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!
hey im mixed with black and white too lol
Permalink | Reply
i have no clue what phone i want im stick between the sidekick lx and slide and shadow or any other phone which has all these features….i want the LX but i heard about the speaker problem but i also have a bluetooth headset so that solves my problem. umm i heard about the slide problems with the power that turns off when sliding it down or whatever…the shadow has windows on it but doesnt have the full keyboard which im really wanting…i do more texting then i do talking…i just love technology that i cant get enough of it i bought a PS3…i have a 52 inch big screen, alienware laptop and now i need a good phone to go along with my stuff but with the slide having that power problem im between the LX and shadow can anyone help me out on this? plz
Permalink | Reply
Of u havent buyed a sidekick yet don’t get the sidekick lx bc the speeker sucks get the sidekick slide speeker on the slide is louwder then the lx also the slide is smaller then the lx I have a lx and I dont like the speeker and the size of it Im thinking of get the sidekick slide bc I think it better
P.S. u get what u want I just saying this so u don’t have to make a bad chose
Permalink | Reply
thanks man ill go with what you said and get the slide thanks man your the best
Permalink | Reply
I just bought a slide and the problem with it turning off on its own has been fixed. The keyboard does light up when you slide up the screen and you can set the light on the screen so it adjusts itself to the surrounding light so it will always be easy to read. Great for when the sun is really bright. The black outer casing looks great and when you slide the screen up to reveal a purple backed keyboard it looks even better. With msn live, yahoo and myspace built and a fast internet speed which downloads pages in about 5 seconds. The lx sounds to big to just be able to slip into your pocket. Oh and the expanable memory and mp3 player are great aswell. I think the slide is more of a head turner than the lx. Even more so when you slide the screen up to reveal the qwerty keypad. Black and purple, you can’t go wrong there.
Permalink | Reply
I have the slide…it is just perfect I have had it for about 2 months now and I have not had any problems…the screen is great…although its small, its much more clearer than the lx….it is small and sleek…internet is amazinley
Quick…it has awsome features….so if you are wonderin which phone to get the lx or the slide I reccomend the slide I am sure you will love it
Permalink | Reply
sidekick lx is the same as the slide everything is the same onlii slide doesnt have flash but o well itsz still the same thing so itsz like if u want a small sidekick get the slide if u want a big sidekick get a lx the lx is HUGE the slide is small i like it better than the lx i love the slide
Permalink | Reply
I got the slide and im loveing it! Its small and lighter then the lx. It plays mp3,wav, and other types of files of music, and the camara is not all that bad and the key board is not that bad eather.
Permalink | Reply
Does the bluetooth work on the sidekick lx
Permalink | Reply
Just wanted to add that the slide has a faster processer than the lx.
Slide 224mhz 128mb flash memory. Lx 200mhz 64mb shared memory. So the slide loads pages faster than the lx.
Permalink | Reply
is the slide for girls???some 1 tell me!!!
Permalink | Reply
ur dad shud have onlocked it in cali..i live in the caribbean and im gonna order min eand i have to pay like $99 us to unlock it…
Ever since i heard of sidekicks i’ve always wanted one.now i can get the chance to have it i think i’m goin with the lx.I’ve read lots of reviews about it and the bad ones kinda pulled me away but now i really think im gonna get it but its gonna cost.I jus love that 4ne i keep tlkin bout it.even though i’m ordering it and to tranfer it from us to ec currency its gonna be like $1200 it shud be worth the money.Plus i need a phone sum1 stole mine and the 1 i’m using now its lame
Permalink | Reply
I love my slide and I get lights flashing whenever I get a message or a call, it’s not the same as the lx but I still get the cool flashing lights
Permalink | Reply
What do you mean by hardcore sidekick users? I have the LX but don’t know if to change to the slide ’cause I’m a tiny girl with little hands…. any suggestions? But overall I love my phone….
Permalink | Reply
Hey,
yeah, you’re giving up a very nice phone. I have a treo too, and they have a lot more kick to em then a sidekick does. But, it depends on what you want to use the phone for. If you aren’t a business person and don’t really need any extra applications, then go for the LX…I am. I actually had it once before, but returned it because of the camera. I’ll be getting it again, because the internet experience is the best that I’ve seen in a phone, ever! If you’ve already gotten the sidekick, hope you’re happy with it. And, if not, try it, you might like it. The keyboard is better than any on a Treo.
Permalink | Reply
Well I think that the sidekick lx is way better than the sidekick slide because the lx got a bigger screen than the slide and you can flip it
That is way cooler
Permalink | Reply
I just want to know which one is better! I mean, the Slide is cheaper and I heard it was really quiet and doesn’t break as easily as the LX does.
But, the Sidekick is famous for its swivel screen, so IDK..
Permalink | Reply
good page, really made sense although you shouldve put in the camera and video but oh well, great sense of humor makes up for it nice!
Permalink | Reply
I was wondering… Is the Sidekick LX capapble of handling an 8GB Micro SD Flash Card? If not, what’s the largest Micro SD Flash Card it can handle?
Permalink | Reply
There’s a lot more stuff that could ve been done to make the lx better…it’s still behind a lot of cheaper phones as far as some of the features it has but I love it!!!! Thinking bout the helio ocean though
Permalink | Reply
I have a question. I JUST got the sidekick Slide yesterday. I’m coming from a traditional flip fone, so naturally I’m a lil “in ova my head” with this phone. However I did have one question. I’m a really consisten g-mail user. Is there anyway that I can g-chat instead of AIM and yahoo (2 accts of which I DO NOT use)
Please help me
Permalink | Reply
I actually like the new system sounds on the lx only thing is… I don’t have an lx. I have a bb curve and I had the “new message” sound byte but had to recently exchange my phone and now I can’t find the sound byte. Does anyone know where I could download the system sounds?
Permalink | Reply
I had the sidekick slide for about six months & I hated it!! I’d rather have a phone that swivels:)… I recently sold the slide and bought the lx and I’m in loveeee with this phone. It’s so much better than the sidekick 3 and slide !
Permalink | Reply
does someone some how wanna buy my sidekick?
im not very fond of it!
Its only a month old and its still great shape…
Permalink | Reply
Hey the battery life isn’t longer than the lx. Baterry life lasts 5.9 hours and 3.6 days of standby. Then the lx lasts 6.8 hours and 4 days of standby. Hey but then again the slide is still good. My friend had a slide. He was hearing music right and dam the thing was loud. The loudedest phone I ever herd. But yeah the lx is pretty hot too.
Permalink | Reply