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First Look: T-Mobile Sidekick II The one-time World Class Product of the Year PDA gets a much-needed upgrade.by Grace Aquino, PC World
T-Mobile's Sidekick II.The first Sidekick revolutionized mobile Web access by offering a decent-size screen, a usable keyboard, and solid applications--and it won our 2003 World Class Product of the Year Award for its trouble. Two long years later--an eternity in tech time, during which PalmOne's Treo 600 supplanted the original Sidekick in many mobile users' hearts--the Sidekick II is finally on its way (it will be available later this fall). Fans of the original model will find much to like, but critics of the first aren't likely to be swayed by its evolutionary successor.
Offered by cellular provider T-Mobile and co-developed by Danger and Sharp, the $300 Sidekick II addresses many user complaints about the first device, including the fact that it made a lousy cell phone.
After testing an early production sample of the Sidekick II for two weeks, I can report that it works much better as a phone than the original. Voice quality in my informal tests equaled that of a standard cell phone. The unit's speakerphone was good, too, though it needed a bit more volume. Nevertheless, the unit's flat...