Price: From £50

T-Mobile has had considerable success with the Sidekick range over n the US, but the phones have yet to prove themselves over here. The latest version, Sidekick II, has been out in the US for some time, making it a fairly elderly entrant to the UK market. Given its age, it’s perhaps strange that this is a phone intended mainly for a younger audience renowned for prizing the newest tech products.

Its design is certainly youth-focused. The colourful cartoon icons and the bright flashing lights that start up when you switch the power on make this a fun phone rather than a serious business handset. And that ‘fun’ aspect goes right the way through the design, with rubber buttons and a flip and twist screen.

Once pushed, the screen rotates up revealing a small QWERTY keypad that makes emailing and texting a fairly fast process. You have to press the keys reasonably hard, which makes it slower going than a BlackBerry, but it’s a lot faster than a standard keypad. Those wanting to use this as an emailer phone can take advantage of the push email service that drives your mail straight to your handset every 15 minutes. While that can’t match the corporate push service offered by BlackBerry, once it detects you are having a conversation with someone it steps up the rate to every two minutes.

While email is an important feature for US users who tend to rely less on texting, it’s unlikely to prove such a compelling sell for the younger UK audience. the presence of AOL’s Instant Messenger, while those wishing to keep tabs on their lives can take advantage of the Sidekick’s PIM suite. The browser works well, making surfing the Internet an easy experience, and the large screen adds appeal.

Unique navigation

While this is a straightforward Smartphone to use, it does take time to find your way around. That’s less to do with the user interface, which is nicely planned out with helpful tips and guidance along the way, and more to do with the unfamiliar shortcut keys.

Synching with your laptop will take some getting used to as well. There’s no USB port and the Sidekick relies instead on its GPRS connection for data management. Download the software to your laptop and all your contacts and diary information is compressed and passed to a server from where your Sidekick retrieves it. Since the phone doesn’t support Bluetooth or infrared connectivity either, those wanting a handset that can be connected to a computer should look elsewhere.

The Sidekick is a chunkier mobile than most of us are used to, although it’s still more compact than the larger connected devices and will feel less strange against the ear than a BlackBerry or an HP iPAQ hw6500. A minor quibble is that unless the number is already in the phonebook, you’ll need to open the screen up first to access the number pad. T-Mobile’s Sidekick II does have some appeal, and those looking for an easy to- use emailer handset should certainly consider it. With slimmer, higher specified business phones around, America’s much loved handset is already starting to look and act its age.

DETAILS
PROCESSOR N/A
MEMORY 32MB ROM, 16MB FLASH
BANDS GSM 900, 1800, 1900
DIMENSIONS 130 X 66 X 22MM
WEIGHT 184G
SCREEN 65K COLOURS, 240 X 160 PIXELS
STANDBY/TALKTIME 60 HOURS/4.5 HOURS
GPRS YES
CAMERA VGA
BLUETOOTH NO
INFRARED NO
CONTACT www.t-mobile.co.uk  

OVERALL 7