Introduction
The New Cingular 8125 is another innovative product from HTC. HTC stands for High Tec Computers Corporation . HTC is a company from Taiwan that specializes in Windows mobile phones. The 8125 is branded by Cingular, so it has ?Cingular? written on it, and also has many Cingular exclusive features on it.
The 8125 is a quad-band GSM phone that has a 200 Mhz processor, 128Mb Rom and 64Mb of Ram and an external Mini-SD slot that supports up to 2 GB of extra memory. The 8125 also has an excellent QWERTY keyboard that slides out horizontally.
Design
The Cingular 8125 has an exceptional design and resembles the HTC Wizard, also known as the T-mobile MDA. Both the phones have a horizontal sliding keyboard, so when the keyboard is out the screen rotates in landscape view. In my opinion the design of the 8125 is a major improvement to the T-Mobile MDA.
The 8125 looks boxier as opposed to the MDA which has a rounded look. The 8125 seems a lot lighter too. Another major improvement between the two is the keyboard. The 8125 has a much better keyboard than the T-Mobile MDA because it is a lot easier to type with. Since the keys are a lot bigger and block style, it makes it much easier to type as opposed to the MDA where the keys are smaller and spaced out from each other.
Basic Features
The Cingular 8125 has all the features that Windows Mobile 5 has to offer and has all the basic features you need in a phone. You can set up your home screen so that you can see the following: Date, Owner info, messaging, tasks, calendar, pocket MSN etc. You can customize the home screen just the way you like it and have shortcuts for the programs you use the most. The 8125 supports .mp3 ring tones as well as picture I.D. The 8125 also has all your PIM functions like alarm clock, calendar, appointments etc.
Advanced Features
The Cingular 8125 has all the advanced features that Windows Pocket PC has to offer. The 8125 has a built in 1.3 megapixel camera with flash, class 2 Bluetooth, Wireless Internet (WiFi), Infrared, Pocket Office with all the standard applications like: Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel. The 8125 does not have Ev-do, but it does make up for it by having Wi-Fi and EDGE!!
Display
The 8125 supports over 65,000 colors and has a resolution of 320x 240. The display is also touch screen, so it is very easy to navigate using the stylus. The display seems to be very bright and better quality than the T-Mobile MDA. The best part about the 8125 and MDA is that the screen rotates to landscape view as well as portrait. Older phones that were only portrait view were unpractical for many reasons including web browsing; these new line of phones resolve this issue.
Audio
The Cingular 8125 is perfect for listening to music and replace your existing mp3 player. The 8125 has dual stereo speakers for listening aloud. The 8125 also comes with wired stereo headphones. Since the phone supports an external Mini-SD card, you can have up to 2 GB of music/ videos. I would recommend having a secondary media player other than Windows Media Player. A free ware program like TCPMP is a must on all Pocket PC's for numerous reasons, the best one being is that it is totally free.
Entertainment
Windows Mobile phones are exceptional when it comes to entertainment. You can play real computer like games, listen to music, watch movies, surf the internet and a whole lot more, practically anywhere. People might think it is unpractical to use a phone for these things, but it is more practical then having to carry a laptop, cell phone, PDA organizer and mp3 player!!
Internet
The Cingular 8125 has both EDGE and WIFI. The built in pocket Internet Explorer works amazing over WIFI. When you have the keyboard out the screen is in landscape mode, which makes it a lot easier and more practical to view webpage's. Another good feature about the built in WIFI is that it is very fast, and almost feels like you are surfing the web on your laptop or home computer.
If you do not like the restrictions of pocket Internet Explorer, there are many other internet browsers as well. Opera is an excellent web browser because it has many more features than internet explorer but on the other hand, it does cost money while internet explorer is free and comes pre-installed.
Storage
The Cingular 8125 has 64 Mb Ram and 128 Mb Rom. Although the 8125 has the exact same specs as the T-Mobile MDA, the amount of available memory is different. It seems for some reason that the Cingular 8125 has almost 10 Mb of extra space compared to the MDA. It might be because the OS is a little smaller in size or it might be because the Cingular 8125 has less preinstalled Data.
Connectivity
The 8125 has both EDGE and WIFI built in. In my opinion WIFI and EDGE both have their pros and cons, and sometimes it is better to use one over the other. But overall it's great to have both features handy. The 8125 also has Bluetooth connectivity which allows you to connect a headset or sync with Active Sync wirelessly.
Although you cannot send files via Bluetooth, you can download an excellent file explorer called Resco Explorer to enable Bluetooth file transfer. The 8125 also has infrared built in so you can easily send info with another infrared device quickly and all wirelessly.
Construction
The Cingular 8125's quality is very high, like all other HTC devices out there. Since the 8125 has a lot of vital components inside it, dropping it could potentially damage the phone. The phone seems very durable and built to last, but in my opinion the touch screen is very sensitive on Pocket Pc's and you have to be careful not damaging it.
Conclusion
Many people believe that Windows Mobile Phones are for business professionals and for business purposes only. This is a big misconception because I think windows phones are aimed at both the teen and business professionals. Blackberries on the other hand are mostly for Business professionals because they lack all the entertainment features that young people are looking for. Windows mobile phones do a great job in aiming their products to a bigger market, and having not only good features but nice looking phones as well.
In conclusion, the 8125 is an excellent choice for Cingular customers because they can get it at a descent price which is way below retail. If you are a Cingular customer and looking to extend your contract this is the phone for you. If the phone is unlocked you can also use it on any GSM network in the world, and since it is quad-band it will have excellent recpetion. All the advanced features in this small package make it an excellent buy, especially since Cingular is selling it for so cheap!!
