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- Average user rating: 3.5 stars out of 249 reviews Back to product review
- My rating: 0 stars
Full user review
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41 out of 44 people found this review helpful
3.0 stars
"Functional, feature-packed, but flawed"
Pros: High-res screen, PDA functionality, WiFi (b&g), Bluetooth, 1.3 Meg camera,
Cons: Weak reception, sliding keyboard does not illuminate on opening
Summary: If reviewed on its feature list and form factor alone, I agree that the Cingular 8125 would merit the average 9/10 rating that the other user reviewers here have given it. The great features of this phone (high-res screen, WiFi, Bluetooth, sliding QWERTY keyboard, 1.3 MB camera, fully-functional PDA running latest version of WindowsPC and integrated Cingular phone) are outstanding and have been detailed in the other reviews. I would agree with most of the positive comments except those regarding phone reception and sound quality.
For me, in the areas that I live and work, I found this phone seriously lacking with regard to reception. Inside my home in a suburb west of Houston, TX, where my aging Motorola V400 got 2-3 bars, the 8125 registered 0-2 bars, and I would sometimes have no network access. Same story inside my office building in downtown Houston. Again, poorer performance than my aging V400, which was not great and I was hoping to improve upon. STRIKE 1.
The default text size on the screen is VERY small. It can be increased for MOST but not ALL menus with a settings change. But why not ALL menus? If you are 40+ and need reading glasses, be prepared for some frustration/eyestrain reading text fonts in some menus and programs that are unaffected by the text size setting. STRIKE 2
Have any of the other reviewers used this PDA phone at night or in a dark room? The screen brightness is great when the backlight is on. But where is the dedicated "Backlight ON" button? Sure you can tap the screen or a press a random button when the backlight goes off and you are left, literally, blind trying to operate the phone. But too often I found myself typing an unintended character or executing an unintended function trying to just get the #$%* backlight to turn back on so I could see what I was doing. This is especially annoying when in phone mode. If you pause for too long entering a phone number, the backlight goes off and you are screwed. You can only try to guess where the next digit is on the touch-sensitive keyboard. I know you can increase the default time after last keypress until the backlight turns off. But there should still be an easy way to turn the backlight on without doing anything else. And the backlight should never go off (IMHO) while dialing a phone number - no matter how slowly it is being entered. STRIKE 3
And why the hell does the keyboard not illuminate automatically when you slide it open? If I didn't want to use it, I wouldn't have opened it. You have to press a key on the keyboard to get the keyboard keys to illuminate. BUT - you can't see ANY of the damn keys in the dark. ABSOLUTELY - POSITIVELY - the keyboard should auto illuminate when the keyboard is slid open. I can find no standard, built-in setting to make this happen. DUMB DUMB DUMB STRIKE 4
The screen backlight duration problem and keyboard illumination problem can no doubt be addressed (probably already have been) by some clever 3rd-party utility, registry hack or future firmware update. But the poor phone reception was the killer for me. Other user reviews report great phone reception.
So, as always, your mileage may vary. Try before you buy, or at least thoroughly test the phone in all areas you would frequently use it before your full refund grace period expires. For those of you getting great reception - I'm jealous, and I am sure you will be very happy with your new phone.
FYI - I purchased the phone at a Fry's Electronics in Houston, which did not require me to sign up for a mandatory $40/month PDA data access plan as was the case in the Cingular phone stores I first visited. Fry's also offered a $100 instant rebate off the $489 price for a 1-year contract for Cingular customers who are eligible for a phone upgrade.
- 7 replies to this review
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Try using the ON button (top, right side of SD slot). I turns on the backlite without interfering with any running program or phone function. (Or try reading the manual).
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Actaully, with 4 strikes, I was surprised the reviewer gave the phone a 6! Appreciated the detailed review. I just have to balance it with the other very positive reviews. To me when a phone gets such a higher rating than CNET it does give me pause...a positive pause.
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I've always wondered. This area reviews cell phones, but should the quality of service be part of the review. The quality of service may or may not be the cell phones fault. If the provider doesn't have enough digital cells and is over subscribed then there is the problem not the cell phone.
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Thanks for being honest with your review. I appreciate that you gave it to us straight and didn't pull any punches. This is how I believe this forum should be used. Thanks again.
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I just left a review myself. After one month of using the pda, I am ready to get rid of it. Yes I have also struggled with the keyboard issue. I too have had to press buttons just to get the thing to light up. I thought that was strange but also thought maybe I was missing something. I live in San Francisco and also receive horrible reception on this thing. My number one complaint though was how slow the programs would run on it! It would get bogged down and would periodically freeze on me. I know that there are a lot of good reviews on cnet about this phone, but I suggest people give it time, compare it to other pda's on the market, and use it to its full potential. I guarantee that they will also find this phone highly disappointing.
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Your commenting on the usability of this phone - and that is EXACTLY where it falls short.
The feature set is great - but when you can't use the features due to poor design or lack of quality - then the feature set isn't as great as it appears. -
You can easily disable the screen dimming feature. Or you can increase the amount of time before the screen dims if you find it dims too quickly. That's a battery saving feature that's easily customizable.
