Android-powered T-Mobile Sidekick to comeback

Almost 6 months back, T-Mobile retired the last of its venerable Sidekick handsets, but the carrier has revealed that a new Sidekick - complete with speedy HSPA+ data access, plus Android under the hood - will be making its debut in 2011.

A T-Mobile spokesperson has confirmed that the Sidekick 4G is slated to arrive in the carrier's lineup this year.

The news comes more than six months after T-Mobile finally dropped the aging Sidekick LX, which first landed in stores in 2009, from its selection of messaging phones.

For the past several months, it has been rumoured that an Android-based reboot of the Sidekick line might be headed for T-Mobile. Andy Rubin, Google's designated Android guru, was a co-founder of Danger, the company that launched the original Sidekick almost a decade ago. Danger was ultimately acquired by Microsoft, which recently tried and failed to launch its own line of casual messaging phones.

While T-Mobile went ahead and confirmed that an Android-powered Sidekick is in the offing, it wouldn't reveal any further details about the upcoming handset besides the name - Sidekick 4G - and the fact that the phone will support T-Mobile's HSPA+ network for speedy data access.

The Sidekick has a long, proud history, with the original Sidekick models - particularly the Sidekick II, which was my personal phone in 2004 - delivering a slick, intuitive, and smartphone-like experience back when most mobile UIs were still clunky monstrosities.

The Sidekick's graphical, icon-based "jump" screen made it a snap to switch from the Web browser to an app but its signature feature was the jumbo display that twirled up to reveal a full QWERTY keypad.

For years, the Sidekick was one of the few choices out there for mobile mavens who wanted a slick interface, a usable Web browser, and top-notch messaging features.

Slowly but surely, though, the Sidekick line began to fall behind the times, with no 3G or GPS support until the Sidekick LX landed in 2009. By then, of course, the iPhone had already managed to change the mobile game.

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