While we can't help but feel all warm and fuzzy inside whenever a manufacturer owns up to defects that originated on its end, it's even better when affected customers are looked after for their troubles. According to GigaOM, users dealing with a malfunctioning Sidekick Slide can swap their unit for a shiny new Sidekick LX free of charge, and if for whatever reason that doesn't get your juices flowin', you can opt to exchange it and put the purchase price towards another handset. If you're dead set on just keeping your current Slide, you can simply wait things out until a fix is announced, but you won't find us passing up on any offers to upgrade gratis.

After a few days of investigation, it looks like Motorola and T-Mobile have figured what was behind that nasty Sidekick Slide bug that caused the devices to shut off when flipped open. According to our friends at Moto, the root cause was "a minor issue relating to the battery contacts," and a solution is being tested right now and should be available by next week, when Slides are expected to go back on sale at T-Mo stores. A speedy resolution, to be sure, but we're still amazed a bug like that got through in the first place.

So, first the bad news: T-Mobile and Motorola have confirmed that "some" Sidekick Slides are turning themselves off when the display is opened or closed. Now, the good: they're doing something about it. Slide sales have been suspended as of this evening while Moto works to identify just what the heck's going on; meanwhile, existing owners who've experienced problems can call T-Mobile or head into a store to "discuss available options." For what it's worth, neither of T-Mobile's other Sidekicks in the current lineup -- the LX and the iD -- are affected, so Sharp might see a nice little sales spike here as Slide owners look for an alternative. Follow the break for T-Mobile's full statement.

We're no QA experts here, but if your product is called the "Slide," isn't the slide mechanism the one thing you'd test the dickens out of? Alas, folks are discovering that Motorola's Sidekick Slide for T-Mobile has shipped with a devil of a flaw: actuating the display's slide periodically causes the phone to spontaneously reboot or to simply turn off and stay off. We've tested the claim on our own Slide, and yeah, it happens. Granted, it only happened twice out of thirty or so slides of the screen, but by standards of modern electronics engineering, we're pretty sure that's two times too many. As Boy Genius Report points out, to make matters even worse the power cycle is a hard reset, meaning your data's kaput unless you're within range of a T-Mobile signal to download everything from Danger's servers again. An ever-so-slightly loose battery seems to be the culprit here, but seriously, Moto, how did this defect ever leave a factory floor en masse?

The single picture of the Sidekick Slide from Danger (alias "Zante" in codename parlance) posted yesterday on Boy Genius Report left us wanting for... oh, say, 27 more pictures, to be precise. That gallery is now live, showing the Motorola "M" logo (a first for a Danger device) in all its metallic glory, some comparo shots to a Sidekick 3, and -- of course -- the obligatory iPhone shot. Check it out!

[Thanks, EC]

Boy Genius has scored some hands-on time with the undisputed hottest member of Danger's Hiptop lineup, the so-called "Zante," also known (as best we can tell, anyway) as the Sidekick Slide for T-Mobile. Sharp, we love ya and all, but we've got to hand it to Motorola for producing what looks to be a nice lil' device. Hit the link for the goods.