What Do You Think of the Sidekick 4G?
It’s out, a lot of you got one. What do you think? Did T-Mobile do the Sidekick name justice?
We’d love to hear your opinions, any tips you have for people, and what you think this means for the future of the Sidekick.
If you haven’t gotten a Sidekick 4G yet, what are you waiting for? They’re available on T-Mobile right now for only $99!
May 5th, 2011 at 2:39 pm
I posted a while ago on here about the new sidekick being on android and touchscreen. No one believed me. ;] lol
May 7th, 2011 at 6:10 am
Love that the sidekick is finally back up to speed with the other phones out there on the market. Love the Apps, love how they kept it fairly similar to sidekicks in the past and since I have been a loyal t-mobile customer for so long, They changed my $30 a month unlimited data and text plan to $19.99 data and text plan. I don’t have minutes on the phone since I have AT&T as well but for 20 bucks a month with a powerful android phone, who can beat that!?!?! Love it!
May 7th, 2011 at 6:12 am
Oh yea, the battery life is my only complaint about the device. I have a blackberry torch and I think the interface for that phone is just a lil better but I now use my Sidekick 4g on T-Mobile as a hotspot for my Blackberry Torch on AT&T so I don’t have to use up data usage on AT&T’s expensive and limited plans!
May 8th, 2011 at 10:12 pm
You run a data only SK 4G for $19.99 a month?
May 9th, 2011 at 5:58 am
Yes, only after after I called to cancel my service because I was orignally paying 30 a month for the past 7 years… I have never made a late payment and have been a loyal customer since 2004. After telling me I could no longer carry that rate plan and I had to buy a new phone with a 2 year contract I was definitely upset and ready to leave. But the nice gentleman in customer service did what he could to keep me as a customer and I appreciate that.
May 10th, 2011 at 2:08 pm
So you’ve been on a data only package all along? Correct me if my memory serves me wrong but wasn’t that $39.99 back and he say? Was it $29.99..? See what those $x9.99 do to us 😉 confuses us 😉
May 11th, 2011 at 8:57 am
Wow I guess I already forgot and had it to have been $39.99/mo (but I guess it was $29.99) see what those $x9.99 prices do to us!? 🙂
I am getting so tired of T-Mobile’s game playing of -20%, loyalty discount, HUGE differences in what REALLY is available/possible and what they will TELL you over the phone. I just feel they are doing anything and everything “behind the scenes” and milking each one of us for what we are willing to pay!
I am GLAD FOR YOU that you were able to get the price you were, but also getting very tired of their DIRTY GAMES!
To some they have said “we will grandfather” you on your $19.99 data package but then turned around and informed the consumer that oh but we need $30 for your unlimited texting (for two lines) and from what I can see NO FAMILY PLAN on their site (with data) excludes TEXT, so they are just playing what I call an “eBay seller game” you know one of those “$1 buy it now w/ $40 shipping for a tiny item”?
I am so ready to dump them for their dirty dirty games!
I will be calling CS and loyalty dept today and get some answers!
May 12th, 2011 at 10:26 am
i got them to give me free shipping, wave the upgrade fee, and tax. i wound up paying about 75 dollars for my phone. i had to call everyday and complain though. i wasnt taking no for an answer.
May 12th, 2011 at 11:08 am
..about right (no upgrade fee and free shipping) and they are applying the $50 MIR as instant rebate now, they did that for me even IN STORE. I bet they are doing everything to keep / get new customers right now after they lost half a million Q1 this year…
May 13th, 2011 at 2:17 pm
Yeah, I am fine with the phone price but having trouble with the rate plan. No grandfathered deals when I tried calling today. The best they’d do was the $79 unlimited everything, which is what they have on the website already. Really was hoping to get more of a discount. I’m no longer in a contract and I’ve been a customer since 2002, so I was hoping for better.
May 14th, 2011 at 11:24 am
i was a loyal viewer of this site, went from a sidekick 2 (mr.cartoon), to a sidekick 3 to a sidekick LX but the sidekick ERA ended there this is not doing the sidekick any justice. i tested this phone out and the sidekick is officially dead, DEAD.
i own an iphone4 now and i will never downgrade to a sidekick ever again and everyone here should do the same UPGRADE TEAM IPHONE
May 15th, 2011 at 12:05 am
I get mine on Monday or Tuesday. I can’t wait. I’ve seriously never wished it would be Tuesday.
May 17th, 2011 at 4:22 am
Hi there, would the internet work in australia on this device if it were unlocked?
May 17th, 2011 at 11:08 am
HOW DO YOU UPLOAD PERSONAL RINGTONES?
May 17th, 2011 at 9:51 pm
It can’t send videos???
May 18th, 2011 at 10:54 am
The new Sidekick allows you to send video out via MMS/E-mail.
May 20th, 2011 at 8:33 am
@B how? I been trying to figure it out for days now.
May 21st, 2011 at 10:18 am
I have a question and i hope some of you can help me i just got my sidekick 4g this past week like it so far is fun and a very good phone, however i have one question and i have tried i believe everything and i can’t make it happen, how can i send video’s i took to my friends i can’t do it i don’t know where to go to make it work thanks for your help.
May 21st, 2011 at 11:23 pm
i want to know where i can find some sidekick 4g themes i am not having too much luck on google.
May 24th, 2011 at 2:39 pm
Only in EDGE speeds due to the (almost unique) freq used by TMoUSA for 3G (which they insist on calling “4G”)
May 24th, 2011 at 2:39 pm
Correct they are really in reality grandfathering NOTHING, but they will try to trick you into believing they are!
May 24th, 2011 at 2:41 pm
I have agree and I am in the same boat! SK1-SK4G but now dwn to an iP4 only, miss the KEYBOARD a lot but that’s it…
May 24th, 2011 at 2:41 pm
Through email or?
May 24th, 2011 at 2:42 pm
Just like ANY OTHER Android phone, plenty of forums out there…
May 24th, 2011 at 2:46 pm
https://support.t-mobile.com/main.html?selectedDeviceId=9071&manufacturer=T-Mobile&navtypeid=6&prevPageIndex=2#hashsearchModule/video
May 25th, 2011 at 8:26 am
thank you SKNWS I APPRECIATE IT
May 25th, 2011 at 8:31 am
because sknws my problem is that i want to send video’s to my friends like i use to on my s.k. lx 2009 you know like 20 senconds long the other night i tested it by recording a video for 10 seconds and it worked, but that sucks 10 seocnds come on right you can’t do much in 1o seconds. the other problem i have encountered is that i can up load my videos or photos to my pc like i use to on my s.k. lx 2009. i tell you i miss it because it was so simple hook it up to your computer pick the photos and videos you wanted to transfer to your computer and click go i can’t do that yet.
May 25th, 2011 at 6:46 pm
Ok, got mine today. Not super happy with it, I’m sad to say. I really want to like this phone, but I have a bunch of issues with it:
1. Miss the old keyboard set up. Comma and alt keys really need to be on the right side! Getting used to it but still keep hitting the emoticon button by mistake, or worse, the search key.
2. Mixing up the touch screen and buttons and keyboard isn’t very intuitive. The touch screen isn’t responding to me as well as I’d like, and the keys are sometimes a little slow. I miss my super fast all-hardware inputs. Would also help if pressing enter would work when a link is highlighted, but it doesn’t.
3. Trackball, I miss you very much. Even more so, I miss the page up and page down keys.
4. It’s hard to answer the phone. Touch screen only, and you have to drag and then press.
5. Had some weird problems with Gtalk and other apps. Things seem to be a little laggy, even when I shut down everything to free up memory.
I dunno, I think what it boils down to is I’m dissatisfied with Android and I’m not happy with the button set-up. It’s close but not close enough to a Sidekick format. And Android is just kind of messy and laggy. It’s not nearly as optimized and zippy as I was hoping for. I feel like I’m using a wussy Linux GUI. I think I’m going to return my phone, cancel my new contract, and just use my old SK as a phone/text only device while I go research other phones. Maybe a Blackberry would work better for me. Maybe I’ll just get a nice tablet for web/email on the go.
May 28th, 2011 at 5:27 am
Well, after 3 weeks of use, my wife & I are both “happy” with the Sidekick 4G, but there are things we definitely miss.
Keyboard is near-perfect for size and ease of typing (though it is lacking in some areas, I mention those below). Most reviews say it is the BEST keyboard on the market.
the Tons of Free Apps is very nice. Love the ability to order apps from the web and have them appear on the device.
Contact manager needs a “Merge Contacts” feature (like Google Contacts has) in addition to their “Join Contacts”. Also there is no ability to select which of the Joined contacts gets to show the Picture Icon (it seems random and inconsistent – my wife’s is still her twitter account pic – which is an Egg – instead of her facebook profile pic)
The Sidekick convert process was very buggy with contacts – most of the data ends up in the NOTES field and has to be manually moved to the appropriate fields. have not found an app (or PC-based freeware) that will speed up this process.
Sad that several built-in apps (Phone, Theme Changer) are NOT compatible with Landscape mode.
The Phone App requires a Slide-Motion to accept or reject a call (presumably to avoid butt-calls & butt-answers) but this is very awkward. Also there seems to be no easy way to call people from the phone app. (older sidekicks had a recent button, a redial button and an easy access to the call log — you could even start typing a name from the screen and a drop-down list of names would appear). I ended up adding Speed Dial to a Jump Button to call my wife & a 2nd button for my daughter. If you have to make several calls in a hurry, it become VERY frustrating. Full-screen callerID (like the iPhone) would be nice (and I have seen a paid app for that),
System does lag a bit and i have crashed it a few times. Currently both of us have a texting error that keeps sending us the same texts over and over again.
I have replaced Email with Gmail app, SMS with GeekSMS, added Opera Mini as a 2nd browser. Added WeatherBug as a replacement for WeatherUnderground, Added IMO Beta for AIM/YIM, etc. (But it still doesn’t give a constant “on” status like older sidekicks did) YouVersion Bible is WONDERFUL, Apps Organizer is great for sub-folders on the Home Screens.
I added RingDroid to customize Ringtones.
Many apps seem to like the white text on black background theme which may be fine if you are 20-something but it makes readability a big problem when I already have to take my glasses on & off to help me see.
On a scale of 1-10, I will give it about a 7. If i get 3G/4G in my area, then an 8. If i get Streaming Netflix after that, then an 8.5. (though I am pleasantly surprised that SideReel works pretty well!)
~~~~~~~~~~
Things I miss from the old sidekicks:
Autotext (there seems to be a few PAID apps that may come close but I have found nothing free – I had TONS of saved Autotexts over the years.),
hinge sounds,
Loud enough speaker so the alarms actually wake you up!
customizable themes (you are given only 8 choices and can “override” the background with custom wallpaper or live wallpaper, but the color theme choices must be 1 of the 8)
ability to select multiple items from a list,
customizable sound profiles that are assigned to the volume button ( I Used to have things like “Night Ring”, “All Silent” “Maximum with no Vibe”, etc. — I can still do these but only through special utility apps {ex.: “Quick Settings”} and they are NOT assigned to the volume button)
nearly unlimited symbols available via the hard keyboard (very few are available now — You could access all the unicode symbols throgh and ALT+#### keyboard combo as well as the huge selection on the SYM menu; current Sidekick has a VERY limited SYM selection (only 12, with 6 that are already on the hard keyboard: “{“, }”, “[“, “]”, “\”, “|” ) with a few extra symbols assigned to most letters, numbers & symbols — with a hard-press on the letter/number/symbol to pop-up a customized Symbol menu),
A dedicated tilde key (we now have to use the soft keyboard to get a Tilde),
Alt key on both sides of keyboard, (Makes it awkward to type a “!”)
Jump+R (no idea why all the letters *AND* the numbers are assignable EXCEPT “R” – also NOT “@”, “.”, & “,”),
hidden Snowbored game,
ability to TRULY Multi-task (example, if I jump out of the browser into another app and jump back to the browser, it kicks me back to the home page and I have to go thru History to find the page I was on).
May 30th, 2011 at 7:11 pm
After being on SK since 2005, I am done with SK & TMO. First, I couldn’t find any TMO store near me with a working SK4G, only dummy phones. How do they expect anyone to continue with them if it can’t be properly tested out. Then I call the ‘Loyalty’ dept for any deal to keep me on as a customer (since legacy SK dies 5/31) and offered me crap!
So went to Sprint and signed up for their Android ‘Sidekick’ aka Epic 4G and LOVE it. Got it for FREE for switching + 25% (Corp Disc) off monthly bill (more than I got on TMO).
Will miss the Legacy SK. Hope all who have gotten the SK4G will be happy with it. Hopefully better SK versions will come out before the Death Star aka ATT take over.
Take Care
May 30th, 2011 at 11:16 pm
After reading your complaints i have to admit i have almost all the same.. especially the browser.. i was shocked that it really isnt able to multitask i used to be able to jump out of aim, to web, back to aim, to email, to text, and the app store all in under a min getting everything i needed done, with this everything has to load and load again, and i have to wait to find the page i was on in the web application.. and its like nothing is right there and ready.. its terrible.. its hard to highlight text, take screen shots, and share everything super quick its almost like a step backward.. i completely share the feeling on what you wrote.
June 1st, 2011 at 9:07 pm
I agree with you guys also. It drives me crazy that it erasses EVERYTHING everytime you leave an app, web browsers especially. No email is saved on the device, if I’m not in a network signal, forget it I get basically access to some games, that’s it! But just remember, this backwards way of doing stuff is how most seem to think. Weird. But I’m adjusting. The assbackward way cut/paste/copy “works” is madning. But I still give it an 8 on a 1-10 (I get wifi & 4G everywhere in Cincinnati where I live). I love android-sidekick, love the android market, WAY better than crappy iPhone – BY FAR so I’m happy. Had my SK4G since th da it was released April 20th, got it at a physical store no shipping or “upgrade” rip-off fee. Great app recomends Mike, I’ll add Tweetcaster if your a Twitter user its VASTLY suprior to the stock Twitter android app.
Anyhow I’ll stick around unless AT&T actually does buy T-Mo. IF that happens I’m out, no question (for MANY reasons).
June 2nd, 2011 at 5:09 am
Hey guys. To send videos u have to download the WHATSAPP thing its free. It sends videos fast. Only thing is when I tried to get it from the market it wouldn’t let me. I think I had my cookies off or something I don’t know. But I got it from the WHATSAPP site with no problem and its awesome.
June 2nd, 2011 at 8:19 am
i love how you put it “assbackward” i dont know how anyone thinks this is normal!! i miss being able to copy past and select text with ease and go through old email and go from window to window
June 22nd, 2011 at 7:40 am
Not that anyone is gonna check in here, but…
I dunno if it’s something Samsung did, but all these complains about app switching and copy/paste seem odd to me, as my Original DROID from nearly 2 yrs ago doesn’t have any issues with anything you guys are talking about. I can leave the browser for like an hour and come back to the same page I left it on. Granted, if you do too much stuff, the Android system is designed to ‘dump’ older programs to free up memory for more recently used apps, but I haven’t had this issue many times.
And copy/paste on my DROID is as simple as hold down shift, press the arrow key, and hit menu + c (or x for cut) in my texting app or notepad. Or you can hold down shift and drag your finger across the screen and either hit menu + c or hold down on the highlight and a pop up menu will give you the choice of copy/cut/etc.
June 22nd, 2011 at 8:59 am
I will try the copy and paste thing you mentioned, as for the other thing you mentioned, i am able to go back to the same page i was on in the browser even if it has been a bit of time, that isnt the issue its the fact that the app has to load and anything that was written on that page dissapears. With the real sidekicks you can go in and out of “apps” without having a load time, and any text you type in those apps stays so you can return to them. That is what this droid aka sidekick lacks.
June 26th, 2011 at 2:15 pm
i think this phone fails as a sidekick, it doesnt have the authentic swivel screen, its jst a android wih the name sidekick on it.
July 3rd, 2011 at 8:29 am
Like I’ve pointed out before their “grandfathered” offerings are all a hoax, they just joggle the numbers around to trick you, don’t fall for it! The SK4G (not really 4G!) is what it is but TMo are very sneaky at this point about their plans. Call them insist on getting the old plan, it has worked for plenty of users!
July 3rd, 2011 at 8:35 am
100% correct!
September 10th, 2011 at 6:24 am
But the problem for the sidekick is wen I go to open something on th internet it says”windos limit reached” soo I don’t know how to remove that any suggestions
June 10th, 2012 at 5:05 am
I’m wanting to get the sidekick. I was an avid blackberry user but always wanted a sidekick, but I wasn’t on tmobile.
I’ve recentlly switched to simplemobile and they run tmobile service so I’m looking to get an unlocked one and root it to gingerbread.
Right now I have a Blu Products android phone dubbed Dash. I love the phone but I miss having a keyboard.
Anyone have any suggestions on where to find an unlocked one that is in very good condition for the least price?