Mobiles Review

Intro
Smart phones have come a long way in terms of design and form factor. You’re no longer restricted to carrying around bricks for phones and instead have a choice of sleek, sexy numbers like the Motorola Q, the T-Mobile SDA, and the RIM BlackBerry Pearl. Yet, smart phones are limited in that they all sport a candy-bar-style form factor??“that is, until now. Today, Cingular announced at the CTIA 2006 fall show the immediate availability of the Cingular 3125 (a.k.a. HTC StarTrek), the first Windows Mobile 5 smart phone to rock a sleek clamshell design. To sweeten the deal, it carries a very reasonable price tag of $149.99 with a contract. Overall, we like the new look, though there’s a period of acclimation and some quirks, such as small side keys and an inconveniently located expansion slot. Feature-wise, there’s nothing really new here as in the Cingular 2125 and the T-Mobile SDA. However, for flip phone fanatics who want that Windows Mobile functionality, the Cingular 3125 is a solid choice??“actually, it’s your only choice.

Design
We have mixed feelings about the Cingular 3125’s design. While we’re fans of the clamshell form factor and its slim profile (3.87 by 2.02 by 0.64 inches; 3.82 ounces), this isn’t the most attractive handset we’ve seen, and it’s a bit long in its closed and opened state. The former is not a problem if you slip it into a purse, but a couple of guys complained to us about the length of the phone as it stuck out of their jeans pocket. Also, when held up to the ear for phone calls, the mouthpiece extends down quite a bit. That said, we commend the thinness of the smart phone (?  la the Motorola Razr) and to be fair, we grew to like it more as we got acclimated to the design.

On the front flap is a 1.2-inch LCD that garnered a lot of oohs and aahs from passersby, thanks to its sharp 128?—128-pixel resolution and the cool blue font, which offers a nice contrast against the phone’s black casing. The screen shows off all the basic info, such as date, time, network strength, and battery life, and we really like that you can change the wallpaper and backlight time-out. When the music player is activated, the external screen will show you the track title, artist, song length, and volume. Conveniently, just below the screen, you also have music player controls, including track forward, track back, and play/stop. Above the display is the Cingular 3125’s camera lens, but disappointingly, there’s no flash or self-portrait mirror, though you can use the external display for the latter.

A button on the right side of the phone activates the camera. However, this sliver of a control occupies the top, thinner half of the flap, making it hard to find and press by feel. The same problem exists on the left spine, where you will find the voice recorder button and volume up/down keys. We really had a hard time adjusting the audio levels during phone calls and often had to pull the handset away from our face to find the controls; it’s even worse when you hold the mobile in your right hand as you have to use your index finger to manipulate the buttons, which seems a bit unnatural when compared to using your thumbs.
There’s some redemption when you open the Cingular 3125 and are presented with a beautiful internal screen and a spacious keypad. The TFT LCD measures 2.2 inches diagonally and boasts a sharp, 240?—320-pixel resolution. Colors are bright, and text and images are extrasharp. Like all devices running Windows Mobile Smartphone Edition, the 3125 does not have a touch screen. Rather, you navigate the menus and enter commands via the controls below the display. You have two soft keys, talk and end buttons, a home page shortcut, a back button, a five-way navigation control, and a numerical dial pad. Like the phone itself, the style of the keypad reminds us of the Motorola Razr with its flat design and laser-cut look. The buttons were easy to press and the numerical dial pad was particularly roomy, so even users with larger fingers shouldn’t have a problem. That said, the lack of a QWERTY keyboard makes the 3125 better for viewing e-mail rather than sending it.
The Cingular 3125 does have a Micro SD expansion slot, but it’s inconveniently located behind the battery cover and the SIM card. We’re already irked that we have to remove the battery cover, but having to go through two hoops to access the expansion slot is truly a hassle. Finishing out the 3125’s design elements is a power/USB cable connector on the lower right side, as well as two small LEDs on the lower-left corner of the front cover that blink different colors for network status (green), Bluetooth (blue), and battery status (orange).

Features
Much of the buzz surrounding the Cingular 3125 centered around its design, but this phone has a solid feature set as well. However, its features are still standard fare for a smart phone and very similar to its candy-bar-style cousin, the Cingular 2125. The 3125 runs Windows Mobile 5 Smartphone Edition and comes with the complete ClearVue Suite for viewing Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and PDF files. You can’t edit the documents, but given the lack of a full keyboard or touch screen, it’s not the ideal device for such a thing anyway. Still, the ability to even access these files allows you to be more productive on the road, and we’re happy to report that we had no problems transferring and opening all four types of documents on our test unit. Other PIM tools include a calendar, a task manager, a calculator, and a download agent.

The Cingular 3125 comes with Outlook Mobile and is compatible with the Microsoft Exchange Server with direct push e-mail solutions available through Microsoft, GoodLink, and Cingular Xpress Mail. You can also configure the 3125 to access your POP3 and IMAP4 e-mail accounts. For instant-messaging fans, only the MSN client is preloaded onto the device. Users of other popular IM apps, such as Yahoo and AOL, will have to go through the Web browser. Alternatively, text and multimedia messaging are available for quick notes.

You also get Windows Media Player 10 Mobile??“after all, it can’t be all about work, right? The 3125 supports MP3, WMA, AAC, and AMR-NB music files (you can also shop for music via the Cingular Music store) and MPEG-4, WMV, AVI, and H.263 video formats.

As a phone, the 3125’s address book is limited only by the available memory (64MB RAM, 128MB ROM), while the SIM card holds an additional 250 contacts. For each entry, you can store up to 12 numbers, three e-mail and instant-messaging addresses, birthdays, anniversaries, and more. You can also pair them with a picture for caller ID, a group category, and one of 14 ring tones. As a bonus, the phone supports MIDI, MP3, WMA, AMR-NB, and AAC ring tones. You get a vibrate mode, a speakerphone, speed dial, and voice tags. In addition, Bluetooth 1.2 is onboard for use with headsets and car kits, but like the 2125, the 3125 lacks integrated Wi-Fi, although there is EDGE support.

The Cingular 3125 is equipped with a 1.3-megapixel camera with 2X zoom and video-recording capabilities. For still images, you have a choice of four quality settings (Basic, Normal, Fine, and Super-Fine) and four resolutions (160?—120, 320?—240, 640?—480, and 1,280?—1,024). And while there’s no flash, there is a Night mode under the white balance settings. You also get a self-timer, a time- and date-stamp option, and a photo counter. The 3125’s camera records video with sound in MPEG-4, H.263, or Motion-JPEG AVI format, and it offers two resolutions (176?—144 or 128?—96).

Performance
We tested the quad-band (GSM 850/900/1800/1900; EDGE) Cingular 3125 in San Francisco and Los Angeles, and overall, call quality was good. On our end, conversations were loud and clear. Our callers reported excellent audio quality and added that they couldn’t tell we were on a cell phone. Unfortunately, activating the speakerphone diminished audio quality a bit. Our friends reported no problems, but they sounded garbled to us.

Aside from its phoning capabilities, the 3125 was sometimes sluggish to perform other tasks. There was a bit of lag time as we switched between screens or called up different apps. However, music sounded great on the device and Web pages and video looked amazing on the sharp screen.

The Cingular 3125 is rated for 7 hours of talk time and up to 9 days of standby time. In our tests, we were able to get a good 8 hours of talk time from the phone’s lithium-ion battery.

Intro
T-Mobile has its MDA smart phone, and now Cingular has its 8125. The Cingular 8125 (a.k.a. HTC Wizard) is the latest Windows Mobile 5 device to join the carrier’s smart-phone lineup, right behind the Cingular 2125. The quad-band (GSM 850/900/1800/1900) world phone comes with integrated Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and EDGE support. In addition, there’s a full QWERTY keyboard hidden behind the slider design, and since it will be upgradable to Microsoft’s Messaging and Security Feature Pack, you can receive your e-mail in real time with push technology. Unfortunately, with all these features, the phone is on the larger and heavier side. The mediocre call quality also leaves something to be desired. Still, for mobile professionals who need to get work done on the road, the 8125 provides all the tools to do so. Cingular will offer two versions: one equipped with a 1.3-megapixel camera and one without (the Cingular 8100). The Cingular 8125 is available now at a pricey $299.99 with a two-year contract.

Design
One glance at the Cingular 8125, and you pretty much know it means business. It’s styled in no-nonsense gray and silver, and from the front, it looks like any old PDA, measuring 4.3 inches high and 2.3 inches wide. Unfortunately, the smart phone is on the thicker and heavier side (1 inch; 5.2 ounces), so it’s definitely not the most travel-friendly device we’ve seen; on the bright side, though, Cingular includes a belt holster. Ladies, you may want to make some room in your purse. The 8125’s size is an issue when you use it as a phone, plus the bigger form factor and the extra weight make it uncomfortable to use for long conversations. That said, the mobile is equipped with a speakerphone and Bluetooth, so you can take advantage of those technologies for hands-free calls.

Sitting front and center is the Cingular 8125’s 2.8-inch-diagonal TFT screen with a 64,000-color output and a 320?—240-pixel resolution. Overall, text and images were clear and defined, and the colors were bright and vibrant. We did notice, however, that the display had a tendency to hold a lot of smudges and fingerprints. As with the T-Mobile MDA, the shortcut keys to your in-box and the Web are above the screen, while two soft keys, the Talk and End buttons, and the navigation toggle are located below the display. The keys have a spacious layout, so you shouldn’t have any problems using the phone. Although you can reassign the shortcut keys, we wish there were a dedicated shortcut key to the Today screen. As it is, you need the stylus to exit out of any apps and get back to your home screen, which deters one-handed use??“something the Palm Treo 700w excelled at.

What lies beneath the Cingular 8125’s screen is a beauty: a full QWERTY keyboard. To access it, just slide the face to the right. As with the T-Mobile MDA and the Sprint PPC-6700, the sliding mechanism isn’t the smoothest, but it does snap into place with a satisfying click, and the screen automatically switches from portrait to landscape mode. The keyboard features large, tactile buttons, and as with the MDA, there are no dedicated numeral keys, so you have to hit the Function button first to input numbers or symbols. The backlighting is a bit faint, but it provides enough illumination for typing in darker environments.

On the Cingular 8125’s left spine, you get a volume rocker and a one-touch button to open the Comm Manager, where you can turn on Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, ActiveSync, and vibrate mode. The right side has a voice-record button, an infrared port, a reset hole, and a camera-activation key. The 8125’s camera lens is located on the back of the device, along with a flash and a small self-portrait mirror. In a nice move by HTC, the placement of the Capture button actually mimics the feel of a real digital camera to avoid any awkward hand placements when taking horizontal pictures.

Rounding out the Cingular 8125 are a 2.5mm headset jack, a mini USB/power port, and a stylus holder on the bottom of the handset. There’s a Mini SD card-expansion slot on top, but unfortunately, a card isn’t included. Cingular packages the smart phone with an AC charger, a wired stereo headset, a carrying case, and a USB cable.

Features
The Cingular 8125 is one of those everything-but-the-kitchen-sink smart phones, just packed to the gill with features. A 200MHz TI OMAP 850 processor, 128MB of SDRAM, and 64MB of ROM are the muscle, while Microsoft’s Windows Mobile 5 operating system (Pocket PC edition) is the brains behind the device, offering improved mobile versions of Word, Excel, and the new PowerPoint presentation viewer. The ClearVue PDF viewer is also on board for those of you who need to view such files, as well as a zip utility, a task manager, and Download Agent.

Of course, a key functionality is e-mail, and the Cingular 8125 doesn’t disappoint, with support for corporate and personal e-mail accounts. Outlook Mobile is included, and the smart phone works with Microsoft Exchange Server, GoodLink, Cingular Xpress Mail, and MSN Hotmail. Moreover, the 8125 will be upgradable to Microsoft’s Messaging and Security Feature Pack when it’s released later this year, so you can enjoy the advantages of push technology and receive messages in real time. Using the included USB cable, we connected our review unit to our PC, and all our Outlook e-mail, contacts, tasks, and appointments synced seamlessly with the device. Instant, text, and multimedia messaging are also all supported.

As far as voice features go, the Cingular 8125 is a quad-band world phone, so globe-trotting execs can use this mobile overseas while keeping the same phone number. The 8125’s phone book is limited only by the available memory (the SIM card holds an additional 250 contacts) and is quite robust. You can store up to 12 numbers for a single entry, as well as home and work addresses, e-mail, an IM screen name, a birthday, a spouse’s name, and more. For caller-ID purposes, you can pair a contact with a photo, a caller group, or one of nine polyphonic ring tones. You also get a vibrate mode, a speakerphone, and voice dialing. As we mentioned earlier, the 8125 has integrated Bluetooth, so you can connect to headsets for hands-free chatting, but the wireless connections don’t end there, as you get the full buffet of Wi-Fi (802.11b), infrared, and EDGE support.

Entertainment comes by way of Windows Media Player 10 Mobile. Once you’re done wheelin’ and dealin’ on your Cingular 8125, you can use it to relax to your favorite MP3, WAV, WMA, AAC, and AMR music files; you also get album art, and WMP 10 Mobile is compatible with all PlaysForSure online stores. The smart phone handles MPEG-4 video streaming, and if you have TV shows recorded on your Media Center PC, you can transfer them to your device for on-the-go viewing. For those who want to make their own movies, the Cingular 8125 offers a 1.3-megapixel camera with video-recording capabilities. You can record clips with sound in MPEG-4 or Motion-JPEG AVI format, as well as in two sizes (128?—96 or 176?—144). There are a number of ambience settings and effects, ranging from Night and Incandescent to Sepia and Grayscale. You also get a 2X zoom, as well as options for a time and date stamp, a counter, and a self-timer. Many of these features are available for still pictures, in addition to four quality settings (SuperFine, Fine, Normal, and Basic) and a set of amusing picture frames. The 8125’s 1.3-megapixel camera produces above-average pictures with bright colors, but keep in mind, camera phones are good for quick snapshots only and won’t replace a good stand-alone digital camera. We do appreciate the fact that Cingular offers a cameraless version of the 8125, since more and more businesses are prohibiting the use of camera phones for security reasons.

Performance
We tested the quad-band (GSM 850/900/1800/1900; EDGE) Cingular 8125 in the San Francisco area, and call quality was a mixed bag. On our end, callers sounded clear, and volume was plenty adequate, but our friends said we sounded far away; plus, they could definitely tell we were using a cell phone. The speakerphone, which can be activated only once you’re on a call, was also mediocre. Conversations were a bit garbled, and we had to jack the volume to the highest level to hear our callers. On the upside, we had no problems pairing the 8125 with the Logitech Mobile Traveller Bluetooth headset; audio quality was subpar, but this may have more to do with the headset than the actual phone.

Overall performance on the Cingular 8125 was decent. Response time was pretty quick, but there was definitely a noticeable lag when we had several apps open at the same time, as well as when we used the camera and the video recorder. We had no problems connecting to our Wi-Fi access point, and Web browsing was decent over the phone’s GPRS/EDGE connection.

The Cingular 8125 is rated for 5 hours of talk time and up to seven days of standby time. However, like the latest crop of Window Mobile 5 handhelds, the 8125 has outstanding talk-time battery life, lasting 10 hours, 40 minutes before the low-battery notification flashed across the screen. We also had no problems reaching the promised standby time.

Intro
A little more than a year ago, a small wonder called the Audiovox SMT5600 took the smart-phone world by storm with its powerful features and ultracompact form factor. Even today, it continues to be one of CNET readers’ favorite smart phones. Now, a worthy successor has come along to let the SMT5600 retire: the Cingular 2125. The 2125 is Cingular’s first company-branded B2B device and offers many of the same great qualities of the SMT5600, but it adds some upgrades, such as the latest Windows Mobile 5 OS and a better camera. Unfortunately, the 2125 falls a bit behind some of its competition??“the T-Mobile SDA??“with its lack of Wi-Fi and its average call quality. That said, the 2125’s pros outweigh the cons, and it’s still a powerful smart phone that will help mobile professionals be more productive on the road. The Cingular 2125 is available now for $299.99, but you should be able to get it for less with service.

Design
Unless you’re a smart-phone fanatic, you may not have heard of a Taiwanese company called HTC. Alhough not a household name, the company quietly has built some of the hottest Windows Mobile smart phones in the market today, including the Cingular 2125. At a compact 4.3 by 1.8 by 0.7 inches and a light 3.7 ounces, this candy bar-style phone is a boon for mobile professionals; it won’t weigh you down, and it eliminates the need to carry multiple devices. Plus, it doesn’t hurt that it’s a good-looking device, sporting a sleek metallic blue and silver finish. Overall, it’s very reminiscent of the Audiovox SMT5600, with the exception of an additional 0.25-inch overhang on top of the device that houses the power on/off button and the infrared port. We should mention the tricky power control at this point, which already has garnered some reader complaints. It’s marked by a small circular button, so the natural tendency is to simply push it in, but you actually have to push and pull it down. It’s not particularly annoying, but it’s definitely a weird design quirk.

The Cingular 2125’s 2.2-inch-diagonal display is a sight to behold. Although it’s not a touch screen, it displays 64,000 hues with a sharp 320?—240-pixel resolution, making colors pop out and producing crisp text and images. Viewing photos and Web sites on the device was a treat. Just below the display are two soft keys that are well spaced and easy to press. The cramped layout of these keys, as well as the numerical dial pad, is a sticking point for us on the T-Mobile SDA, but we’re glad to see the Cingular 2125 goes a different route. The Today shortcut, the Back button, and the Talk and End keys surround the navigation joystick. Unfortunately, it’s the same tiny toggle that plagues the SDA, so you have to pay attention to the direction you’re moving and firmly press the joystick in the middle to select an item. The dial pad is roomy and backlit, and since the keys are raised above the phone’s surface, it’s easy to dial by feel.

On the left spine, there are three unmarked buttons. The top button launches the Communication Manager, where you can turn on/off Bluetooth, the speakerphone, and ActiveSync; if you hold down the key, it will launch the voice recorder, though we didn’t find this out until we read the user manual. Just below that is the volume rocker, which can’t be used to navigate the menus. There’s a lone camera-activation button on the right side, while the camera lens and the self-portrait mirror are on the back. You can find a 2.5mm headset jack and a port for the USB sync cable and AC adapter on the bottom of the device. The Cingular 2125 ships with a soft protective case/belt holster, an AC charger, a USB cable, and a wired stereo headset.

Features
The Cingular 2125 is chock-full of goodies but falls behind its competitor, the T-Mobile SDA, with its lack of integrated Wi-Fi. We’ll touch on this a bit later, but first, a few of the basics: The 2125’s phone book is limited only by the available memory (64MB of SDRAM, 64MB of flash ROM), while the SIM card holds an additional 250 contacts. For each entry, you can store up to 12 numbers, three e-mail and instant-messaging addresses, birthdays, anniversaries, and more. You can also pair them with one of 12 ring tones and a picture for caller ID. Other treats include a vibrate mode, speed dial, text and multimedia messaging, a voice recorder, and yes, a speakerphone.

The Cingular 2125 runs Windows Mobile 5 Smartphone Edition, which means you won’t get the full Mobile Office suite found on the Pocket PC Edition, just Outlook Mobile. Don’t be alarmed, though; you can still view Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and PDF files by installing the ClearVue Suite from the included CD-ROM. We were able to transfer and open all four formats on the 2125 successfully. You can’t edit said files, but given the 2125’s smaller form factor and lack of a keyboard, it’s not the best device to do such a thing anyway; it’s just nice to be able to review your work and be more productive on the road.

Can’t stand to be away from your e-mail? You don’t have to be with the Cingular 2125. The device handles corporate and personal e-mail, and it’s compatible with Microsoft Exchange Server, GoodLink, and Cingular Xpress Mail. The phone is also upgradable to Microsoft’s Messaging and Security Feature Pack, which will allow for direct push e-mail. You can set up the 2125 to retrieve messages from personal accounts, such as EarthLink, BellSouth, and Yahoo. MSN Messenger is the only instant-messaging client preloaded on the handset, but you can access other popular services, such as Yahoo and AOL, via the Web browser.

Obviously, the lack of a QWERTY keyboard doesn’t make the Cingular 2125 ideal for messaging, but the integrated Bluetooth gives you the option to connect to a Bluetooth accessory keyboard so that you can stretch your fingers and type to your heart’s content. We touched on the lack of Wi-Fi earlier, and its absence is a little easier to take because of the EDGE support, but we’re still disappointed, especially since the T-Mobile SDA managed to pack it in. We would have appreciated that extra avenue for surfing the Web. As it is, the Web-browsing experience was a little poky compared with that of the SDA, but it gets the job done.

The Audiovox SMT5600 only had a VGA camera, but the Cingular 2125 kicks it up a notch with a 1.3-megapixel camera. The editing options are identical to those found on the T-Mobile SDA, including four quality settings (Basic, Normal, Fine, and Super-Fine) and four resolutions (160?—120, 320?—240, 640?—480, and 1,280?—1,024). You also get a 2X zoom, brightness controls, a time- and date-stamp option, and a photo counter. Normally, we would bemoan the lack of a flash, but the 2125’s Night setting did an admirable job of lighting up pictures taken in dark environments. Other lighting choices include Auto, Daylight, Incandescent, and Fluorescent. To spruce up your snapshots, you can add a picture frame or change the tone of the picture to Grayscale, Sepia, or Cool. If you want to make movies for the small screen, the phone’s camera records video clips with sound in MPEG-4, H.263, or Motion-JPEG AVI format, and it offers two resolutions (176?—144 or 128?—96). Also at your disposal are most of the editing features found on the still camera.

We have to admit??“the picture quality was not too shabby. Although not frameworthy, our snapshots came out clear and bright, and you can share your memories with others via multimedia message or e-mail, as well as save them as wallpaper. Other customization options for your phone include different color themes, background images, and sounds. If none of the defaults suit you, take a visit to Cingular’s Media Mall and shop around.

Finally, during your downtime, you can enjoy a variety of multimedia fun, including MP3, WAV, WMA, and AAC music files, as well as MPEG-4 video streams, thanks to Windows Media Player 10 Mobile.

Performance
We tested the quad-band (GSM 850/900/1800/1900; EDGE) Cingular 2125 in San Francisco, and call quality was a mixed bag. We had no problems hearing the conversation, but on several occasions, our callers said they detected an echo. Also, the speakerphone wasn’t the best we’ve heard; volume was a bit low even when we jacked it up to the highest level. We had no problems pairing the handset with the Logitech Mobile Traveller Bluetooth headset, and though audio quality took a bit of a dive, this may have more to do with the headset than the phone.

The Cingular 2125’s battery is rated for a talk time of 4 hours and up to six days of standby time, but like the T-Mobile SDA, the 2125 laughs at that lowly number. The smart phone lasted an astounding 11 hours before finally calling it quits, and it met the rated standby time. According to the FCC radiation tests, the Cingular 2125 has a digital SAR rating of 0.94 watt per kilogram.