T-Mobile USA is updating its Sidekick cell phones, adding a high-end model and the first Motorola-built entry in the line of quirky gadgets with a screen that swivels to reveal a keyboard.

The new luxury model, the Sidekick LX, has a screen with more than twice the resolution of the previous top-of-the-line model, the Sidekick 3. Criticism of the low screen resolution has dogged the line, which still has found a home among young people who like to communicate by text message.

The LX will go on sale online Oct. 17 for $300 with a 2-year contract, T-Mobile USA said Wednesday. The cheapest current Sidekick, the iD, costs $50.

Apart from the improved 3-inch screen, the LX is slimmer than previous models, with a more elegant styling. It’s an attempt to broaden the Sidekick user base among older customers, said Leslie Grandy, vice president of product and systems development at Bellevue, Wash.-based T-Mobile USA.

The LX is also the first Sidekick to allow text messages with attached pictures. Previous models allowed pictures from the built-in cameras to be e-mailed, but Sidekick users prefer text messaging, according to Grandy.

T-Mobile also announced the Sidekick Slide, which breaks away from the Sidekick line in two ways: It’s made by Motorola Inc. rather than Sharp Corp., which makes the others; and its screen slides up to reveal the keyboard, rather than swiveling.

The Slide is smaller than the other Sidekicks and is more tightly focused on messaging, lacking a music player. It will cost $200 with a 2-year contract when it goes on sale Nov. 7.

The Sidekick runs software from Palo Alto, Calif.-based Danger Inc. The first Sidekick was launched by T-Mobile in 2002.

On Tuesday, T-Mobile announced that it was introducing a BlackBerry that can make and receive calls over Wi-Fi in addition to the cellular network. That substantially reinforces T-Mobile’s HotSpotAtHome program, which previously has offered only two low-end phones, neither of them e-mail-oriented devices like the BlackBerry.

With a HotSpotAtHome plan, which costs $20 a month, subscribers can place unlimited calls over Wi-Fi routers at home or on T-Mobile’s commercial HotSpot network.

The new BlackBerry Curve costs $250. AT&T launched the same model this spring, but without the ability to place calls over Wi-Fi.

Via Yahoo

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