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The celebrity set was the first group to get a chance to play with T-Moble's fourth-generation Sidekick. A day later existing customers of the carrier got their shot to buy the new smartphone. Today, that privilege has finally been extended to anyone interested in getting a Sidekick LX for themselves.

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 LX is no exception.

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.

The quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE (sorry, no 3G) smartphone 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 with T-Mobile's last highest-end Sidekick, the 3, the 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. T-Mobile will bundle a 128MB microSD card in the package.

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

The 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.

The LX, available in dark blue and brown, goes for $300 with two-year service agreement.

Sidekick to Do the Slide
Early next month, on the 7th, T-Mobile will introduce yet another Sidekick, the Slide. The slide will be the thinnest and smallest Sidekick ever. No surprise really, as it is the first Sidekick not built by Sharp. Motorola, the company that made thinness a must have feature in a cell phone, got the call to design this one.

In addition to being small and thin, the Slide is the first Sidekick to deviate from this smartphone's usual swivel-screen-to-reveal-a-QWERTY-keyboard design. Instead, the Slide's display, as the name implies, slides up to reveal its keyboard.

As with the LX the 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.

The Slide will be available in a black and purple color scheme. It will sell for $200 with a two-year contract when it goes on sale early next month.