The Sidekick is powered by the same 1GHz Hummingbird processor you’ll find in Samsung’s Galaxy line of phones, like the Vibrant or Galaxy 4G, also on T-Mobile. Using the FCC-approved Ookla Speedtest app, the Sidekick 4G averaged 0.91 mbps download speeds and 1.26 mbps upload speeds. The South Park neighborhood in San Francisco, where PCWorld is located, has never been a very strong area for T-Mobile. So I have to give T-Mobile the benefit of the doubt when I report the rather dismal speeds I achieved with the Sidekick 4G. LTE network (18.30 mbps and 7.39 mbps), but it outperformed both AT&T’s HSPA+ network and Sprint’s WiMAX network. It couldn’t hold a candle to Verizon’s blazing speeds on its The Galaxy averaged 3.38 megabits per second for downloads and 1.13 mbps for uploads. Galaxy S 4G in a few cities, including San Francisco, and were pleased with the solid 4G-like speeds. Tested T-Mobile’s 4G network using the Samsung This does not mean that the Sidekick 4G can actually hit 21-mbps download speeds, but rather that it contains a radio and chipset capable of faster speeds than earlier T-Mobile 4G phones achieved. HSPA 21 network technology, meaning that the handset is capable of reaching the 21 mbps of (theoretical) throughput speed that the T-Mobile network is built to deliver. I was able to get it up and running and used the Qik app to easily connect to a T-Mobile myTouch 4G also running Qik. Rather than pushing it all the way down, as you would to take a picture, you push it halfway to focus.Ĭonsidering how bare-bones the back-facing camera is, it was kind of surprising to see that the Sidekick also has a front-facing camera for video chatting. The dedicated camera shutter button can be used to help focus on an object or person. There’s nothing special about the camera interface either it has the same interface you’ll find in stock Android 2.2. My indoor pictures had a dark cast on them and looked a bit on the fuzzy side. And I was mostly right: The 3-megapixel camera took decent outdoor shots, but they were nothing spectacular. On paper, I wasn’t exactly wowed by the Sidekick’s camera: A 3-megapixel camera with no flash? It sounds like a spec from one of the old Sidekicks. If you want to search for full length movies, you’ll have to use the separate Media Hub app. Oddly, Media Room does not seem to incorporate Media Hub’s content. For example, a search for the band “Lightning Bolt” showed artist results from Slacker, YouTube videos and links to downloads via Amazon MP3. It is a pretty nifty app because you can search across multiple platforms for the content you want. Media Room is an all-in-one media app that incorporates content from YouTube, Amazon, T-Mobile TV and The Sidekick comes loaded with T-Mobile’s Media Room as well as Samsung’s Media Hub. You can also update your statuses using Google Voice Actions with the app. This idea isn’t exactly cutting-edge (we’ve seen it on most Android devices), but we always find it useful. The Sidekick also has a handy Universal Composer app when you want to update multiple social networks at once. I can think of a million other use cases for Group Text. This function came in handy when I was trying to organize who was bringing what for a dinner party. You can create groups of your contacts and allow them to reply-all within the group regardless of what carrier they are on. Group Text was pretty easy to set-up, however. Unfortunately we couldn’t test Cloud Text, as it won’t be live until the Sidekick is commercially available (April 20). Cloud Text lets you message your friends or groups from multiple platforms-including PCs. Group Text lets you create, name, manage and participate in reply-all group text messages. The Sidekick 4G comes loaded with two messaging features, Group Text and Cloud Text. All of this is easily done via the settings menu. Under Settings, you can assign a different color to flash when you receive a new text or e-mail, or when you miss a call.īoth the Lock screen and the Jump key can be customized with shortcuts, so you can quickly access whatever apps and programs you need. You can also customize the LED notification light. For example, you can pick from a couple of different themes for homescreen and menus. Samsung included some nice customization features in the OS.
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