So, it
might seem a bit ridiculous for someone to write up a review of a product that is not only so far unannounced and
unavailable, but that he hasn't even managed to personally photograph. But that's not stopping BSD of the Sidekick 3
blog, who has managed to eke out a review. Obviously we can't verify his claims, but he seems to have a few sources to
help him out with info, along with the fact that most of his details seem pretty
common sensical and/or confirmed by the
pics we've seen so far. He
says the unit has a 1.3 megapixel camera with flash, Bluetooth, a SD card slot, built-in MP3, and support for multiple
IM protocols. The form factor is a sort of mix between the original Sidekick and the Sidekick II, and is notably bulky
for a modern phone. There's a new cursor nubbin, which works well but feels a little flaky, along with an updated
keyboard. Sadly, the screen is the same size and resolution as always, which is starting to thoroughly date the device.
Luckily the SD slot makes music playback and PC file interchange easy, and the Bluetooth not only works well, but seems
to provide some sort of PC functionality, which is always nice. Sounds like the device is mostly the same as far
software goes, but it does seem the interface has been spruced a bit, and the AIM, Yahoo and MSN IM support are a big
plus. We'll try and reserve judgement until we manage to get a Sidekick III in hand, but if this review is for real we
can't have too terribly long to wait.
posted Apr 12th 2006 12:04AM
I have a sidekick2 and i cant wait 2 get the sidekick 3 i really love those fones
I hope to God this is not a real review. I am expecting so much from the Sidekick III. And, unfortunately, this is nowhere near what I am hoping for.
Shane, I think you're going to be disappointed...
There's no WLAN, and no video playback (though apparently that will come in the future).
The roller-ball controller works quite well (though, as per the review is a bit flimsy). The screen (from my brief play) seems to be the same resolution; but has a higher number of colours. This could of course just be an illusion due to the interface refresh.
Other than that, I hear that June is a likely release timeframe...
This reviewer is a common jackass. If you read it, its not really a review, its more of an observation of photos (released months ago) and discussion about alleged specifications that *MAY* appear in the final product.
Read it again.
What are you guys complaining about - this phone is like light years ahead of the competition. The sviwel screen bracket alone (which lends itself to a large keytboard, and landscape display) is a blackberry-killer; throw in an rock-solid interface, best keyboard in the biz, best email app of any hand-held, along with new features such as sd card, and better navigation, and this phone is sure to be exactly the evolutionary engineering feat necessary for sidekick to continue its dominance as the hand-held of choice for those "in-the-know"
"this phone is like light years ahead of the competition"
"along with new features such as sd card"
Hang on, those two statements don't really add up. :)
I don't really see why anyone would put up with the bulk of a smartphone without getting smartphone features in return. The Sidekick is incredibly limited compared to other keyboard-based phones and it seems like a very poor choice compared to smartphones from the likes of Nokia, Sony Ericsson and HTC.
If I'm going to carry around something of that size then I want top of the line specs too - not "amazing new features" like an SD slot.
Even the form factor isn't that novel. Nokia have been peddling out similar Communicator designs for well over 5 years.
Having just held one, and played around with one yesterday, I can tell you that the specs are as listed. Also, being an experienced SKII user, I can say that the whole device is a bit flimsy compared to the SKII. And that joystick/mouse/ball thing??? Flimsy doesn't begin to describe it...also the BlueTooth is pretty weak.
Someone should start a "Wanted on the SKIII"...and see then how the current leaked specs add up.
Dude, i nearly bought a SKII yesterday, now with the rumors back on the rise it makes me want to wait, i keep hearing that it's coming out later this month, but the T-Mobile rep yesterday told me that it's more then likly still in production. well give me some feed back guys.
-Gary
Oh I hope that this isn't the new sidekick. If this is what happens to the phone, I'm goign to stick to my SKII until it breaks or get an MDA.
Well, I've been a diehard sk2 user. I love the device. I think both the hardware and software are very intuitive and super easy to use. Downsides, inflexibility and seriously dated specs. So I bought the t-mobile MDA a few days back. It's a great device, but man, windows mobile blows ass. Very flexible, but not at all intuitive. It doesn't seem finished to me. Don't they do usability testing? There's lots of small features/functionality on the sidekick you never really notice until they aren't there. But anyway, back on topic, I hope these aren't the specs for the SK3. I'll be really disappointed. Where's wifi and edge? Better screen? More open platform? I bought the MDA because I finally thrashed my SK2 to oblivion and needed something else. I was trying to hold out for the sk3, but gave in. The MDA makes me long for sidekick with bluetooth, edge, wifi, ability to install any app I want. It sounds like that won't be the SK3.
"and this phone is sure to be exactly the evolutionary engineering feat necessary for sidekick to continue its dominance as the hand-held of choice for those 'in-the-know'"
Yeah, right! Sidekick users are as sophisticated and technologically-inclined as your average oblivious iPod user. Go by any local highschool or college, and EVERYBODY and their muthas got a SK, and that right there loses the 'cool' and 'hip' factor.
The Sidekick is a LOW END communicating device, and that's exactly how Danger has been and still is designing it to be, so calling their users 'chic' and 'in-the-know' is just absurd and laughable.
I won't make any claims about the sidekick's coolness or whatever, i could give a crap about that. But it is a well designed, user-friendly device. It does less than a pocketpc phone in terms of connectivity and customizability, and software is only limited because of t-mobile (if you were lucky enough to get a developer key, there's tons of stuff out there - I was not). But it's a great communications device on the whole, reliable and solid. It's also a very solid device, that takes a ton of abuse. The MDA feels much more fragile. It kind of reminds of say MacOS9 versus linux, in terms of flexibility vs ease of use.
HUGE fan of SKI and SKII - bought the MDA becuase it had been too long without something new. Nice to have the screen res, and ability to add applications, but as a communicator, the MDA absolutely BLOWS compared to SKII. The AIM chat client is a joke, the OS is so slow half the time you're three clicks ahead of the display. I could go on and on.
I'm punishing myself for buying the MDA by using it until SKIII is released, and them I'm right back. It would be pretty hard to live without the bluetooth headset and voicedial now - any word on voicedial for the SKIII?
Danger's instant messaging implementation is light years ahead of anything else out there. The IM was always signed in and it just worked. I upgraded to a Treo 700w and I love it except for the IM. That is the only thing about the Sidekick that I miss.
I don't know why there isn't a decent IM client for Windows Mobile, but there isn't. I've tried Verichat and IM+ and they are both worthless.
I started with the B/W Sk, then color Sk, then SKII, now awaiting the SKIII. I have some perspective & history with the device. Folks trash the OS for inflexibility but it was never intended to be a full blown PDA, it is a communicator above all else. It surfs the web efficiently (and won't get a virus either) and does great text messaging. As for the SKIII... the SD card will be a very welcome addition and you can bet they'll be some hacks for adding in apps at some point. Bring it on Danger!
To answer the questions as to when the SK3 will be released... I can't say with utter confidence that this is true and i'm only going by word of mouth, but I know someone tied to the Hollywood scene who has told me that T-Mobile is planning on shipping them their SK3 within the next 2 to 3 weeks.
The new Sidekick 3 will have WLAN and EDGE. T-mobile is going to release WI-FI phones this year so it is going to have those features. that is why t-mobile doesnt carry palm products anymore becuase they dont have built in wi-fi. The SIDEKICKS do the text messaging and the instant messaging better than any other device out there. their audience isnt the full blown PDA user, but people who need IM and text messaging.
i really wish there was some more information on the release date
i dont see why sidekick2 users are complaining
when it's obviously going to be more advanced
in my case, i'm on the verge of purchasing a sk2
but this sk3 thing is in my way
has there been any price drop
or anything noticeable about the sk2
that might give a hint as to the release of the next one?
and pricewise
$400-500?
i have no clue
pda street has some other photos as well
with the screen open and the back with case on
just fyi
I got a copy of the sidekick roadmap...
Sidekick3 will be released in Q2 with music.
Later this year, another version will come out with UMA(unliscensed mobile access), at which poing the WLAN lights will start blinking and the sidekick will start giving us WiFi cancer too.
Maybe in 2007, I think a RAZR thin sidekick(HiptopHQ?) should be out. And I read somewhere that tmo doesnt have EDGE, so maybe a partnership with another company that owns GSM towers(possibly big cingular?)
$290 at the initial drop. Probably around 250 with a contract, but I'm gonna get one and put in a tmo to go SIM instead of a monthly bill deal.
Love my Sidekick II, it is great at what it does, however, there are some serious lacks that I'd like to see remedied...
Must haves / biggest bitches:
a) 6 megabytes of email storage is PATHETIC... I'm paying $20 a month for this?!? I fill this up EVERY SINGLE DAY. Most of it is SPAM. This SUCKS and hugely limited the utility of the email app.
b) Why *can't* the damn thing sync back to my real inbox, so that I don't have to delete messages twice!?! I can't see a single technological reason why not! This SUCKS and hugely limited the utility of the email app.
Stupid annoyances:
The limit on the number of ringtones is RIDICULOUS... and costs them money... if we're going to "load" and "unload" them, then there needs to be a cleaner way in the interface to do this... but what they really need is MORE MEMORY in the device. MEMORY IS CHEAP.
Similarly, the limit on the amount of images that can be stored in the "gallery" app is ridiculously small. This is server space. They are getting paid big $ for it. Spinning storage is CHEAP.
Everything they are doing on the web based desktop / back end, is chintzy and reflective of a resource constrained era that is way past... they really need to wake up and smell the coffee here.
Nice to have:
c) I sure hope that T-Mobile and Danger collaborate to get me high speed bandwidth...
d) MP3 support (yes)
e) Networked games? Hello... you're sitting on a TCP/IP device with 24/7 network connectivity, and yet there isn't a single game (as far as I can tell) that supports networking? This would seem to be the ideal device for an MMORPG, etc. and I have to ssh into my server and run things in command line mode to get this?!?
"And I read somewhere that tmo doesnt have EDGE..."
You are very wrong, T-Mobile has EDGE already on over 70% of it's network last I checked over a month ago. So if the SK3 comes w/out EDGE it would be pretty much the suck.
The SK2 has multiplayer over network games, 10pin bowling and navy commander to name a couple.
I play those with all my kick owning compatriots and a regular basis.
I dont know if everyone knows this but the SK2 is widely used in the deaf/hard of hearing community and has brought us out of the dark ages. I just hope that T-Mobile has kept the deaf/hard of hearing community in thought with the SK3 coming out?
This may be common knowledge now, but the Sidekick 3's should be available no later than July 1st. This info is fact from the agency handling the marketing for T-Mobile.
Mah Gahd, a sk3 when T-mobile has only just launched Web'n'Walk SKIIz in Britain? Mah plan wos to get the SKII about 2 n a half years ago but the purpose of a sk is to surf the web and that option wasn't available at the time... So heres the dilemma... Go for web'n'walk and get a *old* SK2 or hold out for a year or 2 whilst T-Mobile sort a British SKIII??? boo, the decisions!
i mean do i need to just go ahead and get a sk2 or hold out for the sk3 cuzz im getting to anxious to buy 1 or wait for the sk3 sheesh this is pissing me off
WHEN WILL BE SK3 BE OPEN FOR OTHER NETWORK?? i HOPE DANGER WILL OPEN IT NOT JUST FOR T-MOBILE.. I WANNA USE IT OUTSIDE D COUNTRY.. IS IT POSSIBLE TO UNLOCK IT? SPECIALLY D NEW SK3???? HELP!!!!!!!!!!!