Sharp Sidekick LX

“I've always loved Danger's line of fliptop two-thumbed smartphones, and this is easily the best one yet. At less than two pounds and 2.4 x 0.9 x 5.1 inches, it's far trimmer than the clunky Sidekick 3, and it's as handy as ever for emailing, IMing, and web surfing. But I'm no longer comparing it to the last Sidekick-I'm comparing it to the iPhone. The LX is a half pound heavier and more and 3 cubic inches bigger than Apple's latest gizmo, and yet it feels lightweight in comparison. The 400 x 240 pixel screen is bright and sharp but feels like a postage stamp compared to iPhone's 480 x 320 touchscreen. And don't get me started on the browser, which still chokes on frames and many Web 2.0 functionalities. Hey, Danger boys, you need to up your game a bit more to stay in the smartphone race.WIRED Uses standard 3.5 mm headphone jack, which works with all of my earbuds and headphones without requiring me to shell out for some stupid freaking adapter. (Do you catch my drift there, Apple?) The tactile feedback of the well-designed thumbboard still beats a touchscreen for epic IMing sessions.TIRED No Wifi. MP3 player has just 120 megabytes of built-in memory. Cruddy non-intuitive interface. Speaker is tinny and fuzzy.”

“The Sidekick LX is a worthy addition to the Sidekick family, and the 3.5mm audio jack and impressive display are very welcome. The battery life is ample for enjoying all of the features of the handset without having to hunt for a charger throughout the day. However, the camera is merely decent for a 1.3 megapixel, and leaves something to be desired with the lack of video capture and more image editing options. The build quality is superb, and the instant messaging and music player applications should be copied by all. Despite the lack of proper desktop sync and the absence of Java applications, I would rate the Sidekick LX as Highly Recommended.”