Hands-on with the T-Mobile Sidekick 4G

The retail box is that same sturdy one we have come to love on T-Mobile with vibrant colors and helpful information.

The Sidekick 4G rests in a colorful compartment just under the top cover.

Inside the box you will find the necessary cables, pamphlets, and wired stereo headset.

There are a few different pamphlets/guides in the top flap of the box.

Here is the Sidekick 4G with keyboard revealed outside the retail box.

The new Sidekick 4G has that awesome 5 row keyboard and looks a lot like the Sidekicks that fans have come to know and love.

Here are a couple other generations of Sidekick to see how this latest one stacks up.

As you can see the keyboard on the new Sidekick 4G is very similar to the one on the last generation Sidekick LX 2009.

The QWERTY keyboard is one of the best available and teens will be flying on it soon.

The keys have great spacing and tactile feel.

The Shift button in the lower left has T-Mobile pink.

The buttons and controls on the right side include the menu, directional optical joystick and back button.

The home and jump buttons are found on the left side.

The back is white with a single speaker, camera, and pink hinge area.

T-Mobile and Samsung made a very slick hinge mechanism that may be as much fun to play with as the flip and rotate mechanism that my daughter loved on her older Sidekick devices.

The hinge is solid and rotates in a slick manner.

A basic 3 megapixel camera is on one end of the back.

A speaker is found on the other side, adjacent to the finger area.

A cover for the microUSB port and the camera capture button are found on the right.

Remove the cover to sync and charge up the Sidekick 4G.

The upper left side (in portrait orientation) houses the volume button and headset jack.

The lower left side is where you will find the power button.

The keyboard is really an excellent choice for hardware QWERTY fans.

The optical joystick is a bit strange to get used to, but Sidekick owners who did everything with their thumbs may turn out to really like its capability.

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