T-Mobile Sidekick iD

CNET editors' review

The T-Mobile Sidekick 3 has garnered its fair share of fans, and we can understand why. The handheld not only makes all messaging--instant, text, e-mail or otherwise--an absolute breeze, but also the various celebrity and athlete endorsements definitely give it some street cred with young hipsters. And now T-Mobile and Danger are hoping to expand the Sidekick's customer base even more by introducing the budget-friendly T-Mobile Sidekick iD.

Priced at $99 (with a two-year contract and after rebates), the iD is certainly affordable, but you sacrifice a number of features for the price. Unlike the Sidekick 3, you don't get a camera, Bluetooth, or MP3 playback. You also lose EDGE support and expandable media. We understand that certain cuts had to be made to save costs, but we think they went a little overboard. Inevitably, these lapses may limit the device's appeal to the truly cash-strapped and tweeners looking for their first taste of the popular messaging device; but if you can swing it, the Sidekick 3 is definitely the better buy. That said, the Sidekick iD still handles messaging like a champ, and the ability to customize the phone with differently colored bumpers is a bonus (to learn how to further customize your iD, check out our Cell phone accessories page). The T-Mobile Sidekick iD will be available in stores and online starting April 25.

Design
The T-Mobile Sidekick iD looks like a cross between the Sidekick 3 and the Sidekick II. It sports the pearly white/gray coloring of the Sidekick II, but features the new navigation controls found on the Sidekick 3. At 5.1 inches long by 2.4 inches wide by 0.8 inch thick it retains the same shape as its predecessors, but at 6.2 ounces, the iD is slightly lighter than the Sidekick 3. The Sidekick iD also manages to add some flair of its own with its interchangeable bumpers. Available in black, yellow, blue, purple, or a glow-in-the-dark scheme, the bumpers (more designs are planned) add some spice to the drab grey color scheme that you get in the box. Just be aware that these accessories cost $19.95 each, which is pricey. Our review unit came with the bright-as-sunshine yellow bumpers, and swapping out the bumpers was a bit labor-intensive. There's a total of four pieces that you need to take on and off, and there's a fair amount of pulling and snapping to get them on correctly.

The Sidekick iD's screen is slightly smaller than the one found on the Sidekick 3, and displays 65,000 colors at a low 240x160 pixel resolution. Flanking the screen are the controls. To the left, you have the menu and jump buttons and a directional keypad that doubles as the phone's speakers, and on the right, there is a cancel button, Talk and End keys, an OK button, and the trackball navigator. In addition, you'll find a volume rocker, a power button, and a 2.5mm headset jack along the bottom edge of the phone, while along the top edge are two function buttons that perform different tasks depending on which application you are using. Finally, there is a power connector and a loop for the wrist strap on the right side.

To expose the full QWERTY keyboard, just nudge the upper right or lower left corner of the screen, and the display quickly rotates180 degrees and snaps into place. The iD's keyboard is spacious, with tactile and brightly backlit buttons for easy messaging. The one downside, and it's a major one in our opinion, is that dialing a number that isn't in your phone book requires you to swivel the screen to get to the keyboard/dial pad, then close it again to use it as a phone. Also, the PDA-like design makes the Sidekick iD a little awkward to hold during phone calls due to its wider, blocky body, but you get used to it after a while.

The T-Mobile Sidekick iD comes packaged with a travel charger, a carrying case, a wrist strap, a wired headset, and reference material.

Features
In order to make the T-Mobile Sidekick iD more budget-friendly, some features had to be sacrificed, but we think T-Mobile and Danger took it a bit too far. The iD strips out the 1.3-megapixel camera, music player, integrated Bluetooth, expandable media slot, and EDGE support. Axing Bluetooth? Sure, we're in full agreement. The lack of EDGE speeds is questionable, as is the removal of MP3 playback and the expansion slot, but chances are good that most users will have a dedicated MP3 player for their music anyway. No, our biggest gripe is the lack of a camera. Many basic cell phones these days include at least a VGA camera, so we find the omission inexcusable, especially since the Sidekick iD is such a youth-oriented and multimedia-centric device. There is a photo viewer installed on the iD, but obviously without a camera, you'll have to get photos onto the handheld another way (via e-mail, multimedia message, and so on).

Despite the Sidekick iD's shortcomings, we can't deny that it's a solid messaging device. The iD comes preinstalled with AIM, Yahoo, and Windows Live instant messaging clients, and you can have up to 10 simultaneous conversations if you're a social butterfly. To switch between conversations just press the menu and D buttons. And if you happen to lose network connection in the midst of a session, the Sidekick will save the chat until a connection is restored. The Sidekick iD also supports text and multimedia messaging.

The Sidekick iD comes with its own T-Mobile e-mail account with real-time message delivery. Setup is extremely easy, as the device walks you through the whole process when you first turn it on (it's really just a matter of choosing a username and password). The iD also can be configured to access up to three POP3 and IMAP accounts, but e-mail delivery comes in about 15-minute intervals. If you have a Web-based e-mail account like Hotmail, you will need to use the iD's HTML Web browser to check your messages.

As a phone, the Sidekick iD offers a 2,000-contact address book with room in each entry for multiple numbers, an e-mail address, an IM account, a Web URL, a street address, and notes. You can assign contacts to groups, and for caller ID, you can pair an entry with a photo and one of 22 ringtones. You also get speed dial, call forwarding, three-way calling, a call log, a vibrate mode, a speakerphone, and support for T-Mobile's myFaves service. MyFaves gives you unlimited calling to five contacts, regardless of carrier. Plans for myFaves start at $39.99 a month.

Other features on the Sidekick iD include a calendar, a notepad, a task list, one preloaded game, and a download catalog where you can get more ringtones, games, and applications.

Performance
We tested the triband (GSM 850/1800/1900; GPRS) T-Mobile Sidekick iD world phone in San Francisco, and call quality was OK. On our end, voices sounded mostly clear both on regular calls and on speakerphone, though there was a slight crackling noise in the background. Our callers said audio was bad on their end, and asked us to repeat ourselves several times. They also reported a weird echo when we put them on speakerphone.

Web browsing was slow. Without the EDGE speeds, simple sites like Google took about a minute to come up while graphics-intensive sites like CNET.com took 2 minutes or more to fully load. On the upside, sending and receiving e-mail via the Tmail account was instantaneous, and we also had no problems setting up the Sidekick iD to access our SBC Global account.

The Sidekick iD is rated for 5.3 hours of talk time and up to six days of standby time. In our battery tests, we were able to get 8 hours of talk time on a single charge. According to FCC radiation tests, the iD has a digital SAR rating of 0.63 watts per kilogram.