Customer Reviews

Cingular 8125 PDA Phone (Cingular)

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I've had this phone for about 2 weeks now and am still evaluating whether or not it is worth keeping (you have 30 days to try it out).

The PROs:
*) Microsoft Windows Mobile 5.0 familiarity. If you know Windows, then using Outlook, Word, Powerpoint and all of the other Microsoft programs it comes with will be a cinch.
*) I can keep track of my appointments with ease. Outlook is great and the 8125 will display your next appointment right on your phone's "Desktop" - the Today screen.
*)The QWERTY keyboard, while seemingly tight and a pain to use initially (i'm not used to PDA phones-this is my 1st one), is something i've gotten used to and is a GREAT feature when texting and sending emails. Also, the screen adjusts automatically from portrait to landscape mode when you're using the keyboard.
*) Email Accounts- I'm an Actor, a Web Designer, and a night club Manager; I have a few different emails that I need to access throughout my day, and i needed a device that would allow me to function on all areas of my life with ease. It allows you to have up to 5 POP3 email accounts. You can also program it to alert you when you have new messages. Very convenient from 1 device!...
*) All in one convenience- Rather than buy a PDA and a separate phone, I can keep all of my phone numbers, addresses, emails, appointments, notes, tasks, etc all in one device! You can't beat that.
*) Smaller than it looks- it's the same size as a Treo 700, though it looks a heck of a lot bigger in press photos.
*) Bluetooth and WiFi- this is the only device (along with the T-Mobile MDA and Spring 6700- these are all the same device, made by HTC) that features both WiFi capability and Bluetooth connectivity.

The CONs:

*)Battery Life- Like I said before, i'm not used to PDA phones so I keep seeing reviews that say the battery life is GREAT and such. I'm not so sure about that. After a full charge, I'll use this phone sporadically and moderately over a period of 6 hrs and it seems like a good portion of the battery goes. Again, i don't know if this is normal for a PDA phone.
*)Speaker phone- basically useless in environments with even a moderate amount of noise.
*)ActiveSync- It even says on your user manual "There are known Activesync problems with this product..." There have been times when i'd connect this device to my computer w/ the USB cord and nothing happens! No recognition, nothing! Definitely a reliability issue.
*) The camera- worthless. The pics are unbelievably subpar! Unless you're outside, everything appears dark. The little flashlight doesn't work more than 6 inches away. A little disappointed because they really tout this phone's "AMAZING 1.3 MP Camera." I mean, who buys a phone for a camera anyway, but it reads like a great feature but doesn't produce great quality.
*)Other Reliability issues- Prone to freeze even when there are no other programs open.
When in email/text messaging program, screen will appear in landscape mode even when the keyboard is not in use! (This is SO annoying).
At times, when trying to switch accounts (for instance, when trying to switch from my Outlook email to Text messages), i will hit "Switch Accounts" and a little square box will appear on the screen, but that's it. (When working properly, it's supposed to give you a list of the email accounts on your phone and you select from that list).
1st day I had it- it would not let me configure my email. I would select "Edit account," but nothing would happen. I had to call customer service and they had me reset the device and had to call me back 45 minutes later because i had no other phone for them to direct me through the call.

Again, overall, i don't know if the reliability problems are specific to my phone and whether I was unlucky or not, but overall I gave it 3 stars because it is a good all-in-one device. The quirks, however, take away from enjoying this product fully. With that in mind, I have 14 more days to decide whether this is worth keeping for 2 MORE YEARS. I'll let you know if I return it or not...

I have had a Cingular cell phone for over 10 years (known as Houston Cellular in years past). I have also had a PDA for the past 10 years, including Windows Mobile based HP IPAQ's for over 5 years. I have always longed to combine the two devices into one. However, for the most part, cell phone PDA devices were not up to the quality offered by the HP IPAQ's.

Recently, I took the plunge and tried out a few PDA phones from Cingular. First I tried the new Nokia PDA in the store - this one has the long horizontal screen. Unfortunately, the keyboard is not lighted and I decided to opt for the latest Palm Treo instead. I kept the Palm for about 3 days - it is a very nice phone with a sharp screen but the Palm operating system pales by comparison to Windows Mobile. I did like the one button switch on the top of the Treo that turns vibrate mode on. However, I felt that the exposed cramped keyboard was not the best for a tall man with big hands.

Mainly because of my bias in favor of the Windows Mobile platform, I exchanged the Palm for a Cingular 8125. For those who are not aware, this phone is Cingular's incarnation of the HTC Wizard and the T-Mobil MDA.

I have now had this phone for about 6 weeks. For starters, I need to state that I have not tried e-mail connectivity - I paid the full price for the phone and Cingular did not require a data contract, just a 2 year agreement for the cell phone services. I work for a large energy company and getting company e-mail on a private PDA is still in the future for security reasons.

However, I use it to connect to the internet using the Wi-Fi that I have set up at home with a Time Warner Roadrunner cable. The 8125 took me about 15 minutes to set up and reliably connects to BBC Pocket PC version every day in a matter of seconds. By contrast, my HP IPAQ 4705 running Windows Mobile 3 has hiccups every third day that needs me to ping to the server, re-enter the password, etc. Of course, you cannot compare the 8125's display to the IPAQ - the 4705 has a gorgeous 4 inch display. Having said that, I must add that the 8125 has a sharp 2.8 display that is quite adequate if not quite as spectacular.

I have read a review on CNET that states that the 8125 gives reception problems in Sugar Land, Texas. I live in Sugar Land and I can tell you that this phone has a clear strong reception everywhere in Houston. The Palm Treo was much inferior by comparison - I had difficuly hearing in my car with the Treo pressed against my ear.

As I wrote above, I do not have a data plan with Cingular and so I cannot comment on this aspect of the phone. It does have an excellent voice dial feature - as long as ambient noise is low, the phone reliably picks up all my voice signatures and dials the appropriate contact. This is the best way to dial with this phone as using the hidden sliding keypad is not easy, especially if you are driving (it is usually best not to use a cell phone at all while driving). Bottom line, I am quite satisfied with the 8125 as a cell-phone. Note that it is not as bulky as it appears in the pictures.

Now for the PDA capabilities. Again, do not compare the screen to a 4705. It does not have the real estate that the 4705 does and therefore all fonts will be that much smaller. Other than this, the 8125 is the equal of the 4705. I added a 2 GB mini SD SanDisk card that I got from Amazon at an incredible price. It works beautifully and I am able to load large applications including talking dictionaries on the card, thus freeing up phone memory. I have SciCalc, Pocket PC Chess Grandmaster, Pocket Stars, Lextionary, MSDict with Slovo-En, Pocket Music, Resco File Explorer and Today add-in, Pocket Quicken and Code Wallet among other apps running smoothly. The keyboard is as good as it gets for such a small device - it is backlit and the keys have a nice reassuring feel.

The sweetest feature is the sound quality from the stereo speakers. With Pocket Music and the AAC add-in, I am playing Bollywood music at about half the volume level. The sound is very sweet - of course do not expect bass from the teeny speakers! This device beats the hell out of the IPAQ 4705's mono speaker. By the way, the camera on this phone is not much more than a toy - I would only use if I did not have a regular camera around and had to take a picture for some reason. There is a flash but I doubt that it makes any difference to the picture quality.

I have a car charge adaptor and the USB cable auto charges when connected to my laptop. Regarding Auto-Sync issues, there is no problem as long as you do not have a fire-wall like Zone Labs running. Shut down Zone Labs and the auto-sync works just fine. Windows Mobile 5 is an improvement over Ver. 3 - it does not need re-booting much and it is easier to manage apps from your laptop.

I have taken one star away because I think the PDA/phone marriage has still not fully matured. I know that people have connectivity issues. Furthermore, HTC could have improved the ergonomics on this phone. Turning on vibrate mode needs a few screen taps - I have not figured out how to use a single buuton to do this yet.

All in all, I must say that this phone is worth the $400 that it costs. Unfortunately, Cingular unlike T-Mobile and Sprint will not offer phone insurance on their PDA phones. So I lose this phone and I am out of luck....

To conclude, this is an excellent PDA phone for those comfortable with the Windows Mobile operating system. If you have realistic expectations and recognize that the PDA/phone marriage is stil evolving, you will not be disappointed. Kudos to HTC for a well-thought out and executed device.

OK, I've recently realized that I tend to write long reviews, so here are the pertinent points: (full review to follow)

Pros:
Windows Mobile 5.0/Activesync/MS Office support/PDF/Windows Media(Mp3/video player)/etc.
WiFi/Bluetooth
Screen resolution/brightness
Full keyboard
Touchscreen
Battery life (for a PDA/Smartphone)
Mini SD card slot placement
mini USB port
Quad band (and easy to unlock)

Cons:
Windows Mobile 5.0/Activesync/etc/etc
Slowish processor
Bulk
Keyboard "slide" mechanism loosens over time
No "voice commands" out of the box


Ok, here goes the detailed version:

I should state that I'm not a Cingular fan (forced over after ATTWS was bought out by them), but between the GSM providers (them and T-mo) in this country, it's IMHO the better choice. This isn't a Cingular review, however. It's a phone review (apparently, some of the other reviewers here have missed that point!), so... I originally got this phone (08/2006) because it was the only Cingular phone with WiFi built in. I haven't kept up with Cingular phones lately, so I don't know if that has since changed.

Form:

Weakest link of all. I am waiting for someone to make a Win Mobile 5.0, full keyboard, Bluetooth, WiFi, touchscreen PDA/phone that's approximately the form factor of a moto Q or similar (new blackjack?). Since it doesn't exist, I guess this is the next best thing.

The phone is large. Period. While it's no "brick" or "bag" phone (from the days when we had 3 watt jobbies that weighed 8 pounds), it is by modern standards a bulky phone. It's almost an inch thick and weighs a lot (official specs 0.9" thick and 6.1 ounces). HOWEVER, the bulk does allow for a georgeous 3.5" touchscreen display that takes up the majority of the front of the phone.

The keyboard. Love it and hate it. Size of the keyboard is (relatively) huge and because of the size, the designers had to hide it away using a sliding mechanism. The problem is that the sliding mechanism loosens itself after a few months of using the phone such that after a while, the phone slides open if you're holding it up to your ear on a call. Sucks. Solution: use bluetooth! Otherwise, the keyboard is functional and can function for touch typing as it has raised bumps over the home keys of "f" and "j". It includes its own set of soft buttons to actuate the menus and such and it also actually has its own "windows" key for accessing the start menu. The keyboard backlighting is a nice touch as well, but it seems to turn off too quickly.

Love that the memory card (miniSD) slot is accessible from the outside (not hidden behind the battery like in some phones).

Other gripes: the phone has a 2.5mm earphone/audio out jack instead of the more common 3.5mm jack. Standard headphones with a minijack will NOT work without an adaptor. The volume button (upper left side) is a slider (slide up for vol up, down for vol down), and I think would be better served with a multipurpose "jog" wheel with push it to click functionality. Would help with one handed operation.

Function:

As a PDA:
Windows. What can I say. It's a love-hate relationship. Love that it's got the same familiarity as XP, and has (basically) the same functionality in a superportable package. You can do Word/Excel/Powerpoint/Outlook out of the box. You can read PDFs. There's Windows Media for Mp3s and videos (the phone comes with a pretty decent set of headphones with volume control and call answer/hangup control on the cord), there's mobile IE (no need for WAP based browsing), there's a file zipper (like pkzip, winzip, etc), there's email and SMS, there's a great contacts/calendar PDA type setup, and there is also a pretty straightforward, easy to use syncing program (Activesync). You can do Powerpoint presentations from the thing (either via Bluetooth, IRDA, or a SDIO adapter!); how cool would you look hooking up your PHONE to the LCD projector instead of a laptop? Bottom line, anyone already using a Windows Mobile device will feel right at home and anyone who has used a Windows PC (who hasn't?) will pick it up rather intuitively. WiFi is awesome. I can basically use IE just like a PC over WiFi. However, surfing the internet on this thing can be a real battery killer!

HOWEVER, it's Windows. It's a memory hog. Programs don't end when you "quit" them, and even if you go into the system menu and "stop" them via the memory manager, there's still a significant amount of leak. Gotta reboot every now and again to get the memory back. Also, I've had some hangs. Didn't expect that out of a phone, but, hello... it's Windows. Oh well. Hoping that the next generation of Win Mobile gets even better. As I've heard, this version is leaps and bounds better than 2003. (This is my first Windows "CE" product). There is an easily accessible "reset" button that can be actuated by the stylus or a straightened paperclip just below the IR window. Also, the processor is not the fastest. You'll notice switching apps or anything somewhat processor intensive (video/music) will cause your other apps to slow down.

As a phone:
Signal strength is good. Not Nokia levels, but good. Maybe a bit better than Motorola levels. Sound quality as a phone is great; as a speakerphone it's excellent as speakerphones go (those tiny stereo speakers do remarkably well). Microphone picks up accurately, and there are no complaints of vocal quality on the other side of the line. Dialing is via touchscreen. Sucks for touchtyping, and since there's not a voice dial function (out of the box), it's your only option for calling anyone not programmed in as a contact with a voice tag. There ARE aftermarket software solutions for voice dialing (e.g. "DIAL 0-0-0-5-5-5-1-2-3-4 SEND"), but come on...depending on carrier subsidies, spending between $300 to $700 on a phone, I expect the functionality to be built in! By the way, I use my fingernail to dial to be more precise when pressing the "keys" on the touchscreen. That way, you don't have to pull out the stylet everytime you make a phone call.

Contact search is a delight. You can just start pressing keys (as numbers or letters), and the phone will automatically bring up the contacts which match. Example: you can press 2-4-5 and the phone will bring up anyone whose number begins with "245" or all the entries for "BIL" (like "Bil"l, "Bil"ly, pay my "Bil"l, etc.) or some other combination like that (like "BI J" for "BI"ll "J"ones). Quite amazing

Bluetooth paring is easy and bluetooth works well with my headset. Above average range and clarity.

Battery life is excellent. I usually go 4-5 days inbetween charges on moderate phone/bluetooth usage, light internet/WiFi usage. If I'm heavy on the internet, maybe recharge in 12-16 hours or so (adequate for a day's work). Anyway, recharging is simple. Just carry a USB to miniUSB cable with you. Plug into any PC or USB power adapter and you're set.

All and all, it's a unified device, with it's inherent limitations. A jack-of-all-trades cannot be perfect at everything it does, but the 8125 does everything well and with only a few drawbacks. I would MUCH rather have this one device on my hip than a phone, a palm device, a MP3 player, and still have to carry around a laptop. 5/5 (if I could, 4.75/5). Can't wait to see what HTC(the manufacturer for Cingular) has around the corner.

First let me say that I love this phone/pda/media player/web browser/camera device. As a stay at home dad I'm glad that I can finally keep all my organization and communication together without carrying two devices. But when asked I will only cautiously recommend others buy it. I've narrowed it down to a simple multiple choice question.
When purchasing a brand new computer do you:

A)Hook up the cables, turn it on, and see what kind of new things your computer has on it?
--or--
B)Hook up the cables and then spend the next day (or two) removing all the junk software that the manufacturer put on it, and installing your own software, hardware, and then configuring it to work in your own networked household?

If you answered (A) then I would urge caution in making this purchase. Only a small part of the devices capabilities are available to the turn-it-on-and-use-it user. Check out the cingular forums and reviews here, and make sure that your ready for the plunge.
If you answered (B) then pony up to the counter and get one today!! There are tons of freeware apps out there to help modify the annoyances that most people complain about, from programs to truly close out applications to phone dialer skins to eliminate the small oem screen keyboard. Do a search for Wizard (the manufacturers name) Forums and prepare for some serious fun.

Had my 8125 about a week now,
(via Cingular online purchase).
upgraded from a smart phone. So far So good, quite a nice little machine. I cannot compare it to other PDA's as i have never used one, but being quite the computer type geek, So far am quite impressed with the functionality. Keeping away from the many add-on's and systems tweaks (except "magic Button", and "Opera browser for PDA")

needed the Opera pda beta software for bofa.com, bank of america would not work correctly on the IE software. Opera works great for there secure site. (would not save the account state)

Pros:
about the same size as my previous smart phone, 1/4 inch thicker, 3/4 inch wider. so no big adjustment there.

fairly customizable, had to do some web surfing to get an easy process to set my picture as the "Today" background, and have it look good.
(open the pic in file viewer, menu, set as today background, transparency = 0)

phone is average, all cell phones have issues at some point, so it rates average.

Camera, its a phone, need a camera, by a camara. but it works, flash is constant, and only good for about 2 feet. pics are ok.

speaker phone very good.

navigation seems good, and you have options, rocker switch, pointer, menus.

soft and hard buttons are customizable, have not had to modify them yet, as not sure what i want different.

Wifi is nice option, and it works.
(64 bit encryption only) my linksys at home was at 128. but while at home, why would surf on my pda...

as i drive around town, (phx area), the default settings have the notifications pop up and beep when wifi in area. (if you leave it on). nice, but gets old. found the settings to turn off wifi notifications. a good thing.

boots up fairly quickly, actually quicker than my smart phone (hate that name.. smart phone), anyway, very, acceptable in reboot and startup times

has only locked up once on me, and that was as i was adding a tweak program for changing some customization... so, hey, cut that out. will work fine.

I do not connect up to work "push email" but i do sync with my work outlook for the calendar and contacts. (gotta love that!!)

Mini SD ram card inserts on top of the device, nice.

slide out keyboard, nice.

Cons:
when it goes to sleep, you need to push the power button to wake up. not really a big deal, but you get used to it.
there may be a setting to change that, have not discovered it yet, maybe i should read the manual?

had taken my mini sd ram out of the previous phone, inserted into PDA, booted, worked great, all data there. nice, but later in the week, the PDA wanted to format the mini sd ram. no way around it.
i would recommend if transferring the SD ram, backup first on your laptop/pc format the ram on the pda, then copy your data back.

need to hold the special shift key on slide out keyboard for numbers and special characters. (on screen keyboard better for that as needed)

Summary:
Good pda so far. if any major badness, will update this review.

7/8/06 update:
added Microsoft voice command, now that's nice, quite handy, had to remove magic button, the two don't play well together, had several freeze ups while both were active, removed magic button, much more stable. if you install voice command, i recommend disabling the announce incoming calls, it announces while the ring tone is playing, making neither acceptable.

otherwise, still like it!!

I've had the Cingular 8125 for a week now and I have to say I'm very happy with the phone. I was skeptical about the Cingular GSM service b/c my husband had a 2 year old Sony-Ericsson using Cingular GSM and he had spotty service with frequent dropped calls.

I was previously using Verizon with the Samsung i700 Pocket PC and was loath to move away from a phone I loved. But I wasn't getting the best service in my house and really needed a more reliable technology. The 8125 was the most attractive of all the PDA phones b/c the keyboard is actually large enough to use with fingernails.

So last week, I switched to the HTC 8125. I am happy with the service and now enjoy uninterrupted clarity from my home office as well as around town. Below are my thoughts on the 8125, Windows Mobile 5.0, Active Sync 4.2 and Cingular.


The 8125 Usability:

I love the phone itself. It's pretty much all positive. Word of caution though, if you only need a Smartphone functionality you should serious consider the 2125 which does almost all of the same things. Choose the 8125 if you 1) really need the keyboard, 2) really insist on the touch screen, 3)really need to modify excel, word etc, right on your phone, 4)Really plan to use push email. Otherwise don't sacrifice size just to have a cool phone.

SIZE--Is just right and the best that is out there at this moment with a slide out keyboard. It is of course bulky due to this feature , but that is just my beef b/c I wish there was another PDA phone without any keyboard--but I'll just have to wait for that.

BUTTONS- The push buttons are all in the right place and have the right function-I didn't need to change a thing. My old phone I had to re-program the way I wanted them.

SPEAKER-This is my only real criticism. The speaker is significantly cheaper than the one in my Samsung. When I have the phone on speaker it sounds as if the person is talking in a can. The mic must be good though b/c I've had no reports on my poor voice quality.

KEYBOARD-Well, what can I say-I hate PDA keyboards, but at least I can use it if I choose. They keys are usable with long fingernails and I can touch the keys with the sides of my finger without hitting another key. (Something blackberry needs to learn). Using it is a bit clunky always having to remember to hit the shift or function key, but it is definitely workable. LOVE the way the screen re-orients, and it works perfectly every time.

MEMORY-Just tons, I don't even need the 2Gig added chip b/c I keep my music on my IPOD (and likely won't switch ever). I do have to note that the applications open a bit slower than in my i700. But it is barely perceptible.

PHONE-No volume issues, works great and integrating bluetooth was seamless and barely a degradation in sound quality.


Windows Mobile:

This is clearly an improved version over the old pocket PC I was using. If you've never used this software it is extremely easy and so similar to a PC that almost anyone can pick it up and use the basics.

MUTE-I'm not entirely crazy the way the phone keypad changes automatically to a menu pad and I haven't found a way to change that. I really miss the old mute button which was a simple screen tap. Now I sometimes have to wait till the menu reappears-a bit of a pain.

VOICE TAGS--Love the voice tags. They work great and are reliable--suggestion, create your voice tag where you need it the most, The voice recognition does seem to include some background sounds. I recreated mine in the car-where I would be most frequently using them.

TRANSCRIBER-I write on the screen 90% of the time and love this feature. This version is even better than before and I can write on it for hours with only minor misspellings that are caught in spell check. My only critique is that it is now a bit harder to change from transcriber to the onscreen keyboard (2 clicks instead of 1), but they added a tool bar with the back function so I don't really need to change often.


Issues with Active Sync 4.2

I hardly had issues with 3.8 so I was dismayed that I had issues right from the start with what was supposed to be a much better version. These sync challenges may confuse some new users. The good news is that my husband has a new 2125 smartphone, and he didn't have any of these issues. So it is likely related to my large volume of data to the device.

-I had an initial sync problem with 4.2 (I was previously using 3.8 for my old phone). Active sync had "Sync Error 85010017" which Microsoft attributed to the volume of data. I was unable to sync calendar and tasks, everything else came in fine. To overcome I needed to uncheck the calendar items and bring in just tasks. Then I unchecked everything and brought in calendar items alone.

-I also had error 80070006 and 8007008 for which I couldn't find help. This occurred on a day when I removed my phone from the sync cable about 10 times, which is unusually high for me during a work day. Activesync would just run and not connect. Then on occasion it would say that it had connected, show the error and yet nothing had actually changed in either the device or the desktop. To solve, I let it be overnight and rebooted the device. In the morning when I arrived at work-all was fine.

Cingular Service

I have had no issues with the GSM service, no dropped calls or clarity issues. However I have only traveled within the 30 mile radius of my Florida home. I expect to continue with good service since many friends use the same service and have no issues.

I asked the Cingular rep about what I read on the internet that they were dropping customers who were not using their phones in their home network. The rep said that it was a tiny (less than 5%) of users that didn't live in the Cingular coverage area and needed to look for other providers that did service their area. This sounded pretty reasonable-so time will tell if th

I know that owning this phone is expenssive. The phone costs a lot of money and then one has to pay for internet acess even when tapping into free wireless. I was on the phone with a cingular representative because i wanted to be sure of how this works. He told me that even if i connect via free wireless cingular will still charge me and if i didn't have a plan the amount was going to be staggering. After arguing about the fairness of how cingular works, he told me that if i don't have cingular i could still access the internet with the device. I concluded from that that all you need is to remove the SIM card from the device and access the internet with any wireless connection as you would with your laptop. I tried it and it work, i was able to navigate the internet and since the SIM card was not in, cingular can't charge me. I know it's a hassle, specially since it is a phone and you expect phonecalls, etc. but if you're in an emergency and need to check the net for something important and don't want to pay, that's the only way to do it.

Hope this helps!!!

The Cingular 8125 is yet another branding of the HTC Wizard. I really like this form factor since the antenna is internal. The PPC functionality of the 8125 works like a charm, and the phone does absolutely everything I could want it to do. Thanks to Cingular's EDGE network (high-speed GPRS), you can stream audio via the device and listen to it with the built-in stereo speakers or using headphones. E-mail and web browsing also work very well on the 8125.

The only gripes I have with this wonderful phone are the following:

- The camera flash is worthless, and the photo quality isn't particularly good for a 1.3 megapixel camera. Forget completely about pictures in low light.

- Windows Mobile 5 was initially rather buggy, especially on the 8125. More testing should have been done prior to release. But Cingular has released a ROM update for this device, and that upgrade has resolved many problems.

Notwithstanding those minor drawbacks, I highly recommend this phone. It's a great tool for entertainment, communication, and data management.

Oh, be sure to use ActiveSync 4.2 for optimal data synchronization results!

If want to use the fantastic feature of Wi-Fi capability of this phone without a data plan, DON'T DO IT. Wait until the service providers figure out they need to allow for Wi-Fi only and allow users to turn off data if they want it off.

I got this phone to use off Wi-Fi - at work, at home, at coffee shops, etc. It's one of the few phones that is Wi-Fi capable. I wanted to use it for free Wi-Fi access since there is absolutely no reason you should pay data charges if you're willing to find open Wi-Fi.

BUT - Cingular sets the unit up to automatically go to their data services at every chance. After specifically discussing with at least 3 Cingular reps that I was getting this for free Wi-Fi access and did not want to use data at all, I was shocked to see over $100 dollars in data charges. I called to complain and was faced with a $240 bill. The next month was over $350 and the next is back to $240. I have tried to get Cingular to turn off data to my account - which they seem unwilling or unable to do. I even had a supervisor tell me that you have to go through the Cingular data network to connect to local Wi-Fi - my analogy to Wi-Fi laptops not needing that was lost on them. I've tried to trick the auto-sign in - putting in false modem numbers and passwords. I thought that would do it. But, then came another big bill.

At this point, I'm contacting consumer interest groups to see if a class action lawsuit is the only way for Cingular to stop this.

The reviews below really do describe the phone -- for better, or worse.

I'd like to add:

The voice recognition for voice speed dialing is the best I've ever used.

Programs can be closed using ctrl + q from within any program that can use the keyboard.

Battery life can be managed, among other ways, by using sleep mode. Calls and messages will still arrive and wake up the phone, and it will still talk to Bluetooth while asleep. Just pressing the power button once enters sleep mode. Once more wakes the phone. Buttons are deactivated -- except for the power button.

I like the solid build of this device. I found a case more to my liking -- a Sony LCS-CSG camera case. It's ten bucks cheaper here on Amazon than I paid at a big, famous electronics store.

No bugs, freeze-ups so far -- except when I applied a freebie download and had to do a soft reset. It all came back fine.

I've had 4 PDAs (broke two of them) and more phones than I remember. This is the best I've used.

UPDATE: Since reviewing this last June, I've dropped it twice. Once in the grocery store and once in my garage. This was due to a hole in a pocket of a garment purchased right here on Amazon and due to be reviewed as soon as I click on "save." The 8125 survived each fall. I can't even see a dent in it. Each time, its battery popped out. When I stuck it back in and snapped the back of the device back on, it reset itself and there was no change at all in functionality. Nothing to indicate a fall.