Replace Your Cellphone

As the battle for portability and versatility continues the T-Mobile Sidekick Slide emerges. The Sidekick gained popularity in the US, thanks to Paris Hilton, but it still has to prove itself in the UK and other parts of the globe. And with the latest Sidekick release we have to wait and see if it would make the young Brits forget their Nokias.

First of the series to be developed by Motorola, the Sidekick Slide got thinner and 25 percent smaller than the previous Sidekicks. The QWERTY keypad is still present in the design, but the full color screen just simply slides up unlike the slide and swivel screens of the past Sidekick. The phone’s measures 117x 61 x 10 mm, and weighs 156g which is kind of hefty for a phone. The T-Mobile Sidekick Slide feels more like a PDA rather than a phone.

It is designed to target those who can’t live without staying in touch with their IM contacts or emailing their friends while on the go. A Yahoo! Instant messenger is pre-installed in the Sidekick so you’re ready to go if you already have a Yahoo! Account. Because of the full QWERTY pad you can type your messages with ease. The T-Mobile Sidekick Slide also allows you to access your email because you can add up to three personal POP3 accounts aside from the account you receive when you register the device.

For mobile web browsing aficionados the T-Mobile Sidekick Slide might just be for you. All you have to do is click on the browser option, start typing on the keyboard and automatically the address bar pops up. The downside though is that some pages wouldn’t load up good. The Sidekick Slide is not built on 3G technology so loading pages may take some time too. Another thing, the Sidekick Slide doesn’t support Adobe Flash, so you couldn’t watch YouTube videos, and other flash contents.

Another must have for mobile devices is a music player. The T-Mobile Sidekick Slide supports MP3, WMA and AAC format, which you can play loud with the built in speaker or enjoy by yourself using stereo earphones. Music can be downloaded via USB, and although the Sidekick has a Bluetooth feature images and music cannot be transferred using it. You may, however, store your music and other files in the external Micro SD memory card, and manage your playlist with the Music Library feature.

The built in camera is also disappointing with only 1.3 megapixels to offer, a lot of camera phones offer more megapixels than that. Other phones support video recording and playback, but the Sidekick Slide lacks that feature. But still you may send pictures from your phone.

If communication is the only thing you look for in a mobile phone you wouldn’t be disappointed with the T-Mobile Sidekick Slide. The quality of voice calls is excellent with this device, maybe because of the Motorola technology, and it is easier to type messages.