone application and bring up the contact you typed in....
but you cant create a message from here...it sucks....simple functionality is missing.

[joshua @ Jun 21st 2009 7:58AM]

One word: LASERS

[edwardlockyer @ Jun 21st 2009 8:08AM]

thats three

[rcarm @ Jun 21st 2009 8:45AM]

You mean seven.

[monkfishbandana @ Jun 21st 2009 9:24AM]

Yeah, LASER is five words.

[monkfishbandana @ Jun 21st 2009 9:25AM]

Sorry, I meant seven. Damn it.

[sinai @ Jun 21st 2009 6:04PM]

and sharks

[Joshzors @ Jun 21st 2009 8:06AM]

BRING IT TO AUSTRALIA!

[DangerRabbit @ Jun 21st 2009 8:25AM]

Telstra is still giving us the now ancient sidekick slide :(

[Ten @ Jun 21st 2009 8:37AM]

telstra has extended the hiptop slide until october because of its popularity, only then will they switch to this

[Gregorian @ Jun 21st 2009 5:17PM]

I take it this phone is a similar animal to the LG KS360 Webslider?
A cheap phone for the purpose of txting?

[CJ @ Jun 21st 2009 7:25PM]

Gregorian:

In terms of the target crowd, yes.

In terms of everything else, COMPLETELY different beasts: The web slider is basic in the extreme, and the price reflects. The LX on the other hand is creeping into mid-to-high-range Featurephone territory (with that VGA screen, 3G, 3.2mp camera etc.).

[superhobo @ Jun 21st 2009 8:14AM]

Change the name, change the target audience.

[wickedpheonix @ Jun 21st 2009 8:37AM]

Exactly.

The Sidekick was never really seen as being targeted to anyone but the pre-teen audience who wanted a bigger cellphone than everyone else. Change the name, change the form factor, and change icons/backgrounds etc. and you may have the possibility of this actually appealing to the greater audience.

[Stevensnewest @ Jun 21st 2009 9:10AM]

My thoughts exactly. Between the phone's design and the teen audience, this phone is a complete turn-off, in my opinion. This is coming from a high school senior, by the way.

[Icello @ Jun 21st 2009 9:38AM]

Yeah, It doesn't work. Adults feel it's for teens, teens no longer want it cause it isn't cool anymore, etc. So: change the name, add a touch screen, make it a bit nicer looking, and it just might be my nxt phone, because it looks pretty nice otherwise.
By the way, I'm 15, so I know that it doesn't appeal to teens; when it ce out I was kind of excited, but no one I know was because it's a sidekick.

[asurroca @ Jun 21st 2009 10:47AM]

But they already did that... the G1 is essentially an adult/professional Sidekick-style device.

[Jamar @ Jun 21st 2009 12:36PM]

BTW- this Sidekick is made by Sharp. They've finally bothered giving America a decent phone screen that their Japan models have had for ages. And for your idea, it goes back to my first statement. You need only look at the SH-04A to see what Sharp COULD be making for America.

[Stevensnewest @ Jun 21st 2009 7:12PM]

@Jamar

"BTW- this Sidekick is made by Sharp"

Oh, so that explains the Sidekick's repulsive design?

[Jamar @ Jun 21st 2009 11:20PM]

@Stevensnewest- Nope, blame Danger or T-Mobile for that. They're only responsible for production and hardware specs, Danger does/did (the Sidekick Slide is the only non-Sharp Sidekick) the designing. When you let Sharp do the design themselves, you get lovely phones like http://www.sharp.co.jp/products/sh04a/ and http://www.sharp.co.jp/products/sh06a/

[Chris @ Jun 21st 2009 8:16AM]

Similarly to Joshzors, I'd release it Europe instead of just the US.

[Finnschi @ Jun 21st 2009 8:20AM]

CAll it iKick and put a apple sticker on the back, mae it 2x more expensive and sell it with AT&T Only !!!

[webran61 @ Jun 21st 2009 8:45AM]

...and please God make sure it has copy and paste.

[adrian a @ Jun 21st 2009 8:27AM]

make it touchscreen, remove all buttons on top, put android on it

[MIDO1992 @ Jun 21st 2009 9:12AM]

exactly what i wanted to say android
we want a teen phone that has android

waiting for the samsung bigfoot

[Intrepid @ Jun 21st 2009 8:27AM]

Windows Mobile.

[Courtney @ Jun 21st 2009 8:41AM]

lol

[Kit @ Jun 21st 2009 9:12AM]

I think Zune had proofed that the core of Windows CE can be such smooth as long as the manufacture pay attention to the software platform itself.

Just compare the number of times which ROM are updated on Zune vs. general Windows Phones, maybe they are very different but they are using the same core technology.

It would be very interesting to see if Danger adopt Windows Mobile...

[Luke @ Jun 22nd 2009 2:34AM]

gross.

[Quikboy @ Jun 22nd 2009 2:44AM]

Having WinMo 6.5 would be nice. I really loved how T-Mobile made the custom UI for the Shadow.

[Kreediin @ Jun 21st 2009 8:28AM]

Alright i'll start off by saying that this phone does not live up to the hype. I have a sidekick 08 and it does everything i need.
The only things i have seen in the 09 that is worth while are the 3G and blog publishing features. Would you really pay 300$ for that?
The 09's battery life is horrid. in fact all sidekicks battery lives are horrid. My 08 can barely make it through one day with aim on and the backlight all the way down. The 09 can't even make it 6 hours. the 3G capabilities are also very limited. and access to myspace, facebook, and twitter have already been done for mobile phones. for a hefty amount of money you get a new GUI and 2 or 3 things that won't change your life.

[dohspc @ Jun 21st 2009 8:34AM]

you can get it for 149 at best buy I'm sure this phone will go to 99 soon. msft won't allow another one to be made.

[Jamar @ Jun 21st 2009 1:27PM]

In that case the next hope is for Sharp to enter the market under their own brand name and start selling some of those nice Japanese phones.

[bublik @ Jun 21st 2009 8:43AM]

make it iphone ))) joking..... great phone for texting

[Kreediin @ Jun 21st 2009 8:44AM]

Oh and in reply to super hobo and wickedpheonix...

The sidekick is T-mobile's best selling phone next to the G1

not everyone wants a touch screen and android ;]

[lisapohorylo @ Jun 21st 2009 8:45AM]

Not impressed with this at all.

[omegajp @ Jun 21st 2009 9:00AM]

I just got rid of mine. I was a loyal sidekick follower since 2004 when the SKII came out and Sidekicks really picked up in popularity. Since then I have had the SK3, SKLX, SK Slide, SK 2008, and then SK LX 2009, but I just couldn't keep this last one. With 3G enabled, the data service sucked. It either didn't work, or it would send me a bunch of emails and AIM messages at once when it finally pushed through. Though, if I switched it to run on 2G ONLY, it worked just fine. Maybe DANGER was having trouble with their 3G data but when it wasn't fixed shortly after I gave up. That and when I took it off the charger at 7AM every morning, it barely made it to 7PM by the time I got home from work, even on 2G and the brightness cut in half (and me NOT using the phone all day!). It just didn't make any sense.

The UI is kind of slow, whether you want to admit it or not sidekick fanboys, it was troubled. No amount of setting tweaks would get it back to the SK2 or SK3 snappy response that they had. I really kind of felt sad that this might be the end of the Sidekick--so many people were having trouble with this last one, it just killed what everyone remembered about the old sidekicks: reliability, always being connected, never missing a beat. With the newest one, you're missing everything. AIM stamps about 10 minutes in the past coming through late, those people are not waiting for my response 10 minutes later. Not the best way to have a conversation...

I put my SIM back in my 2008, and I couldn't be happier. I would seriously take the SK2 over the SKLX2009.

[Sunflasher @ Jun 21st 2009 11:18AM]

My SK2 is still my primary phone, 5 years strong. I was tempted to upgrade to 09 but the battery life makes me worry...

[Stevensnewest @ Jun 21st 2009 9:05AM]

Make it look less repulsive and less catered to teenagers; more professional, such as the Blackberry.

[PEZ @ Jun 21st 2009 9:20AM]

IT definitely needs Wifi and T-mobiles UMA. It certainly needs a faster processor (Like the one in the Pre), and a dedicated graphics processor if the games are ever going to matter. More internal memory and some integration of touch controls. The Sidekick is surely going to go that route soon, weather its a dual screen where the KB is actually a touch unit, or something to that effect. They are still great devices, and the best KB out there - touch or not.

[steve @ Jun 21st 2009 9:30AM]

Actually, I don't know about other markets but in the Detroit market the meager Samsung Gravity is our best seller next to the G1. It just shows that it's not about anything other than ease of use and a full keyboard. The Sidekick has just aged out too much to be cool anymore.

[Username @ Jun 21st 2009 9:28AM]

Add wifi and T-Mobile's UMA calling, and you'd have one hell of a phone.

[chefchris000 @ Jun 21st 2009 10:03AM]

I've used the third, the id, the slide and i've tried the lx, since i use text messages alot i loved the sidekick series, but eventually you start to notice the annoying things about the phone.
So here are my thoughts on improving the sidekick line:
-Better 3g service...nationwide hopefully
-Remove the black borders and the T-Mobile logo on the screen and make it a capacitive touch screen
-Make it half as thick, or just slightly smaller without sacrificing keypad space
-Slightly larger keypad
-Wi-fi would be great
-Updated user interface, i mean microsoft owns danger now how about a team up with the windows mobile team, make a unique version exclusive to the sidekick series.
-Improved 'app store' technically sidekick had the first real downloadable services but it's too restricting, take a page from apple, palm, blackberry, android, or even your own 'mother' company of microsoft and make it available to more developers.

[sweet greggo @ Jun 21st 2009 10:15AM]

neat