Do we truly never know what we have until it’s gone? If so, now may be the best time for our Power Users’ Review of Danger’s Sidekick II. Having boxed up our review unit for its return to Danger, iLounge’s editors feel as if we’ve achieved a bit of psychological distance from the all-in-one telecommunications gadget that we’ve been testing for the past ten days. In fact, it’s just enough distance for us to ask and answer two critical questions of interest to Power Users – people who are familiar with the Sidekick’s core technologies and want to hear more about the differences between the old and new platforms.
Question one is one posed by Power Users who currently own older Sidekicks: will a prior-generation Sidekick user want or need to upgrade to the Sidekick II?
Question two is posed by Power Users who skipped the older Sidekicks: does the Sidekick II represent enough of a break from the past to make joining the bandwagon worthwhile?
The answers to both questions are “probably yes.” iLounge’s editors fall into each of the above camps, and there’s little doubt that Danger has won us over with the Sidekick II platform. While there may be valid reasons for some users to skip or wait on the Sidekick II – especially newbies and those with a low tolerance for service interruptions – we think that this product takes significant steps towards the mass-market appeal prior Sidekicks could only have dreamed of having.
Aesthetics
Like it or not, a good part of the Sidekick II’s added appeal is strictly physical, though those words gloss over the importance of Danger’s design changes to the Sidekick platform. Unlike the earlier Sidekicks, the Sidekick II is slim and almost PDA-like – a better, less spaceship-like shape – and its pop-out screen opens in a deliberate, less toy-like motion. The screen now better resists damage because of an extra hinge that permits a gentle up-down flex against the rest of the unit’s flat surface, and moves if the unit is accidentally dropped.
While similar in texture, the new coloring of the Sidekick II and its keys is more mature: the body has shifted from a cheap metallic gray to a lighter and more sophisticated non-metallic gray, with dark rubber bumpers on the top and bottom sides. White keys (43) have given way to (47) black ones, backlit with red, and power users will appreciate that a clearly illuminated second feature for 12 of the keys is a numeric keypad for telephone dialing, a welcome change from the older Sidekick, which required keyboard-style dialing.
Additionally, the past Sidekick’s colorful wheel is now solid black, while the previously white joypad has been replaced with a more sophisticated and better textured one. The new joypad now glows like the Northern Lights, and gives off a nice variety of signals for background events. Overall, the unit just looks better – a true version 2.0 of the Sidekick platform.
External functionality has not been sacrificed in more than a single way in the new design: in fact, almost everything about the Sidekick II is smarter, and most often more functional than before. The biggest changes in the Sidekick II are its improved use of non-keyboard controls, which now come in three flavors: face-mounted buttons (now six, instead of three), face-mounted scroll controllers (now two instead of one), and side-mounted buttons (now five instead of zero).
The earlier Sidekick’s three face buttons were marked both with words and confusing icons: a diamond meant Menu, a circle meant Jump, and an X meant Back. Now the Sidekick II does away with the words and changes the icons, using slightly more intuitive shapes to indicate Settings, Main Menu, Back and Cancel.
Additionally, the four-direction scrolling joypad previously placed on the keyboard has been moved, Game Boy-like, to the left face of the unit, and the rotating jog dial wheel has been shrunk and spaced between two other buttons: “hang-up phone” and “place call,” for easier cellular phone use. Simply put, the placement, feel, and utility of these new buttons is a substantial improvement, and the only error – the removal of words from the buttons, for novice users – is one a little practice eventually remedies.
We were initially most concerned about the new side-mounted buttons, which are rubberized and positioned such that accidental button presses seemed quite possible. Our fears were unfounded: we never experienced an accidental press during our testing, even though we frequently kept the Sidekick II in a pants pocket. Volume up and down buttons were added to the unit’s left bottom side, while a Power On/Off button is on the bottom right. The top two buttons sit on the Sidekick II’s left and right shoulders, and as with a Game Boy Advance are called Left and Right Shoulder buttons. They appear to have been added mostly for future expansion: the left can be used as a shortcut key for the device’s other features, while the right shoulder button is now useful mostly when snapping digital pictures.
That’s a convenient addition, because unlike the earlier Sidekicks, the Sidekick II has a built-in digital camera on its back. The camera features a fixed (non-zooming) lens, a small “see yourself” mirror, and a miniature flash. Few users will miss the prior Sidekick add-on camera’s pivoting ability, especially given that the new camera offers roughly four times the earlier one’s resolution. More on that later.
A speaker under the lens gives the Sidekick II true speakerphone capability, while another speaker is hidden within the device’s joypad. A tiny microphone hole appears right next to the jog dial. Finally, all three of the unit’s ports – headphone jack, AC power, and USB – are now mounted together on the unit’s right hand side, with a rubber plug protecting the USB port from the elements. Rubber also protects the unit’s SIM card, which hides in a spring-loaded recess next to the left shoulder button.
All that’s missing from the Sidekick II’s design is the prior unit’s infrared port, which unfortunately held more promise than was ever exploited. Similar IR ports on PDAs and cellular phones sometimes permit those devices to act as TV remote controls or communicate with other portable devices or computers. Neither the IR port nor the USB port have been properly utilized in past Sidekicks, so Danger tossed one away. We’ll concede that it’s no great loss.
Overall, the Sidekick II is an iterative but important revision of the prior Sidekick’s physical casing and interface. If any potential user was turned off enough not to buy the old Sidekick based on exterior alone, we’re pretty sure that they’ll have no issue with the new one, and from what we know, the new design is already highly coveted by current Sidekick owners as well. This, of course, is despite the fact that the unit’s core features (screen, controls, and software interface) have hardly changed. Little things turn out to count for a lot in these devices.
Pack-Ins and Accessories
Each Sidekick II includes a few pack-ins: a quick start guide, a full manual, a T-Mobile service guide and SIM card, a power supply for battery recharging, a wired headset for phone calls, and a leather carrying case. No USB cable is included – all of your interactions with a personal computer are conducted wirelessly through T-Mobile’s web site – and the only software you might want, Pumatech’s Intellisync for transferring Microsoft Outlook information to the Sidekick II, is sold separately as a T-Mobile download. That’s a bit of a shame, because it’s a useful piece of software, and we’re not sure about final pricing for it quite yet.
Of the items Danger does include, the only ones requiring comment are the manual, headset and carrying case. The manual’s well written and actually occasionally funny – see if you can spot the little jokes hidden in some of the illustrations. But the headset and carrying case aren’t super impressive – each is a no-frills affair, though the latter is the only component in the entire package that looks dated and out of place, like a holder made for 1980’s aviator sunglasses. Now that the Sidekick II is on its way to “cool” status, it’s clearly in need of better accessories, and we’d imagine that companies like iSkin, Shure, Etymotic and the like could do a knock-out job catering to this need.
Software Interface
Like Apple Computer, Danger has placed user interface simplicity at the top of its list of priorities, and the result is that the newest generation Sidekick begins its life as a relatively well-oiled machine. Other than three minor cosmetic changes, which we’ll discuss first, the Sidekick II’s software is virtually identical to the most recent update of the earlier Sidekick, and that’s a good thing.
The first thing you’ll notice on power-up is that the Sidekick II has a new start-up sequence. When you hold down the power button to turn the unit on, a new animated icon of the Sidekick appears, showing a black and white Sidekick flipping open. Then there’s a chime, and a flashing light show of colors under the joypad, then a T-Mobile logo animation, then a combined T-Mobile Sidekick II animation, then a flashing of the telephone keypad’s lights.
There’s also a new shut-down sequence. After three lines of text that show different portions of the unit powering off, a T-Mobile logo appears and fades away, accompanied by a short light cascade from the joypad.
Finally, the main menu has changed a little. At the top left of the screen is a T-Mobile logo, replacing the circular main menu icon from the older Sidekick. And the menu options, at least on our pre-release phone, have changed a little. The central “phone” icon on the list features a right-side picture of two people using the Sidekick as a phone, and an instruction to flip the screen up to dial. When the screen is opened, the aforementioned numeric keypad glows red (and is highlighted on the screen) to indicate that you can start dialing.
The Main Menu icons have been reorganized: Download Fun (renamed from Catalog) is now at the top, followed by AOL Instant Messenger, Email, Phone, and Phone Messages, which includes a new graphic and a note of how many voice mail and text messages you’ve received. Next is the Address Book “with Photo Caller ID.” The Sidekick II’s integrated camera permits you to snap shots and then assign them to callers in your directory – an easy to use, nice feature. Then there’s the Web Browser, then Camera (which shows your two most recent photos and the number of shots remaining), then Calendar, then To Do, then notes, then Rock & Rocket and your installed applications. In the Sidekick II we tested, the only control you have over the list is the order of installed applications. We would have preferred to have full access to rearrange the entire list – and likely hide or remove some of the icons.
The Applications
While most of the applications on the Sidekick II look and feel the same as those on the Sidekick, there are a handful of changes.
The Phone’s menu has changed a bit, for example. It’s now easier to dial because the light up number pad is mapped to keyboard, though you can use your Address Book for even easier dialing. And there’s no need for a Send Call icon any more, since the unit has its own button, and a disconnect button as well, next to the wheel.
The Phone Messages menu now gives you numeric counters for number of messages remaining and used rather than a percentage of storage capacity consumed. This application’s settings are also more expansive, with ability to include original message in reply, enable reply request by default, and enable delivery request by default.
Our only real gripe with the unit is that the Web Browser application feels and looks the same as the most recent Sidekick version. Despite the fact that there’s more memory inside the new Sidekick II than before, pages seemed to load the same on both units under similar conditions. We didn’t see a cache improvement; it seemed like the extra memory was being reserved for downloadable applications, music, and photographs more than anything else.
Because the Camera application permits higher-resolution captures than before – up to 640×480, or a .3 megapixel snap, the extra memory is probably necessary to store the 36 photos the Sidekick II permits. But resolution doesn’t tell the complete story. We found that pictures taken with the Sidekick II’s camera were better than those taken by another 640×480 digital camera we tested – one inside Motorola’s flagship V-series phone, the V600, displaying generally better clarity, contrast, and color balance.
(Motorola V600 version of the picture – “save as” to your desktop to view in full size.)
(Danger Sidekick II version of the picture – “save as” to your desktop to view full size. Note that in the full size version, text in the window displays becomes readable, whereas the V600 text is not.)
Your viewfinder is the Sidekick II’s screen, which does an above-average job of letting you preview your photos. And while the flash isn’t great, the camera does have a night photography mode and makes valiant attempts to produce usable low-light visuals. We didn’t find the low-light features especially useful, but if you can find a place to steady the Sidekick II when taking a picture, you might get better results.
Instant messaging will be largely familiar to prior Sidekick owners: as before, you can use a bare version of AOL’s Instant Messenger service, complete with a full buddy list and the ability to switch between different conversations on the fly. Users can also download Yahoo’s IM software – for free – and install it as a separate application on the Sidekick II.
While most of our conversations were trouble-free, we’d like to see Danger and AOL work on making the AIM application even more responsive to real-time network conditions, and better indicate whether messages are currently being sent and received from the Sidekick unit. We experienced occasional pauses where three messages would arrive together, sometimes complete with a “Hello?” type message from the other person, attempting to determine whether we were still there. This was an infrequent occurrence, but enough to make us want better information.
Raw Phone, Web and Gaming Performance
We detailed most of our phone, web, and game-related findings in the New Users’ review of the Sidekick II, and as a brief summary, we were highly impressed. Especially as a phone – whether pressed against the face, used with the included wired headset, or used as a speakerphone – the Sidekick II was awesome. People compared our Sidekick II phone calls to wired line calls and the best cellular calls they had received. Regardless, we continued testing the hardware in another city – this time under a greater variety of conditions. Our trials involved continuous Las Vegas-area use of the Sidekick II in places ranging from the city’s airport to sites on and off the famous Las Vegas Boulevard strip, inside and outside of buildings, at all times of the day.
As a web device and as a phone, the Sidekick II was quite literally unstoppable. We made calls without incident wherever we went, and relied upon the web browser to help us find and research every one of our destinations. While web access was never fast in the broadband sense of the word, we could count on Google results within 60-75 seconds, and full web pages within similar times (depending on whether their graphics were turned on or off to minimize load times). We checked the news, scouted sightseeing opportunities, and checked for show tickets online. Our one and only issue came up when we tried to access the online Zagat restaurant guide, and were denied search access because the Sidekick II doesn’t support Javascript. It was a minor limitation, but a reminder that the unit doesn’t do everything. For those keeping score, multimedia content (movies, music, etc) still remains off-limits from the Sidekick II’s web browser; nothing has changed in that regard.
