Click to View

To the surprise of no one, after months of speculation and leaks, T-Mobile officially introduced its much anticipated follow up to the popular Sidekick II today. The Sidekick 3 will get a Hollywood debut later tonight, just like the previous-generation edition, also built on T-Mobile partner Danger's Hiptop platform. While celebrities will get their chance to play with the new Sidekick this evening - regular folks like you and I will have to wait a little longer.

Current T-Mobile users will be able to get their hands on the new Sidekick on June 28th, when limited quantities will be available to post-paid customers - through the company's online handset upgrade site - or at its New York City and Santa Monica, Calif. stores. General availability is scheduled for July 10.

Like Research In Motion's BlackBerry handhelds, Sidekicks support mobile messaging and communications, with a QWERTY thumb-keyboard to boot. Unlike the BlackBerry models that feature keyboards, with their businesslike focus, Sidekicks are generally sleeker and more colorful - clearly designed to appeal to the young and hip.

"They've carved out a nice niche for themselves. They really don't compete with the Blackberry, in fact the Sidekick is really the anti-Blackberry crowd," JupiterResearch analyst Michael Gartenberg commented to BetaNews. "All in all, it's a nice evolutionary upgrade to a well designed product."

The most obvious improvements to the new tri-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE edition (T-Mobile doesn't offers 3G service, hence its topping out at 2.5G EDGE) of the Sidekick brings Bluetooth 1.2 (with support for wireless headset use and vCard exchange), a 1.3 megapixel camera with LED flash, a removable/rechargeable longer lasting battery, 64 MB of RAM, an ARM processor, and - importantly for a device with an improved MP3 player - the addition of a miniSD card slot for up to 2 GB of additional storage.

It is also 20 percent smaller than its predecessor (at 130 x 59 x 21.8 millimeters and 6.7 ounces), which itself was 25-percent smaller than the previous model. There’s also a new trackball for one-handed navigation. As with the Sidekick II, the new smartphone maintains the hiptop platform's distinctive swivel design, whereby its display slides open to uncover its QWERTY keyboard.

In addition to a phone with speakerphone, the smartphone provides text messaging, a Web browser, e-mail and built-in support for the three major instant messenger clients - AIM, Yahoo! Messenger and MSN Messenger - for the first time.

"The T-Mobile Sidekick 3 is a social lifeline; it's a must-have device for those who need to be in touch with their circle of friends on their terms," said T-Mobile USA VP of Marketint Chidam Chidambaram. "Featuring new enhancements and added features requested by avid users, T-Mobile Sidekick 3 delivers best on what it promises.

The Sidekick 3 will goes for $299.99 with a two-year contract, $349.99 with a one-year plan and $399.99 a ala carte. By contrast, Tthe SideKick II currently sells for $349.99. Reports say T-Mobile doesn’t plan on offering any trade-up incentives to current Sidekick II users.

A supposed roadmap leaked last fall showed a UMA (Unlicensed Mobile Access) or dual-mode edition of the Sidekick 3 arriving in September. If true, that version would automatically detect the fastest and most cost-effective network available, cellular or Wi-Fi (it would add this feature, of course), at home or on the road. When a user with a UMA-enabled handset enters a WLAN, for example, the phone switches his call from cellular to Wi-Fi.

T-Mobile is the U.S. carrier with the largest investment in 802.11 hot spots and is reportedly finally ready to leverage them, especially since its 3G cellular network rollout is so far behind other operators.

This version of the Sidekick may be able to play video also.