HTC 8125 / 8100 / MDA (USA) / K-JAM / P4300 (Wizard)
Phone Scoop Review
May 3, 2006 by Eric Lin
In-depth review of T-Mobile's feature-packed MDA Windows Mobile PDA phone, AKA the HTC Wizard. With Video Tour. read review ›
User Reviews
Average Ratings
Not a phone for everyone
The version of the phone this review refers to is the Cingular 8125. I had this phone for a day and sent it back. Pros and Cons are as follows:
Pros:
- good form factor
- I liked the sliding keyboard, very efficient and allows for a significantly larger screen
- excellent reception and sound quality
- bright, clear screen
- perfect size
- EDGE web browsing significantly faster than Treo 650
Cons:
- cheap plastic feel and zero heft
- keys difficult to press
- keyboard backlight goes away too quickly (cannot set the amount of time before it stops)
- email program permanently deletes messages from server when deleting from phone (couldn't find an option to turn this off)
- no one was receiving images sent via mms from the phone (no matter how small or large the resolution)
- wi-fi recognized and connected to base stations, but could not access the web
- bluetooth connected briefly to car handsfree/iMac/other cell phone, but immediately dropped connection and wouldn't reconnect
- alt key for typing numbers utterly counter-intuitive making it virtually impossible to type alphanumeric passwords
- Certain aspects of navigating the phone must be done with the touchscreen, and others must be done with hard buttons
- no included "normal rings* (i.e. not music or old fashion phone rings). For a business oriented phone, this is a must
- could not delete an email account once created
- lack of available accessories
- no standardized way to change preferences in various programs (i.e., phone, email, web prefs). You have to search all over the screen to figure out how to change things.
- today screen has a fixed set of viewable programs that cannot be added to, only taken away from
- soft keys not customizable
If these are things that you can put up with, I would definitely recommend at least trying the phone, however, I didn't last more than a day with it. Otherwise, consider a Treo 650 as its simplicity is simply beautiful by comparison (minus the constant crashes)
k jam
I started to send this one back but decided to give it a second try on the set up. Now that it is set up the only problems that I am having are:
1) opened in emails in the in box disappear. I have it set up to store 90 days of email.
2) The clock displays military time cannot change it.
I have cingular I am using isp.cingular as the access point name and ISP.CINGULARGPRS.COM as the ID would WAP work better?
The phone is great other than these issues mentioned I had the Seimens SX66 before.
great device
this phone is great loud speaker
great quality
gets the job done
sturdy
cons
more games
backlight can stay on longer
8125 - grossly underpowered !!!!!
Ok first things first... I am not new to the pda/pocket pc world.
I have had a Kyocera 6135, TREO 600 & 650 and Siemens SX66.
I got this phone to replace my Siemens... BIG MISTAKE!!!!!
The only advantage the 8125 phone has over the Siemens SX66 is that the bluetooth works much better on the 8125. The SX66 bluetooth reception was horrible but at least the processor speed was great.
CONS - SLOW PROCESSOR, this phone is so slow that when i am dialing a phone # I have to wait for the phone to catch up with my fingers. Unfortunately the slow processor speed causes all the wonderful features on this phone to suffer.
I find myself having to reset the phone because it gets stuck thinking. Switching back and forth between applications is similar to rolling the dice... The phone might switch or it might get hung up while switching between apps.
PROS - WIFI, great BLUETOOTH, EDGE, GREAT FEATURES... but they all suffer because of the very slow processor. HTC really fouled this phone up.. why they would cut the processor speed makes no since to me. I would rather have 9 hours of battery life than a underpowered phone.
Last words... Benz with a Yugo engine"
Cingular 8125 vs Nokia 9300
I started out with the Nokia 9300 from Cingular and then ordered the Cingular 8125. In the end I picked the 9300 over the Cingular 8125. Here are the points where the 9300 was better than the 8125:
1) Sound quality - especially with the speakerphone. The 9300 has an awesome speakerphone. I called 5 different people and the response was unanimous.
2) Symbian OS well thought out design compared to Windows mobile which will require you to use the stylus even with the keyboard out. Most everything you need to do like turn on bluetooth, IR, get to Messages is very easy on the Nokia. The 8125 is a little more laborious unless you keep a really sharp fingernail. The Windows mobile platform required me to reboot a few times because it locked up. The 9300's Symbian OS has been stable so far.
3) Keyboard longer and better for typing than 8125.
Not as good as 8125:
1) 9300 is tri band, 8125 is quad band
2) 9300 has no camera.
3) 9300 has no wi-fi
4) 9300 has no vibrate feature.
In short, if you want a better phone, get the 9300. If you want a good PDA, both quailify. If you want more bells and whistles, get the 8125. I would have loved to have a Nokia 9300i but that is not available with any of the GSM providers in the US.
Why I returned this phone
This is not a bash the MDA review. It has a lot of good qualities that many of the other reviews enumerated.
But I am returning my MDA to T-mobile today. I will get to my main reason for this below.
I tested it for about a week before deciding to keep it. I noticed two immediate problems, but one was subjective and one had a fix.
1. Compared to my Pocket PC, the screen was too small. (Since I liked the small size of the phone, this seemed like a necessary evil.)
2. You must use a sim card in it to even turn it on. You might think this is a silly complaint. But it is significant! (I could use the Pocket PC without a sim card - this was a lifesaver when I couldn't sync - see below.) There is a fix for this. If you can, get a "dummy" sim card (non-activated sim card) that you can leave in it if you want to use the PDA part of the mda without the phone.
So I decided to keep the phone. I had to connect to my PC using activesync (my mda came with version 4.1). The installation looked like it worked, but it didn't. I uninstalled, reinstalled, hard booted, . . . for several hours. Then I spent several hours with T-mobile (in fairness they cut me off often enough and I had to go through the levels of service several times, the actual help time was a fraction of the total time). Then I spent several hours with the manufacturer. They offered several "fixes." I tried them all. I also looked online and tried some of the "fixes" I found there. But to no avail. I got the same error message (85010014) for three days. It was never fixed.
So I reinstalled an old activesync and have no gone back to my reliable Pocket PC. I will wait for something better to come along.
I'm not completely incompetent or even adverse to change. I have a degree in computer engineering and have owned 10 plus phones/pdas. None have ever beaten me before.
Great Producte, Disappointing Carrier Svc
Purchased 2 under the QTEK 9100 brand. One for wife, other for myself. Reside in Bay Area where Cingluar once ruled, subsequently acquired by AT&T (~8 years ago), who of course, recently threw in the towel leaving Cingluar in control. We AT&T users had/have to go back to Cingular and boy - talk about being 2nd class citizens (similar comments in recent Consumer Reports). Was so fed up with drops, echos and attitudes, I canceled out and went to Verizon (about a year ago). Enter now - the QTEK. Great phone and PC all in one! BUT ... it requires Cingular or T-Mobile in the Bay Area. Cautiously did a 30-day trial with Cingular. The drops, echos and noticeable change in service quality being passed from cell to cell quickly DQ'ed them from consideration. T-Mobile 30-day trial appear more consistent in service, but (surprisingly) no coverage when at my home office. So, like the title says: Great Product, Disappointing Carrier Service. Will probably do Samsung SCH-i730 or Treo 700 w/Verizon.
Waste of money!!
Pros:
-Keyboard is nice
-Nice screen
-Excellent Sound and Reception
Cons:
-Extremely Horrible Battery Life (especially for a PDA)
-Speed and cost of the internet
-Phone freezes up, even if you power cycle your phone every night.
Overall, if you're a business man/woman, this phone is not for you.
On the fence
I am a man of PDAs. I have a business and I needed a phone that does it all and don't get me it does but here are some of the Pros and Cons:
Pros:
*Great full keybroad and vey easy to use
*WiFi
*Big touch screen
*Able to crop pictures
*Easy e-mail set-up
*Great and loud speakers
Cons:
*Very slow
*Freezes
*Heavy
Great design, Poor Performance
I just bought the Cingular 8125 version of this phone on the website, and was first impressed with the price Cingular is offering it for. ($225 on the business site, $349 on the retail site) Compared to the I-Mate and Qtek pricing, this was a welcome surprise.
Initially I was happy with the phone. It's a little fat, but the length and width are very compact, and with all the features included I could overlook that. I also liked this design over the Treo or Ipaq phones because it included the 240x320 screen rather than the square design.
The keyboard is very easy to type messages out on, but since it's a slider it is not a one handed phone. However making calls with the keyboard closed is still quite easy using the phone app.
However, great design is where my glee ended. This phone is just way too underpowered. At first the phone seemed a little sluggish, but was workable. But as soon as I started loading applications on the device (ie, Pocket Informant & Sprite Backup) the phone really bogged down. Everytime I clicked on a item in pocket Informant the device would take a couple of seconds to open the item. I even transferred as many files as possible onto my storage card to keeep as much of the built in memory available as possible, but it still struggled to keep up.
In the first 6 hours of playing with this phone, it completely locked up 3 times. The resets take much longer on this phone as my other windows phones as well. Each time I booted the phone up it took nearly 2 minutes before it was ready to make a call!
Bottom line is if all you are using is the built in apps and phone, this is a OK choice. But if you have applications you plan to load on the phone, check the spec requirements of these applications first. The Cingular 8125 has only a 195Mhz processor, which simply is not enough for many applications to run smoothly.
Pros: Great compact design
Comfortable keyboard
Cons: Weak Processor
Long boot time
Locks up
