T-Mobile Sidekick 4G Gets Hands-On Treatment [Video]

T-Mobile's Sidekick 4G is finally official – pricing for the Android-based messaging smartphone crossed the wire this morning – and over at our 'droid-obsessed sibling site Android Community they've been putting the QWERTY handset through its paces. In a suitably huge hands-on preview, the Sidekick 4G gives up its software and hardware secrets.Video demo after the cut

That includes details on the new Sidekick overlay, which tweaks the regular Android UI into something more usable for long-term Sidekick owners. There's Qik for video chat, Media Hub, Visual Voicemail, WiFi calling, group text and Cloud Texting, among other things, which also get demonstrated in the video below.

T-Mobile is yet to confirm specific launch dates, but the Sidekick 4G will go on sale at $99.99 with a new, two-year agreement on one of the carrier's unlimited data plans, or at $149.99 on a regular data plan. Whether an interface tweak and emoticon buttons are enough to convince the Sidekick-faithful remains to be seen.

T-Mobile Sidekick 4G:

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