The price has wisely been cut in half and customizable shells are always fun. Check out the latest Danger device in our in-depth T-Mobile Sidekick 2008 review.
Review summary of the T-Mobile Sidekick 2008:
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 The T-Mobile Sidekick 2008 is the latest in a long line of Sidekick phones that have seen very few improvements over the years. This is definitely the Sidekick to buy, as the T-Mobile Sidekick LX offers little to no benefit over this smaller, cheaper model. But, for the most part, the Sidekick 2008 seems like a step backwards, both in terms of build quality and in terms of the aging interface, which can't hold a candle to even the cheapest business-style smartphones on the market. We don't think this phone has the same audience as the T-Mobile Dash, for instance, but when a so-called messaging phone can't handle threaded SMS conversations or Google Talk for IM, we know it's fallen way behind the times. The customizable shells are a great gimmick that will make the phone instantly appealing to creative and fashion-conscious users, but for us it will always be what's inside that counts, and the newest T-Mobile Sidekick feels more 2006, and not 2008. Release: July 2008. Price: $150.
Pros: Customizable shells are a great idea for this phone. Trackball works well with the menus.
Cons: Messaging features lag behind today's standards. Web browser is messy. Music player unimpressve, hard to control. Lousy camera.
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Full T-Mobile Sidekick 2008 Review:
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Design - Very good
The T-Mobile Sidekick 2008 has an interesting design option that we really enjoyed. On a special Web site from partner Skinit, users can design their own custom shells, with various color options and personal photos. These aren't bulky sleeves, nor are they simple stickers. The shells arrive as glossy, custom-printed plastic. It's a great idea, and at $15 for one ($20 for 2), they aren't too expensive. Otherwise, the phone very similar to the Sidekick LX, the daddy of the Sidekick family. The build doesn't feel as sturdy, and the screen doesn't swivel open quite as aggressively as on that more expensive device. But the loads and loads of buttons are all there, as is the wide-spaced full-QWERTY keyboard hidden under the screen.
Once again, the buttons overwhelmed us. A check-like button acts as an "OK," and also as a "Back" button. There is a dedicated "Menu" button and also a "Jump" button that jumps back to the main menu, and both of these can be used in combination with letters to varying effect. There are shoulder buttons, a four-way navigation button and even a trackball. And we haven't even gotten to the Send/End buttons or volume controls. Perhaps if the Sidekick were better at gaming we would forgive, and perhaps even approve all of these buttons, but a simpler, more organized menu structure could have cleared the way for better controls. Everything on this phone could have been accomplished with two buttons and smart use of the trackball, but instead we get buttons galore. We will give the Sidekick credit for the trackball, though. It's definitely more responsive than the trackball on today's BlackBerry devices, with menus that respond better to trackball input than RIM's more stodgy, point-and-click icons.
If you've ever used a Sidekick, you'll be familiar with the circular main menu, because it hasn't changed much in the last couple of years. Since the phone is so centered around messaging, we would have liked to see a unified messaging screen, but instead this gets broken into separate screens for SMS (and MMS), Instant Messaging and e-mail. Even the individual apps get broken into separate tabs for different IM accounts or different mailboxes, adding to the confusion.
Calling - Good
As a phone that aims for a younger crowd, the Sidekick could still stand to learn a lot from its elders. The phone makes calls that sound about as good as the Sidekick LX, which wasn't great, but wasn't half bad. We found the speaker and the receiver on the device to be a bit quiet for our tastes, and we heard plenty of noise in the background as we made calls. Most of this didn't come through on our caller's end, however. Our real gripes concern getting contacts onto the phone.
The Sidekick is supposed to be able to import contacts from a special site set up by T-Mobile. In our testing, though, this site was completely unreliable. We couldn't import our Outlook contacts, even as a .csv file, and when we entered phone number by hand onto the T-Mobile Web site, they never made it to our phone. We tried a few times, and though the phone did claim to have received our new address book entries, they never appeared. We're not expecting anything as robust as Exchange ActiveSync support, but there should be an easy way to synchronize contacts directly with the phone. Perhaps Yahoo's online address book could be a solution here, or similar options from Google. Anything would be better than entering every entry from an address book individually on the phone.
Otherwise, the phone has a nice mix of calling features. There is no voice dialing to speak of, though this phone's intended audience probably won't be driving while talking, anyway, so this isn't such a huge problem. Conference calling was easy to accomplish, and the phone paired successfully with all of our Bluetooth gear, including our stereo Bluetooth headphones. Talk time was especially impressive. We managed a call that lasted more than 7 hours, which is much more than the 5 hours T-Mobile promises.
Messaging - Good
The T-Mobile Sidekick 2008 has some nice messaging options, but these haven't improved much over the years, and we've been less and less impressed. For text messaging, the Sidekick hasn't caught up to the Palm Centro to offer threaded messaging, and the message browser looks like a standard e-mail inbox, with a cap on the number of messages you can store. With unlimited messaging a requirement for Sidekick owners, this is a real shame. E-mail was also behind the times. For Gmail (and .Mac) accounts, there are preset options, but not for IMAP access. So, on our first e-mail download, the Sidekick loaded all of our Gmail messages for the last week and marked them unread. For instant messaging, the Sidekick can run conversations simultaneously in Yahoo, AIM or MSN, but Gtalk is left out of the loop.
We're not expecting corporate-grade messaging on this device, but all of this adds up to a phone that is a couple years behind the times. Besides the unified messaging interface we've asked for, we'd like to see the phone catch up in terms of messaging. Threaded SMS has made its way onto every major messaging smartphone. IMAP is a much smarter way to check e-mail on a phone, especially a phone with a cap on how much data an e-mail inbox can store. Also, with so many downloadable options, why not an option for Gtalk? The phone has a MySpace app you can download, but not a similar client for Facebook or other popular social networking sites.
The keyboard on the T-Mobile Sidekick 2008 was pretty good, and plenty comfortable for typing. The keys were small, but there was a nice amount of space in between, so typos were never a real problem. We wish the Sidekick, and all similar QWERTY phones, would ditch the idea that holding a key causes the letter to repeat. This may e convenient on a computer, but on a phone it makes more sense to activate a capital letter or the corresponding symbol, instead.
Web browser - Mediocre
The Web browser on the T-Mobile Sidekick 2008 gets the job done, but anyone who has seen the dazzling pages loaded on the Apple iPhone Safari browser won't be impressed by the scrambled, single-column pages on the Sidekick. Pictures loaded nicely on the Sidekick's screen, but text and layout were a mess. Pages were certainly usable, but not impressive. The Sidekick also neglects its trackball in the Web browser. Because every page fills the screen in a single column, there's really only up or down, so the trackball isn't even necessary. We'd obviously prefer a full-html render, with some side-to-side action that takes advantage of a smart, accelerating scroll.
Music - Good
The music player on the T-Mobile Sidekick 2008 looked pretty good at first glance, but the experience was a complete letdown. With so many buttons, we wonder why T-Mobile didn't bother to include some dedicated playback controls. Instead, the controls seem to shift depending on which screen you're currently viewing. On one screen, clicking the trackball plays and pauses the music. On another, that didn't work, but the "X" button did. There is a mini-player screen, but besides the fact that it took up less screen real estate, we didn't see the point, as it didn't float atop other screens and apps as you would expect from a mini player.
The T-Mobile Sidekick 2008 also includes no music transfer software. On a PC, you can synchronize the included 512MB memory card with Windows Media Player (non-DRM tracks only, of course), but on a Mac it's a drag-and-drop affair. Our music came through okay, though not all of our album artwork made the trip intact.
Considering the phone's intended audience, music should have been much better on this phone. We would have liked to see a cool, fun music player, perhaps with visualizers and better options. We had trouble creating playlists on the device, as all of the recommended key combinations resulted in a "Family Feud" style buzzer telling us we had made a mistake. It's disappointing that the nicest thing we can say about the music experience on this phone is that it uses a standard 3.5mm headphone jack and comes with a bare minimum of external memory for media.
Camera - Mediocre
Though the T-Mobile Sidekick 2008 gets an upgraded camera sensor, now at 2-megapixels, that obviously didn't mean the image quality saw an improvement. We found the images from the camera to be pretty dismal. Not as horrible on the 2.6-inch screen, but not usable at the full 2-megapixel resolution. Colors looked okay, and were fairly accurate, but lighting was dull and details were a serious problem.
ViewMaster Tiger
The Sidekick gets the orange color almost right, but it should have been brighter in our studio light box. Text is completely illegible, and even the stripes look jagged.
Decorated Pole
Again, colors look pretty good, especially on the tiled pole, but details have an overly sharpened look to them. We also notice a purple fringe around the top of the picture, where the buildings and trees meet the sky.
Happy Snap
This editor gives a skeptical look as the camera creates jagged edges everywhere, even on the round red hat. Taking a happy snap would have been easier with a self-portrait mirror, as it took a few attempts to center ourselves in the shot.
Ceiling Fan
Under challenging lighting, the T-Mobile Sidekick 2008 produces very noisy images with an almost striated look to them.
Accessories - Very good
For accessories, both included and available separately, there might not be a better phone on the market than the T-Mobile Sidekick 2008. We definitely liked the customized shells, but even without paying extra the phone still comes with everything you need. We liked the included microSD card, though 512MB is definitely scraping the low-end for memory these days, and we appreciate the included headphones and standard USB cable. We even like the travel charger, which has a nice swivel to keep the AC prongs out of the way.
Price and availability
The T-Mobile Sidekick 2008 is available now from T-Mobile for $150 with a contract agreement.
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