Danger Hiptop 2 (T-Mobile SideKick II)

Danger Hiptop II (PV-100) or as most know it T-Mobile Sidekick II

(edited August 04,2004) SideKick II was officially introduced today. Read out news or view the device specifications.

The wait is over. Information about Danger Hiptop II (PV-100) is finally available and PhoneArena.com is the first to bring it to you. The new device will be sold by T-Mobile under the SideKick II name. The original version had grayscale 240 x 160 pixels screen and unique at that time open-and-turn screen design. A year later, the company released an updated version – Sidekick Color – with TFT display and 65k colors. Like its predecessor, the Sidekick II also will sport color display with intelligent light meter – which will turn backlight on and off automatically.
The original Sidekick operated in the US on 1900 MHz frequency and 900/1800 in Europe/Asia. The new SideKick II supports 900/1800/1900 frequencies combined, meaning it can be used in Americas/Europe/Asia. 

(click for large image)

Keypad-wise, there is a new directional pad, plus two new shoulder buttons (soft keys – which perform different functions in different situations).  As with the original devices, there is a USB port which is not used for anything but “by developers as they create new device applications, ringtones, and services.”.

New for SideKick is the VGA (640 x 480 or 0.3 mega pixels) built-in camera with LED flash for illumination of near-by objects. Night mode and small mirror for self-portraits are also present.

The device has always an active connection, meaning you are always connected to your e-mail, Instant messenger etc. The only time GPRS connection is dropped is when you make a voice calls.
All the information you enter into the device such as contacts, to-do, pictures etc is replicated on the T-mobile servers and available via their website. The Personal Information Manager (PIM) consists of Contacts (up to 2000), Calendar (up 1000 events), Notes (up to 50 notes, each up to 8000 characters), and To-Do (up to 50 tasks).

IMAP4/POP3 email access, picture ID, speakerphone, full QWERTY keyboard are also part of the whole DANGER experience.

As of today, T-Mobile sells the color Sidekick I for $299.00 minus $50 rebate. I anticipate the price of the new device to be slighly higher - probably in the $350 range. No information is available about the planned availability.