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New cellphone a rival for palmOne smarty

By Rob Pegoraro
The Washington Post

T-MOBILE / KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS Sidekick II, made by a Palo Alto, Calif., company, is on the chunky side as cellphones go, but still easily slips into most pockets.

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Wireless-industry types like to talk about "smart phones" as if these souped-up, Internet-capable, multifunction cellphones all have the same IQ. But they don't.

Some, barely brighter than average, offer basic address-book and calendar programs, plus the ability to run a few add-on programs.

Others go too far in the opposite direction; they're really handheld organizers with a speaker and microphone soldered on. They're fine Web browsers but terrible phones.

So far, palmOne's Treo 600 has done the best job of balancing voice and data use. But it's about to have company; early this fall, T-Mobile will introduce a smart phone with some of the same thoughtful design as the Treo — and a couple of clever features missing from palmOne's handheld.

This Sidekick II — developed by a Palo Alto, Calif., company with the oh-so-hip name of Danger Inc. — is on the chunky side as cellphones go, at about 5-1/8 inches long by 2-3/8 inches wide by 7/8-inch thick, but still easily slips into most pockets.

The distinguishing feature of the Sidekick II is its swiveling screen. This color screen stays exposed, allowing you to jump online quickly. But when you need to enter text — to dial a number or type a message or Web address — the screen flips out to reveal the keyboard.

Sidekick II Manufacturer: Danger Inc. Lineage: Successor to the Sidewalk. Price: $299, set to be introduced this fall. Resellers: T-Mobile Use: Comparable to other PDA/phone hybrids but with different design. Can take add-ons.

Unlike the two models T-Mobile has sold since 2002, the Sidekick II adds a built-in digital camera. It's also a good deal thinner than its predecessors, if slightly longer. It's being priced at $299; the older version currently on sale goes for $200 after a $50 rebate.

Despite its odd appearance, the Sidekick II feels natural to talk with, unless you open the screen, in which case you should use the included hands-free kit. Its keyboard, a bit like a BlackBerry handheld's, is wide enough to allow reasonably comfortable and fast thumb typing.

Likewise, the LCD screen, just over 2-1/2 inches diagonally, is wide enough to make reading Web pages or e-mail practical and mostly pleasant.

The included Web browser rearranges Web pages to eliminate side-to-side scrolling; that can make them unusually long to read, but a speed-scrolling shortcut eases moving around. Unfortunately, the "back" command can't be selected with a keyboard command.

E-mail access offered a similar mix of versatility and oversight. Danger's software supports the two major standards, POP and IMAP (the latter means it can access AOL accounts), but the keyboard shortcut to tell it to check your mail doesn't have a corresponding menu item, meaning users might miss this command entirely.

This program also appears incapable of deleting a message off your mail server; spam that you discard on this device will show up when you check your mail from your regular computer.

Instant-messaging functions smoothest of all; its AOL Instant Messenger software worked fine, except it's missing an indicator to show when the other person is typing (as opposed to ignoring you in the hope you'll stop IMing). A Yahoo Messenger program can be downloaded for free, but MSN's popular service isn't supported as yet.

Like shots taken with almost every other camera phone, the Sidekick II's pictures look horrible — these low-resolution, 640-by-480-pixel shots are blurry, blotchy and often strangely tinted. It doesn't help that the flash isn't engaged automatically. But this camera will suffice for the usual camera-phone tasks of taking snapshots and getting spousal authorizations for purchases.

Danger Inc. includes a simple but capable suite of contacts, calendar, to-do and memo programs. Other applications can be downloaded from a limited catalog; most carry a small fee. This compares badly with the Treo's wealth of third-party software, much of it free.

There's no MP3 playback option; the Sidekick II doesn't have enough internal storage (just 16 megabytes of flash memory) and lacks a memory-card slot.

The lithium-ion battery consistently ran through more than two days of moderate use.

What's remarkable is how Danger has made all these functions accessible with just a jog-dial switch and four buttons at the corner of the device.

For the $20 a month T-Mobile charges for data use — covering unlimited Web browsing, e-mail and instant-messaging use on the company's slightly-faster-than-dial-up GPRS network — you also get an amazingly slick synchronization service.

Voice calls cost extra. All the info on the Sidekick II, from photos to calendar events to e-mail to all your settings, is mirrored on T-Mobile's servers and accessible from any Web-connected computer. There's no need to install software on your computer, or even to own a computer.

This is a remarkable piece of work.

Danger says its distribution deal with T-Mobile is not exclusive, so AT&T Wireless, Cingular Wireless and other carriers using the GSM wireless standard can sell their versions of this later. They should. Customers could use this choice.

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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