HSDPA support, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth -- they're all present and accounted for in Cingular's new Windows Mobile powerhouse. Does the 8525 steal the 3G smartphone crown?
Review summary of the Cingular 8525:
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 Simply glancing over the robust specifications of this HSDPA-enabled smartphone was enough to make us drool, and for the most part, the 8525 lived up to our expectations. The phone is fast in every way: over the 3G network, Wi-Fi, and even the Bluetooth 2.0 connection. The Cingular 8525 comes with ample messaging capabilities, including push e-mail, and its sharp dual-orientation display makes the phone's calendar and today screens a joy to use. Unfortunately, the buggy, if comfortable, keypad gave us headaches (we can only hope our pre-production test unit is to blame), and the typical foibles of Windows Mobile 5.0 made browsing Office documents something of a pain. That said, the 8525 ranks as one of the most impressive Windows Mobile smartphones we've tested. Release: November 2006. Price: $400.
Pros: Fast connections with HSDPA, 802.11g, and Bluetooth 2.0. Comfortable keyboard. Well-placed function buttons. Robust e-mail capabilities.
Cons: Buggy keyboard on our test model. Cumbersome navigation of Office documents. No on-board GPS.
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Full Cingular 8525 Review:
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Design
The Cingular 8525 feels like a large phone, but in a good way. Closed, it is almost exactly the same size as a Palm Treo 700p, but it opens to reveal a large, comfortable QWERTY keyboard, while allowing for a large 2.8-inch screen. HTC, the phone's original designer, has provided a wealth of navigational buttons, including a five-way button near the screen and a set of arrows on the keyboard, three separate "OK" buttons and a clickwheel on the side. The phone has dedicated buttons for Internet Explorer, e-mail, push-to-talk (which will be available for the 8525 in early 2007) and even the Comm Manager, which is a nice touch. The microSD slot is conveniently located on the side, and the battery cover, while a bit thin, pops open at the flick of a switch, which saved our fingernails some grief.
Calling - Excellent
Calling on the 8525 is solid, with plenty of functions to make calling easier. In addition to speed dial and recent-call listing, the Cingular 8525 allows while-you-type searching of your contact list from within the phone screen. With the keyboard closed, you still have the onscreen touch keys, which are large enough to be usable, as well as voice commands, though not speaker-independent voice dialing. Calls sound good, though a bit hollow, and background noise was kept to a minimum. Reception in our New York office was spotty; we got only a single bar of UMTS reception -- not ideal, but strong enough to be functional -- while on our way to the northern New Jersey suburbs, we could see the phone switch between GPRS and UMTS as we traveled, revealing some soft spots in Cingular's 3G coverage (though reps for the carrier assured us that these patchy areas are steadily shrinking).
Messaging - Good
The Cingular 8525 is rich with e-mail functions, though it's a bit hobbled when it comes to instant messaging. Cingular's Xpress Mail service helps speed the process for setting up an e-mail account, though, like BlackBerry's desktop connect software, it must be running on your PC at all times to push e-mail from your various accounts to your phone. For our purposes, it was better to stick with Outlook running through ActiveSync, though Xpress Mail does allow more flexibility. The keyboard on the 8525 we were using gave us some serious problems. All too often, keystrokes didn't register as we typed, requiring multiple strokes and making for numerous typos. This was especially troubling when it came to typing passwords, which Windows Mobile completely hides. Though the keys are easily the most comfortable we've used on a recent smartphone, the lack of response was worrisome, and we hope this can be chalked up to our pre-production review unit. Finally, though the 8525's built-in MSN messenger app is our IM client of choice around the office, we wish Yahoo, AIM, and ICQ protocols also came standard.
Scheduling - Very good
As dated as Outlook is starting to look on Windows Mobile 5.0, there is no denying its robust scheduling capabilities. The Cingular 8525's dual-orientation screen is especially well suited to the calendar app. In the week view, with a vertical orientation, you can fit twelve hours on screen at once. The phone supports dragging to change times or create new appointments -- nice, although an undo feature would have been useful. Also, Microsoft should seriously consider updating the alerts feature in the calendar to allow for customized alerts by appointment. Cingular's Xpress Mail also includes a calendar that syncs from your desktop, but it is not nearly as versatile as Outlook. The today screen, with plenty of room in the vertical orientation, showed all our busiest day's appointments, and the sharp screen rendered small text with ease.
Productivity - Good
Like other smartphones we've tested running the PocketPC edition of Windows Mobile 5.0, the 8525 boasts the ability to view and edit Office documents -- a big plus in our book, although the phone is still held back by the limitations of Office Mobile. While the 8525 did a great job preserving the formatting of our documents, we found zooming in and out to be a hassle, requiring numerous taps on the menus. We wish this function had been mapped to the clickwheel, especially on PDF files. In addition, there is no search function on PDFs, which makes browsing larger files more difficult. Cingular's Xpress Mail required as many steps to download attachments as Outlook, and was a bit less dependable owing to its reliance on your PC. Typing on the device should have been easier, but again, our test phone's buggy keyboard made Word almost useless.
Multimedia - Good
The Cingular 8525 comes bundled with the mobile TV app MobiTV (we couldn't get the app to run on our test device, but we hope to test it once we get our hands on a production model), while music lovers will appreciate the mobile version of Windows Media Player. The phone includes a microSD slot, conveniently located on the side of the device, as well as a 2-megapixel camera. The camera was average for a phone, with no autofocus, though it does include an LED flash. Video quality was also average, though we would have liked to see VGA recording for the 8525 to be competitive with upcoming Nokia N-series devices. The mobile Internet Explorer handled every Web page we threw at it, including the lengthy New York Times home page. Browsing performance was fast over HSDPA and Wi-Fi; in fact, HSDPA performance was even better than 802.11g.
Laptop sidekick - Excellent
As a wireless companion for your notebook, the Cingular 8525 does just about everything. Though our review unit didn't come with drivers for tethered modem support, our Cingular rep promised these would be included with the shipping phone. The handset charges via USB, so you can leave the charger home, and it includes both Bluetooth 2.0 and 802.11b/g support. The 8525 even keeps IrDA; nice, if you know anyone who still uses infrared. Built-in GPS is lacking, but the included TeleNav software works with separate Bluetooth GPS devices.
Related phones: Windows Mobile smartphones on Cingular
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Now with push e-mail, the Windows Mobile 5.0- and Wi-Fi-packing 8125 smartphone has been making waves since its release earlier this year. How does it stack up to the latest 3G business handsets?
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Price and availability
Available on November 16, the Cingular 8525 will retail for $400 with a two-year service agreement.
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