T-Mobile Color Sidekick for 169.99 w/activation NO REBATES! AIM on the go!

[LoqT]

You've probably seen all those anime style commercials with Johnny Chase (Name of the character with the Sidekick). Its good if you enjoy web browsing on the go and the AIM client is great if you use instant messenger alot. Unlimited data plan starts at 29.99 and so far that's the only plan that I can see on AMAZON's website. However it'd probably be a good idea to call up T-MOBILE to see if you can switch plans to one that has voice in the event you want to use the device as a phone. I think the 29.99 for unlimited data and browsing on a device that has a QWERTY keyboard is well worth it. Post your thoughts.

It's selling for 169.99, regular price at all other places is 299.99 (ie Tmobile stores/CompUSA/Circuit City).

LINKY

EDIT.. It seems that you can use any existing t-mobile plan and add an additional 20 dollars for unlimited data. With me I have 3 other phones on a family plan and adding the sidekick was 10 dollars, plus 20 dollars for unlimited data.

 

[blazerazor]

Yes, this phone is SO COOL!, but do you have to a aol account to use it, or does it come as part the deal???

I think this phone is alot cooler than the N-Gage Nokia phone, (which is $300 + $35 each game + service). I have a backlit game boy advance I rarely play now. And most chicks use AOL so thats a BIG plus

My contract is up with cingular, time to move on to better things.

 

[MJGunn]

Originally posted by: blazerazor
I think this phone is alot cooler than the N-Gage Nokia phone, (which is $300 + $35 each game + service).

What a random thing to bring up. Other than the fact that they're both cell phones, the two devices are extremely different.

 

[LoqT]

Originally posted by: blazerazor
Yes, this phone is SO COOL!, but do you have to a aol account to use it, or does it come as part the deal???

I think this phone is alot cooler than the N-Gage Nokia phone, (which is $300 + $35 each game + service). I have a backlit game boy advance I rarely play now. And most chicks use AOL so thats a BIG plus

My contract is up with cingular, time to move on to better things.

You don't need an AOL account. its just AOL Instant messenger, and if you're unfamiliar with that, it's just the ability to pretty much chat with anyone with an AOL account or AIM account at all times. The device is always connected to the internet so you'll hear it when you get AIM msgs. If you are buying this device for the games, its probably not what you're looking for. Its a communications device (WEB surfing, AIM, e-mail, etc.).

 

[cc624]

my friend works @ gamestop and he pleaded with one guy to not buy the n gage but the guy proceeded to waste his 350$ what an idiot ngage is the worst thing if u wanna talk you hve to hold it sideways instead of using the flip side of the phone they decided it would be nice to do that

 

[Spac3d]

The sidekick is amazing. Once my contract is up, I am defintely buying it.

 

[MJGunn]

Originally posted by: cc624
what an idiot ngage is the worst thing if u wanna talk you hve to hold it sideways instead of using the flip side of the phone they decided it would be nice to do that

It may look stupid, but have you actually tried holding something like that to see how it feels? Grab a GBA and hold it like that, its actually pretty comfortable.

Besides, at $300, even if it fails miserably as a game machine, its still a great cell phone deal. Its got just about every feature you could possibly want in a top end cell phone, with some games thrown in on the side

 

[AnyMal]

I'm curious now, how good is the web browsing on that thing? Do you get all the features of the web, or are you limited. What about connection speeds?

 

[weepul]

i'll admit that this fone sounds neat and is a plus for AIM ppl, but 2 things: the fone is too bulky and i waste enough time chatting on aim when i'm @ the computer, do i really need to waste mroe time to chat when i'm not at one? i mean if they need to contact me, they can always call me on my cell.

//krunk (^_^x)

 

[LoqT]

Originally posted by: AnyMal
I'm curious now, how good is the web browsing on that thing? Do you get all the features of the web, or are you limited. What about connection speeds?

The web browsing is done through Danger's (the company that makes the sidekick) servers. Anytime you enter in an address the info is routed to danger's servers and they reformat it so that you can view it on the sidekick. It doesn't work for all websites, but the alot of them do work except for ones that would use alot of flash, javascript, multiple windows. As far as speed goes it uses T-Mobiles GPRS network and theoretically can go up to 192 kbps... the general consensus is that it's at least as fast as a 56k dial up connection depending on the quality of the signal. Take into consideration this thing is mobile, so you're not going to get broadband speed. Danger does a good job of getting rid of unnecessary graphical downloads, such as backgrounds on web pages, so surfing should be faster.

 

[lukatmyshu]

Here's my question ... if I get a SideKick, and unlimited data access can I hook it up to my laptop and surf on my laptop via the sidekick?

 

[MJGunn]

No, the sidekick does not have any kind of connectivity to connect with other devices.

However with any t-mobile plan you can get unlimited data for $20

 

[ViperV990]

Isn't the Treo 270 like $30 or $50 AR w/ activation? How does it compare to the Sidekick?

 

[olouie]

Originally posted by: MJGunn
No, the sidekick does not have any kind of connectivity to connect with other devices.

However with any t-mobile plan you can get unlimited data for $20

There is a USB cable for the sidekick that can hook up to computers i think

 

[addragyn]

I almost bought one of these last year when they were released w/ B/W screen. After reading the posts on the hiptop.com forums I nixed it. Seems there are some artifical limitations built into the system that I would find really annoying. Like sync! And being used as a bluetooth modem.

Danger routes and stores lots of stuff on their servers in as far as I can tell a chance to make more money. Too bad. The device seems hella cool. I wish they also hadn't done an exclusive deal with T-Mobile. Oh well.

 

[addragyn]

Maybe I'll still try one, it is a fantastic looking design. I just wish it could do everything it's capable of. Or maybe they could buid a business version. W/o camera and color. Make it smaller and let it bluetooth with a laptop.

 

[hddy]

i've been using one for the past week and it is VERY cool, it's pretty easy to use as well.

 

[SenorBiggles]

I have a black and white sidekick that I got almost a year ago when it was released. If you read through the hiptop forums that addragyn mentioned, you'll find a lot of problems with the device. I've had my share of problems. I'm currently using my second sidekick. My first one stopped connecting completely, no reason whatsoever. This second one fell into a coma once, which I was able to fix with a hard reset, and I have had numerous connection problems that was related to t-mobile and cingular. It is also common knowledge that the sidekick has a horrible antenna with a lot of rf problems...

Despite all that, I love my phone, and I think it's the greatest. Everybody thinks it's the coolest thing when I whip it out and flip the screen open and they see the keyboard. I guess I was lucky to get in early and got the unlimited data for a year with 200 anytime minutes, 1000 weekend for $40 a month. I rarely use the phone, but it works well enough...just that antenna issue...

 

[MJGunn]

Originally posted by: olouie

Originally posted by: MJGunn
No, the sidekick does not have any kind of connectivity to connect with other devices.

However with any t-mobile plan you can get unlimited data for $20

There is a USB cable for the sidekick that can hook up to computers i think

Its not active, they put it there "just incase" they felt like using it later on.

 

[MagicOnline]

just ordered it, thanks.

 

[duhh]

awesome phone, great price, but if you need aim that badly away from your computer, perhaps that $170 is better spent on psychiatric care

 

[mdplayer00]

TO ALL:

Get this fone if you don't spend a lot of time talking on the phone. I have the b/w edition and here's what i think its good at and how I rate them in terms of 1 to 5:

e-mail: 5 (guarantee you won't miss any spam)
txt msg: 3 (when no signal or weak signal, have problem sending out the msg)
aim: 4 (great but this phone doesn't have cut/copy/paste, so have fun try to browse a url a friend send u over aim)

 

[AnyMal]

Can anyone give more info on web browsing? How do webpages look? Load times?

I've owned Toshiba e740 and browsing the web on it was too painful with all the scrolling.

 

[Hummercash]

Originally posted by: mdplayer00
aim: 4 (great but this phone doesn't have cut/copy/paste, so have fun try to browse a url a friend send u over aim)

just take a look at the upcoming features... http://www.danger.com/developers_peek.php

also, just so people know, the price @ amazon is up to $199 w/ activation.


.//chris

 

[ragazzo]

i've got till may before i can get the color sidekick.

one thing to note, danger will be upgrading the software so that there will be a lot more features, including copy & paste ability.