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Sharp Phone

Sharp Sidekick LX (T-Mobile ONLY!) Brown

The T-Mobile Sidekick LX measures 5.1 inches wide by 2.3 inches wide by 0.8 inch deep.

The LX weights 5.7 ounces and is the slim handheld which is easy to slip into a pants pocket or purse. The Sidekick LX has a large 3-inch, 65,000-color TFT display and a sharp 400×240-pixel resolution. The quality is amazing, as text and images look crisp and colors are more vibrant. You can also choose to customize the home screen with different background themes and change the font size.

To the left of the screen you have the Menu and Jump buttons and a directional keypad that doubles as the phone’s speakers, and on the right, there is a Cancel button, Talk and End keys, an OK button, and the trackball navigator. Along the bottom edge of the handheld, you’ll find the volume rocker and a power button, while along the top, there are two function buttons that perform different tasks depending on which application you are using.

To expose the full QWERTY keyboard, just nudge the upper-right corner or the lower-left corner of the screen to trigger the swivel mechanism, causing it to rotate a full 180 degrees and snap into place. All buttons are good and Sidekick’s keyboard is one of roomiest and easiest to use.

There’s plenty of space between the keys, and the buttons now have a frosted, more tactile feel to them. There’s a mini USB port and a 3.5mm headphone jack so you can plug in a decent pair of headphones.

The camera lens, flash, and self-portrait mirror are located on the back, and there’s a microSD expansion slot, it’s located behind the battery cover.

Finally, for pure flash, you can program the LX to light up like a Christmas tree to alert you to new messages, phone calls, and so forth. There are LEDs built into each of the four corners of the device, and they, as well as the trackball, will flash various colors, depending on what scheme you choose.

The LX comes with its own T-Mobile e-mail account, but you can also access up to three additional POP3/IMAP4 accounts. The LX ships with an always-on push e-mail solution so you’ll automatically be notified of new messages (with an accompanying light show).

Though the Sidekick is definitely not a business-minded smartphone, you can have your corporate e-mail forwarded to the LX, and there’s an attachment viewer for Word documents, PDFs, and JPEGs. For instant communication gratification, the Sidekick comes preloaded with three of the major instant-messaging clients: AOL, Yahoo, and Windows Live Messenger.

You can hold up to 10 simultaneous conversations, and you can switch between conversations quickly by pressing the Menu and D buttons. And if you happen to lose your network connection in the middle of a session, the Sidekick will save the chat until a connection is restored.

The Sidekick LX also supports text and multimedia messaging. The LX’s phone features include quad-band world roaming, speed dial, call forwarding, three-way calling, a call log, a vibrate mode, and a speakerphone.

The Sidekick’s address book holds up to 2,000 contacts, with room in each entry for five numbers, an e-mail address, an IM account, a Web URL, a street address, and notes. For caller-ID purposes, you can pair an entry with a photo, a group ID, or one of 22 ringtones.

Other wireless options on the LX include Bluetooth and EDGE. Supported Bluetooth profiles include those for use with wireless headsets, hands-free car kits, or you can wirelessly send a vCard to another Bluetooth device. As for data connection, you’re left to rely on T-Mobile’s EDGE network with speeds of around 100Kbps to 130Kbps.

The one distinctively new feature on the Sidekick LX is the MySpace Mobile application. Located under the Communities page, you can now log on and interact with the social networking site almost in the same manner as you do on your computer. The user interface has been customized for mobile phones, but you still have the ability to edit your profile, upload photos, and so forth. MySpace fiends can even stay signed on and get real-time updates on new messages and comments, friend requests, and see which friends are currently online.

Given that the LX will mostly likely attract younger users, the MySpace integration was a smart move on T-Mobile and Danger’s part.

The Sidekick LX has a built-in music player. You can now play MP3, WAV, WMA, and AAC, among others. You can search for songs by artist, album, genre, or composer, as well as organize tracks into playlists. To get songs onto the Sidekick, you can use the included USB cable and then drag and drop tracks from your PC to the Sidekick.

The T-Mobile Sidekick LX comes with 1.3-megapixel camera. You can take snapshots in three sizes -1,280×1,024, 640×480, or 320×240 - and adjust the quality from low to high. You can activate the flash, change the JPEG quality, or rotate the image, but that’s about it. Once done snapping photos, you can create an album right on your device or share your photos with others via multimedia message or e-mail.

Other features on the Sidekick LX include several organizer tools, such as a calendar, a notepad, a task list, one preloaded game, and a download catalog where you can get more ringtones, games, and applications.