PDA News

Cingular 3125 Review
By Little Sun | Editor-in-chief
Date: 04/09/2007
For those seeking a device form factor similar to the popular Motorola RAZR yet needing the added functionality that a Windows Mobile 5.0 device provides, your wait is over. We are excited to introduce the very sleek, very slim and equally as smart, Cingular 3125.

In the Box

This sleek and slim device arrives in a Cingular branded box containing the following hardware and software:

- Cingular 3125 flip phone

- USB sync cable

- Li-On Rechargeable Battery

- Battery Charger (standard wall plug-in)

- Wired Headphones

- CD-ROM with Microsoft Active Sync 4.2 software & Warranty Info

- User's Manual

- 3125 Getting Started Guide

Design, Look & Feel

This particular phone could be described as ultra-sheik and timeless. The 3125 is indeed slim, sleek and has a very solid feel to it. Dimensions are 3.87 by 2.02 by 0.64 inches; 3.82 ounces. It's constructed with a nice balance of metal, rubber, dense plastic and polished glass. Tiny ridges on the face of the phone as well as on the back battery cover add to the phone's modern look and feel and provide for good grip. There is no protruding antenna keeping the lines simple but sophisticated. With this flip-phone, the hinge-spring feels quite sturdy and reliable. The music buttons on the front complete the stylish look by adding chrome accents.

Display

There are two displays on the phone. The external display is a 1.2 inch square, is color, with a 128x128 pixel resolution. This display provides information & entertainment 'at a glance' without the need to flip the phone open. The screen is configurable to show battery life, network signal strength, track title, artist, volume and more. You can also customize the external display and choose any wallpaper image you like. Photo caller ID lights up the external color display with an image from your Contacts information. This was definitely a crowd pleaser.

The internal display provides the standard Windows Mobile user interface which can be customized. The resolution is 240x320 and is surprisingly crisp and bright. The Cingular logo and model number are subtle and anchor the bottom of the display area.

Voice, Sound & Speaker Quality

Being that this device is truly multimedia-capable; internal and external speakers both come standard. Slim rocker-buttons for controlling the volume are small but are still fairly easy to find quickly in order to adjust the volume to a comfortable level. Voice clarity and volume level are both exceptional when using either the internal speaker or speakerphone feature. In fact, in our tests, no one on the other end guessed we were on a cell phone. The quality is as good as or better than a land-line, in our opinion. In addition, a wired set of headphones (included) or a wireless stereo Bluetooth headset (not included) can be used for either making phone calls or listening to music on-the-go.

Key Pad

The machined-metal style key pad helps to further set this phone apart from other devices. The keys are responsive and have a tactile feel to them. The layout is clear, uncluttered and simplistic adding to its ultra-modern appeal. In dark conditions the backlight is bright and makes keypad navigation just as easy as in the daytime. Both the answer and hang-up buttons are set apart from the other keys in both color and shape making them intuitive to find and to use quickly.

Camera

The phone's camera is above average, as it sports 1.2 megapixel quality. Of course, it won't rival your normal primary-use digital camera in terms of the number of megapixels or lens quality. However, the 1-touch hardware camera button on the side of the phone has you ready at a moments notice to capture something interesting. Saving, sharing and uploading your cameras' photos (or any file for that matter) are other strengths of Windows Mobile 5.0.

Memory

Don't be too worried about running out of memory space. The phone uses a micro-SD memory slot (located under the battery). At time of writing, the micro-SD comes in sizes up to 2 gigabytes. That's a lot of space for your camera's pictures, music files, or videos, Word docs, whatever.

Basic Tasks

Turning on/off - The phone is shipped with a battery that already has a partial charge. Turning on the phone is as easy as inserting the battery, replacing the battery cover and press and holding the red button on the keypad for a few seconds. You will see the welcome screen with the Cingular logo while the device briefly boots up. Press and holding the red button again turns the phone off. The initial boot-up and shut down time was a bit long in our opinion but nothing to cause any real frustration.

Adding contacts - Windows Mobile syncing software that comes in the box makes adding contacts a snap. The contacts you have stored on your desktop version of Outlook can be quickly and easily imported directly into the phone's address book. Entering names and phone numbers into your phone's Contact list is a completely automated process. Of course, adding a contact manually while not at your desktop is entirely possible and quite simple to do.

Text messaging - For those that crave solid T9 predictive text capabilities - the 3125 delivers. Your fingers will fly as you crank out messages using the laser-cut metal keypad. As well, a full HTML-capable web browser is also built-in for surfing and for using a myriad of new and exciting web applications and online services.

Ringtones/Games/Software:

Both mono and polyphonic ringtones can be downloaded to the phone and used with ease.

The phone comes preloaded with Solitaire and Bubble Breaker - nothing too exciting there. However, many game vendors provide interactive games for download.

The sky is the limit when it comes to finding and downloading compatible software for your phone. Like with other Windows Mobile devices - it is a superb phone first as well as a great pocket computer filled with functionality and applications that you are familiar with. A complete suite of file viewers come free and preinstalled. ClearVue's Suite allows you to open and view (but not edit) Word, Excel, Powerpoint and PDF files.

Bottom Line

We all agreed that the operating system of this phone provides the most in terms of entertainment and productivity possibilities. However, the thing that we all were most impressed with was simply - the form factor. This slim flip phone feels wonderful to hold. We considered it a piece of luxury.

The USB connector used for power and syncing with a PC is non-standard. We would have loved to have seen a standard mini-usb connector used. But we suppose that's the price you pay for having such a slender phone.

The Cingular 3125 uses Outlook Mobile and works well with Microsoft Exchange Server with direct push e-mail available through Microsoft, Goodlink and Cingular's own Cingular Xpress Mail service. If you are a non-corporate type you can just as well access any POP3 and IMAP4 e-mail account (e.g. Yahoo!, Hotmail, etc.). A data plan is all you need to get started.

All-in-all, this is a great smartphone that finally looks fashionable. Don't be worried that you only need to be productive with this phone. By all means this phone is equally about entertainment as well as being smart. To be completely honest, we've enjoyed videos, games, ring tones and instant messaging much more than we have reviewing our co-workers Powerpoint documents. Yes, smart is the new cool.

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