A sleek, slim flip-phone that's sure to draw envious looks, the 3125 packs in Windows Mobile and push e-mail prowess. Does it belong in your briefcase?
Review summary of the Cingular 3125:
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 Overall, the Cingular 3125 makes for a powerful business sidekick given that it's a relatively compact clamshell. Armed with Windows Mobile 5.0 Smartphone Edition, the 3125 packs in push e-mail capabilities, an Office document viewer (no editing, but this is a flip-phone after all), robust contact and calendar management, and surprisingly impressive multimedia capabilities. The 3125's design is certainly unique, but never feels cheap or simply cosmetic. If you wish your RAZR could do a lot more, but don't need a full-fledged Windows Mobile device, the 3125 is an excellent choice. Release: September 2006. Price: $50.
Pros: Rich, clean screen. Lots of included functionality with Windows Mobile, especially on such a small, thin phone. Looks great.
Cons: Not for power users who need to edit documents. Buttons are a little stiff and very flat, which makes navigating just a bit difficult.
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Full review of the Cingular 3125:
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Messaging - Very good
As the first flip-phone with Windows Mobile 5.0 Smartphone Edition packed inside, the Cingular 3125 handles a wide variety of messaging functions, including direct-push e-mail via Microsoft Exchange and Lotus Domino servers. Hotmail, IMAP and POP are all supported as well, and setup is fairly easy. Keys on the 3125 are cut into a single metal sheet, like the keys on Motorola’s RAZR, but are far enough apart for precision pecking. The keys do feel somewhat stiff, however, and the flatness of the five-way center button caused some problems as we scrolled through the menu scheme. Reading e-mail and messages is a pleasure thanks to the phone's crisp and bright 320 x 240-pixel screen. The 3125's LCD actually has a higher resolution than the Windows Mobile-powered Palm Treo 700wx, and text, though occasionally tiny, is so crisp that it is never difficult to read. Indeed, the MSN messaging client can fit more than 250 characters above the text-entry field, with room to spare for the menu bars. No AOL, ICQ, or Yahoo! support, though.
Productivity - Good
Word, Excel, Powerpoint, and PDF files are all viewable on the 3125. No editing is possible, but files can be viewed at various levels of zoom, and once again the screen proves its mettle, deftly handling large spreadsheets. Documents attached to e-mail are downloaded after the original e-mail is viewed, resulting in two trips to the server, but even the 2.5G EDGE network handles this quickly enough to avoid complaint. A more robust viewer, with the ability to view comments or search for items, would have been nice, but we certainly do not expect a complete office suite on a phone without a full QWERTY keypad.
Multimedia - Good
Even without 3G support, multimedia is surprisingly good on the Cingular 3125. The Mobile Internet Explorer was adept at handling even complex pages, such as the New York Times homepage, without crashing or overlapping images. Though 3G would have been a welcome addition, the device proved dependable at downloading large pages, images and sound files off the web without crashing. The phone has dedicated music controls for playing popular music formats, though it is impossible to skim through long audio tracks, only skip them outright. Files can be stored on the 128MB of non-volatile memory, or on the microSD slot, which is hidden behind both the battery and SIM card, a minor nuisance. Video looks crisp, and the Windows Media Player 10 Mobile supports WMV, MPEG4, and AVI files. Streaming video images from Cingular's MediaNET channels are small, probably because of the slower speeds of the EDGE network.
Scheduling - Good
Outlook is easy to read and use, though not quite as visually stimulating as on a Windows Treo or similar device. Contact information is quite robust, with more fields and categories for information than we could ever fill. Alerts could be set at intervals similar to your desktop Outlook, and synchronizing between the two was easy with ActiveSync. The phone can sync via the included USB cable or Bluetooth.
Calling - Excellent
Calls on the 3125 are very good, though they have a slightly hollow quality to them. A light whisper of static is audible on either end of the call, but it is hardly noticeable and never distracting. Conference calling is easy and intuitive, a top level menu function once the second call has connected. Searching a long list of contacts is no problem with the phone's intuitive searching -- you simply start typing letters or numbers at the home screen and the phone narrows down the list of potential candidates. Voice dialing is included, though it is not speaker independent, so you will have to record your own commands. The speakerphone is adequately clear, but not exceptionally loud. Alerts are divided into profiles and allow for customization. You can also specify ring tones for individuals, as well.
Laptop sidekick - Very good
The phone can act as a tethered modem with the included USB cable or over a Bluetooth connection. Because the 3125 only supports 2.5G EDGE networks, we wouldn't recommend relying on the phone for your wireless internet connection (unfortunate, given that the 3125 would have easily outclassed Cingular's two HSDPA phones, the LG CU500 and the Samsung SGH-ZX20, had this capability been included). Setting up the feature is easy via an included application on the device. Your Windows machine will begin using the phone once you plug it in.
Odds and ends
Much has been made of the design of this phone, whose original code-name was "Star Trek". Indeed, it does resemble a Star Trek communicator, or perhaps a movie prop. The phone is uncluttered by edges or sharp lines, except for the ridged and textured shell. Overall, it presents a very clean look that, when married to the brilliant internal and external displays, is quite striking. In places the 3125 seems a bit simple, but the operating system proves it is anything but, and the solid snap of the closing lid shows its design prowess.
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Comparison
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Price and availability
Available now from Cingular Wireless, the 3125 retails for $150 with a two-year contract.
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