T-Mobile Sidekick Reviewed

I'm nothing if not a toy junky, and when Danger sent me at long last, a review unit of their excellent little HoTop PDA/Cellphone, now known as the T-Mobile Sidekick. I jumped at the chance to get into the thing and get my opinions out there.

First up, lets talk about the form factor. This unit is much more comparable in size to my Nokia 5560 than a Palm 5 or Clie. About the same length,a little thicker, and maybe half again the width. You'll find it a little thicker than a Palm 5, but also a bit narrower. What really makes the unit stand out is that its screen does this sweet little flip thing to reveal a thumb keyboard that is actually usable.

The interface is usually a little wheel (which can be clicked as a button as well), a 'Back' button, a jump button, and a menu button. When the screen is flipped out, you have a keyboard as well. The interface largely revolves around a sort of spinning menu which quickly rotates to select your application (Calandering, Photos, Phone Calls, etc). It's surprisingly usable, but I did notice a few glitches- for example when trying to mail a picture, I couldn't return and send the picture... I ended up having to actually go to the pictures, and choose mail picture instead of writing an email and attaching it there.

I might as well mention it: the little $30 camera attachment is just a novelty. Its postage stamp sized pictures are amusing, but practically worthless. Thats probably fine with just 16 megs of memory on board anyway- you wouldn't have room to store a nice 1024x768 image anyway... I think it was more proof-of-concept in this model. And the concept works, so with any luck, a year or 2 will give us a HipTop with more memory and higher res.

The screen itself warrants mention. First off, it is a 16 scale of grey, backlit job that really looks quite stunning. Without going to a color screen, this is quite simply the nicest looking screen I've seen on a handheld.

I found the cel phone functionality to be quite usable. Rings have custom tones, and the sound is that multichannel stuff that sounds really silly thats all the rage with the kids these days. You can use an external ear thingee, or use it in the standard carcinogen position. Reception was fine, but may vary for you depending on how good the GSM network is in your area.

The web browser was also surprisingly functional. Typing in URLs on the built in keyboard is quite quick. Far faster than any graffiti handwriting recognition crap. It rendered the pages I looked at without trouble, although big graphics are quite slow, and requires some scrolling. Slashdot in light mode worked fine.

The PDA functionality is good. Contacts are interconnected with the cell phone functionality. You can use the calandering and TODO tools to keep track of schedules.

The unit also supports POP mail servers. This worked without hitch and was quite nifty. IMAP support would be nicer, but I suspect that it would be horribly slow over the phone's internet connection. There also is IM functionality, but no IRC.

There are a few nifty little games you can play as well. The form factor of the device is fairly similiar to a Gameboy Advanced, and when held in that position, makes a reasonable gaming platform.

Danger says that the phone can auto update itself as new features and bug fixes become available, so hopefully new and exciting features will roll out pleasing users with improved user interface.

Battery life is claimed to be 8 hours in use. I never managed to drain it, although I left it on quite a bit. But its still enough to easily make it through a day or 2 depending on your usage.

The thing to remember is that this thing costs just $200. FOr that you get a fully functional PDA, and Cell phone. You get a good keyboard, a web browser, and a remarkably bright screen. It's a little larger than a cell phone, a little smaller than a PDA. All in all, this is a great combination and one thats easy to recommend, especially at this price. If you have GSM network support in your area, this warrants a serious look. If the next generation adds a color screen, IRC, IMAP support, and maybe shrunk things just a little bit, I think this could truly have the integrated cellphone/pda I've been waiting for. Now if it just had 20 gigs of memory, we'd be all set. Course my fingers aren't crossed.

Comments

Camera does have a function...

[Frank of Earth]

might as well mention it: the little $30 camera attachment is just a novelty. Its postage stamp sized pictures are amusing, but practically worthless

From what I read, you can use the camera to take pictures of your friends and families and then associate that picture to caller id. After setting it up, when you receive a call, it will show the person's face.

Albeit, 30 bucks seems a little much for crappy pictures and you probably can just import your own picture.

One thing I really do like about the sidekick is the service plan which is flat rate, unlimited usage. The treo plans are all pay per meg.

I'm waiting for the PimpTop model

[jakkalsdrif]

"their excellent little HoTop PDA/Cellphone"...Hmm...."HoTop"? I think I want one of these after all. Do I have to go to a seedy part of town to pick one up?

Re:I'm waiting for the PimpTop model

[apg]

The real question is: How easy is it to connect your HoTop to your laptop, and do they charge you extra for that?

Can you connect two HoTops directly and just watch?

Re:I'm waiting for the PimpTop model

[unicron]

And will my HoTop get mad if I interface with other HoTops? I love my HoTop, but it has to know that many HoTops love me as well, and I need to be fair.

Not available in the UK yet

[Mwongozi]

Although I've heard it will soon(?) be available on Orange.

My solution is currently an iPAQ H3970 talking to a Nokia 6310i via bluetooth. I can leave the phone in my backpack and send and receive e-mail, SMS, surf the web, even connect to IRC on my iPAQ. Pretty sweet.

Does it do ssh?

[geekd]

My main use for "internet anywhere" would be ssh. I am on call 1 week out of 6, and if there's a problem, I need to log into the server(s) affected and fix it.

Plus, with a remote term, you can basically do anything a unix box can do.

Anybody know if it can do ssh?

For $200, I'd definitly pick one up if it can.

Re:Does it do ssh?

[slothdog]

There currently aren't any SSH utilities for the Hiptop. Given that it lacks a "|" key, it'd be tricky to get some stuff done that way anyway.

Re:Does it do ssh?

[jimmcq]

Given that it lacks a "|" key, it'd be tricky to get some stuff done that way anyway

Use can still use a pipe "|" even if its not on the keyboard... Check the Danger Info Forums to see how.

Something to note...

[FortKnox]

First of all Circuit City has a $100 rebate on it atm, but something to note:

After 1 year, the 'unlimited internet' becomes something like $30 for 15MB a month. Good luck breaking your browsing habits after a year.

Re:Something to note...

[slothdog]

There's a $50 T-Mobile rebate and a $100 CompUSA rebate (good for the activation of any cell phone, if I remember correctly).

Re:Something to note...

[sysadmn]

After 1 year, the 'unlimited internet' becomes something like $30 for 15MB a month

Ah, the heroin marketing model.

Re:Again ??

[coug_]

Uh.. it's the same gadget, but this is actually Rob (CmdrTaco) reviewing it not a link to someone else's review of the unit. That's why it's listed as a "Feature" rather than a normal news article (which typically has a link that is being referenced).

It doesn't sync

[Devlin-du-GEnie]

I love the look and user interface.

Beware, though. It acts like a PDA, but it's missing a vital piece of functionality. There's no way to share information with other devices. Sidekick gives you a calendar all right, but you can't sync it with your desktop. Ditto for the ToDo and Address Book.

I'm waiting till it plays nice with other hardware before I plunk down my money.

Re:It doesn't sync

[jimmcq]

Pumatech has signed an agreement with Danger that will enable users of Hiptop enabled devices to synchronize personal information with desktop applications such as Microsoft Outlook.

IMAP support

[ShavenYak]

The unit also supports POP mail servers. This worked without hitch and was quite nifty. IMAP support would be nicer, but I suspect that it would be horribly slow over the phone's internet connection.

What?!?! Are you on crack?

IMAP is the perfect protocol for email over wireless internet connections. If you think it's horribly slow, you've been using Outlook Express's piss-poor implementation too long.

The huge advantage IMAP brings you is you only have to get the headers of the email. If you want to get the message, you can get the message, otherwise you save it for later. Also, your email sits on the ISP instead of in your phone/PDA/whatever with its limited storage space. It's also possible, IIRC, to download message bodies to read but not download attached files until later. Finally, with IMAP you can read your email on your desktop at home, then refer to it later on your (other device).

If I can't use IMAP, I'd rather use Webmail than POP. Blech.

Re:IMAP support

[rot26]

The huge advantage IMAP brings you is you only have to get the headers of the email. If you want to get the message, you can get the message, otherwise you save it for later

I've never seen a pop server that didn't support this too. It's not that big a deal.

Re:IMAP support

[rplacd]

It's actually a non-standard POP protocol extension -- which pretty much everyone supports. The syntax is

top

If num-lines is 0, you get just the header.

Re:IMAP support

[Otterley]

As the other posters noted, you can use a POP3 extension to grab the headers.

But one thing you can do with IMAP4 but not with POP3 (that I'm aware of, anyway) is on-demand transfer of attachments. That is useful.

Flat Rate?

[viper21]

I believe that the flat rate for unlimited megabytes turns back into a flat rate for 15 megabytes/month then 3.50 dollars for 1 additional megabyte after 1 year.

Somebody mentioned this in the LAST article about Danger. Not that you bothered to read it.

Hidden somewhere in the EULA I would suspect ;-)

-S

water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink

[dubiousmike]

How come Sprint takes so long for cool phones that support their technology to come out?

I know they do eventually, but it sucks to be the last in line for *drool* phones. All of their new ones, I find pretty useless. Great - I can take a picture with a Sprint phone, but can ONLY send it to another Sprint user with one of the newest phones.

Bleh!

Re:Buy a treo instead

[ShavenYak]

I have a Visor Prism + Visorphone on T-mobile (the wireless company formerly known as Voicestream (the wireless company formerly known as Powertel)). I use the Visorphone's built-in modem to dial a free ISP, and get charged just the regular per-minute rate. Since my wife and I are on the family plan and share 800 minutes, it's not even an issue. Granted, I'm obviously not downloading the latest RedHat iso's, but it's fine for checking stocks, sports scores, weather, and such.

I'm not sure what the GPRS data packages for the Treo cost, but if they're too high plain-old dialup should work fine on it as well.

Re:water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drin

[ShavenYak]

Because Sprint didn't want to use GSM like all the other kids on the playground, they had to be different and go with CDMA.

Oh, and the ghost of my English lit teacher asked me to point out that it's "Water, water, everywhere, nor any drop to drink."

/. works

[_ph1ux_]

"...Slashdot in light mode worked fine"

That's it - I'm getting one!

Unlikely

[KnightStalker]

To my knowledge, all internet transactions, including SSL, are proxied, cached, and even rewritten through T-Mobile's servers. Sort of an institutionalized man-in-the-middle attack. Even if SSH were possible, I wouldn't use it under those conditions. But I think you're limited to the protocols they explicitly support.

GSM but different frequencies

[tempmpi]

There are some GSM networks in the US but they are using other frequencies.(T-Mobil is operating one) GSM networks outside of the US are using frequencies at around 900 Mhz and around 1800 Mhz. US GSM networks are using 1900 Mhz.

You need a so called TriBand GSM phone to be able to use it in USA and in Europe. Most european phones are DualBand phones that support only 900 and 1800 Mhz. You also may need to select 1900 Mhz in the setup of your phone.

Re:Buy a treo instead

[Anonymous Coward]

the promised GPRS for the treo 270 and
cingular has yet to materialise, but yes,
it works dandy with a dialup.

but watch out, cingular likes to charge
for all sorts of wacky things... any charges
you see that you don't like, just take 10
minutes to make a phone call and they back down
instantly.

I have had to complain about $50 in inexplicable
charges in 3 months of use of the treo 270
and cingular wireless service.

caveat, emptor!

Re:Read fine print

[Frank of Earth]

After reading some more of the fine print, I also noticed that the camera attachment is free.

T-Mobile's Coverage (or lack there of)

[ispel]

This may be OT, but what good is a cool cellular device if you can't use it most places? T-mobile's coverage is pathetic. If you look at their coverage map, you'll see a broken spider web of purple blotches across the US. Their website doesn't make it very clear that their service offers *no* coverage outside these splotches. If I go out of town w/a T-Mobile phone or neato Sidekick, its highly likely that I won't be able to call for help or SSH into my box in an emergency :(

Re:T-Mobile's Coverage (or lack there of)

[LinuxHam]

Their website doesn't make it very clear that their service offers *no* coverage outside these splotches.

I think you mean "any coverage", but still. I've been considering switching to T-Mobile in November specifically to get a GSM phone for trips to Europe. I get a discount for Nextel, but Nextel locks their SIM cards, and T-Mobile offers to unlock them immediately.

Then the Wall St. Journal covered cellular plans today and said T-Mobile has horrible coverage. They said that TM does indeed offer free roaming, but as others have mentioned, no free nights, just weekends. And at that, weekends start midnight Saturday! No matter how much I spit acid at the thought of Verizon raping my wallet every month, WSJ did say that you get what you pay for and Verizon is among the best and the most expensive.

Does anyone know if the T-Mobile GSM phones will roam onto CDMA networks? That would be spiffy.

Right now, I need a phone that works roughly from DC to Boston, Los Angeles, Orlando, and in Australia, Germany, Paris, London and Brussels. I thought T-Mobile would be my best choice based on the coverage maps in the US. The Nextel might be a better choice, and I'll just have to put up with expensive international rates.

To compare Verizon to what I've found with T-Mobile (and who I think is better):

To share 2 lines: Verizon $99/mo for 750 mins, T-Mobile $69/mo for 800 mins (TM)

For 144k data: Verizon needs a separate account that CANNOT share minutes, with T-Mobile you move the SIM card to the Merlin PCMCIA card (TM)

With Verizon you burn minutes for high speed data, T-Mobile you're billed by volume (VZ during nights and weekends)

T-Mobile GSM phones can roam internationally and they'll let you change SIM cards, Verizon will loan you an international phone (TM)

With Verizon you burn peak minutes calling cellphone-to-cellphone within the family share plan, but you get nights and weekends free (VZ wins for free long distance calls to off-plan phones at night)

With T-Mobile all cellphone-to-cellphone calls are free within the family share all the time, but no free weeknights otherwise (TM wins for frequent peak calls to the other Family Plan cellphone, i.e. "honey I'm on the way home.")

I guess its time to give Nextel a look and see how they do.

Re:T-Mobile's Coverage (or lack there of)

[alispguru]

I believe their website map understates their true coverage. What I was told when I got my VoiceStream phone is that "if the phone connects, no roaming charges". It appears to be true - I live in the Washington DC area, and I've taken my phone into the wilds of North Carolina (down I95, where the map says no coverage), connected to Cingular (well, that's what the phone's screen said), and successfully placed calls with no roaming fees. I had similar success recently all up and down the peninsula between San Jose and San Francisco. They must have some sort of network swap arrangement with the other up-and-coming GSM providers in the US.

Why all the excitement?

[Andy Dodd]

The Kyocera 6035 is PalmOS-based (i.e. you can run PalmOS apps on it, not just whatever Danger has preinstalled for you. This includes Liberty, AvantGo, any of the hundreds of PQAs out there).

The 6035 has been out for well over a year. In fact, it's being phased out in favor of the next-generation 7135, due out in 1-2 months. In the meantime, you can get 6035s *FREE* with a Sprint service activation from OfficeMax. (While I don't like Sprint, at least they're better than T-Mobile - The US GSM footprint is horrendous.)

The 6035's phone/PDA integration is excellent. (Unlike its predecessor the pdQ, which apparently sucked.)

So why the excitement over a device that costs more and does less than the 6035?

No, I don't work for Kyocera or Verizon. Yes, I have a 6035 and LOVE it. Check out http://www.smartphonesource.com/ for more info.

its wonderful

[NotLad]

I bought one of these gadgets the day they came out. I'm here to tell you that it is truly a marvel. After your phone is activated, it displays a setup screen that allows you to create a tmobile username and acount. This has several wonderful advantages. You get an easy to remember email address (username@tmail.com) instead of using the phone number for mail (777-777-7777@tmmobile.com). tmobile.com has a webpage that they call the "desktop interface". this page gives you access to your email, address book, calendar, to do list, notes, and camera applications. This makes it very easy to make a large number of changes on your device (while using a full size keyboard).

I purchased the device thinking that i'd use it mostly for web browsing. I couldn't have been more wrong. The browser is well designed and the interface is easy to use. However, the always on AIM application has proven to be more useful. So far I've spent 90% of my time on the device using AIM, the email client, and the text messaging(not AIM) client. That other 10% was spent using the web browser for looking up words while I was studying a little physics.

having the ability to have dictionary.com, google.com, and always on AIM in my pocket is definitely worth $200 ($39 a month).

I only have two complaints. Tmobile is only offering the device with one service plan. This plan is great for data, but 200 anytime minutes just isn't enough talk time. I decided to pay the extra $5 a month for 500 tmobile to tmobile minutes. My second complaint is the lack of a calculator. I can't believe they didn't put a calculator on this thing. get rid of one of the stupid games and add something useful. hopefully they'll add this later.

Or a Kyocera 6035

[Andy Dodd]

A lot of people think the Kyo 6035 has an even better form factor - You can't dial on the Treo or use it as a phone without lifting the flip, wherease the 6035's keypad is externally accessible and there is no need to open up the phone to use the phone features. PalmOS based just like the Treos, and since it has a greyscale screen it has excellent battery life. (Many of the people on the Smartphone Source boards only put their phone on the charger once a week or so... *8 hours* of battery life for this Danger piece of crap? You have to be kidding me.)

As to the data charges one of the people who replied to the parent commented on: I use Verizon's Mobile Office service, which gives me free "dialup" internet access. The only thing I pay for are my minutes, which are billed the same as voice.

For those who have a 6035 with Verizon: Ditch Mobile Web, just set up a connection with #777 as the number and qnc/qnc as the user/password. (Note: This also works if you're using a Verizon phone with a serial cable as a modem for another PDA or laptop.)

If you absolutely need a color screen, get a Treo (and deal with Sprint's bad coverage) or wait for the Kyocera 7135, due out either this month or next. The 7135 has:
16M RAM
PalmOS 4.1
SD memory slot
Built-in MP3 capability (Including MP3 ringers)
2.5G Sprint Vision/Verizon Express Network capable
Reflective color LCD screen

Unfortunately it's a StarTac-style flip phone. :(

Re:Or a Kyocera 6035

[hdw]

Just a minor point.
You don't have to flip the Treo open to use it as a phone. If you use the headset you can dial any of the 50 numbers in quickdial or pick any number from the phonebook.
I don't have any problem dailing any of those numbers, even if I only use one hand. And you can of course answer any incoming calls without even taking the Treo out of your pocket or beltclip. Just push the button on the mic.
Except for some irritating delays (it stops reacting to any user input for some seconds while it recieves an SMS for instance) it's given almost everything I need from either phone or PDA.

And with GPRS (got it working yesterday, in Sweden) it's really a bliss.
No connection delays or being forced to disconnect to make a call or missing calls because I'm online.
And some of the other features in the upgrade is really nice.

For example:
You get an SMS from a co-worker with a URL for their new site.
Click on the url in the SMS and click GO
The pages load in Blazer, scaled down so it makes sense.
Tap the SMS button, select the message and click on dial to call back.
While on the phone you can go back to the browser and move around the loaded page.
You can not load any new page while on the phone, but you can go between the pages in your cache.
When your call is finished you can go back to browse more pages without waiting for your data connection to come back.

Using SSH to twiddle my OpenBSD boxes while at the pub, PalmVNC to reschedule recordings on my PVR while in a meeting at the office, or monitoring my firewalls using a custom X11 application (displayed with PalmVNC) or clearing spam from my mailbox while waiting for the metro.

I can't say that I'm willing to replace it with anything currently available. And that's with a Treo 180g, greyscale/graffiti

hdw // sligthly on love with his Treo

I got one

[wizarddc]

I have a danger hiptop/sidekick. I got it because I wanted a pda with a keyboard. That could do web and email. But the big selling point for me was integrated AIM. Plus unlimited data. So far, the battery ran good for about 20 hours, which is plenty. Plus, you have to factor in new factor, where I'm playing with it everywhere, not just when I need it.

Don't know what it is, but I really don't like the palms. I don't want a touch pad, or handwriting anythng. The keyboard on this thing rocks. Plus the scroll wheel does everything you need it to, and it's relatively quick at doing it.

I haven't gotten into the to do/calendar/PIM stuff yet, but I'm not sure Ill use those excessively. Although the contact manager just makes sense, and makes speed dialing really easy.

I'm giving my own +1 Wicked moderation to this cool little device.

Btw, you can see some of the pics I took with this thing on www.hiptop411.com. I'm MediumDave on there, and yes, that is my dog ;)

No CDMA? No thanks.

[smithmc]

Maybe when there's a CDMA version I'll be interested. GSM sucks, at least in North America. Not everyone lives in cities with 1,000,000+ population, you know.

I wish I had known just how bad GSM coverage is before I bought a Handspring Treo 180. It turns out I've had to keep my CDMA StarTAC (after having given away all the accessories... grrr...) to take with me whenever leaving the NYC/Long Island area. A couple of weeks ago, I went down to Ocean City, MD for a golf weekend - no GSM service, but the CDMA phone worked fine. Last weekend, I headed for upstate NY (Warwick) for dinner with the folks - no GSM service, CDMA no problem. I've used my StarTAC in all kinds of places, and only very rarely have I had a problem getting a connection.

Then again, it sure was neat to be able to use the Treo in Europe by swapping the SIM out of the company cell phone... but I don't travel to Europe often enough for that to be a reason for me to keep the Treo.

Now, there's the Treo 300 with Sprint service - but $500? Yeesh...

Attaching pictures

[jimmcq]

when trying to mail a picture, I couldn't return and send the picture... I ended up having to actually go to the pictures, and choose mail picture instead of writing an email and attaching it there.

All you have to do is hit the menu button while composing a message... There is an "Attach Picture" option right on the menu.

Slashdot in light mode

[Mr_Silver]

Slashdot in light mode worked fine.

Oh god, please no.

At the risk of some blatent plugging, if you're going to read Slashdot on a PDA or offline web-browser (like AvantGo) then try AvantSlash instead.

Hopefully someone a little less biased than me will post a review in reply to this comment. In fact, any suggestions for improvement would be appreciated.