I’ve spent a couple of days with the Sidekick LX - a dark blue one to be specific. (It’s also available in brown) It still looks like a Sidekick and has the familiar flip-around screen that every Sidekick has had since the original Sidekick (other than the brand-new Slide).

Hit the link to read more on this new version of the Sidekick!

Seasoned Sidekick users will love the nice big 3-inch diagonal screen (the SK3 had a 2.6 inch screen) which uses the same LCD technology in Sharp’s HD Aquous LCD TV’s. The screen resolution has been increased from 240×160 pixels to a generous 400×240 pixels. Now the Sidekick can join the many other pagers that already have high resolution screens. I personally use a Treo 755p, and was not exactly excited about the LX’s new screen. At least I didn’t have to put up with the tiny low resolution one that the SK3 and SKiD both have.

Other new hardware features include four blue LED lights at the top and bottom “shoulders” of the LX that flash in various patterns to let you know whatever alert you set up is going off. I like this feature because you can set down your LX on your desk and when those LED’s flash - you know you’ve got mail or an IM, or what not. I bet many people will like this because they often put their SK in the perfect spot for best reception such as a window sill or shelf - and still can see across the room that they’ve got something happening. Too bad the LEDs are only blue - not multicolor like the one inside the trackball.

The LX also charges via USB now. There are only two plugs - the headphone jack and USB plug. Finally! There is a nice orange LED that lights up when the LX is charging. Unfortunately, it does not change color to let you know it is fully charged. Rats! The LX has a Hearing Aid Compatibility (HAC) rating of M3. The overall size is pretty close to that of the SK3, and the thickness is about 75% of the SK2, but it feels much slimmer due to the nice design, and is almost an ounce lighter than the SK3. The keyboard has gone back to the SK2 type plastic membrane style, but it feels like it’ll do a better job and not “bubble up” like the SK2 one. The keycap fonts look nice, and the letters are white, letting the backlight shine thru for easier reading in the dark.

Battery life is increased, so claims T-Mobile. The SK3 had a stated 4.5 hour talk time, and a 3 day standby time, and the LX increases the talk time to 6 hours, and standby time to 4 days. With daily light use - a couple of emails and being on AIM with the ocassional chat, I usually got at least two days and sometimes part of a third, off a single full charge. Under heavy use - web browsing all the time, chatting on AIM, frequent emails and text messages, I got about a day off a full charge.

Software-wise, there are a couple of tweaks and the OS is now at version 4.4, and you can see the OS has been redesigned to take advantage of the nice high resolution screen. You are able to load in custom themes (for a fee) via the Download Catalog. (The catalog seems kind of sparse, and I think it is because they are only allowing programs optimized for the new high resolution screen to show up in the LX’s catalog.) Otherwise, it is the same familiar Hiptop OS that has been around since day one of the Sidekick line. There is even a custom MySpace client for the Sidekick available - but for a monthly fee. Read the fine print!

Like we mentioned earlier, the OS now allows for changing fonts. We found this to be both good and bad. It’s good that now we have a choice - the bad is that we have a choice between three font sizes - small, medium, and large. Thats it. There wasn’t a significant difference between these fonts. We estimate that the Large font is about 18 points in size, the Medium font is about 16 points, and the Small font is close to 14 points. Thats a good range, but we’d have liked to have either more choices in font sizes, or a larger gap between the medium and large sizes, or at the very least an option to change the system font to bold. But this is one area we have been asking for improvement, and we’ve got something finally!

Other software changes incorporate MMS (multimedia messaging service), which is basically text messaging with photos and audio notes attached. Now it has become easier to text other phones with your latest vacation pictures. The web browser supposedly has received some tweaks and the back-end processing is supposed to be better. Now you will see fonts rendered according to the site design. I think this is bad because now we can’t change the web font size, it has to follow what the site wants. A new feature for the LX is what Danger calls “Quick Jump” which is accessed by pressing the Jump and End buttons at the same time. It pops up a window that gives you a quick overview of all messages, and allows you to jump between all currently open applications. It’s quite useful! I like it cuz when the LX buzzes, you mash Jump/End and see what’s up. It’s as easy as that!

You would think that with the bigger and better LCD taken from Sharp’s TV technology, that the LX would be perfect for video on the go. Unfortunately, at launch time, there was no indication regarding video capability, and I can not see how it can play video even from the internal MicroSD memory card. The T-Mobile network is still too slow to allow streaming video anyways. However, I understand that the new version of the Hiptop OS (v4) has “hooks” built in for video, so that may come down the road. We shall have to wait and see.

The LX changes a few things, but basically keeps everything that has made the Sidekicks popular among the deaf and hard of hearing community - easy push email, and great instant messaging support. It’s a nice upgrade if you are still using a SK1 or SK2 device, but I don’t think it’s as much of a upgrade if you have a SK3 or SKiD. If you need the larger fonts and want to enjoy the bigger screen, then by all means go for the upgrade!

Click on the photo below to visit Gizmodo.com to see a video comparing the LX to the SK3, SKiD, and the new Slide.

Gizmodo also has a photo gallery showing how the LX sizes up to a iPhone, Palm Centro, & BlackBerry Curve.

Many thanks to GoAmerica for loaning a LX to us to do this review!