T-Mobile
Sidekick Slide

The T-Mobile Sidekick Slide was made by Motorola and had the model number Q700. It was also marketed as the Hiptop Slide in Australia and where it was sold by the Telstra network. Following the launches in Australia and the US, it was also offered by T-Mobile in Germany and the UK. It was notable for being the first Sidekick device not to be manufactured by Sharp. The Sidekick Slide used Danger’s operating system and was designed to work on 3G networks. It featured a slide-up, rather than a rotating screen, that revealed a QWERTY keyboard. It had a distinctive design with a black case trimmed with purple edging. As with previous Sidekick devices, it had an icon-based graphical user interface and features were accessed using the keys on the corners of the device, the trackball and a four-way navigation pad. There were also shortcut keys on the top of the device to access the messaging and camera functions. Support for fast messaging and email were key features of the device. The basic 1.3-megapixel camera was a major shortcoming of the product and lacked video capabilities. In November, two months after the US launch, the Sidekick Slide ran into serious difficulties and T-Mobile suspended sales. Users had reported issues with the device and Motorola confirmed that some phones would inadvertently power off as a result of poor battery contacts when the slider on the front side of the phone was opened or closed. The issue was overcome, and the device became available for sale again in December 2007.