Cingular 8125

New year... New Toy. I now have one Cingular re-badged HTC-Wizard windows mobile 5.0 PDA phone suise army knife domawatchmacalit. This thing has so much geek appeal its just plain hard to put it all into words. However here are the quick facts.

The CPU:

The 200mhz processor does get a bit bogged down if you get several programs up and going at the same time. Something which is unfortunatly easy to do in Mobile 5.0 because M$ in their infinite wisdom decided to not give you a simple exit option. Instead it trys to guess what you want it to do. From what I can tell that means leaving anything running that you open until you go to the system memory widget and end them yourself. While annoying there are already solutions floating about on the web that can be had for free. A nice one that I use is called Magic Button and it is indeed a magic button.

That aside... this puppy should not be thought of as the same as a 200mhz Intel. It has seperate cores for PDA and Phone processing. As such I think it is a stretch to call it dual core... So, the claims you may have run across that it is roughly equivalent to the Intel Xcor 416mhz are stretching it at best. Friend of mine at work has the CDMA version (PPC-6700) with the 416mhz and I can honestly say the general performance is about the same. But on the more intensive tasks the obvious extra cpu horsepower in the XCor starts showing up. However this comes at a price... his battery indicator starts dissapearing at a higher rate as well. In the end its not a 416, but it is better than a 316mhz. Mostly cause it keeps up with the 416 till you hit something that is specifically challenging the outer limits of the cpu like quality video, lots of processes running at once or some other high data processing utitlity like Skype... which brings me to my next topic.

Skype:

Limited experience so far but it works. Let me say that again. It works. If this is somthign you have been hunting an answer too and have yet to find a clear straight answer I will let you hear it one more time. It works. Now for the caveats, it does not work as well as a PC but it does work well enough to carry on a conversation. Make sure skype is about the only thing running when initiating or taking a call. One little annoyance is the lack of an easy way to use a blue tooth headset with it. I had to find another third party app to toggel all audio output through the headset. This is a bit cumbersome as if you forget to turn it off it is maintaining an active link with your headset and will drain the headset and the units batteries in a hurry. If you are not already tied to Cingular and or GSM networks and are wanting something that can do skype as well as phone calls I would suggest going to Verizon for the PPC-6700 as those extra cpu cycles come in handy when processing VOIP. However again I say. Skype WORKS on this phone. Also you should be aware that Skype recently released a second mobile version specfically targeted at slower CPU's.

Keyboard:

Best keyboard I have encountered in a device of this size and I do a lot of on the go text input. My previous phone was the Nokia 6820 with the full qwerty keyboard on the flip out deal which made it looks like handlebars on either side of the screen. This thing wins hands down. Keys are all the same size and once you get used to the shift and alternate buttons (single click sticky till used once, double click sticky till turned off) and get in the rythm then it works fine. It only really boggs down in really mixed typing where you are constantly switching between text and numeric inputs.

On a side note: only MSN messenger comes ready to go on this phone. You have to find a 3rd party solution for other clients. Agile is the mobile multi client of choice for a lot of folks but their current software is still set up for CE 2003. However it does work. Its just cumbersome and requires stylus input along with the keyboard to enter msg's. A mobile 5 version should be out before long and all will be good on the IM front.

The Phone:

Reception is good. Sound quality is good. Speaker phone rocks. The lack of a tactile keypad will be a HUGE turn off for some folks. This is not a phone you are going to touch dial numbers with. For me this is not an issue as I pretty much call everyone from contact lists or voice tag as I cannot remember phone numbers to save my life. If you do alot of dialing in the car on the go then this is not the phone for you unless you like the voice dialing option and it can work for you. I like it without one... fewer buttons are exposed to random activiation.

Sound:

Reason the speaker phone rocks is this thing has a stereo speaker set up with a speaker on either side of the device. It isn't going to replace your bose wave system or anything but it is the quality of a good compact transitor radio. If you plug the included ear bud handsfree set in with it then you get a quality music listening option on par with any mp3 player I have encountered and yes that includes Ipod. However the included buds are not the worlds most comfortable and due to the hands free nature it is not a standard mini stero jack. I imagine before long there will be plenty of aftermarket options in this vein. But for now I have not seen that many. I am holding out for stereo bluetooth.

Bluetooth:

The MS bluetooth stack used on this phone in a word sucks. It should barely be called a beata release at this time. However they are swearing they will update it and that the update will be something users can do (ie not have to re-flash their phone). Gulity of not producing until prooven innocent says I. But considering the nature of the device it is at least plausible to release an add-on blue tooth utility that will superceded the stack that is embeded. It does support hands free. It does support DUN (dial up netowrking or in other words modem use) and Obex object transfer. But thats it.

The Screen:

On dimmest (best battery life) it is difficult to see in direct sunlight but very useable in pretty much any indirect life. It is faint but deffiantly readable on the brightest setting even in direct sunlight. Very impressive but also very draining on the batteries. Keeping it clean is going to be a pain in the ass. I am probably going to get some of that protective plastic sheeting stuff. I just wonder how much it will affect the touch screen sensitivity. Between the sliding form factor and the size of this screen I do have some concerns about damage in the event of those unavoidable falls. GET THE INSURANCE. 4 bucks a month for an indestructo Nokia candybar is kinda silly. 4 bucks a month for something that is selling for 450+ straight up and is essentially in two pieces to start that has a bullseye for a screen (can't be hardened much because its a touchscreen) is what gives the insurance folks bad dreams.

The Stylus:

Either you will love it or hate it. It is a telescoping deal that fits in an odd place (bottom back right instead of the typical upper back right). I like the one on the PPC-6700 more but then that means having that pain in the ass antenna buldge

WiFi:

This just plain rocks. There are registry edits for it to access G only networks but the speed isn't going to get any better (cpu limitation when you get down to it). But it may allow for greater options to conenct. However most G networks will accept B connections so its not that big a deal.

Battery Life:

This is where that OMAP 200mhz cpu shines. This puppy has a 1250mha battery which is only slightly larger (physcially) than my nokia 850mha battery and it will meet about 90% of the claims they make on the box (5 hours talk, 3-4 days standby). If you have the backlight turned up and are constantly messing with it while bluetooth and wi-fi are enabled it will suck it dry in an hour or two. But regualr usage with the backlight and or PDA side being turned off most of the time it uses about 25-30% in the course of a day right now. And that is with me still always wanting to fish it out and mess with it at the drop of a hat. I imagine once I settle in to using it the battery life will be more variable than my Nokia was as it can drain the battery in a hurry under hard usage... where the Nokia pretty much only drained hard while talking. PPC-6700 battery life seems similar but it has a larger battery to compensate for the Intel 416mhz cpu... and it can also suck its battery dry even faster under heavy usage even considering its higher capacity. So the story of the OMAP is not all bad. It works solidly doing what the phone is supposed to do, and has enough oomph to make an adequate pass at more intensive tasks (Skype, mp4 Movie playback etc). I do wish they had crammed the battery from the PPC-6700 in there too. I imagine with that it would have been as good or better than my Nokia.

Mobile 5.0

Like most Microsoft first releases of next generation stuff it is half baked and has issues. However what is not uncommon is the fact that stability is not one of them. I have had a couple of power resets due to me doing some stupid stuff. But there have been no lock ups just doing stuff like contact management, phone calls, skype, mp3 playing etc... Unlike 2003 mobile 5 devices have non-volitale memory and in the event you run the battery dry or powercycle it you will not typicaly lose data (unless you havn't saved some changes).

Thats what I can say good. The bad? Well the integration between the keyboard and on screen dialogs is a mixed bag. You can use the keyboard to do anything. but the damn on screen keyboard still likes to pop up (obscures part of the screen most times) even when you have the phone expanded to use the keyboard.This behavior is MOST ANNOYING. I imagine before long someone will figure out a way to work around this but it seems like such a silly problem. IE if the keyboard is out then don't pop the screen keyboard up automatically. Let someone ask for it if they want it (always an icon center bottom of the screen to bring it up). In the meantime this is something that will be immediatly annoying as when you first get the phone you are trying to get used to it and enter a great deal of information which means encountering this problem all the damn time.

The no exit option on the programs is just plain insanity and it is annoying as hell to be constantly going to the system settings and clicking on memory and clicking on running processes to kill the damn things so they don't start bogging the phone down. This is an issue on ANY of the mobile cpu's running mobile 5.0(this happens on the ppc-6700 as well) but the OMAP 200mhz is particualarly susceptible to this and it is most annoying. Get one of the many 3rd party aps that make it easy to kill all, or actually exit programs when you close them.

The phone options seem weak. I am slowly figuring out how to do stuff with it that was obvious the first time I picked up a Nokia or Motorolla. This I chalk up to the fact Microsoft just can't ever do something the same way that others have. They have to be different and break the established ques to do their own thing. This device is deffinatly a PDA first and a phone second. I imagine the lack of a numeric keypad easily useable by hand should make that obvious. But it is something anyone thinking about it needs to consider if a cell phone is their primary means of staying in touch with folks. If you are a highly mixed techno communicator for whom voice is only one, and possibly not even the first, option then this device is right up your alley. If you are all about contact lists and voice dialing then it will still suit you well. If you are a one handed thumbwarrior I would say stay far far far away.

The Form Factor:

If you are familiar with a Treo 650 then you probably feel like everyone else that it is just too wide to be a phone. Well this thing isn't. It is about the width of an average cordless phone while being about average cell phone length (ie from the ear it will come to mid cheek). The thickness is a bit more than that of a Treo or typical Nokia Candy bar. About a 1/4 inch, maybe a bit more over the Nokia at its thinnest point. It sits comfortably on my hip in Landscape orientation with the included holster (front quarter over my front pocket) and does not dig into my side very noticebly when I sit... I would rate it about as annoying as sitting a slightly fatter than you are used to wallet. Not the greatest experience but far from unbearable.

Connectivity:

WiFi. BlueTooth IRDA. and most importantly *Drumroll Please* Standard mini USB connector. I was excited about the WiFi. Expected the Blue Tooth. Not sure why people still insist on IRDA. But standard USB in a market famous for expensive propriatary cables is such a releife it isn't even funny. AND. It charges off of USB as well. In fact the included wall wart adapter connection is via the mini usb connector and could be used to charge anything that does likewise (IPOD for example.. though I would make REAL sure of that first).

Expansion slot:

Mini SD. Stress on MINI. I have a 1gb card that I could mistake for a postage stamp... maybe 5 postage stamps stacked on top of each other. Soon they should have 2gb cards available. I understand the size constraints. But really, it seems to me they did not gain anything by going with mini sd over regular SD. And while 1gb seems almost absurd on a phone you have to realize this thing does quite nicely as a music and video player (mpg4 and wmv only) and 1gb disapears fast when you bring in those considerations. If they had gone regular SD then I could have dropped $180 or so and had 4gb storage which would mean I could essentially have an Ipod NANOs music capacity in a device that makes cellular and VOIP calls, has a qwerty keyboard, Browses the web, sends and recieves full pop e-mail, serves as a laptop modem, takes pictures and video, and has all the contact, scheduling, and office document editing/viewing functionallity of a top of the line PDA all in something roughly the size of two Ipod Video players stacked on top of one another.

But really its a nit. I can deal with the mini sd limitation for now. Especially if they get some 2gb or higher cards out.


Overall I like the thing alot. I have a sneaky suspicion that what is to come will put it to shame but that is a given in the tech gadgetry world. Already I am thinking double or quadrupal the Ram, Dual OMAP's, 2-4gb onboard flash memory and at least a regular SD expansion slot in a slightly bigger form. That would be my guess for where these will be in a year or two. Heck just look at the HTC universal which is a bit bigger and has a tablet style hinged monitor.