[T-Mobile Sidekick 4G] Jax184:
Since development for my favourite phone has ground to a halt, I thought I'd put together a reference guide from everything I know about it. Perhaps the details will inspire some further ROM development.

This is a work in progress based on my own research. Some details are missing and I'm sure some others are wrong. I appreciate any help that you may be able to offer in fixing them. I would especially like to find the datasheets for the various components, and make a list of all the phones they're used in.

T-Mobile Sidekick 4G Specifications

SGH-T839

FCC ID: A3LSGHT839

Released April 20th, 2011

GSM 850/900/1800/1900

UMTS 1700/2100 (HSDPA+HSUPA)

CPU: 1GHz Cortex A8

GPU: PowerVR SGX540

Chipset: Hummingbird

RAM: 512MB

Flash: 1GB

Display: 3.5" 800x480 TFT-LCD, 16.7M colour, 267 PPI

Touchscreen: 5-point capacitive

QWERTY keyboard

Swype input in portrait mode

Bluetooth V3.0

WiFi 802.11B/G/N

Augmented GPS

3 megapixel rear-facing camera

0.3 megapixel front-facing camera

Accelerometer

Light Sensor

"Cheek seeking" proximity sensor

Micro-USB 2.0

3.5" TRRS headphone jack with play-pause/answer-hangup support+composite video output

MicroSDHC slot

1500mAh Lithium-Polymer battery. Model EB504465VA.

Also used in M910 Intercept, M920 Transform, R880 Acclaim, R900 Craft, R910 Indulge, etc.

Note: Some sources claim the Sidekick's screen is made from Gorilla Glass. Neither the Corning site nor Samsung's own specs list it though. It's possible they didn't mention it because T-Mobile wanted this phone to be viewed as low-end, or it might just not have it.

Hardware Details

Broadcom

BCM4329SKUBG

Single-chip WiFi/Bluetooth/FM Receiver+Transmitter. Claims to support 802.11A in addition to B/G/N.

Galaxy S 4G uses BCM4329GKUBG variant.

Samsung KB100L00WM-A453:

Samsung Hummingbird-series Package-on-package containing 512 Megabyte (4 Gigabit) DDR2 SDRAM, PowerVR SGX540 Graphics core and 1GHz ARM C111A-based CPU. Unsure what N37BVF means.

Galaxy S 4G uses N34FW03 variant, while Epic 4G uses N2K13D1.

Maxim MAX8987S

Power management controller.

Used in Galaxy S 4G.

Wolfson WM8994E

Audio codec

Used in Galaxy S, Epic 4G, Galaxy Tab, etc

RF5000

ST Ericsson RF5000 Radio Transceiver.

Used in Galaxy S 4G.

77460-13

Skyworks SKY77460

WCDMA 1710–1755 MHz Signal amplifier

Used in Galaxy S 4G.

77446-21

Skyworks SKY77446

WCDMA 1920-1980 MHz Signal amplifier

Some models of Galaxy S 4G use 77447 variant, others may use ours.

77554-51

Skyworks Transmit-Receive Front End Module

Used in Galaxy S 4G.

DB5730

ST Ericsson Thor M5730 HSPA+ Thin Modem

Used in Galaxy S 4G

7560/14

ST Ericsson GNS7560 GPS module.

Used in Galaxy S 4G.

(Not hightlighted in photo) KXUD9

Kionix KXUD9 accelerometer.

Used in Kyocera Echo

ROMs

The Sidekick 4G came with Android 2.2 "Froyo" despite having been released after Gingerbread was already on the market. T-Mobile promised updates, but only patches to 2.2 were released. To date there has NEVER been a Gingerbread/Ice Cream Sandwich ROM available for it. Not from Samsung/T-Mobile, not from anyone else.

This is especially troubling as the stock ROM is infamous for its many bugs. And Samsung's reluctance to release the source code for the stock ROM made it hard to develop alternatives. The code has finally been released, but development is still in its infancy.

None the less, a number of tweaked stock ROMs have been developed by the community to shore up the bugs.

Many of these community-developed ROMs were hosted on Megaupload, which was shut down in January of 2012. Links to files hosted there no longer work. A partial reconstruction can be found at http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1538576

At bhundven's suggestion, here is a dump of the Sidekick 4G's pit:

Entry Count: 13
Unknown 1: 0
Unknown 2: 0
Unknown 3: 0
Unknown 4: 0
Unknown 5: 0
Unknown 6: 0
Unknown 7: 0
Unknown 8: 0

--- Entry #0 ---
Unused: No
Partition Type: 0 (RFS)
Partition Identifier: 0
Partition Flags: 0 (R)
Unknown 1: 0
Partition Block Size: 256
Partition Block Count: 1
Unknown 2: 6684783
Unknown 3: 2097268
Partition Name: IBL+PBL
Filename: boot.bin

--- Entry #1 ---
Unused: No
Partition Type: 0 (RFS)
Partition Identifier: 1
Partition Flags: 0 (R)
Unknown 1: 0
Partition Block Size: 256
Partition Block Count: 1
Unknown 2: 0
Unknown 3: 0
Partition Name: PIT
Filename:

--- Entry #2 ---
Unused: No
Partition Type: 0 (RFS)
Partition Identifier: 20
Partition Flags: 2 (R/W)
Unknown 1: 0
Partition Block Size: 256
Partition Block Count: 40
Unknown 2: 0
Unknown 3: 0
Partition Name: EFS
Filename: efs.rfs

--- Entry #3 ---
Unused: No
Partition Type: 0 (RFS)
Partition Identifier: 3
Partition Flags: 0 (R)
Unknown 1: 0
Partition Block Size: 256
Partition Block Count: 5
Unknown 2: 0
Unknown 3: 0
Partition Name: SBL
Filename: sbl.bin

--- Entry #4 ---
Unused: No
Partition Type: 0 (RFS)
Partition Identifier: 4
Partition Flags: 0 (R)
Unknown 1: 0
Partition Block Size: 256
Partition Block Count: 5
Unknown 2: 0
Unknown 3: 0
Partition Name: SBL2
Filename: sbl.bin

--- Entry #5 ---
Unused: No
Partition Type: 0 (RFS)
Partition Identifier: 21
Partition Flags: 2 (R/W)
Unknown 1: 0
Partition Block Size: 256
Partition Block Count: 20
Unknown 2: 0
Unknown 3: 0
Partition Name: PARAM
Filename: param.lfs

--- Entry #6 ---
Unused: No
Partition Type: 0 (RFS)
Partition Identifier: 6
Partition Flags: 0 (R)
Unknown 1: 0
Partition Block Size: 256
Partition Block Count: 30
Unknown 2: 0
Unknown 3: 0
Partition Name: KERNEL
Filename: zImage

--- Entry #7 ---
Unused: No
Partition Type: 0 (RFS)
Partition Identifier: 7
Partition Flags: 0 (R)
Unknown 1: 0
Partition Block Size: 256
Partition Block Count: 30
Unknown 2: 0
Unknown 3: 0
Partition Name: RECOVERY
Filename: zImage

--- Entry #8 ---
Unused: No
Partition Type: 0 (RFS)
Partition Identifier: 22
Partition Flags: 2 (R/W)
Unknown 1: 0
Partition Block Size: 256
Partition Block Count: 1540
Unknown 2: 0
Unknown 3: 0
Partition Name: FACTORYFS
Filename: factoryfs.rfs

--- Entry #9 ---
Unused: No
Partition Type: 0 (RFS)
Partition Identifier: 23
Partition Flags: 2 (R/W)
Unknown 1: 0
Partition Block Size: 256
Partition Block Count: 2120
Unknown 2: 0
Unknown 3: 0
Partition Name: DATAFS
Filename: data.rfs

--- Entry #10 ---
Unused: No
Partition Type: 0 (RFS)
Partition Identifier: 24
Partition Flags: 2 (R/W)
Unknown 1: 0
Partition Block Size: 256
Partition Block Count: 160
Unknown 2: 0
Unknown 3: 0
Partition Name: CACHE
Filename: cache.rfs

--- Entry #11 ---
Unused: No
Partition Type: 0 (RFS)
Partition Identifier: 11
Partition Flags: 0 (R)
Unknown 1: 0
Partition Block Size: 256
Partition Block Count: 60
Unknown 2: 0
Unknown 3: 0
Partition Name: MODEM
Filename: modem.bin

--- Entry #12 ---
Unused: Yes
Partition Type: 1 (Unknown)
Partition Identifier: 11
Partition Flags: 0 (R)
Unknown 1: 0
Partition Block Size: 0
Partition Block Count: 0
Unknown 2: 0
Unknown 3: 0
Partition Name:
Filename:

Take Apart

Turn the phone over, remove the rear panel by pulling at the bottom, then remove the battery, SIM chip and Micro-SD card.

Remove the 8 Philips head screws around the edge of the phone.

Use a non-metallic tool such as a nylon guitar pick to pry around the edge of the back half, starting at the top.

Lift the back off.

Unplug the 3 wires marked with red arrows. These connectors are very delicate and must be gently rocked upward.

Lift the mainboard straight up to remove it.

Gently push the keyboard up from the other side, being careful to unhook the points marked with green arrows.

Remove the 4 screws marked with green arrows. Push the tabs marked with blue arrows. Repeat on the other side.

NOTE: Once the 4 screws have been removed on either side, the screen guides will no longer be attached to the phone. Be very careful when opening the screen!

Wiggle the shoulder buttons to remove them. Repeat on the other side.

If they have not fallen off already, the screen guides will need to be removed.

Push down gently on the top edge of the screen, causing the screen guides to lift up and out of their channels.

Remove the screen guides and set them aside.

Gently peel the screen cable marked with a red arrow from the body of the phone. It is held with double sided tape. Then unscrew the screws marked with green arrows.

The two black metal hinge covers are no longer attached, so the screen hinges marked with blue arrows can now be lifted free of the body of the phone.

Unfortunately this is all the further I went with my phone. I had only opened it to clean out some chocolate crumbs and I didn't want to risk damaging my screen by opening it as well. But it appears to be a very straightforward take apart from this point on. If you've made it this far, you should be able to get into the screen without much trouble.

There are four screws holding the screen together on the backside, two of which are covered by white stickers. There is also a screw on either side holding the hinge in place. With this in mind it should be easy to open the screen.

Re-assemble in reverse order ;)

References

http://sidekick.t-mobile.com/

http://www.samsung.com/us/mobile/cell-phones/SGH-T839HABTMB

http://www.gsmarena.com/t_mobile_sidekick_4g-3874.php

http://www.phonearena.com/phones/T-Mobile-Sidekick-4G_id5158

http://www.phonescoop.com/phones/phone.php?p=3205

Reviews

http://www.engadget.com/2011/04/29/sidekick-4g-review/

http://androidcommunity.com/t-mobile-sidekick-4g-review-20110419/

http://www.wired.com/reviews/2011/04/sidekick-4g/

http://www.phonearena.com/reviews/T-Mobile-Sidekick-4G-Review_id2713

http://www.infosyncworld.com/reviews/cell-phones/sidekick-4g/11943.html

http://www.theverge.com/2011/10/24/2509330/t-mobile-sidekick-4g-review