Gadgetory

greetings this is deke Adams from pocketnow.com and today we're going to take a closer look at the t-mobile sidekick 4G specifically the hardware so sit back relax and enjoy the show compared to my daily driver the t-mobile sidekick 4G is about the same size width length and weight it's just a little bit longer over here and due to the way that the edges roll up on either side and then zit selves for a slightly better feel in the hand in so far as holding it landscape versus portrait mode compared side by side with the screens the t-mobile sidekick 4G has a much more warm screen compared to the samsung epic 4g which has a definitely cooler color the it's hard difficult to see in this particular view but the brightness even a full brightness on the t-mobile sidekick 4G is a little brighter at least to my eyes compared to the epic 4g screen sizes is obviously though the winner here will be the epic 4g but you know comparing a four-inch screen to a three-and-a-half inch screen is a no-brainer viewing angles on the t-mobile sidekick 4G are actually quite good try not to get to the glare here before you but try to show you the that we don't use lose any real color casting and there's not really any fading and it's visible from all angles without losing visual aspects here we can see the multicolor LED blinking to give us a test message it happens about once every minute I really like this functionality let's talk briefly about the buttons that we see here on the t-mobile sidekick 4G the orientation is obviously a little funny looking when you're looking at it from a portrait view the buttons themselves are nice and cookie good tactile feel and the button the area in which you click the button ranges from all the way on one edge almost to the middle on either button and there's a small spot right there that you can actually click either one the speaker grill here the the volume that comes out of it is great I find that the clarity is good opposed to the back speaker which I really dislike the sound of even though it is plenty loud I don't like the tone that comes out of there and for those of you who were took issue with the white comment I apologize it is a chrome cover on the cover itself inside it is black is where the speakers are but inside this case it's white where that covers up anyway speakers on the the speaker phone is that like I said plenty loud enough but I just don't like the tone if you look down here at the bottom once again moving back to the buttons comment and apologize for just kind of jumping around but the once again the orientation seems a little odd until you look at it from the this angle and considering the sidekick is a landscape device and always has been and this position actually makes sense where you have easy access with your thumbs and with these grips on the back to hold on to to operate this device in a very efficient manner something I'm getting a little used to and even your power button and your volume keys make better sense down here on the bottom and the headphone jack because holding it in this position makes a lot more sense than holding it in a candy bar style position with your home screen all the way at the top and your power button in an awkward spot down here at the bottom by default the screen is set to not rotate unless you pop the screen open or slide it close this can be adjusted in the settings I like the fact that they configured it so it's simple to use but wonder if some users are going to start the device up and turn on the web browser and try to flip the phone this way and find that it doesn't actually change the orientation at all I really like the way they integrated this d pad on the sidekick 4G easy finger swipes back and forth to highlight new areas to scroll up and down through zones it works really slick pretty accurate from what I've found and you can simply press down firmly on the button itself to launch whatever view that you want to go into for example apps here if i press this then i go into the app drawer and then back to home as a nice feel and the buttons on either side are the same as the buttons on the top the microUSB door and the microUSB port located on the same side is the dedicated camera key button I'm just a little concerned about this piece of plastic I've never had good luck with devices that have a door that has to be opened and closed multiple times and I think that in the future we'll probably see people complaining that this door comes off it's pretty stiff when you flip it open there's not much give here and this could get clipped off pretty easily it does snap back down in place and stays in place appropriately and doesn't actually open very easily as you can see here speaking of charging the battery and battery life I found that the device performed admirably even with plenty of phone calls today in my test I was able to make the device last the entire day with very little issue and when I put it on the charger to charge it charged actually very quickly especially compared to my epic 4g and perhaps it lasts longer than my epic 4g because of the smaller screen size or that they've got the processor clocked in some fashion even though it is supposed to be a 1 gigahertz processor some underclocking or some other things might be going on there want the wait for folks at XDA to tell us what's really happening behind the scenes in the processor world but again I found that the battery life was more than sufficient to last me throughout the day with plenty of phone calls the headphone jack is nice and solid I solid click as you plug things into it these are my headphones no headphones included with the device itself what I did find though is when the headphone jack is plugged in if you've got one that's particularly large you may find that when you're holding the device it's difficult to get to the volume up button because the cable will be in the way the volume levels in the sidekick 4G through the headphones we're more than acceptable plenty loud for my ears found the audio quality to be more than satisfactory the microphone hold down at the bottom and thus far I have had very well endowed no complaints about the volume levels when making phone calls on the device I haven't had any issues with call quality coming in and I haven't had any issues really with making phone calls out the only time I did have a problem with this device thus far was when my battery got low it made a strange beeping noise and then turned off pressing and holding the power button did turn it back on I did end up charging the device shortly after that but I haven't had it happen again so I'll keep you informed in the full review if I see that issue come up the keyboard on the t-mobile sidekick 4g is nicely spaced as good solid presses to the buttons they feel nice the only part that says really thrown me off as the throw between the keys is a little wider than I'm used to on the sprint epic 4g that i normally use so it's taken me a can't I quite as fast as I I can on my other phone but I'm finding that the more I use this device the faster I can type it does have a backlit tray and you can see it light up there I talked briefly about the house solid this device feels it's very little give or extra clicking sounds when you twist the vice other than me mashing the buttons on the other side as I'm doing this the back of device is nicely rounded making it easy to hold on to no real rough edges just smooth plastic these little ridges come in handy when you're kicking out that screen for the first time you don't feel like you're going to lose your grip and throw the device on the floor sadly the t-mobile sidekick 4G does not have a flash this will present issues any dark environments outdoors it takes pretty great pictures for the 3 megapixel camera that it is but I've done some initial test shots and i'll post those in the full review as mentioned in the first look unboxing this device is hspa+ compatible 4g compatible and as you can see from these speed test results and will post these in the full review as well you the initial results here were from the basement of my house in my office and then when we're out and about we are getting 6.4 and then inside a restaurant down on a basement later this evening that wraps up our hardware coverage of the t-mobile sidekick 4G if you have any particular questions or comments leave them in the comments field and we'll see what we can do thanks for watching room