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After months of speculation and rumor mongering, it's official: T-Mobile is going to release a couple of new Sidekicks, the Sidekick LX and Sidekick Slide, later this fall.

Geared towards the young and hip, the messaging-centric (e.g. IM, texting, e-mail) Sidekick has, with each succeeding generation over the last five years, gained more features, while becoming thinner and more compact along the way. The new Sidekick models are no exception.

Sidekick LX
When the quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE (sorry, no 3G) Sidekick LX (see top image) is released on October 17th it'll become T-Mobile's top-of-the-line model, taking over that honor from the Sidekick 3.

As with previous Sidekicks, the Sidekick LX's display flips up to reveal its QWERTY thumb-keyboard. However, at 3 inches and 400 x 240 pixel (WQVGA), the display is larger and sports a higher resolution than the Sidekick 3's 2.6-inch, 240 x 160 pixel type screen.

It leverages the same high-definition LCD technology used in Sharp's AQUOS televisions. And, according to T-Mobile, there are "mood lights" for user-definable alerts.

Like the Sidekick 3 the Sidekick LX has an expansion slot. Unlike the previous model, however, the new one accepts tinier microSD cards rather than the still small but not as tiny miniSD cards. MicroSD currently tops out at 4GB in storage capacity. T-Mobile will bundle a 128MB microSD card in the package.

Both the Sidekick LX and Sidekick 3 share the same resolution camera, a 1.3 megapixel type.

The Sidekick LX is the first Sidekick to support MMS, which allows you to attach media files (picture and video) to a text message. Its music player can play MP3 and AAC files.

T-Mobile says the Sidekick LX, to be available in dark blue and brown, will go for $300 with two-year service agreement.

Sidekick Slide
At 4.6 x 2.4 ix 0.7 inches and 5.3 ounces, the Sidekick slide is the thinnest and smallest Sidekick yet.

Although Sharp built and designed all Sidekick models over the last five years, the Sidekick Slide is - for the first time - the work of another company, one that made ultra-slimness a key ingredient to mobile phone success with the RAZR series, Motorola.

It is also the first Sidekick to deviate from this smartphone's usual swivel-screen-to-reveal-a-QWERTY-keyboard design. Instead, the Sidekick LX's display, as the name implies, slides up to reveal its keyboard.


             Sidekick Slide Open

As with the Sidekick LX the Sidekick Slide sports a 1.3 megapixel camera. Its display drops down to 2.4 inches in size at 320 x 240-pixel QVGA resolution.

There are also game controllers, Bluetooth, a miniSD card slot, and 128MB of internal memory. Sorry, no memory expansion slot or audio player with this Sidekick, however.


       Sidekick Slide Closed

The Sidekick Slide, to be available in a black and purple color scheme, will sell for $200 with a two-year contract when it goes on sale on November 7th.

T-Mobile is phasing out the Sidekick 3 and has lowered the price of its entry-level Sidekick model, the Sidekick ID, to $99.

Sidekicks, which run on the Hiptop operating system developed by a company called Danger, are significant because they're one of the few smartphone lines outside of those built on Windows Mobile, the Palm OS, or Symbian platforms to gain a loyal following and some market share.

Today's news follows T-Mobile's introduction of the $250 (with a two-year contract) BlackBerry Curve 8320, which supports calling over a Wi-Fi or cellular network and, through dual-mode technology, the ability to switch seamlessly between the two through T-Mobile's $20-per-month Hotspot@Home service.