T-Mobile Sidekick II: Better late than never

The sad truth is that Crave often has to wait weeks, months and sometimes years to enjoy hardware our pals overseas have loved, got bored with, and thrown away.

With mobile phones though, the situation is often reversed -- it's always a pleasure reminding our American colleagues that we get our hands on most of the pretty phones first. Which makes it even more exasperating on the rare occasion when we do have to wait for a cool phone.

Frankly, it hurts that it's taken T-Mobile 19 months to buy its Sidekick II a ticket to London and let it come visit the sites. Maybe we're being a bit harsh. After all, the Sidekick II does have a large Qwerty keyboard that makes entering text messages and emails a doddle. It also has the best flip-open screen we've ever seen -- if you want the attention of fellow commuters, this is the device to be seen with.

Just don't tell anyone the phone hasn't got Bluetooth, lacks a high-resolution megapixel camera, and isn't 3G-ready. The Sidekick II is available now from T-Mobile and will set you back around fifty smackers. -RR