T-Mobile Sidekick series

With its slide-up screen, the T-Mobile Sidekick Slide offers a nice design alternative to the other Sidekick models. It's fine for first-time users but diehard Sidekick fans may prefer the more robust T-Mobile Sidekick LX.

The T-Mobile Sidekick LX will continue to attract a legion of young fans with its fresh design and excellent messaging capabilities. We like the improved display, and the software update brings some much-needed additions to the features department.

The T-Mobile Sidekick LX will continue to attract a legion of young fans with its fresh design and excellent messaging capabilities. We like the improved display, and the software update brings some much-needed additions to the features department.

The T-Mobile Sidekick iD offers all the great messaging capabilities of the Sidekick 3 at half the price, but the rest of the handheld's feature set is very limited; too bare-bones, in our opinion. That said, young, cash-strapped kids will find the iD to be a good option.

The T-Mobile Sidekick 3 brings some notable additions, such as Bluetooth and an MP3 player, and continues to be a solid messaging device for the younger crowd; we just wish it had a better screen.

T-Mobile's Sidekick II adds a built-in camera to its stellar e-mail, surfing, and IM abilities, but some annoying flaws remain.

While it has flaws, the impressive new-generation Sidekick is a marked improvement over the original.

While not perfect, for the money, the Sidekick is a very attractive all-in-one wireless-communications device.