by Juan Tornoe
Slick, easy to use, oozing with cool features, but best of all connected 24/7. If you don’t want to become hopelessly addicted and start to be one with an awesome piece of technology, don’t even glance, let alone stand close to T-Mobile’s Sidecick by Sharp.
Its Interchangeable faceplates (mine came with black and a cool Neon Green) are easy to slip in and out and give you several options to personalize. At home we all agreed that the green was the best looking one.
Even though it is not the smallest cell phone on the block, it is quite easy to grasp; it kinda feels like a playstation, only better.
It is easy to flip open and shut; once you are comfortable with it (which doesn’t take long at all) it feels almost like a trigger (Yep, I did a couple of Lone Ranger impressions, but please don’t spread the word about it). It’s screen has an outstanding resolution… amazingly clear.
It has a keyboard with perfectly distributed keys, making writing an unexpected comfortable and easy experience. I have to admit, I’ve never had a blackberry, cut after experiencing the Sidekick, I don’t even want to.
I usually test the phone’s “user friendliness” by trying to figure it out without having to once go to the instructions, which as you all know by now for every electronic gadget you buy, are worst than a boring text book. The Sidecick passed with flying colors; in no time I had figured it out completely.
Other test, well not much of a test but a gadget coolness factor I like to observe, is having my 8 year old grab it and figure it out by himself. It took him less time that I to master it and find all the games it had. BTW, it has some very cool games, actually making my wife prohibiting my boy to use it that much, since it really handled itself like one of them playstations that are strictly prohibited at home. We figured out a way to work around that 😉
I signed to my AIM account with ease, checked several email accounts (Gmail, Yahoo, etc), scheduled appointments, wrote notes, and took pictures all in a very easy, intuitive and easy way.
Getting online was a breeze; me being a Google freak, was pleased to see that it perfectly handled all the latest mobile versions of all of their products: Gmail, Reader, Notebook, Maps, News, and of course Search. Going to other sites was a great experience as well, being able to navigate them almost as if I was on my laptop. It was very hard to stay away from it. One feature I really appreciated was that it gives you several webpage display sizes; a great pleaser for four-eyes like myself who sometimes struggle to read the tinny font on cell phone screens.
The track-ball was very comfortable to the touch and extremely accurate. I loved the fact that while scrolling down a web page or email message and running into a phone number , URL or email address, the phone immediately gave you the option to go/call there with one simple click, no more.
Sound wise, quality was great all around. One thing that I loved was that one of the ringtones it had was that of an old-time telephone… call me nostalgic (or an old geezer) but I really love that sound and enjoy the dichotomy it creates when coming from a new millennium machine like this one.
Bottom line, it has all the standard functions all other phones offer, only better, and much, much more.
Easy to hook up to your computer, long lasting battery, tons of memory space… I could almost work directly from it if I needed /wanted to. Actually, my cable connection went berserk one day and the Sidecick lived up to its name, helping me keep on working during the couple of hours of cable internet downtime.
As I hinted before, I became quite addicted to the Sidekick during my short rendezvous with it. The only downside I could find was that I could not keep it for good. Now I am having a hard time adjusting to life Sidecick-less. It is as Seinfeld said about flying first class, “I’ve flown first class, Elaine– I can’t go back to coach. I can’t…”.
Yes, I honestly believe the Sidekick is the “First Class” of cell phones. I highly recommend getting one.
Recent Comments