Only available through Telstra, the HipTop Slide is technically a re-branded Sidekick mobile phone, a smartphone that has proven to be an incredibly popular choice for teenagers and those in their early 20s over in the USA.

Motorola manufactures the HipTop Slide, and a lot of attention has been put into its design. The main evolution from its predecessor HipTop devices is its display. Instead of turning and flipping open the device like with previous HipTops, the Slide does what its name suggests: it simply and easily slides upwards to expose the bright and clear 2.5-inch display screen.

The body of the Slide has slimmed down and been downsized dramatically, but this hasn’t stopped it from being a solid-feeling mobile phone. It has a very smooth sliding mechanism, and the well-placed intuitive trackball is great for accessing features from your menu. The keyboard can feel a little small at first, especially if you have particularly large fingers, but most people will be able to type quickly in no time.

The HipTop Slide’s interface and menu system work well, and the trackball makes the experience an enjoyable one. The main screen has been designed so menu icons are situated in a semi-circle, which makes choosing applications easy via either the trackball or the four-way navigational pad. There are numerous button shortcut commands, and when swapping between applications, animated menu screens make things more interesting.

The major feature missing from the HipTop is 3G or Wi-Fi internet connectivity. The internal EDGE browser works fairly well, but network speeds are just not up to par with the former options. Multimedia features for the Slide are somewhat perplexing too as there is an MP3 player, but music can only be played through a microSD card, which isn’t included in the box. Also strange is the inclusion of a 2.5mm headphone jack instead of a standard 3.5mm one. There’s no A2DP, video recording or playback, and the 1.3-megapixel camera comes without a flash, autofocus, or self-portrait function.

However, this mobile phone is directed towards a younger clientele who wish to communicate with friends without having to pay too much for a handset. In terms of email and messaging functions, the HipTop is ‘tip top’. Both Windows Live Messenger and Yahoo! Messenger applications come installed, and their respective ease of use and interface are of excellent quality. The HipTop Slide can have three different POP3 and IMAP e-mail accounts, as well as the standard issue HipTop e-mail address. These email applications work really well, but as the internet network is a little slow, downloading large files or applications can take a fair while to be completed.

The HipTop Slide comes with a MySpace Mobile application, so you can access your MySpace site anytime, anywhere, in a great little mobile format. This application works really well for must features on the social networking site, including the uploading of photos straight from your mobile phone.
The Slide comes with various call functions like speed dial, three-way calls, call forwarding and a hands-free speakerphone. Sadly, there’s no voice-dial option. Bluetooth is provided and works well for hands-free calling via a Bluetooth speakerphone. Slip, slide away with the HipTop Slide!