Digital Trends

SideKick 3

July 10th, 2006 | by Vince Veneziani

Unpacking the Sidekick 3 is nice and simple. Pop in the battery and start charging it. If you want, throw in the included mini-SD card so you can leave your iPod at home. Tunes sound great on the included headphones and there are dedicated volume buttons for easy adjustment. Using the music player is also designed to be extremely easy to use and has no lag when changing songs. 

If you want to make a call, just select the “Phone” option and start dialing. Calls sound pretty decent on the phone and there is a virtual keypad for dialing without revealing the keyboard. Unfortunately, you’re still going to be getting Sidekick-based reception. Mediocre is the name of the game, so you’ll find yourself ducking in and out of rooms to produce a signal. Sharp really should have done more research and put more effort into producing a decent antenna to use, since the device is pretty much a brick without a signal.

The IM client is no longer limited to AOL Instant Messenger and now includes a Yahoo! and MSN login option. Using it is easy and is the same as the Sidekick II in almost every aspect. It’s a well-built client that doesn’t really need a ton of changes. It’s always nice to be able to keep in touch with friends and an IM client that supports multiple services is always welcome on a device like this. 

E-mailing is simple and supports multiple accounts so you can get your Gmail and Hotmail all in one place without having to worry. E-mails tend to send and receive more quickly due to the EDGE capability of T-Mobile’s network. IMAP and POP are both supported, so any service should be easy to set up, unless you’re some kind of security freak.

Finally, browsing the web is always fun, so those wanting to do so should grab a Sidekick 3. It’s quick and easy to use with plenty of shortcuts built in for better navigation. However, because the Sidekick 3 includes a trackball, horizontal scrolling would have been possible and could have allowed webpages to be displayed without the need to be resized for the Sidekick’s screen. Still, this device does a decent job of letting users visit their favorite websites (although you still can’t login and use MySpace properly – sorry, to all you teenagers out there).