Cingular 8125 Smartphone Review

The Cingular 8100 and 8125 provides access to familiar Microsoft applications at the speed of EDGE on the largest high speed wireless data network. With worldphone capabilities, Windows Mobile 5.0 support, and access to various mail and messaging solutions, the Cingular 8100/8125 will keep you connected while on the go.

The 8125, the recently released Nokia 9300 Communicator and the Treo 650 are Cingluar’s three keyboarded smartphone offerings running Windows Mobile, Symbian and the Palm OS respectively.

Cingular 8125 Features and Specifications:

Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900 MHz for enhanced global use
Windows Mobile 5.0*
128MB ROM / 64MB SDRAM
TI OMAP 200MHz Processor
Integrated, sliding QWERTY keyboard
2.8″ QVGA 320×240 64K Color LCD Touch Screen
Integrated Bluetooth Class II
Integrated 802.11b support
Integrated Mini-SD slot for greater storage and expansion
Optional 1.3 mega-pixel camera

* supports upgrade to Microsoft’s Messaging and Security Feature Pack

Battery Life

Battery life, compared to feature phones, don’t earn Pocket PC phone’s bragging rights. But that large display, excellent web and email presentation and mini-PC-in-your-hand experience makes us forgive their relatively short run times. That said, the 8125 (and the Wizard in general), is a shining star, easily lasting two days with moderate use (40 minutes phone time total using a Bluetooth headset, surfing the web over EDGE for 1.5 hours total, using WiFi and the web for 30 minutes more, and checking email and PIM data several times per day with Bluetooth always on). That scenario would send the Samsung i730 to the charger before the first day’s end and the XDA III (Siemens SX66) to the charger by day’s end. Thank the heavens for that 195 MHz CPU when it comes to battery life: it uses much less power than most 400 MHz units. If you’re a very heavy phone and data user, or are addicted to WiFi, do expect to charge nightly. If you’re a moderate user then expect two days on a charge and light users will get three (or four) days on a charge.

Conclusion

We’ve come a long way in a year: not only do we have healthy a selection of juicy PPC phones on sale by all US carriers, but Cingular now offers a phone that’s leaps and bounds better than the Siemens SX66. The Cingular 8125 is compact, stable and runs the latest Windows Mobile OS. This phone is attractive, well-made and somehow manages to shoehorn every imaginable feature into a small package. We love the bright, colorful display, roomy keyboard and good voice quality. EDGE, WiFi and Bluetooth will keep you connected to most anything, anywhere and Cingular’s EDGE speeds on their MEdia Net plan are impressive. Though not the fastest kid on the block, the 8125 does have very good battery life by PPC standards and runs most apps quickly enough, even games. The 8125 loses a half star to the PPC-6700 and XV6700 only because it lacks 3G, which is an important feature for a data-centric device. Though we don’t give 1/4 stars, we wish we could add one to move this device just above the 4 star K-JAM since the 8125 has a better keyboard and more attractive and ergonomic casing. If you’re also considering the HP iPAQ hw6515, we say the Cingular 8125 beats it (unless you need the iPAQ’s integrated GPS) because the iPAQ has a lower resolution 240 x 240 display and runs the old 2003SE OS.

Pros:

Compact, attractive and well built.
Great display and decent camera.
EDGE, WiFi and Bluetooth will keep you connected.
Very good voice quality and the phone supports voice dialing over Bluetooth using the included software.
Good reception and battery life.
Stable and responsive by Windows Mobile 5 standards.
Very attractive pricing for a Pocket PC phone. Comes with a Java VM.

Cons:

Cingular’s MEdia Net connection settings (proxy) can cause problems using Internet Explorer over WiFi which means you have to twiddle with connection settings.
Not the right device for speed demons and those who want to play videos encoded at high bitrates (or larger than QVGA resolution) or run game emulators.
Make sure you don’t have more than 5 running programs or the phone will slow down (get a task manager to make exiting apps easier).
Not a one-handed device (unless you want to do some hacking to change button assignments, a la Smartskey).