Once upon a time, smartphones were defined as powerful and flexible for the business oriented users. Respectable smartphones ran on Windows Mobile, Nokia/Symbian OS or BlackBerry OS. Along comes phones such as the original T-Mobile Sidekick, Verizon LG VX9400 where they offered pretty good multimedia support but not quite a smartphone. Personally, I've never considered them because it just wasn't "powerful" enough for my needs and catered towards younger crowd looking for a fun communication alternative.Along came the iPhone with its endless firmware upgrades which is constantly redefining and challenging what a smartphone should be. The concept of having an easy-to-use and fun device with powerful apps to get you the information you needed fitted perfectly to your screen suddenly elevated what a new generation of "smartphones" must do. Leaving the more traditional enterprise-based smartphone OS running around trying to figure out what to do next.
Engadget released some new information about the upcoming TMobile Sidekick LX for 2009. Whether this phone is a smartphone or not, I am impressed with the new hardware and software capabilities. To start, it offers a large LCD with F-WVGA 854 x 480 display resolution. Now equipped with 3G and GPS along with some well-integrated application support like Facebook, Twitter and Myspace. The initial review from Engadget is nothing be raves about how good this phone has become. As far as I am concerned, a modern smartphone is no longer judged by on the paper specs (ie. does it have an app store? can it copy and paste? does it have a 5MP camera?) but it is defined by what can you get out of your device to make your life easier. From what I am seeing (Microsoft Live Search integration, GPS map w/ live traffic data and tight Twitter integration), this looks to be a solid sidekick to young professionals (no pun intended).