Sidekick LX: Nice, But Not High Speed

The latest addition to the Sidekick family is packed with applications and features, but it's held back by T-Mobile's sluggish wireless connection

by Olga Kharif

Editor's Rating:

The Good: The slimmest Sidekick to date, with an improved screen and new, cool features

The Bad: The improvements—and T-Mobile's network—can't keep up with the iPhone

The Bottom Line: A good, practical device, but too pricey for its overall performance

Reader Reviews

Before I got my hands on the new T-Mobile Sidekick LX, the only thing I knew of this trendy product line was that Paris Hilton's Sidekick had been hacked and mined for her celebrity contacts. After trying out the LX, I can say I admire Hilton's taste. But considering what this handset can and can't do, it's just too expensive.

Just like its siblings, the LX is first and foremost a great tool for tapping out e-mails and text messages. The backlit buttons on the full-QWERTY keyboard are laid out far more spaciously than on BlackBerry and other thumb-typing devices. One obvious improvement over the Sidekick 3 is the size. The LX is about 15% smaller, measuring 5.1-in. long, 2.4-in. wide, and 0.7-in. thick. It's also more than an ounce lighter, at 5.7 oz.

What's New About This Sidekick

Despite the smaller package, the new Sidekick's trademark swivel screen offers a wider viewing area. The display is also higher resolution than that of previous Sidekicks. While the resolution is not quite as good as the iPhone's, it's sharper most handsets out there, including the LG VX9400 (BusinessWeek.com, 5/3/07), which was designed especially for watching mobile TV.

The device has a 1.3-megapixel still camera and a good music player. And though multimedia messaging is common on most new devices, this is the first Sidekick that enables users to send picture messages and the like.

The LX also introduces two other nice features. One is a quick, two-button jump to a menu of the applications you've been using most—a convenience I've not encountered on another mobile phone. The other is more superficial, but funky: When you power up or play a game or ringtone, blue lights flash near the corners of the device, and the scroll ball to the right of the screen lights up in different colors. I'll bet this little mood-light, discotheque effect will appeal to the teens and young adults who have made the Sidekick line a success.

The Sidekick's Achilles Heel

Would I buy the device? Maybe if I was already under contract with T-Mobile or if T-Mobile's wireless coverage in my area was noticeably better than the local reception on rival networks. Otherwise, I'd go with Apple's (AAPL) iPhone, available only with AT&T (T) service. Despite the iPhone's superior features, the LX costs nearly as much. With a new two-year T-Mobile contract, the Sidekick sells for $300 after a mail-in rebate and a discount. Without a contract, it costs $400—the same as the far more capable iPhone.

T-Mobile, which owns the Sidekick brand and gets credit for its novel design, also takes the blame for the device's shortcomings. Because T-Mobile is the only major U.S. carrier without a high-speed wireless network, it's also the only one that can't offer wireless music downloads. As a result, the LX can only load music files via a wired connection to a computer. True, the iPhone doesn't offer downloads over AT&T's cellular network either, but it does permit downloads via Wi-Fi connections. The Sidekick doesn't have Wi-Fi, so you can't download music over Wi-Fi hotspots, not even those at Starbucks (SBUX), where T-Mobile is the Wi-Fi service provider.

The slowness of T-Mobile's network also made Web browsing on the Sidekick excruciating as I waited and waited for pages to load. This is a real shame because, unlike the vast majority of phones out there, the Sidekick is equipped with a full-blown browser. And to compensate for the slow connection, T-Mobile opted to strike a compromise that negates the benefit of a full browser: To speed up page loads, the Sidekick compresses them. The result doesn't look much better than the watered down WAP format regular cell phones use to display Web pages.

That said, the Sidekick's browser has one feature that I loved: When you're using the browser and decide to visit another site, you can simply start typing the Web address without finding and clicking on an address bar or search box. I found refreshing features in many of the LX's other applications, too. Take multimedia messaging on the LX, which makes it easy for users to record and attach short audio clips to text messages.

Some Flaws

There were a few kinks, too. After I loaded songs on the device from my computer, I found that the volume buttons wouldn't go loud enough. On the plus side, the phone's music player permits multitasking: While music is playing, you can browse the Web or shop for ringtones.

Another flaw: When I opened the camera application to select a photo as an attachment for a text message, I highlighted the picture and waited. Nothing happened, and the application offered no further guidance. I had to consult the manual to learn that I needed to press a special menu button to complete the attachment.

Which brings me to a word of advice: Sidekick newbies will want to peruse the manual to learn how to use all of the LX's special buttons and shortcuts (a two-button push launches the music application, e.g.). But overall, the learning curve isn't so steep, and if you want to use T-Mobile, the LX is a good choice.

Kharif is a reporter for BusinessWeek.com in Portland, Ore.