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
my SIDEKICKS
yes i have had 3 sidekicks. 2 sidekick 3's and 1 skID. they all seem to break. well not completely but the back light breaks. and when that happens tmo will fix it but the first time costs 100 dollars with insurance. but the second times free. how does that work??? but before they will replace it they make you look too see if it has water damage. there is litterly like 6 places to look. this phone gets water damage so easily. you take it in the bathroom while you take a shower...water damage. you go on a walk and it starts to sprinkle......waterdamage. litterly i love the phone and swear by it. but its ridiculous how the screen craps out. i don't know anyone who has had a sidekick ID or 3 that hasn't lasted more then 4 months without it breaking...
so i have stopped taking it in the bathroom and out of my pocket outside when its cloudy. and it lasted me 5 months with my SKID. but hey I'm ready for a change and probably wont buy another sidekick. unless its an LX cause i don't know anyone that has had their back light break on those.
Not That Big of Deal
I've had the Sidekick 3 since whenever it first came out, I think about two years ago. Yes, it was cool at first but now I hate it. First off, they made a huge deal about how great surfing the internet was on it...but it's slower than molasses and just quits sometimes and the web pages don't look like anything special. You can't send picture text messages, can't receive pictures texts (you get a message saying you have one then you have to go online to view it), picture clarity is awful from camera, track ball gets stuck, phone sometimes freezes, bad reception (t-mobile's fault), speaker phone is not loud enough, phone ringing is not loud enough unless you have it on maximum level, and it's too big and bulky even if it is smaller than previous sidekicks. The few things that are good about it is the qwerty keyboard and the email. Otherwise, I'm pretty much done with this phone and t-mobile.
The Sidekick 3 kicks butt!!
I have just recently bought this phone off of EBAY, and bought the usb cable also. The phone is crystal clear, texting is awesome keys are nicely spaced, web browser is somewhat fast, love the new track ball, camera maybe a 1.3 mega-pixel but it still rocks>> downloaded music it was actually pretty quick and the songs sound great, memory is great, and what else can i say but the phone itself ROCKS!!!
Pros:
-qwerty keyboard
-music upgrade
-call quality
Cons:
-my only concern, and which this really isn't a problem, but when swiveling the screen, MYSELF PERSONALLY, I'M AFRAID ITS GONNA SWIVEL RIGHT OFF!
It Isn't Very Durable
I got this phone as an upgrade from my sidekick 2 when it first came out. It was a big upgrade cuz it is smaller & sleeker.
Pro's:
-It is smaller.
-It has boulgy buttons.
-It has a ball.
Con's:
-It feels like it's gonna break.
-Its camera is worse than the sidekick 2's.
After 6 months, the side plastic grey thing on the left broke off & got lost & then the ball stop working. It is a great phone to use but just without all those physical problems.
Very amazing phone.
All of the features on this phone blew me away. The only problem is. EVERYONE has it. It is a social lifeline. And everyone thinks its cool. Those who don't, I pity you. Its the perfect phone for a teenage phone genius. Ahem. :D It is my life basically. Anyone who wants the functions of a smart phone but not the coorporate price. Here you go. :D
this might be the worst phone i've ever owned
wow! i purchased my phone march of 2007 & I've gone through 3 sidekicks!
1. i dropped my sidekick, (very soft drop) and i the screen went blank.
2. same thing
3. my sidekick started going psycho without dropping it or anything.
the one I'm on now isnt really having problems, but my battery life sucks. it'll have its days when it decides to act stupid. however this phone will be slow if you use it alot. so u shud do a soft reset if u do... i wouldnt really reccomend anyone to buy a sidekick in general, i mean it looks cool but i wud reccomend a blackberry curve or something to that extent. but if u must get a sidekick, get insurance & DO NOT get prepaid b/c if ur kick messes up tmobile says its your problem now!
sidekicks will never have a video recorder or fm radio, its not a nokia phone.
i dont understand ppl that say its a good phone, they must have it off 24/7 n they just look @ it. they will always have a crappy camera n problems with being slow... however one thing sidekicks dont do is freeze
Not the best
I thought that this phone was okay
Pros
- great keyboard
- easy texting
- holds many of contacts
- sim card slot
- mp3 player
Cons
- terrible camera
- the trackball on mine broke for no reason and i had never dropped it
- if the battery goes dead or falls out you lose all of your contacts
- bad battery life
- you cant picture message you have to send it by email
- holds not very many songs
- the phone feels very delicate
Overall, i think this is an OK phone but i would not recommend it.
A phone for the beginner smart phone user
I got the SK III 6 months ago and the day i recieved it was a day ill never forget. Getting the box, opening it, and playing with the hiptop. Just like any users i like to text alot and the phone was perfect for it. the full QWERTY keypad was a great designed i only seen on smart phones like Blackberrys and palms. I saw how everyone was getting the phone so i had to get one. Well for a first time smartphone experience it was great. Access to Email,AIM,Web Browsing...it all sounded great on paper. Then the problems arose. The swivel got really old for me. It was actually getting annoying that i would have to flip it up every single time to reach my keypad. To me that was a novelty. Next was the Instant messaging services. AIM,Yahoo,and MSN...all kicked me off and had delays in my IMS. i would send one..and get back 5 replies. The random kick offs werent great either. The Web Browser was the piece i was most excited about. Nothing could be better than Web Browsing with a phone. Well...the SKIII lacks largely in this area. It works off EDGE data but it clearly cant handle web pages...yahoo for instance couldnt even load up some jpgs and i couldnt even view my fantasy teams. The processor is slow which makes the net slow. I also hated the fact that it was limited in what you can do. the only thing you can do is download and change the themes of the phone. Other than that its a great simplistic phone for a simple user. The battery life and call quality is what really killed me. Calls were low,nobody could hear me on speaker,and i had to charge it after a day worths. standby time is awful.
Pros:
Simplistic Set Up
User Interface is simple and easy to guide
QWERTY keypad
Trackball navigation is solid
Texting is made easy
Cons:
Email is slow(could be due to network)
You have to purchase every single app
Phone doesnt utilize EDGE data very well
Call Quality and speaker are low quality
Too basic
This phone is great for the basic phone user. Thats it.
SDK3, a good phone.
I got my sidekick3 a couple of months ago. It is a pretty good phone, just like every other phone it has its pros and cons.
Pros:
The look and feel is great.
Its very easy to type on the full key bored.
You can customize themes to put on your SDK3.
Music player play pretty decent.
Theres a great SDK family thats comes along. (Stick together lol)
Cons:
Where do I begin?
The phones speaker is very low.
You get kicked off MSN messenger every 5 mins at least.
The web browsing is EXTREMELY SLOW. Almost slower then dial up!
The camera is poor. You can set the quality up but ts still poor.
You can only store about 4 pics to the phone.
There is hardly any memory.
You can put about 11 songs on your SDK3. (If you don't BUY more memory.)
You cannot send picture messages.
If your still in school, it is hard to sneak a text in class because of how loud it is when you open it.
Opening the phone is very rough. It sounds like its going to break!
Screen gets dirty easily.
