The 5-megapixel camera lens is located on back sans flash, and you'll find the microSD expansion slot behind the battery door. Most notably, when trying to capture an image using the camera button, our palm would often hit the power button and thus lock the phone before we could snap the picture, which got to be quite annoying. We found the placement of some of these buttons to be troublesome. Rounding out the device are a 3.5mm headphone jack, a volume rocker, and a power button on the left side (when held in portrait mode) and a Micro-USB port and camera button on the right. If you don't need to write a long message, the Sidekick 4G also offers the Swype virtual keyboard. Some are already preset-for example, pressing the jump key and the M key will launch the music player-but you're free to create more. You can also create shortcuts using the combination of the jump key and a letter. We also appreciate the presence of the number row and dedicated keys for emoticons, the symbol, and voice commands. There's ample spacing between the bulbous buttons and they provide a nice tactile feedback, so we were able to type quickly and with very few mistakes. Once open, you have access to the five-row QWERTY keyboard, and as we've come to expect from Sidekicks, the keyboard is excellent. That said, videos looked a bit murkier compared with some of today's higher-resolution screens. In general, images and text looked sharp on the 480x800-pixel display. You can also quickly zoom in on Web pages and pictures, thanks to the pinch-to-zoom support. The addition of the touch screen makes it easy to launch apps and scroll through the various home screens and menus. However, it's rather small, so we found it difficult to use for scrolling through lists.įortunately, you don't have to rely on the joystick for all your navigating needs because the Sidekick 4G has a 3.5-inch touch screen-a first for a Sidekick. There's also an optical joystick that doubles as an OK button as well. The jump key will bring up a view of your most recently used applications. Gone are the dedicated Talk and End buttons, but you still get the home, menu, back, and jump keys. We miss the soft-touch finish found on the previous Sidekick, but you do get a textured surface on back along the left and right side, making it easier to grip the device when you're using the keyboard.Īnother aspect taken from the old Sidekicks are the four navigation controls that occupy each corner of the handset. The Sidekick 4G has a plastic construction and feels relatively lightweight but solid.
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