Sidekick Slide vs. Sidekick LX
We were fortunate enough to preview the Sidekick Slide way back in July, and for the most part, our opinions and views haven’t changed. Instead of just doing a review on the Sidekick Slide, we’re going to pin it head-to-head with the Sidekick LX. For each category you’ll see our opinions on both of the devices, so sit back, relax, and put them profiles on "Buzz".
Operating System
Sidekick Slide: If you’re a previous Sidekick user you’ll immediately notice the refined look of the new OS, new system sounds, and a couple of other handy features.
Sidekick LX: We might be hearing things, but we noticed different system sounds on the Slide, and the LX. In general, the Sidekick LX really shows off the new OS nicely because of the real estate screen space.
Screen
Sidekick Slide: The Sidekick Slide’s screen has a resolution of 320×240, and is exactly the same physical size as the Sidekick iD. Even though it is quite smaller than the LX, the Slide’s screen is crisp, bright, and shows vivid colors.
Sidekick LX: We’re in love with the Sidekick LX’s screen! At a resolution of a 400×280, it provides ample room when web browsing, or just doing general tasks with the device. This is the main reason we’re so inclined to stick with the LX. It really is fantastic.
Instant Messaging
We can’t really show off the differences between the Slide and LX because they both have the exact same IM clients on board. Again, LX screen size makes IMing oh-so-easy!
Size
Sidekick Slide: The Slide’s physical size is the smallest of any Sidekick yet. It’s even thinner than the LX at 17.2mm, and is perfect for someone constantly on the move, yet not willing to give up Danger’s OS.
Sidekick LX: The LX is really for the more hardcore Sidekick users. It is 21.8mm thick, wider, and longer than the Slide, but for anyone with large hands, this is the way to go
Keyboard
Sidekick Slide: When you make the Sidekick smaller, the keyboard obviously will get smaller, too. The Slide’s keyboard is actually hard plastic circular-shaped keys, and while we could get used to them, there is minimal tactile feedback. We can see the younger / female market loving this.
Sidekick LX: As the manufacturer of probably the best keyboards for mobile devices on the planet, Danger can’t mess with success here. And they haven’t pretty much. The LX’s keyboard is roomy, extremely pleasurable to type on, and sort of combines the Sidekick 2’s rubber keyboard, with the Sidekick 3’s plastic key keyboard into one. This turned out very well, and we have no keyboard regrets.
Reception
Sidekick Slide: We’ve got Motorola for the first time, and we’ve got Sharp for the LX. Motorola came to play and we think they did a great job. Reception is on-par with average Motorola reception, and we hardly noticed any "two-dot dances" or "X’s" we previously have gotten on earlier Sidekick models
Sidekick LX: The LX is physically a bigger device. That leaves for room to play around with the antenna, and it worked. The Sidekick LX’s reception is fantastic, and totally trumps any previous Sidekick model. It is one hair-level better than the Slide in our unscientific tests.
Call Quality
Sidekick Slide: Motorola integrated the ear speaker on the actual screen panel, instead of the d-pad where all of the ear speakers have always been housed. This was an awesome move, and provides the most clear and not awkward talking experience of any Sidekick to date. It is also incredibly comfortable.
Sidekick LX: As we mentioned above, the ear speaker is housed on the d-pad which is on the left side of the phone. We don’t normally use the Sidekick devices as phones, but when we tried it out, we noticed a buzz / hiss through out all conversations, and after a couple minutes the d-pad started to get annoying.
Speaker Volume / Quality
Sidekick Slide: The Slide’s volume ups the LX by a little bit. We hear a much louder and fuller sound when using the Slide, and you don’t get those fun lights to help you know when you’ve got a call or message, so that speaker better be on point! And it is.
Sidekick LX: Definitely wished it was louder, but it is not iPhone quiet. Speakerphone when talking on the phone was pretty good and definitely audible, but MP3 playback is a little tough. We also miss IMs sometimes because of the low volume
Side note to Danger: Integrate vibrate with the AIM IM sound for the love of god, already!
Catalog
We actually don’t have to split this up because as far as we can tell, the Catalog is actually exactly the same on both devices. We reported that the Catalog would stop using "blocks" to show how much Application / Game space you had left, and we were 100% on the money! We finally have the storage space shown in Kilobytes, and this helps judge the remaining space more accurately. Something which you’re not able to do, is store Applications / Games to your memory card. This really puts our mind to work, because we have no idea why! It is not like you could copy the app off the memory card and send it to your friend so they can install it for free! The Sidekick platform is only open to developers, so with out a dev key, you are not able to do anything besides buy apps and games. Come on, Danger! If I want to buy more stuff, but don’t have space on the handset, you’re not going to let me? Totally wack! On the flip side, if you do uninstall something you bought, you’re free to install it again because the Sidekick back-end keeps track of your purchases. Not the best of methods, but at least you don’t have to buy something over and over again.
Conclusion:
We hope you liked our head-to-head battle between the Sidekick Slide and the Sidekick LX. What’s our ultimate conclusion? If you’re a hardcore Sidekick user you’ll want to grab the LX. The keyboard and screen alone make this a win. The Sidekick Slide isn’t really beneath the LX on the totem pole, so if you want an awesome phone, but love the Danger OS all in a small device, you will definitely want to pickup the Slide. It’s a hard choice, believe us. We switched from the LX to the Slide, back to the LX probably 6 times alone in the past day, but for now, we’re sticking with the Sidekick LX. The screen is just too good…
Click on over to our Sidekick Slide vs. Sidekick LX gallery!
Joanna, I get wat ur sayin, nd u say dat we shuld pik wat we want 4 wat we need or wateva. nd sorta sayin get slide ova lx, dats fine, I prefure da lx nd dat fine. but just 1 fing, u say slide ova lx 4 cal qwalitie, but most sk users don’t use em 4 callin but 4 dere main feture, txtin, ims, emails, now myspace, nd webbrowsing, nd da lx screnn nd keypad makes all dis a lot easier den on da slide, so I fink, if u just call get da slide, but if u prefure typin 2 ppl via all dem many ways da lx is obciouse, altho call qwalitie in fact isn’t dat bad. Altho in fact I own all da previouse models, from black nd white model 2 da Id, so I will in fact I will buy da slide, altho not 4 ages, ill get it off ebay nd not use it. but idefintaly agen recomnt da slide. Just make clear, lx call qwalitie, isn’t as bad as ppl say, wen I’m talkin I rarely here ne fing wronge if eva
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daniel….LEARN TO SPELL
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I kno how 2 spell I’m not a r’tad, I just chose not 2 wen on my sklx, so fast @ typin y not make it fasta, expesly wen I’m not just postin I’m also multitaskin wit IM and txtn so wen I’m talkn 2 so many ppl u need 2 make it fasta.
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i am the happy owner of a sidekick lx
the article is right it as one of the best screens ever and texting is super easy. i love my phone but that annoying buzzing noise has got to go when u are making a call. i thought it was just me but i guess its a phone thing. well yeah if u r looking for a phone go with the sidekick lx its a keeper
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wth ? my sidekick lx all of a sudden went white screened on me . OH MY GOSH . -_-”
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dude get the lx !!!!!!!!!!a sidekick isn’t a sidekick without the swivel screen!!!!!!!!! da lx is so dang coolio!!!!!!!!! by the way sup!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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ok i rlly need to know which sidekiick is better the lx or slide and need to know which sidekick is brown and black. also i need to knoe if there is a camera and video and also if there is good update in one of the sidekick so plzzzzzzzzzzzzzz resond back 2 me i need it by christnas aand i dont know which one to ch00se!!!!!
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Lx all th way babe. Both th brown nd th blue lx look black, brown looks a lil mor black thn th blue. It has camera, no video. Altho thr r rumurs of a ota upd8 givn it video, but tht culd jst b made up. I hyhly sujest u go wht th lx.
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so….the slide doesn’t have bluetooth?
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soo i think im gonna go with the lx, this guy came up to my work and was showing me… its frickin awesome.!
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ima still get the lx but this is the 4 sidekick y is there still no video (like youtube and stuff) and if kno how 2 hack it so that u can put video on it plaseeee tell me how
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By “4 sidekick” do u mean th lx is th sidekick 4? Coz iv heard tht th lx is not th sidekixk 4 it is jst th lx nd a sidekick 4 will cum out l8r. So th reason th lx is out is jst 4 those ppl hu wntd 2 by a 3 but thrt thy we’re a lil fat nd out dated. Nd thts y thy dnt hav major upgrades lyk video. Bt th sidekick 4 will hav th video. Jst wht iv heard.
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ok thanxx
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Does The Sidekick Slide’s Keyboard Light Up?
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It does lght up
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Bt thn if u cmparing keyboards, thn th lx keyboard is far betr bt if u jst wntd 2 kno about th slide thn yer it lghts up, bt in cmparasion 2 th lx th lx is betr in evry way, size, lght up, feel, non stif, roomier, ect
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daniel you seem very biased..
the lx is straight up uglier than the slide eh.
they are both great phones and it just depends on what you’re after.
thats that.
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I Just Got The Slide Yesterday But I Cant Get It To Light Up
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Hmmm, u shld tke it bck thn, nd I’m sure thy will gve u a new 1.
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It Does Light Up.. I Just Called Tmobile
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Doesnt*
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Oh man, I just ordered my LX not too long ago, and after reading these reviews I think I will be pretty satisfied with it. My only concern is, I bought the blue LX but I wish the color options were more varied or if anything stick to the all black color like the Slide. I was on the bus the other fday and I seen this lil young black teenager mall rat with a Slide hanging from her neck and I thought it was the most ugliest thing ever.
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Listen Baby-Please, i dont know who u thin k u r to be callin anyone “lil young black tennager mall rat” cuz u sound real ignorant and childish . Im assuming u r a grown lady so u need to act like it. Anyway what did ur dumb comment have to do woth the lx or slide. If anything u proballoy look more like a mall rat than anybody else. that was a very racist remark n i know u r ignorant and uneducated because i am 19 year old college student and i am both black and white and i know better than u. u might want to change ur perspective on things because that attitude aint gon get ur trashy behind nowhere. Hey im not mad at u im just being real! p.s i think im gonna get the lx too but i do think the slide is way cute for a pretty girl like me cuz u know im black and is nowhere near a mall rat.
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Okay, I previously had the Slide, & I upgraded to an LX. Here are the flaws for both-
Slide: For some reason, if you slide close or open the screen with whatever effort, there is a chance that the phone will turn off. I read up online that Motorola just happened to make the battery built in so poorly. Plus, the camera sucks butt. I don’t understand why Sidekick cameras suck so bad. There aren’t any options to do with the picture; you can’t change the filter, the lighting, etc. But, you can rotate the picture or change the size(WOW).
LX: The camera on the LX is MAJORLY poor. For some reason, the quality is horrible. It either lets in too much light, or you can’t see anything at all. Like I read, the flash does NOT help. If it is set on or on auto, when you take a picture, the result is horrid. You can’t see anything. Or, at times, there is no difference. In general, when you try to take a picture in whatever lighting you are in, all you see in the viewfinder is some sort of green with too much lighting & poor quality. Plus, you can’t do anything to the picture either. Same as the Slide.
Both: It would be nice to have decent cameras. Or video recording. Or more picture editing qualities.
Good things about them both-
Slide: It’s sleek. Plus, it’s really nice for people who like purple. The screen is very clear, & its small.
LX: It’s also sleek. The screen is also huge, amazing.
Both: They’re newer & sleeker & smaller. Web browsing/instant messaging is a must.
Eh. I’ve had better phones.
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why is the slide much cheaper than the lx..any major differences between the two?
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