UTStarcom's Knick gets renamed AT&T Quickfire for launch
By Chris Ziegler 
posted Oct 9th 2008 1:01PM
posted Oct 9th 2008 1:01PM
[Thanks, Kal]
posted Oct 9th 2008 1:01PM
Now that we've thrown 'em off the trail, use the form below to get in touch with the people at Engadget. Please fill in all of the required fields because they're required.
Sidekick Slide reincarnated? Sidekick for grownups?
Although the white one I must say seems a little "Fisher Price" to me.
I would like to see the green and orange versions. Those have Got to be interesting looking. But anyways, sidekicks on at&t now? Why does at&t get Everything?
Because being big is good. Too bad the devices always end up being "castrated". Thats ok though, because we always have the unlocked route.. oh the beauty of GSM.
Oh I see this device being popular for sure. T-mobile better hope G1 is as great as everyone wants it to be.
AT&T gets NOOOTTTHHHIIINNGGG....all we have is the iphone...but that's not really my style. if at&t got anything comparable to the voyager, i'd be happy.
Why don't the screen rotate when the keyboard is being used?
er... doesn't, why doesn't the screen rotate.
Why does it need to? its a fake picture.. someone goofed!
PS... the sidekick itself is starting to look pretty bland these days. I mean, the sidekicks arent even this cheap, nor do they have AGPS.. sad. Sad...
because its not a sidekick
It does rotateas soon as you slide it open it goes from vertical to horizontal
Those are simulated screen images on a press picture. I'm guessing the real device will rotate to landscape mode when the keyboard is open.
this looks nothing like a sidekick.
@ carcomptoy...sidekick for grownups?? i dont think so. This looks more like a kid phone rather than an adult phone. Maybe if they made this phone in a nice glossy black finish it would look better. and made the qwerty keyboard look a bit better? cause to me the keyboard is what makes this seem like a kid phone or as 'carcomptoy' said a bit "fisher price"
Which OS?
Specs?
Trust and believe android is everything people are hoping and more.. I have an early build on my htc mogul and a version of touch flo 3d from europe.. makes that iphone that doesnt even have a today screen seem kinda borin... huh?
can we get some specs.. Im guessing its touch screen.. It looks ok but there are no soft keys and that keyboard looks terrible.
they should paint it black, redo the keyboard, and release it as the "Blackberry BOLDER".
Except only a Blackberry's a Blackberry.
And people call the G1 ugly.
I for one am very impressed by this phone. I've held it, played with it... So impressed I'd prolly cop it if I had GSM service.
I was just about to buy a sidekick lx this week and unlock it for use with a ATT chip (for the wifey) she likes sidekicks. I saw this on engadget and guess ill just wait, she likes it too. Touchscreen is what did it for me, its a sidekick with a touchscreen. But whoever said they need to make it in glossy black is right, that will really look good. Guess ill have to buy a can of glossy waterproof spary paint...lol.
Damn, I like the concept. But it seriously does look like Fisher Price.
Yeah... Release Date is in November now...
Quite depressing, but it should be worth the wait...
What is the release date??
Can someone please email me when they find out more about this phone???
I'm wondering: Will I have to purchase the PDA Bundle with this phone??? I was going to purchase the AT&T Tilt, and also thought about the Pantech Duo, but with both of those phones... I have to drop my Media Max Package, and add a PDA Bundle!!! Something I don't want to do because the PDA package I need is $50.00 It comes with unlimited messaging and data. I have that now with Media Max, but for most Smartphones; AT&T makes you drop that and purchase a PDA package!!!
My email address is: mikeypugs0134@live.com
Please don't SPAM me.... I don't offer my address anywhere, but I really would like to know more about this phone.
Thanks so Much
Mikey
I, for one, think is phone is incredibly attractive. (Warning: fragment) Much better than buying a Samsung Epix just for the QWERTY. I'm completely on board with AT&T's QWERTY dumb phones.
okay. so i have my heart set on this phone. its a touch screen with a QWERTY keyboard. and it is only $99.99 so yeah don't complain about the colors or the keyboard because it actually looks like a nice phone for the price your paying. I'd rather get this then pay more money for a phone that wouldn't be worth it. I think its worth it (:
When is the quickfire released?
No you don't need a PDA bundle b/c this isn't a true smart phone, which the Duo and Tilt are. You do however have to have an unlimited text or data plan to qualify for the 50 dollar rebate. I just got this phone yesterday and have mixed feelings, although I mostly just frieking love it. It's a little largish (mostly the thickness) and the touchscreen is not all that great. I played with an iPhone in the store and it was WAY more responsive, although it has no physical keyboard so it's totally useless to me. I sometimes find myself having to press the same button 3 and 4 times before getting it to work, especially near the corners of the screen. Scrolling using a swiping motion is equally frustrating and unpredictable. I've already gotten a lot better at it, but it's still a definite con. You can use the directional keys to navigate but you have to slide the keyboard open to get to them. And you can't cheat with a stylus or your fingernail, the screen doesn't sense them. The hotmail client works fine but there is no support for gmail, nor is there any way to manually configure unsupported POP3 accounts. There is no brightness adjustment for the screen, which I actually find a bit too bright for my taste. When the screen is locked, you can't see if you have any missed calls, texts, or check the time. You actually have to unlock the screen to see any of that information.
The pros of the phone are the highly usable keyboard, large screen, and price. Also, the operating system is VERY snappy especially compared to my old RAZR. Switching from landscape to portrait mode is nearly instantaneous as well. It also has a kind of neat voice recognition button on the side which you can press, say "Call", wait for the prompt, then say the name of the person you want to call. I found it to be very good at figuring out whose name I was saying. I doubt I'll actually use that feature though. The camera is fairly crappy at 1.3MP but I couldn't care less. It at least has white balance and brightness adjustments and sepia, B/W, and negative effects. The ringtones and speakerphone are very loud and clear. It's 3G so I can send and recieve picture messages almost instantly now, compared to 5 minutes per pic with an EDGE connection. Can't say much about the reception because I live in a metropolitan area. I haven't lost my 3G or GPS signal once so far though. I haven't loaded any tunes onto it yet (there is no usb cable included) but I used the audio player to listen to the preloaded ringtones and it's very intuitive to use. I also haven't paired my bluetooth headset with it yet but the bluetooth menu is quite comprehensive and supports stereo sound.
In the end the touchscreen is the biggest flaw on the phone, and probably the only one I'd consider significant at all. I highly advise trying one out in the store to see if you can deal with it. I'm going to continue using it and we'll see if I return it before the 30 day return period is up. I really want to keep it but we'll see if I can master the touchscreen.
Retraction: I was mistaken about not being able to see the time, battery life, missed calls, etc. when the screen is locked. There is a small display bar at the top of the screen with that information. Unfortunately, I'm still not loving the touchscreen, although I continue to get better and better with it. Let's hope it's just a bad algorithm for sensing touches and not a hardware problem. Could be fixed in a future update. Maybe I'm reaching here.