The Sidekick once ruled the messaging world, at least for teens. Though Microsoft bought Danger, makers of Sidekick software, Samsung and T-Mobile have carried on the tradition with a thoroughly modern smartphone that combines the power of Android with a form factor that's strongly reminiscent of the Sidekick. The Sidekick 4G has a solid QWERTY keyboard hidden under a flip-up display, a 1GHz Hummingbird CPU and a 3 megapixel rear camera. It sells for a reasonable $99, and runs on Android OS 2.2 Froyo with Samsung software customizations that accentuate social networking and messaging.
Like Sidekicks of old, you can use it in candy bar form for making calls, though it's a somewhat bulky beast-- but that's standard for Sidekicks. The casing is unabashadly durable plastic that should survive life with even the most rugged teens. There are plenty of buttons and controls, in fact the phone is a minefield of buttons and we did find ourselves accidentally opening menus or going to the home screen when we didn't intend to.
