Constant Issues August 7, 2011

Reviewer:  Mel 

I've had this phone for about a month and it's been a total pain the entire time. It force closes my apps all the time (I know it isn't the apps themselves because I've tested them on other Android phones and had no issues), freezes up a LOT, the charging slot cover never seems to fit properly, and the 4g on it is a horrible battery drain! I wish I'd saved my upgrade for something better. The only positive for me is the keyboard. Looks like I'll be trying to sell this on craigslist so I can get something that actually works properly!

Great phone June 11, 2011

Reviewer:  Paul Kimelman  (Alamo, CA USA) -

I am not a former Sidekick user and I have never used Android before - had a Blackberry. This phone has been great - had it for a week. I tried the Motorola phone, but Motoblue would not work with my corp email.
Pros for me:
- Works perfectly with Exchange active sync (EAS) for corporate email, including calendar and GAL.
- Works perfectly with Yahoo and a POP server for personal email.
- Has nice layout, but I added widgets to get what I wanted. Made it look more like the Mot to be honest.
- The camera and video look great and it is easy to hold with one or both hands.
- Has a trackball that works with the keyboard - like the blackberry. That is great. Beats trying to position by keys or your finger. Keyboard is really nice and easy to use with one or both hands.
- Screen is beautiful. Very clean looking and nice colors.
- Although plastic, feels very solid. Much lighter than the Mot.
- Sound quality is good through speaker and works well with Bluetooth - no disruption when doing things on screen.
Cons for me:
- No flash on camera and only 3MP. Picture look good, but this means no zoom. Autofocus is good but slow.
- No desk charging dock - I hope one becomes available eventually.

I think it is an excellent example of a touch+keyboard phone with a good slider (tilt up and slide really) and a good starting set of apps.

UPDATE: someone complained about the screen in sunlight and I was concerned about this too. But, if you go to settings.display, you can set it to automatically adjust to light (uses forward facing camera) and then it works fine in bright light. Of course, the black background (supposed to be for power savings) of the newer Android makes it harder since the contrast of light on dark is not nearly as good as dark on light. But, this is an android problem. I am hopeful they will make it easy to change this via theme-changer or other control. Right now, you have to edit XML files to fix that.

I hate it December 10, 2011

Reviewer:  Arlene Adamski "Arlene"  (AZ) -

It has poorly placed buttons, It takes crappy pictures and the font is too small. The font on some things is fine, but on others it is way too small. I have seen lots of complaints about this. The location of the buttons makes it too easy to cut someone off or to change the volume on the phone. I am stuck for another year and a half.

Awesome Android May 16, 2011

Reviewer:  Shawn Beal "ShawnieMichael"  (Michigan) -

Here's what I think. So far I have seen negative reviews but I've had absolutely no problem. It takes getting used to and its great for loyal sidekick users. I for one, LOVE THIS!!! Okay, being a previous Sidekick user for 3 years helps. I find this has great features, a nice sleek design and is lightweight. Motorola Slide was a bit heavier than Samsung Sk 4G. Samsung version has more features. Two cameras, one on the back and one in the front. This is handy if you want to do communicate via webcam such as Skype. Granted this is still new, we have to wait and find the apps that allows this use of feature. But what's the hurry? Moving on. Android apps, gamings and such to while away the boredom. Granted, the battery life is iffy but then again, I've experienced this with Iphones, Itouch and such but its ANDROID! It takes up a lot of battery life, GET OVER IT! Recharging will be required. However I found that the battery drains a lot quicker for some reason and it took me a while to work out the kinks. I discovered that if you adjust the lighting mode helps. As well goes for Background data synch, receive data needs to be TURNED off! Its right under Account & Sync and uncheck that. That helps a lot. Keep it off unless you want to download apps it will ask you to turn it back on. Oh not to forget the screen is larger for easy viewing. I found that popping the screen open is little stiff since it's on a hinge but we can adapt to it. The keys are wider apart for easy typing.

This Sidekick 4G is awesome. No regrets.

not a sidekick July 11, 2011

Reviewer:  seldom seen 

I have had the sidekick 2,3 an the lx an absolutely loved the phones. I was very mad to hear that they would not be working anymore, but was optimistic bout the new one that was coming out. I ran to tmobile the first day it was out an purchased it. From day one there was nutton but problems. The machine to transfer my info from sim to sim didn't work so I had to manually put my contacts in. I had to come up with a new email because tmail no longer worked an couldn't sync it with the new email so all wwas lost. The worst part about this phone is ITS NOT A SIDEKICK, its an android phone with a sidekick name stamped on it. The apps that you download never seem to work an are alwayz forced closed. The 4 g network is a joke. I had better download time with the old sidekicks, and I am alwayz having to reload pages cause they aren't found. Overall I'm not happy with this phone at all. For die hard sidekick fans I would find another purchase cause you won't be happy. Oh and the battery life suks on this phone

Don't buy this phone!! January 17, 2012

Reviewer:  Osvaldo Perez "operez"  (usa) -

This phone is super glitchy, turns off all the time and restarts itself. Freezes, randomly clicks on things. Sometimes the touch screen doesn't respond.

While I was excited to have this phone ,since I had all previous sidekicks I was very disappointed in it. To many glitches and being laggy. They should have kept working on this one before it was released.

DO NOT PURCHASE July 5, 2012

Reviewer:  Lilbitofhope  (Largo, FL) -

This phone is as useless as a brick! My husband and I purchased 2 sidekicks when they first came out April 2011. Since then, they have caused nothing but grief. My phone is the worse. It shuts off whenever it feels like it. It magically sends text messages to people and sometimes multiple times. The camera is horrible, thankfully, I always carry a spare. Battery does drain fast if you have a lot of apps running, I learned quickly not to do that. It locks up all the time. I've called TMobile about all the issues but they did nothing about it, except suggest a hard reset which I did, which solved zero of the problems. Thankfully, we are going with a new company and phones as soon as our contract is up.

Phone has a lot of problems July 24, 2011

Reviewer:  Mark  (VENICE, US, Canada) -

my t-mobile reception is great and the battery life is very good; but, I am really disappointed with this phone. I wanted to give it a few weeks before I said anything. It did take me a while to figure out how to turn on data (why was this off?) and it kept resetting to plane mode at first. Anyway, some situations seemed resolved, but...

A lot of apps crash.
The phone tends to hang and I have to unplug the battery becuse it won;t restart.
While I am in the middle of texting, the keyboard keeps turning off - or going to search or something.
The way the power button is set up it must get hit a lot because it pocket dials a lot. Once, when taking it out of my pocket, I even found my phone on a purchase page in the marketplace.
It only lets you send a text to 10 people at a time
The camera turns on unexpectedly a lot and then won;t turn off - in addition, the modal window to shut down the phone loads over the camera and when you try to click the shutdown option it takes a picture instead

There's more - but this is a good sampling of what is wrong with this phone

Had this phone for close to a year now. If i could do it over i would. July 11, 2012

Reviewer:  Jeremy D. Emily  (United States) -

I have had quite a few issues with it. The phone freezes occasionally when i'm not even using it. I will go to use it and it will be frozen. Apps like twitter seems to crash constantly in turn freezing my phone. The worse thing about this phone is when i'm trying to text message and half way though it kicks me out of the message. I go back in and start over. Some days i can be kicked out of half the messages i send. The phone portion works similar. I will be dialing a number and then boom i'm looking at my background. I will have to go back and try again. I have contacted Samsung about this issue and they said to just restart my phone when that happens and it will fix it. Even if it does fix it that is quite annoying... picture this... I need to call my wife to let her know i forgot something at home. She will be leaving with in the next 2 minutes. So i grab my phone and start to dial her number and run into that problem. I retry another time and the same thing happens. So i restart my phone. This phone takes about 2 minutes to restart. By the time i'm done i call her and its to late. (I have done this a few times, very forgetful) If i could do this over I would have payed the extra for a better phone. I will so i do like the slide out key board though.

Lots of Issues May 6, 2011

Reviewer:  JD 

I was looking to replace a MyTouch 3g with a modestly priced touch screen phone. That phone turned out to be the Sidekick 4G with its physical keyboard. And as for the Pros, that keyboard ended up being the only major plus. But other minor positives were a responsive touch screen, long battery life, and the Wi-Fi calling.

Here's the NEGATIVES: It's big, it's heavy, it feels slightly cheap, the USB/charging slot cover is annoying to open, the phone charger is extremely cheap, the camera is only 3g with no flash, poorly placed buttons, poor volume control, the Cloud Text feature is a joke, and the screen is virtually unreadable in sunlight.

Let me explain. This heavy and bulky phone will not fit into any cell phone holder your midsized car has to offer. Plus, it leans quite far out of the cup holder. The plastic case and the big buttons give it a cheaper feel. When going to charge the phone, if you don't have a decent fingernail, you'll never get the USB cover open. The charger is so cheap you'd think it was a replacement knock-off. The camera takes decent pics, but using it is a complete pain. First, the physical camera button is placed opposite the power button. So when you go to take a photo, you accidently turn off the phone. And because of the phone's size, you need to use both hands and your other hand tends to get into the camera shot. The loud speaker can be great when needed, but it should be responsive. I've had the volume one notch above vibrate and the email notification was still audible 10 feet away. The touted Cloud Texting was a major selling point for me so I tried it via my iPad 2 - pitiful. The website layout and text functionality was poor. I'd be embarrassed to advertise it. And lastly, I was floored when I walked outside and literally had to find shade in order to vaguely see the icons on the screen.

I've had the phone for 2 days and it's going right back.

Dudeee May 5, 2011

Reviewer:  Vanessa(: 

This is an amazingly sexy phone! i cant wait to get it i used to have the origional sidekick and an andriod phone so i know already that this phone is going to be SICK! - Nessa

Amazon Wireless Delivery Sucks May 13, 2011

Reviewer:  dharcourt 

I ordered a cell phone from Amazon Wireless. Because I have a PO BOX, i didn't get 2 day shipping, but it's been 2 weeks and I still haven't gotten it. The tracking information says it was delivered by FedEx to my town on May 2, 2011 and it still states that my phone is in transit. If you need your phone in a timely manner, I suggest you order it straight from AT&T, pay the price and wait for the rebate to come. Now I can't make any changes to my account until I get the phone. Yikes, I made a mistake.