The T-Mobile Sidekick 3 is the replacement for the Sidekick II device. So far, T-Mobile have not officially confirmed the Sidekick 3, but there is absolutely no doubt that it exists.
It’s worth noting that the device says Sidekick 3 on the back when opened - not Sidekick III, even though T-Mobile use Roman numerals for their MDA series.
It’s a somewhat smoother and smarter looking device than the old Sidekick - the Sidekick 3 has more of a look of a portable gaming machine rather than a communicator, although overall the layout is pretty similar.
Arrange to the left and right of the QWERTY keypad are a series of other control buttons, and in these photographs they are actually quite dark, so perhaps they are illuminated when available. This certainly gives the Sidekick 3 a tidier look.
On the back of the Sidekick 3 is a 1.3 megapixel camera with flash, which is a definite improvement over the VGA camera in the older Sidekick. Whether or not the T-Mobile Sidekick 3 can take memory cards is unknown (although a miniSD slot is rumoured).
T-Mobile Sidekick 3 One major question is the size of the screen. On the Sidekick II, the display was a wide 240×160 pixel unit and it appears that the Sidekick 3 has a screen in the same 1.5:1 ratio. This would seem to rule out the rumoured 320×240 pixel display which would have a 1.33:1 ratio instead.
It appears to be more compact that the Sidekick II - we estimate that the Sidekick 3 measures around 128 x 57mm (5.0 x 2.2 inches) compared with 130 x 66mm (5.1 x 2.6 inches) on the old one.
This particular version of the Sidekick 3 is an 850/1800/1900 MHz GSM device for North America with Bluetooth support. As with the Sidekick II, it’s quite likely that there will be a 900/1800/1900 MHz version for Europe at a later date - be prepared for a long wait though, it took nearly 6 months after the launch of the US Sidekick II until a version was launched in Germany, and over a year for the UK. It is rumoured that the Sidekick 3 will support EDGE, but not 3G.
There’s no doubt that the Sidekick is hugely popular in the US, and the Sidekick 3 is likely to go on to be very successful. However, in Europe the Sidekick has only had a very limited share of the market, partly due to it shipper later than the US version and partly because of tougher competition.
We’re expected to hear an official announcement of the Sidekick 3 very soon. Please subscribe to our newsletter for updates.
Brigit Meyer on May 29th, 2008 at 9:52 pm says:
AaAaaw Me WaNt DaT PhOnE .. iT FrOm StEp Up 2 !!