![]() But the rest of its upgrades more than make up for that. However, the flashlight isn’t quite as bright as on our other picks, and the position of the handle means you might accidentally press a button and alter the radio or alert settings while you’re carrying it. ![]() Like our other picks, it’s reliably resistant against tumbles and water, and it offers USB charging and a headphone jack, as well. In addition to receiving AM/FM, weather-band radio, and NOAA weather alerts, the Sidekick also picks up the hyper-local and customizable Specific Area Message Encoding (SAME) alerts-it’s the only portable emergency weather radio we’ve found that does so. Plus, the back panel works as a 5-by-5-inch reading light, making it a great option for reading or finding kindling in the dark. It’s one of the few models we found with Bluetooth or an aux-in port, and it also has the best-sounding speaker of any weather radio we’ve ever tested. It’s just disappointing that after all these generations on the market, the Sidekick has been relegated to fashionista status.If you want a weather radio that you can also enjoy as an on-the-go entertainment center, we recommend the Eton Sidekick. In fact, I wrote this entire review on its perfect little keyboard (in the body of an e-mail message, of course, since the phone doesn’t support Word documents). I’m not saying that the Sidekick 2008 is a bad phone–not at all. Together with its customizable removable backplates (gotta love the leopard-print shell!) and the default Web bookmarks to places such as, everything about this phone screams “teen.” That’s a far cry from the Sidekick’s original billing as a data communicator. For the most part, though, you’re choosing from apps such as “Flirting 101,” “The Pocket Idiot’s Guide to Getting Girls,” and a blinged-out digital timepiece for your phone’s screen-saver mode. And that store holds some gems, such as Melodeo’s Mobilcast for grabbing podcast feeds, but even that app needs to get the kinks worked out (audio hiccups and unfulfilling lists of podcasts). Oh, sure, I could drop $10 for Intellisync so that I can move my Outlook contacts over to the device, or I could dig up the small handful of productivity apps that hide in the download store. My greatest frustration with the Sidekick is its wasted potential: It could be much more than just a kid’s phone. And the T-Mobile EDGE data network crawled along at insufferably slow speeds when I browsed the Web. The Sidekick still can’t read Microsoft Word documents–a feature that has been lacking since the first Sidekick hit the scene. Maybe I’m a little spoiled by the ability to hack Windows Mobile 6.1. The Sidekick’s Danger OS remains constrained and sluggish. Unfortunately, along with a lot of the old things I like, many annoying issues linger in the newest Sidekick. The camera can capture video, too, but only in 20-second clips. No flash, mind you, but it’s still good for casual snaps. While the Sidekick line has never been known for stellar images, the Sidekick 2008’s 2-megapixel camera is capable of snagging 1600-by-1200-resolution photos. ![]() The player supports the audio formats you’d expect (WAV, WMA, MP3, AAC) and some video formats you might not (3GP and simple-profile MP4). You also get Bluetooth support for stereo headsets if you don’t like the wired kind and, if you plan to use this phone as your primary MP3 player, you can plug any headphones into the 3.5mm jack. I’ve also been a big fan of how Sidekick handsets easily integrate instant messaging (AIM, MSN Messenger, and Yahoo) with fewer hiccups and slowdowns than on other smart phones I’ve used, and the Sidekick 2008 is no exception. The phone’s features continue to evolve: For example, it’s a snap to add more e-mail accounts (AOL, Windows Live, Yahoo, and POP/IMAP e-mail such as Gmail–but don’t try to get the corporate-oriented Lotus Notes working). The Sidekick 2008 is a refined Sidekick LX that costs about $50 less than its predecessor (when you sign up for a two-year plan, the 2008 model costs $200).Īnyone familiar with Sidekicks will be happy to know that the interface and all of its handy shortcuts have pretty much carried over from the Sidekick LX. The newest Sidekick measures 4.7 by 2.3 by 0.7 inches it’s roughly the same size as the iPhone 3G, but a little thicker. Why? I blame the poky EDGE network, the phone’s limited productivity uses, and the fact that I’m apparently not young enough. Even so, that isn’t quite sufficient to sway me to T-Mobile’s newest hipster smart phone. The Sidekick 2008 has the best cell-phone keyboard I’ve ever used, and its trackball lets you whip through messages at lightning speed.
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