Tuesday, July 22, 2003

T-Mobile Sidekick I upgraded my cel phone to a Sidekick over the weekend I've tried the Motorola Talkabout, Blackberry 850 and a couple of "internet-enabled" cel phones; all of which were disappointing either because reception was lousy (Blackberry-also too expensive), couldn't keep below the included message limit (Talkabout), or couldn't deal with typing text on a numeric keypad (cel phones). I even had a Visorphone, but it was too bulky. The Sidekick has a $19 unlimited GPRS data plan (need to have a voice plan on top of this) with speeds similar to a dialup connection. The cost is less than a voice plan with T-Moble Internet service, which you need if you want to use your phone as a laptop modem. It's absolutely perfect for e-mail and instant messaging (genuine AIM client built-in). RF reception is pretty bad indoors, but I'm always near a phone or computer inside anyway. It will pull messages from 3 separate POP accounts every 15 minues, in addition to pushing your tmail.com Sidekick account messages almost instantly. I've found the reception issues are not a problem, because as the GSM signal fades in & out, my messages are blasted into the Sidekick before I even realize. There's enough speed and storage to quickly download and hold dozens of mailing list digests for me to read on the Metro. The PIM applications are good (Contacts, To Do, Notes, Calendar), and can be accessed via a web interface. The forums reveal that many people are unhappy about the lack of sync features (other than the desktop web client), but I don't really care because I carry the thing with me all the time anyway - my data doesn't NEED to be on other devices. The phone application is very good, but dialing is awkward as you need to swing the screen closed after dialing to hold it to your head. Using the supplied earbud solves this problem, but it's actually not bad holding up to your ear - much better than the Visorphone. The keyboard is perfect, and overall ergonomics are excellent. The color screen is bright, the backlight turns on & off automatically depending on ambient light levels, and text is highly legible. At $300, it's no wonder T-Mobile's having trouble keeping them on the shelves. All that's required for the Sidekick to be "the ultimate Internet device" is 802.11 support. Wait a second... doesn't T-Mobile already have all those hot spots? ;) 8:45:23 PM