Sharp Hiptop 3 / Sidekick 3
Phone Scoop Review
Jun 19, 2006 by Eric Lin
In Depth review of the sleek new Sidekick 3 for T-Mobile, with Video Tour and side-by-side comparison with Sidekick II. read review ›
User Reviews
Average Ratings
its decent no matter wat people say get ovr it
dis phone is so decent but iono if i want to get it becuz i waited so long to do so and i go to these pages and thers saying a sidekick 4 is coming out very soon but i highly doubt that... and for everyone saying its bulky and stuff its becauz ya hav no life like come on its suppose to be that big and its not evem big i was surprised how lil it was.. and stop complainin bout the video camera cuz really how many times do u need a video camera that will just eat up ur memory... and ull just end up deleten the video sumtime later anyway so stop b to the i to the t to the c to the h to the i to the n ok.. no body really gots this even though its been out for bout 6 months its stil considered one of the coolest phones... the new color ones are ugly i thought they would be differnet wen they were talked about but no ther the say jsut differnt colors...
Boo.... on Danger!
Cons:
Crippled Bluetooth support: Can't send pictures, audio or anything. Even the free phones these days have functional bluetooth.
Non Support of MMS- Even Free Phones support the MMS function. Hard to instantly share pictures with family.
Camera- Low Quality for what it could do.
Games- Crap selection of games available.
Web Browsing- Even smaller phones have better web browsing then the sidekick these days.
No video or audio capture
No video playback
No customizable ringtones
Limited and horrible expensive Ringtone selection in their catalog
Pros:
Greatest Qwerty in world
Track Ball
Theme's (you can graphically theme your phone if you're in the know)
It's all fad and no functionality. Battery life is really bad on this phone. Speakerphone & sound on speaker is horrible. Looking to trade it in.
T-Mobile Sidekick 3!!! The Good & The Very Bad!!!
I've had the Sidekick 3 for several months now, and its really about the same as the Sidekick 2. There are the major GREAT changes such as Size, bluetooth & MP3 Player but it still holds nothing major in creativity. There has been no new added applications, no video, and the camera (even slightly improved) is still below-average at best. This is THE BEST Pre-paid Phone simply because it is what it was truly made for: A Messaging Phone for the age group between 12-25. Even for it being a great messaging phone it's a shame T-Mobile still holds it back from adding software to take it a step further from the competition. Great Messaging, Good Phone, but Not Creative, Just Overrated.
The Goods!!!
1. Size (The Best Change)
2. QWERTY Keyboard (Best One Out)
3. Bluetooth
4. Instant Messaging (Best IM System)
5. E-Mail System (The Same, But Good)
Decent!!!
1. MP3 Player (Can't Read Certain MP3's wtf)
2. Web-Browser (Just Average At Best)
3. Battery Life
4. Screen Resolution (Nothing Special
The Bad!!!
1. Camera: (1.3 MP Please Still Horrible)
2. No Creative Apps (T-Mobile Apps? Horrible)
3. Nothing Really New
Overall: This is probably the most popular/overrated phone out there. I gave it a 3.5 because its simple to use, no set up to PC problems, no problems setting up E-Mail's either. If T-Mobile were to stop being money hungry & let 3rd Party companies create apps, games & software then this surely would give Pocket PC's & Smartphones some real competition. Simple yes, multi-useful no.
Stop Talking Trash out of your @$$!
This phone is EXCELLENT! I do not know what everyone is complaining about and i refuse to let people talk down about this phone when it sets the bar for innovative technology today. This phone far surpases the previous model by leaps and bounds.
Lets begin shall we?!
1. NO VGA CAMERA! A 1.3 megapixel camera! can we say imporvement? So to all of you that say the camera isnt good, go play on the freeway.
2. SMALLER, SLEEKER- Lets face it, do we really want a bulky model like the SK2? Didnt think so.
3. FASTER CONNECTION SPEEDS!- Dont we all love that!
4. EXPANDABLE MEM SLOT- Keep in mind, this IS NOT JUST FOR SONGS. Its for more memory. Hello!? Thos of you that complain it cant hold enough songs, newsflash, ITS NOT SUPPOSED TO! Get an iPod for gods sake.
5.BLUETOOTH- For all those people that absolutely need those annoying ear pieces to make themselves feel important.
6. SEPARATED KEYS!- No more horror stories of buttons not working or falling off or replacing the whole keypad anymore.
The only con I can think of is Tmobiles poor signal strength but do not take it out on the sidekick! Now I will address some of the cons on this site which I find to be totally asenine.
"*There is a bad selection of ringtones given to you on the phone."- Umm hello? Make your own! Or buy them? Heard of that? go to polyphonicwizard.com
"Camera could be better."- NO. Unless you want to pay way more. This camera rivals the RAZR V3c so be quiet.
"Has a low resolution screen"- The SK2 had the SAME RESOLUTION. Hello? Where were you!?
"Quick drain battery"- YOUR USING IT TOO MUCH! CHARGE IT. duh...any moron can tell you that, you dont need to post it.
Last but not least, to all you who say you couldnt see spending $400 on this, why did you in the first place? Just to say 'you owned one'? Give me a break. This is innovative technology at its best. Go buy a PSP if you want better resolution!! Those pointless cons are just people whining. STOP IT!
[email protected]
love it
ok, you all know that alot of ppl like and dislike this phone.
and there are problems with it... im not denying it.
the people who are saying that it has a 5 hour battery life are wrong, or they dont know how to charge a battery. i just have to charge it every night, but its not bad at all. i think the problem with the battery is that the sk3 does so many things... email, internet, bluetooth, texting, aim/yahoo/msn, games, etc. it does get ok signal, better than the sk2. and it takes huge pics (i love that).
PROS
light up scroll wheel
huge camera
great looks
multitasking capability
mp3
changable backgrounds
CONS
i cant think of any right now, ill get back to you on that...
from vzw to tmobile in a heartbeat.
Well I recently switched over from Verizon to T-mobile cuz Verizon is FULL OF IT! Anyways..
I got the sidekick 3 after i had the Nokia 6103..
I love the Sidekick 3, I was a fan of sidekick2, but the 3 is better!. Small issues tho..
Pros: Smaller, better looking
nice can change backrounds
voice quality
ear piece
vibration.
text is quick aim is quick
calls are clear
Cons: delayed 2 secs when you click to make a call
reception isnt as strong as nokia
confusing sometimes..
other than that this phone is great! and i love it.. I haven't had a problem yet!!
hope this helped.
Sidekick 3 Not Good Enough
I Recieved the Sidekick3 on July 10 and I sent it back to day this phone is really bad the ringer is low bluetooth is a pain to use web browsing and insant messaging only good things about this phone camera was terrible and it has no video or MMS messaging its just not really worth the money needs alot of improvements this phone is a bad investment I DO NOT recommend this phone.
Returned Mine too and so disappointed
Here is what I sent back with my phone:
Dear T-Mobile
This phone was eagerly anticipated but did not live up to the hype that proceeded it.
The Bluetooth has to be manually accessed every time, the phone is flimsy and far to delicate to be carried on a regular basis.
The accessability to interact with my computer was great but with every other phone I have the main reason for doing so is to download ringtones and screen savers etc to the phone. I am not able to do that. You are headed in the right direction with the phone but it is too scattered and should concentrate in the areas of performance, with the edge wireless system is great, but I donât need music, I have an ipod for that.
The memory card idea is great but with no operating system like windows it does not even begin to hold enough songs to really justify it. Even with the upgraded memory I tried it.
My main reason for upgrading was for the Bluetooth access, and the sound was good, the only problem is I donât want to have to direct the sound to the Bluetooth each time, my other phones the razr and slvr and 8125 htc pick it up automatically every time no matter which wireless headset I am wearing.
Thanks for your time
SDK2 Better than SDK3
I created this account simply to be able to give my feedback on the SDK3 in hopes that it may be helpful to consumers looking for honest feedback. I recently purchased the SDK3 and have returned it. I paid regular price so as to not extend my contract so it was $400.
Pros:
-cool look
-blue tooth (if this is important to you)
-slightly and I mean slighty smaller/lighter
-MP3 which only holds so much and also takes space with the pictures you take so save wisely
Cons:
-Camera is not better than the SDK2
-Ringtones you have downloaded on SDK2 not transferable to SD3
-Games same thing--not transferable and may not even be available for repurchase... i.e texas holdem
-Sounds are different and sound funny
-Battery life different not as long of life
-The keyboard has bubble type keys so it looks like your seeing double with the orange light in the background.
-When you get incoming calls the person on the line can hear the loud beep. (also on SDK2 but i thought they would have fixed this with this version)
My overall opinion is that this phone isn't anything worth the price for. If you can get the SDK2 for alot cheaper go with that if your looking to save money because the SDK2 has alot of great things. and the SDK3 really isn't much different. I love the sidekick and have sadly returned the SDK3 because it wasn't anything amazingly different but some cosmetics items and not very value adding features.
