This is my fourth day using the T-mobile sidekick (which is the T-mobile branded Danger Hiptop.) A bit larger than a deck of cards, the sidekick is a cellular phone with web, email, AOL instant messenger, and text messaging, as well as PDA type software programs including an address book, calendar, to do list, notepad, and a few games. It comes with a small camera attachment that takes very low resolution (and very small) color pictures which can be attached to email.
The device is $250 and comes with a $50 mail in rebate. After the taxes and the rebate I payed $220.61. T-mobile is only offering one plan for the sidekick. $39 a month gets you 200 voice minutes to use any time, plus 1000 more minutes to use between midnight Friday and midnight Sunday. Beyond that, calls cost 35 cents a minute. You also get 1000 text messages a month.
The real deal is that this plan gives you unlimited data. That includes the web, email, and AOL IM. The fine print only guarantees this flat rate data pricing for the first year. Supposedly it will go to 15 megabytes a month after that (and $3.50/MB for additional data.)
The voice plan is horrible. The data rate that is scheduled to go into effect next year is not very good either (although still competitive with the current bad offerings from all other providers.) But all you can eat data for one year is incredible, and completely unprecedented in the US market. There was no way I could stop myself from getting one. One gloriously connected year, at the very least.
Here are my initial impressions of the unit.
It was a little bigger than I expected when I first saw it, but now I think it's the perfect size. A little bulky for the front pocket, but it fits easily and unobtrusively in my back pocket. This works well for me. When I sit down I take it out and put it on the table if I'm sitting at one, or just hold it in my lap. I'm constantly using it, so that works out well.
The screen flips open in a very satisfying way. This hooks people right away, similar to how I noticed people responding on their first spin of the iPod wheel. It's clever, on the way to being sexy if you're the type that can find gadgets sexy. I guess it's partly due to the newness of the device, but it definitely causes a small stir in public places. Strangers routinely ask me about it, in a way that's not very common in my New York City neighborhood.
It's light, but sturdy feeling. Fits nicely in the hand. Overall it seems very well produced.
The screen itself is black and white. Both the screen and the keyboard are back lit (with various timed energy saving settings.) Text appears razor sharp. And also very small. Several people I know cannot read it at all. There is no way to increase the font size. Still, if you can read it, the quality is superb.
The keyboard is standard qwerty style, obviously in much shrunken form. Holding the unit in both hands and punching out letters with your thumbs seems like the prefered method of operation. The keys are about the same size as a blackberry, but with a little more room in between. I rarely mistype, and this is my first experience with a thumb-board. The software also helps out by, for instance, capitalizing the first letter of a sentence for you. It also will add in the apostrophe on a host of common words (cant, dont, wont, etc... become can't, don't, won't.) There is an editable list of such transformations you can add to and delete from. Also, the @ gets it's own key. The little touches like this are really great. Very well thought out.
The unit comes with it's own email address, but it can also check up to 3 external POP3 accounts of your choice. Email to my main address comes through immediately.
The web browser, displaying to such a tiny screen, has it's work cut out for it. It deals with the problem cleverly, with generally acceptable results. But, of course, there are some rought spots.
All web traffic goes through a proxy at danger. They reformat the pages before passing them on to your device. For the most part columns that are made to appear side by side on the page get reformatted so that one is above and the other below. All graphics are severly shrunk (and made black and white I would guess) before being sent. This mostly works out, and the reduced graphics are a great speed bonus over the slow wireless connection.
Cookies work fine. Forms work, with the exception of file uploads. There is no javascript support (although you might call that an advantage.) No flash or other multi-media formats. The unit identifies itself as Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; AvantGo 3.2; ProxiNet; Danger hiptop 1.0)
I haven't used AOL IM, although it's presence made me go to AOL and try to figure out if I could just buy IM access. I don't think you can. But it says something that I even considered giving money to AOL. Hopefully we'll see some convergence in the IM network space soon.
I also haven't done any text messaging. Do people do that in this country? I'm not sure.
The PDA features (address book, calendar, to do list...) are very well designed. The most unusual thing about their approach is that you don't ever plug it into your computer. Instead you get a webpage (SSL) where you can access all your information from any web browser. This completely solves the platform problem (windows only, mac only, etc...) You can export your contacts file from entourage or Palm desktop and then upload it to the webpage. Or you can enter information by hand (either through the web, or right into the device.) While it's not as slick as, say, iPod syncing on the Mac, I think it's a good way to get universal compatibility. Any changes you make through the web interface are automatically synced over the wireless connection to your unit. This happens instantly.
One huge advantage to this system is that all your information is always backed up since it's in your device, and also on the central server. So unlike every other device on the market, when you leave this one in a cab you just have to get a new one, and it will instantly and automatically have all your data in it. That's very cool, especially if you've ever lost of phone that held the only version of all your phone numbers.
Coverage in the east village has been spotless. I've heard bad things about T-mobile (formerly Voicestream) but my experience has been great. Granted I haven't gone out of the neighborhood much. I've heard that NYC and Washington DC have great networks, but the rest of the country is not as good. Here's a coverage map. You can see it's a very urban thing. Whole states are completely without service (Montana anyone?) I'll have to wait and see as I travel. I haven't done any scientific study as to connection speed, but I'd say it feels about half as fast as a dial up connection. It's probably a little slower, actually, but the pages it is loading are smaller. Google (a notoriously fast site) loads in about 5 seconds, although occasionally it will take as long as 15 (again, this isn't a scientific result.) I'm sure in a few years this will seem ridiculously slow, but for me it seems fine. Just being able to google the strange bottle on the wine list while I'm in a restaurant is mind blowing enough - I don't really care that it takes a little longer than my desktop machine.
It will not work in Europe. Although it's a GSM phone, you can't swap in a different SIM (well, supposedly you can, but you only get voice, no data.) I've heard it works in Canada, but I can't confirm that.
The battery charges in a few hours, and lasts all day. And I use it constantly. (But again, I don't talk on it, which I bet would run it down faster.)
In case you can't tell, I love it. It has, literally, changed my life. For the price I can't see any reason not to get one. Well, I guess, assuming you can see the very small text, and your fingers (thumbs really) work on the small keyboard. And, of course, also assuming you live in an urban area that has coverage. And, oh yeah, also assuming you don't need to use the phone for more than a couple quick calls a day. So, okay, I guess it's not for everyone. But if you fall into the group that evades those problems, go right now to the store and buy one. You won't be sorry.
Now if they could just get it to do ssh my head would explode with joy.
Thanks danger!