T-Mobile Color Sidekick Phone (T-Mobile)

Rating:
Summary: great phone, awful signal strength
Review: I LOVE this gadget, lots of features... i can talk on the phone while sending txt or email msgs to my friends, however Tmobile's signal around LOS ANGELES, CA is splotchy... i Can't hold a conversation longer than 3 mins then it drops my call... great little device... just horrible signal...

Rating:
Summary: High expectiations, but not compelling enough
Review: I badly wanted to try out this phone. It has just about all the features a guy could want, so when I saw the price drop and the plans through T-Mobile looked pretty good, I took the plunge. The star-rating may not be warranted, depending upon what you're looking for. I wanted to ditch my local phone service and go wireless, I wanted to integrate my PDA, phone, etc., and I wanted to be able to get info from the Web while away from a computer (this often comes in VERY handy).
The interface is great - very easy to learn and the sounds and lights are very fun and very useful. What I found out, however, is that if I cut my local phone service, I lose DSL (and I couldn't write reviews like this easily), so there goes the cost justification. Second the browser is really slow, and if you don't load pictures you lose important things like "submit" buttons. E-mail works well - you learn to type with little buttons quickly. But ... it doesn't sync with my Palm or with Lotus Notes, so I can't integrate my life, such as it is, all into this device. You might love this device! However, go into it with your eyes open!

Rating:
Summary: T-Mobile Sidekick
Review: I've had the sidekick for about a month now and I love it! I live in Chicago and its great for taking the CTA bus home, when your bored. I use it main for emails and the news plus AIM. The connnection can be slow at time and it can't get onto flash sites or certain javascript or higher end scripting webpages but other then that everything is cool! I'm actually type this from my sidekick on a bus right now! I only wished I had waited so I could have bought it for $50 instead of the $150 I paid for mine. :-(

Rating:
Summary: FANTASTIC!!!!!!
Review: I just got the sidekick today and I already am in love with it! Signal strength is only at one bar and internet is fast! The keyboard is very easy to use. In fact, I am writing this review on it right now! Only thing that could be different on dangers part is to add an mp3 player, radio, and a video player, such as windows media. Highly reccommend, researched this product for many months, along with many palms and windows ce's, but in the end, I am very happy. Worth the extra few dollars for wireless service. Scroll wheel is awsome! Changes every color of the rainbow when an email comes in! Great buy, it's a must have!!

Rating:
Summary: Nice features, but T-Mobile's network is poor
Review: The phone is awesome - when it works. Half the time it won't stay connected to T-Mobile's data network. I know this isn't my particular phone because we own two of them and they both have connection problems. How good is the email feature when they don't arrive until 4 hours later?

Rating:
Summary: Great Innovative Product
Review: I've just had this new Tmobile Sidekick for 6 days and I'm loving it. I wasn't too sure about going with it, because some of my friends here don't have the best Tmobile reception. But the fact that Amazon.com had such a great deal going on, I had to jump at it. First and foremost,this is not being marketed as a PDA....so you shouldn't purchase this if you're looking for syncronizing with your Outlook email client or other PDA related tasks. This product is mainly for email (upto three pop3/IMAP accounts), AOL instant messaging, text messaging and yes the TRUE INTERNET as it was meant to be. No WAP like the other cell phone internet 'sites'. The great thing about this is that you can actually surf on real websites like you would on your computer. But caveat to the customers, the surfing speed is almost always under 28.8Kbps. Yes that's the speed from back in the days, but it's still great. You can tune it quite a bit by turning off 'Pictures' in the settings portion, that being done - I've seen speeds close to 35Kbps. One more thing, this does NOT support Javascript, so often on you're limited to the sites you may want to go to. Such sites may be highly secure banking sites or simply just not being able to click on an option because it doesn't have java script. Although Danger, the manufacturer of the Sidekick (marketing name under Tmobile) has recently gone into licensing J2me (java mini edition) for their products, so hopefully it'll come with java soon enough. The e-mail portion is a noteworthy section. You get a tmobile account, plus you can set upto three additional pop3/imap accounts on it's email feature. You get alotted 6MB of space and that should be enough to manage your accounts. One of the GREAT features about email is that you can actually view MS Word docs and Adobe PDF files. This product is so intuitive, it seems that Apple creators had something to do with it. From cascading menus to some of the most thoughtful options for your email/IM, this is one well thought out product. Sorry but I can't comment on the Sidekick's phone capabilities, I didn't opt for a voice plan on this. I'm sticking to my ATT cell phone. Other neat features on this product are address books, calendars, notes, To dos list, basic games, world time/alarm, calculator and terminal monkey - which is a telnet application. You can even download some cool ringtones and original songs from their servers. Now about the reception, keep in mind that you purchase such a product for outside of your home use. That being said, reception inside houses aren't good to often just plain bad. But ofcourse you have multiple computers in your house :) So when outside, I've always gotten good reception and have been only occasionaly disconnected. Customer service with Tmobile in the last week has been good. Very receptive reps, who are willing to go the distance to help you out. If you're thinking of getting this for data usage...GO FOR IT.

Rating:
Summary: Very cool
Review: Took a gamble on this one but since you can return phones within 2 weeks I figured it would be ok. Found out that I dig this device. The interface is very easy to learn... which is good since the documentation is a little lacking. The screen flip is very cool. You can use it with the screen open or closed. Its like having a small laptop that is online all the time. The email and instant messeging are the best parts. Very well done. I don't use the web much but what I have looked at seems like a smaller version of a regular computer. Phone sounds good. Best to dial from the address book as the dialing from the keyboard isn't as easy. Getting new software wirelessly is really cool. I got 2 updates within a week of buying the device. Copy and Paste was the best new feature. Summary: Give it a look.

Rating:
Summary: just what i've been waiting for
Review: I don't use the phone much. Signal is sufficient,I'm satisfied, no real complaints. If your a righty the wheel and back button used to dial and hang up are great. I work in a large office space in brooklyn and as long as i get a signal at my desk then I am happy =). The radio frequency software upgrade does help. doesnt work in the bathroom though (loc of b/r center of building. also doesnt work in office elevator for that matter). My G icon behaves very well in brooklyn and manhattan. If you want something simple and are somewhat of a techie then this is for you. Great for AOL fanatics (well 4 chcking email & IMs). I can check all of my emails inc. my job email on outlook via company web client. There is also a secret game (press menu, shift, 8 while viewing Danger Inc. Credits). Other mobil communication devices that do same job like Handspring will run in the $500 and up category. This is great for simple on the go PIM,Email, IM, Txt msg, Web Browsing, and not to mention Picture taking to capture every moment device. In good lighting pictures are decent when viewed on your PC desktop. T-Mobil Customer Service is Excellent. PS PDA screen protectors are great,shop around for one when u first buy and a good headset as well. Also use your holder and wrist strap, you dont wanna drop this device. Not a sleek thin phone so remember that.

Rating:
Summary: would recommend
Review: I use the sidekick mostly to communicate with deaf people. the e-mail features and ability to surf the web make this a fantastic device. coverage is very good when traveling. yes it is a bit bulky, but with the right pouch the device is great.

Rating:
Summary: I wanted a SIDEKICK!!!
Review: I tried ordering a sidekick off Amazon.com, and was told it usually ships within 24 hours....its 24 days later.....I still don't have the product and my order has disappeared from my amazon account! After reading the reviews, I really am disappointed to not have one!!!!