Update on my new Cingular 8125

I wanted to post an update to yesterday's post on my new phone with some pictures and initial observations...

As you can see in the pics above, this phone has a slide-out keyboard, and this was a big selling point to me. The Nokia 6682 that I started with had a typical phone keypad, and the keys were very small. I like the QWERTY keyboard on this phone, since it makes it much easier to type in notes, To-Do's, emails, etc.

The phone runs the latest Microsoft Windows Mobile 5 OS. This is a somewhat familiar environment for me because I have had two previous Pocket PC's (a Compaq iPaq 3835, and the more recent HP iPaq 4350 with the built in keyboard).

The phone also has data connectivity in the form of an 802.11b radio for WiFi communication, and GPRS/EDGE capability via the Cingular network. (One note: the WiFi radio seems to have 802.11g capability with a registry hack to allow access to G-only access points, but isn't necessarily any faster). There are some quirks related to switching between WiFi and GPRS/EDGE to this which I will cover a bit later.

Wireless reception so far has been very good in the Holland area (where I work), and even in my office I get excellent reception. At home, however, the signal is weak, and it isn't unusual to get no signal at all. Hopefully they will add a tower near our house in the near future to fill this hole in coverage. I don't really use it at home all that much for actual phone calls, so I can live with this deficiency for now.

So far I am happy with the phone. I like the size - not too big, but large enough to make the keyboard and screen useful.

The only real complaint that I have right now is the awkward switching between GPRS/Edge and WiFi. The default on the phone is to use GPRS/EDGE for connecting to the internet. In doing so, the device uses a proxy to connect to the internet, and if you try to switch to a WiFi connection, it tries to use the proxy (and fails). You need to set up other connections without the proxy to make WiFi work. They really need to make this easier to change on the fly, since the menus that need to be accessed to make the switch are buried pretty deep in the system settings. A program that could set up connection profiles for one-touch switching would be a great benefit here. Perhaps some clever programmer could write an app that handles this (or even better, Cingular should offer this application). It seems, though, that Cingular does this to force you to use their data connection rather than "free" WiFi networks.

Another issues with this internet access is that several applications have their own preferences for how they connect. The Messaging app, for example, forces you to choose how each individual email account connects to the net. In addition, there is a separate setting for the MMS (multimedia) service connecting to the net. The rest of the applications all use a global setting for network access. A central location for these settings could be very helpful.

I will update on how things are going with this phone at some point in the future. Stay tuned!

In the meantime, here are a few links relating to this device:

HowardForums Cingular 8125 Tips/Tricks/Downloads This is a very long thread!
Mobility Today Cingular 8125 Thread Shorter thread with useful registry hacks
Cingular 8125 Specs at Phonescoop.com