With a great screen, speedy networking and GPS on board, the new Sidekick LX 2009 for T-Mobile should be the perfect device, right? Find out in our in-depth Sidekick LX 2009 review.
Review summary of the T-Mobile Sidekick LX 2009:
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 Sidekick fans looking for an upgrade will find plenty to like in the T-Mobile Sidekick LX 2009 (to check out our comparison of the most recent Sidekick phones, click here). Besides the dazzling new display, the phone benefits from faster networking and an improved Web browser, as well as GPS capabilities, and an improved version of Microsoft's Live Search. Otherwise, the device is mostly unchanged. It still looks nice, but even with all of the improvements, the Sidekick LX 2009 leaves out some features, like turn-by-turn navigation. If you're willing to invest in a data plan, the T-Mobile G1 might be a more compelling choice, as it packs most of the same specs, but can do more thanks to the open OS. For Sidekick fans however, the Sidekick 2009 represents a significant step forward. Release: May 2009. Price: $250.
Pros: Great, hi-res screen. Fast 3G networking. Some GPS capabilities. Improved Web browser.
Cons: Older calling and messaging features starting to look their age. Multimedia experience doesn't match high-end cell phones.
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Full T-Mobile Sidekick LX 2009 Review:
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Design – Good
If anything, the new Sidekick LX 2009 for T-Mobile is almost too recognizably a Sidekick. Every button is there (about 13 not including QWERTY and volume keys), and these are truly the heart of the Sidekick OS design. The interface is made for memorizing shortcuts, then jumping quickly from place to place. You can try to navigate with the trackball, but the main menu, once inspired in its simplicity, is a long tangle of options. There are 3 or 4 solely devoted to sending messages, counting the social networking apps. We count 15 different items on the home screen, and the phone scrolls through them slowly. Unfortunately, though the new Sidekick LX 2009 gets a superb, ultra-wide screen, somehow the rotating menu only needs to take up a small portion of the left side of the screen (even though the controlling wheel is on the right). Though the screen is greatly improved, the general interface design has gotten little more than a polish and some new hi-res wallpapers.
From the outside, that screen is the real selling point, and it's a marvel. The colorful, graffiti inspired themes looked sharp and crisp on the bright, 852 by 480 pixel display. The apps look okay, with clean, legible text, but nothing fancy in terms of design. We wanted to see the screen used for high quality video playback, as a remarkable camera viewfinder, and more, but most of these were a letdown.
Calling – Good
Calls from our T-Mobile Sidekick LX 2009 review unit sounded okay, but overall, the phone just doesn't seem like it's made for making calls. Call quality was a little disappointing. We heard static on our end, and so did our callers. Reception was pretty good. Wherever we went, our signal on the Sidekick LX 2009 was as strong as the signal on our T-Mobile G1, which runs on the same 3G network. We lost reception a few times, but these were isolated incidents. Battery life wasn't extraordinary. We got almost 4 hours of talk time on T-Mobile's HSDPA (battery hog) network, which is still a bit better than the 3 hours T-Mobile promises.
Dialing on the Sidekick LX 2009 was a pain. With the keyboard open, the numeric keys slant at a sharp angle. Then, if the call goes through before you close the phone, the speaker automatically activates. With the keyboard closed, typing is a nightmare of rolling the ball to the correct number and clicking. We also think it should be much easier to get contacts and addresses onto the phone.
For calling features, the speakerphone was adequate, but not quite loud enough. If the phone is going to force the speaker upon you, it should be an impressive speaker. Conference calling was easy enough, just a little menu drilling required. Voice dialing is absent, and that's a feature we missed.
Messaging – Very Good
The Sidekick family has always represented innovative messaging. Unfortunately, for the Sidekick LX 2009, it seems T-Mobile just kept the old stuff and piled on a few new apps. The new stuff is very useful, but the older apps are starting to seem dated. The text messaging app isn't threaded, so you can't follow a conversation easily. The instant messaging app is still limited to AOL, MSN and Yahoo. We wish that Gtalk were an option, or, even better, how about instant messaging through Facebook?
For e-mail, T-Mobile claims that Microsoft Exchange support is right around the corner, but first we'd like to see Danger apply some spit shine to the existing mail apps. How about HTML e-mail, or a unified mailbox for all incoming messages? These aren't far-fetched requests, this is what we're seeing from the competition, so we'd like to see the Sidekick become an innovator again.
The keyboard on the new Sidekick LX 2009 is nice, but nothing special. The keys were a bit stiff for our taste, but spaced nicely. We had no trouble with typos, as long as we pressed firmly. Some of the layout doesn't make sense. There is a dedicated @ symbol, but also an alternate @ key above the "2". All around, we wish there were more dedicated app keys on the sidekick, instead of loads of shortcut modifier keys.
Web browsing and GPS – Good
Web browsing on the new Sidekick LX 2009 has seen some dramatic improvements over the older devices. The Web browser is now capable of handling real HTML pages. Our own homepage looked great on the Sidekick's browser. Navigating the page was a bit slow, as the trackball didn't accelerate like we'd hoped. Without an address bar at hand, it was also tedious to type in new URLs and navigate forward and back between pages. Additionally, many pages, like CNN and the New York Times, would only display in their mobile format. Still, the browser loaded pages in a hurry, and when a page would load, it came through looking good.
The T-Mobile Sidekick LX 2009 comes with GPS on board, but turn-by-turn navigation is conspicuously absent. Danger reps hinted that a real navigation app might be forthcoming, but until then, users will have to stick with Microsoft's Live Search. Since Microsoft bought Danger, Live Search is the Sidekick's answer to Google Maps. This is the best version of the Live Search we've seen to date, and it looks even better than Google Maps. The search wasn't perfect. A few times it directed us to restaurants that have closed in the last year. Still, in a pinch, it does a fine job, and even offers extras like Gas Prices and Movie times, directly from the search app.
Still, when we first heard the new Sidekick would sport GPS, obviously this is not what we hoped for. T-Mobile doesn't have their own branded GPS navigation app, like Sprint Navigator or VZ Navigator, but now it's time for them to get one. Turn-by-turn navigation is the least we were hoping for from the new Sidekick LX 2009. We also expected location-based social networking, perhaps from Loopt or a similar app. Goetagging is there, and that's a nice addition to the camera, but we expected much more. Hopefully Danger will deliver some good downloadable options in the near future.
Multimedia – Good
With the young, hip-hop audience that T-Mobile seems to be winning with the Sidekick line, you might think that multimedia features would be a priority on the Sidekick. The music player was bland and uninspired, and not too convenient to use though. On the other hand, we like the 3.5mm headphone jack, and the included 1GB microSD card is a plus. Still, we wish the music player was even better. We also think a music store would be a great fit on this phone.
With its hi-res, wider-than-VGA screen, we expected the new Sidekick LX 2009 would become our video player of choice. The phone can handle MP4 videos, but it had trouble with even small resolution, low bitrate files. A full DVD quality video, well within the screen's capabilities, wouldn't play at all. QVGA videos, with a quarter the pixels, came through choppy, or sometimes simply froze on a frame.
Camera – Mediocre
The camera on the T-Mobile Sidekick LX 2009 gets a serious upgrade, but it still fails to deliver great image quality. The 3-megapixel images were blurry and somewhat faded looking. The auto focus didn't seem to help much, and neither did the LED flash. Details were fuzzy, even when the camera claimed it was in focus, and the flash washed out our pictures completely, making them useless and ugly.
Fireplace and Vine
Self Portrait with Flash
Red Bird
Orange Close-Up
The Sidekick LX 2009 can record videos at QVGA resolution, but videos didn't impress too much. Images were blocky and pixilated, as if the videos were being rendered from Lego bricks.
For photo management however, the Sidekick LX 2009 has a hodge podge of useful uploading options. You can send your pics to Facebook, or upload them to a T-Mobile sponsored album, and you can upload videos direct to YouTube and MySpace.
Price and availability
The T-Mobile Sidekick LX 2009 will start shipping from T-Mobile for $250 with a contract agreement on May 13 2009. The phone will also be available with a T-Mobile Sidekick prepaid plan.
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