Cingular 8125 Pocket PC Phone
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As the mobile computing market matures, an ever-growing number of users are insisting Pocket PCs have wireless voice and data capabilities right out of the box. Pocket PCs with built-in wireless phone technologies are commonly referred to as Pocket PC Phones, and these devices, once shunned, are beginning to dominate Windows Mobile PDA offerings.
Cingular Wireless is one of the latest companies to toss their hat into the fast-paced Pocket PC Phone market, coming to us with the new EDGE-ready Cingular 8125. The device dubbed “The Wizard” by its manufacturer, HTC, is the first Cingular-branded Pocket PC ever released. And while the Cingular 8125 offers somewhat disappointing performance as a handset, it can be a pleasure to use as long as you know what to expect from it and fully understand its limitations from the outset.
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Introduction
The Cingular 8125 is a modified HTC Wizard, a “blank slate” device sold by High Tech Computer, Inc. (HTC), to service providers around the world for re-branding and resale. If you live in the United States, HTC may not be a name with which you’re familiar, but the Taiwanese company has defined a large portion of the Windows Mobile market over the past several years with one successful Pocket PC after another.
Cingular’s 8125 runs the Windows Mobile 5 operating system and is powered by a 195MHz TI OMAP850 processor, has 64MB of RAM (system memory), a 128MB flash ROM (storage), a 1.3MP digital camera, and features onboard Bluetooth and 802.11b Wi-Fi. Additional storage space can be added by way of the integrated mini Secure Digital (miniSD) card slot. The phone portion of the 8125 offers quad-band connectivity with GPRS wireless networks and is EDGE compatible, so it’s ready for high-speed data use as long as the network in your area supports Mobile Broadband.
Like its cousin, the HTC Apache (sold in the U.S. as the Sprint PPC-6700 and the Verizon XV6700), the Cingular 8125 has a QWERTY keyboard hidden behind the screen that slides out to the left, instantly transforming the unit into a mobile typing station.
Included in the box is the Cingular 8125, a USB sync cable, a standard outlet charger, a wired headset/headphone and an extra stylus. Unfortunately, there is no cradle included with the 8125, nor have we been able to locate one sold in the U.S. |
