Sidekick LX Cell Phone Review - Organizer

Alfredo Padilla
Published on December 11, 2007 Comment on this

Synchronization Ease of Use (0.0)
The Sidekick LX does not synchronize with your desktop computer by default. Instead you will need to go to T-Mobile's web page, log into your account and download the Intellisync software. This software allows you to synchronize the address book, calendar and to-dos with Outlook. Because we only review items that come in the box the Sidekick LX will receive a zero here.

Alerts (7.0)
You can only set alerts on the Sidekick LX for calendar appointments. We found the flexibility of creating alerts to be very good, with several pre-set options and the ability to create complex patterns. When an alert sounds you'll definitely notice it as the ring tone sounds, the device vibrates and all the lights blink. If you miss this you have to be really trying. The alert notice will appear on screen with the option to view the appointment, dismiss the alert or snooze it for five minutes. We found the alert functionality on the Sidekick LX to be very good, the equal of other smart devices out there. About our only annoyance was that you can't choose to snooze an alert for varying period as you can on Windows Mobile devices.

Over the Air PIM Sync (1.0)
The Sidekick LX automatically synchronizes your contacts, calendar appointments, tasks and notes with your online T-Mobile account. Although this isn't over the air PIM synchronization in the strict sense of the word as found on BlackBerry and Windows Mobile devices in partnership with an Exchange Server, we did think it was worth a point.

Address Book

Adding Contacts (5.11)

The Sidekick LX took an average of 19.58 seconds to add a new contact name and number. This is just an average time, as you can see in our table below several of our comparison handsets took around 19 or 20 seconds in this test as well. The LX is nowhere near as fast as the LG Voyager or the BlackBerry Curve 8320 though. To get the Sidekick LX's score in this test we time how long it takes to go from the home screen unlocked until we have added a contact name and phone number. We do this test five times and take the average for our final score.

Cell Phone	Time (sec)	Score
Sidekick LX	19.58	5.11
AT&T Tilt	19.74	5.07
LG Voyager	11.76	8.50
BlackBerry Curve 8320	14.1	7.09
Helio Ocean	21.24	4.71
Apple iPhone	20.86	4.79

Looking/Sorting/Search (5.0)

The Sidekick LX's contacts program provides some very good sorting and search options. By default contacts are organized alphabetically by last name, but this can be changed to be organized by first name. As we've seen in other areas we also appreciated that you can choose ascending or descending for each of these sort options, which we thought was helpful enough that we awarded a bonus point.

You can also filter your contacts by category. Finally you can search through your contacts using the Sidekick LX's QWERTY keyboard. Thankfully this search will work on a contact's first or last name regarding of sorting option, which isn't always the case.

Fields (6.6)
When you create a new contact on the Sidekick LX you can enter up to 33 pieces of information, although we should note that includes up to ten phone numbers, five email address and five instant messaging IDs. You can also enter multiple web addresses, physical addresses, a birthday, notes, job title, company and category. Although the sheer number of different fields and the variety doesn't quite reach the level we've seen from Windows Mobile or Symbian Series 60 devices, it's far higher than most regular phones we've reviewed.

Speed Dial/Voice tags/Voice command (2.33)
The Sidekick LX supports speed dials but does not support any type of voice activated dialing like tagging contacts with a voice command or using speaker independent voice command. This is a shame because the Sidekick LX is exactly the type of awkward to use device that would benefit from voice dialing.

Calendar

Adding Calendar Items (8.04)

It took us an average of 12.44 seconds to add a new lunch appointment to the Sidekick LX. This is not a particularly good time, but it's also not the worse we've ever seen. You can see below that the Tilt, Voyager and Curve all did significantly better than the Sidekick LX on this test, but the Helio Ocean and iPhone both did significantly worse. We found ourselves slowed down slightly on the Sidekick LX by the fact that a fifteen minute reminder is not added by default. To perform this test we start at the home screen unlocked and time how long it takes to add a lunch appointment for the following day with a reminder fifteen minutes before.

Cell Phone	Time (sec)	Score
Sidekick LX	12.44	8.04
AT&T Tilt	7.46	13.40
LG Voyager	9.28	10.78
BlackBerry Curve 8320	6.04	16.56
Helio Ocean	24.2	4.13
Apple iPhone	18.92	5.29

Calendar Views (5.13)

The Sidekick LX provides users with five different views for the calendar. The default view is "upcoming", which is similar to the agenda view we've seen on other phones. It's basically just a simple chronological list of all your upcoming appointments with time and title. This is a useful view to get a quick glance of what's upcoming, but we would have liked a little more information about appointments like maybe icons that indicate reminders or recurrence.

The day view is a little different from traditional day views. Like most you have hours along the left side of the screen, but unlike most it doesn't show just a single day at a time. Instead it's continuous, as you scroll down to the end of one day the next day begins. On the one hand this does simplify the interface a little, but on the other hand it also makes it a little more difficult to control the date you are at. Of course appointments are blocked out in the time period that they are scheduled, but like the daily view only title and time are shown, even if there's plenty of space available.

The weekly view is more traditional. There's a grid with days along the top and hours on the left and appointments are blocked out during the time they are scheduled. The week is seven days instead of the traditional five days, but the screen is large enough that this isn't an issue. We also appreciated that the title of the appointment is on the time blocked out, unlike many weekly views that leave out the title altogether or just list details at the bottom of the screen. On the other hand we also would have liked to see more details than just the title.

The monthly and yearly views are less useful than the others. The monthly view is just the current month with a small dot to indicate days that have appointments. The yearly view is just a calendar that shows six months at a time, like you would see in your checkbook, if you still use a checkbook. The other three views on the Sidekick LX are much more useful on a daily basis and made pretty good use of the large display, which is not always the case on devices. Our biggest issue with all the views was that we would have liked to see more information about each appointment included. Also, unlike contacts, categories are not supported in the calendar so there's no way to filter your views, although you can change the icon for your event, this doesn't seem to have any functional impact and it doesn't show up on any of the calendar views.

Fields (7.0)
The fields available when you create a new appointment are better than average, but not as good as some smart phones we've seen like the AT&T Tilt. You can add a title, start/end time, set up recurrence patterns, including complex custom ones, set up a reminder and add a note. You can also set a location, but other items like all day events, categories and invitations are missing. Still, this is a pretty good selection of fields and all but very advanced users should find it sufficient.

ToDo/Tasks

Adding ToDo/Task (6.99)

The Sidekick LX took an average of 14.3 seconds to add a new task. This isn't the greatest time we've ever seen, but it's not bad either. You can see below that it's better than our comparison phones; although you'll also note that many of our comparison phones don't support asks at all so in many ways we're just happy to see this functionality on the Sidekick LX. To get our score for this test we time how long it takes to go from the home screen unlocked until we create a new task reminding us to pick up groceries. We do this test five times and take the average time for our final score.

Cell Phone	Time (sec)	Score
Sidekick LX	14.30	6.99
AT&T Tilt	17.77	5.63
LG Voyager	n/a - no tasks	0.00
BlackBerry Curve 8320	14.80	6.76
Helio Ocean	n/a - no tasks	0.00
Apple iPhone	n/a - no tasks	0.00

ToDo/Task Sorting and Prioritizing (3.5)

The Sidekick LX's tasks program does not support categories so you cannot filter tasks by category. It does support prioritizing tasks, and you can sort taks by priority as well.

Fields (5.0)
When creating a new task on the Sidekick LX you have a pretty basic set of fields to choose from. You can set a title, due date, priority and add a note. That's about it. There's no support for recurrence, alarms or categories. One nice feature of the tasks program is that when you delete a note it isn't immediately gone forever. Instead it is placed in the trash, which can save you from accidental deletion as you actually have to empty the trash to get rid of it forever. We like this feature and although it's not strictly a field we feel it is deserving of an additional point.

Notes

Adding Notes (6.04)

We were able to create a simple note on the Sidekick LX in an average of 8.28 seconds. As you can see from the table below this is a pretty good time, in fact it's the best time amongst our comparison phones. To calculate this score we time how long it takes to go from the home screen unlocked until we have created a new note. We do this five times and take the average for our score.

Cell Phone	Time (sec)	Score
Sidekick LX	8.28	6.04
AT&T Tilt	13.79	3.63
LG Voyager	10.9	4.59
BlackBerry Curve 8320	12.2	4.10
Helio Ocean	16.06	3.11
Apple iPhone	12.66	3.95

Note Interface (4.0)
The notes interface of the Sidekick LX is exceedingly simple. You have a simple list of notes organized alphabetically by default. There's no separate interface for reading or editing a note, instead this is done in the list view. Only the first line is shown by default, but when you select a note and press in on the trackball it's entry is expanded to show the entire note. You can also choose to expand or collapse all notes in the menu while editing is done in line as you have selected a note. Notes can be sorted alphabetically, by creation date or by modification date, and like in other places where sorting has been an option you can choose between ascending or descending for each sorting type. Although the simplicity of the interface has its bonuses it also means that niceties like categories are missing. Also missing is any search functionality. Even though these advanced features are missing we have to admit that we like the simplicity and elegance of the layout.

Note Formatting (0.0)
The Sidekick LX doesn't provide you with any formatting options for notes like changing the font used.

Voice Memo (1.0)
Much like BlackBerry devices the Sidekick LX doesn't allow you to record and store multiple voice notes. In fact, unlike even BlackBerries, the sidekick LX doesn't have any sort of stand alone voice recording program. Instead you can only initiate a voice recording from one of the programs from which they can be sent, namely multimedia messages and email. We would have preferred a full fledged voice note program with one touch access, but you can't have everything in life, and apparently Danger's decided this is one of those things. Just one point here for the extremely limited voice memo capabilities.

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