Rating: 
Summary: Useful well designed with serious improvable short comings
Review: Ever since I heard about Danger Inc and their proposed communicator device I have been following it. It is indeed an innovative design ....The communicator has a nice look an feel at start but pretty soon you will start seeing the disadvantage of a singel company (Tmobile) owning the OEM. This device as of yet does not have Outlook (or any PC) sync mechanism apart from the crappy TMobile interface which lacks a lot of features and is buggy. The voice/phone feature could have been much better starting with a comfortable hold to the ear thing. The included hands free kit does not have (neither otherwise supported) answering button. The call log is not intutive and grip can be improved. The included holder/jacket/hosterer considering the volume of the device could have been better has it given an option to hang the cell phone horizontally (in parallel with the belt) by your waist. The best part is the ability to browse the internet anywhere and the swivel screen concealing a handy keyboard but the device still feels bulky and strongly miss some kind of a touch screen capability, specially for dialing choice on VAR systems (for English press 1, while driving your call]. I hope they are working on the above mentioned flaws and some multimedia player for playing clips off internet besides TMobile making the internet connection faster. Overall I can live with it for an year until I find my perfect match ;)
Rating: 
Summary: So-So
Review: When I first bought my Sidekick, I thought it was a whole lot of fun. I assigned custom ringtones to all my friends and family, rigged the thing to automatically take the volume to soft during the day when I'm at the office, and surfed the web almost nonstop for a couple of days. I love having a web browser available fulltime so much that I will never go back to "just" a cell phone. However... I had hoped this would cut the time I spend online at home in the evenings, by letting me keep up with emails and such during the day. It didn't work that way. First, the web browser is much slower even than my dinosaur 56 bps phone connection at home. Second, when I try to access my email on Yahoo, the browser times out every time (the browser times out a lot on other sites too). I only surf the 'net on my Sidekick now when I really need some info right away. Also, you can't copy something off a website into an email or text message, and I can't find a way to move photos that are emailed to me to my photo gallery. As for the PDA functions like calendar, etc., again, the Sidekick is limited. For example, on my Compaq Ipaq, you can "snooze" an alarm or reminder for anything from 15 minutes to days or weeks. No such option on the SideKick. And if the alarm goes off when the Sidekick is in "hibernate" mode, it will ring, but when you enter your password to get in, there won't be anything on the screen to tell you what you missed. Worse, I gave up a nice older Motorola phone for my Sidekick, and the reception and sound quality is vastly inferior. My T-Mobile service was spotty at best (little or no reception in parts of DOWNTOWN Denver!!) With the Sidekick, it's even worse; I have dropped calls at least a couple of times a day, and my friends and family complain all the time that they hear their voices echoed back to them. If you're looking for an adequate all-in-one, this may be the best option in this price range. But on the whole, I think it's probably worth it to pay more and get something like a Treo 600. If only to keep my friends and family from writing me off, I am going to be getting something else very soon, so this has not turned out to be worth the money for me.
Rating:
Summary: Good, But Needs Improvement.
Review: Overall this phone/pda combo is very cool, but a few design flaws keep it from 5 star status. 5 Star Stuff: Cool web interface that allows you to update all functions of the phone on a computer that is instanly sync'd with your phone...ie appts, contacts, to-do's etc.. Great screen resolution. Packed with features & functions. Intuitive OS that is very easy to use. Real web pages (though sometimes slow, and browser doesn't support javascript sites) POP3 e-mail from 3 different accounts. It is constantly checking e-mail so I get e-mail from home, work and can answer both wherever I might be 24/7 Service has been good, and the value is unbeatable compared to other PDA/Phone combos. The keyboard is easy to use and faster at inputing info than any stylus. Even faster is the web interface that is also easy to use. You can import data to it using the web ie.. asci text, or comma deliniated. I imported old palm OS data to it and it worked well and saved me many hours of contact updates. 3-4 Star Stuff: Phone features leave a little to be desired. You generally need two hands to operate the phone features as there are no numbers on the face. It works best if the number is in your directory but if you have a few hundred contacts scrolling the wheel down to S or T could take a long time. This forces you to open the screen and punch in a letter to get closer. It isn't very comfortable and is awkward to use as a phone. The earpiece volume also seems to vary. Sometimes it's loud and sometimes I can barely hear the caller. It's either that or I can't get the speaker over my ear because it's in the corner. My wife says the sound clarity on the other end is sometimes poor. Your best bet is an earpiece but most people hate the way those sound on any phone. Because it is a proprietary OS called Hip Top you would be hard pressed to find any software to upgrade to it. It has one or two games but they are fairly lame. I'm assuming that Danger or T-Mobile has plans for more in the future but as of yet it has been a slow roll out. I feel like it could do more if it had some third party software support. Due to the awkward design for phone usage they would have done well to include Voice dialing, and a Speaker Phone. Neither of these features are included on this feature rich phone which was suprising. That would have helped with the one hand operation. No Bluetooth capability. Bluetooth would have been nice feature so you could sync up at home with a broadband connection or with one of those T-Mobile hot spots that are in most Starbucks. This would have greatly increased the browser speed and really gave the web capability some much needed speed. No way to add or upgrade memory. MMC, SD, or CF memory options would have been a nice addition for expandability down the road. Though there is a generous on board 6mb e-mail memory available that has been adequate. No removable battery. It would have been nice to have spare battery exchange ability as we've come to expect with cell phones. Though it may be holding true to the PDA roots in this department with a rechargable on board. In fairness the battery does pretty well in comparison to other color screen models. No MP3 support so far. This isn't a must but would have been a nice addition, perhaps in a future upgrade. Obviously in bed with the Mega Giant AOL/Time Warner as you can't remove the messenger from your phone. I don't have AOL and don't have a use for AIM chatting. If that's important to you you'll love it if not you can't get rid of it. It would have been nice to be able to customize your interface a bit. Well that should be enough to help you make the decision. Overall I like the device and it's capabilites. It needs to work out a few design kinks, and software kinks but once it does it will be a great tool. You can get a data only w/o phone for unlimited data service. It costs $20 a month which allows you to text message, e-mail, and view web pages to your hearts content. Though my whole point in getting it was to avoid carrying a PDA & a phone. In terms of overall value you can't beat the price for what it does. If you can get past the design kinks or don't care as long as you can send and recieve e-mail then this is the phone for you. My wife has a blackberry and it blows it away. Good luck and happy Sidekicking.
Rating: 
Summary: Hiptop Danger Device, Color Sidekick.
Review: I have to say, that I'm absolutely in love with my CSK. I've been wanting one ever since a friend of mine introduced me to his original black and white sidekick about a year ago. When the rebate deal went down to them giving me 30 bucks for this neat little toy, I couldn't pass up the offer. Thus far, I've only sent out the T-Mobile rebate, because the Amazon rebate requires your first month's bill to come in. (So you won't be getting your money back, right away.) Compared to other reviewers, I don't seem to have a problem with reception at all. Located in Chicago, I've only lost a connection when I went into basements or the subway (Where no one can maintain a connection.) Consider all the ways that a sidekick allows you to get the word out.
1) Phone. If you signed up for the phone service, you can just call someone up.
2) Email. Simple email client allows you to send @tmail.com email or from any other existing pop3 account. Easy setup.
3) AOL IM. The popular instant messaging client is compacted into the sidekick. Just get to know the short-cut keys, and you're chatting away.
4) SMS. Short Message Service can be received and sent by most cell phones that are text messaging enabled. The primary method of communication between me and my sidekick friends. Why use up your minutes?
5) Web Browser. You can even update your blog or journal online by using their web browser. I can only hope that one of soon-to-be-updates will include a client that makes updating easier.
6) Terminal Monkey. Speaking of improvements, one of the applications you can download for your sidekick is Terminal Monkey, which allows you to telnet/ssh into your home or work computer. (Only for the Computer Savvy!) So you can technically call up your computer, and have IT have a conversation with your friends. Nifty, huh? All in all, I'm pretty darn satisfied. I've had a few friends experience some problems with the sidekick hardware at times, but throughout repairs, they're always big sidekick fans.
Rating:
Summary: Great Idea, Still Primitive
Review: Just ending a one year stretch with the sidekick. I will not renew. Here's why: (1) The device does not get good reception within T-mobile's coverage area. I frequently cannot receive when a companion with another t-nobile device next to me can. (2) phone use is clunky at best. awkward to hold and tricky to use sensitive "wheel" to apply a command. (3) when the color version came out this summer i was not contacted in any way with an offer for an easy upgrade path. this is emblematic of the callous service received over the past year. t-mobile did not make an ally out of me. too bad, because i wanted to like and stick with this device-of-much-potential.
Rating:
Summary: reception disappointing
Review: Well after giving it much thought and scouring the web for reviews, I sprang on the sidekick with the dramatic drop in price
I was pretty excited about it but then reality set in. I had barely any reception at work, which made the activation process quite stressful. After finding a spot of reception, everything went okay. I had a phone number but I was going to use it for the data plan only. The sidekick is a pretty neat device, the menus and gui in general is well though out. If you are a heavy AIM user, this is pretty neat. Browsing the web turned out only okay, because of speed (comparable to 28.8 modem in general) but the real downside here came from reception and romaing. To register, the sidekick has to go through a cycle of getting an ip, and registering. In areas with poor reception, this little process keeps going on. I understand they fixed some looping issue but registering the sidekick for data still takes a few minutes. I had to return the thing but I can see how in a good reception area, it would be pretty tight. Finally the handheld felt a bit bulky to me.. fyi i live in the south of bay area (san jose)
Rating:
Summary: The (not yet) perfect future of mobile wireless
Review: T-Mobile has a winner here. The Sidekick is still a work in progress, but it's a great first effort that represents a purpose-built, bold design approach that no other provider has taken. It succeeds in delivering most of what (in a few years) will be considered normal wireless capability. And it's already a pleasure to use; although not yet perfected, it's way out in front and for that reason deserves 5 Stars. I thought long and hard before buying this, and chose it over Palm and WinCE-based smartphones. Currently, the Sidekick is the hands-down best blend of keyboard, display, and connectivity, while still being a decent smartphone. As a cellphone, it has the obvious downsides of larger form factor and short battery life, but these trade-offs are plenty bearable IF you're looking for excellent browsability. In that area, this is the best there is. I can only hope that T-Mobile continues to invest in refining this product (Outlook synching, SMS messaging, more ringtones, and bundling a Jabra EarBoom headset would all be nice). If they do, they'll keep winning customers, like they've won me away from AT&T. ;-)
Rating:
Summary: early adopter device at best - needs more work
Review: In fitting style, I'm actually typing this review from a Sidekick, because I'm stranded on the NJ Turnpike with a flat tire and I'm bored. Overall, this device is totally cool. There are some significant design flaws, however, that could well make the Sidekick a challenging competitor for Palm OS phones. This device is great for all the reasons that my fellow reviewers describe. It's great for getting email and accessing web pages. I won't elaborate, but these features alone make the device worth the money. It's great for traveling (no lugging a laptop to keep up with email) and my friends and I call it the "bet settler" because you can pull up almost any website as long as you can get service. I really like the device a lot, but... There are many issues that some more careful design could overcome: 1. Phone Features
Using the Sidekick as a phone leaves a lot to be desired. It's hard to find the ear speaker when you press it to your head, and I can't do it to save my life with my left ear. Additionally, there's no 4x3 button keypad, so every number you dial is entered into the qwerty keyboard or the thumbwheel-driven on-screen interface. This stinks for driving or for being anything close to discreet. The one thing cool about entering the phone number into the keyboard is that it does the conversion from letters to numbers in the phone number. I just called Continental Airlines' customer service number and just typed the "1-800-523-FARE" number as presented and it put the call through. 2. Face-Front Display
The life expectancy of the device would benefit immensely from a clamshell folding screen. In the current design, the screen rotates. This looks cool in rap videos, but it's not so good for keeping in your pocket or, again, using discreetly. 3. Service
I live in Seattle WA and I'm currently stuck on the highway after a week on the east coast (NYC, Phila, DC). The service on the west coast seems pretty solid, but the east coast is spotty at best. That's actually an extremely generous assertion, the service is nearly non-existent. T-Mobile needs to do some significant improvements to their coverage out here. Additionally, the other offerings for the current generation phones are generally not available from T-Mobile for the sidekick. I can't download ringtones or new wallpapers or anything. They could start a cult around these things if they made them as customizable as current phones. To T-Mobile's defense, the "My T-Mobile" interface on their website is awesome. You can access anything that you can reach on the phone, and your Sidekick and the website are constantly sync'ing data. It's cool, you can enter phone numbers on a computer at home and have them in your phone within a short bit. 4. Wimpy & Weird Web Browser
The browser on the device is not a standard browser, so any site that validates the user agent to gate security will reject access based on that detail alone. I'm actually not sure if there is 128-bit encryption on the browser, but that's the excuse my bank gives. There are some other frustrating quirks with the browser, but it's no worse than IE 4.0 or something similarly antiquated. So overall, I like this device. It's really handy. With better phone feature design and living in an area with good coverage, I could see this really being the rage for anyone who doesn't need the full features of the Palm OS devices but likes a full keyboard for text messaging and web access.
Rating:
Summary: The T Mobile Sidekick is the Sowce
Review: My name is Bobby McBacins. The T mobile sidekick is not only the sowciest phone, 2-way, and internet user I have ever used it looks sick and it is original in the way it has been built. I love it and everyone I know thinks it is the sowciest phone ever.I must say this is the most yummins bo tronser phone i have ever had. S.....S......s.ss.ssss.s. S-Unit
Rating:
Summary: The Absolute Best!!!
Review: This is absolutely the best product of the year. It is outstanding. The phone service is great around this area, and AIM wherever I go is VERY convenient. I had a Blackberry before my Sidekick, and a Verizon Wireless phone that I paid 40 dollars a month for, plus the cost of text messaging. My new Sidekick has replaced both. For $20, I get Sidekick unlimited, which includes text messages, AOL Instant Messaging, 3 e-mail accounts, web browsing, and more. Then I added the $20 Get More America Plan, which fits me perfectly with 500 weekend minutes, because that's when I use it the most. It blows my old Verizon Plan away, and I could just throw my Blackberry away, despite the fact it cost me almost 2 times as much as the Sidekick. It's amazing functionality and versatility makes it great for any one, ages 12 and up. This is a must have for any AOL lover, and will please anyone this Christmas season. Plus no roaming charges. This is the best invention since the cell phone. I got mine at Circuit City, but I wish I had checked Amazon for the pricing. Thank you T-Mobile and Danger.
| 
