HTC 2125 / 2100 (Faraday)
Average Ratings
Keep it away from your Computer and Head
I've had this phone a month before I made this review.
Pro: All built-in software works as promised. Works ok as a phone. Integration with my computer is great! Internet surfing is very functional for a phone.
Cons: RF from unit interferes with computer and other audio devices. You can hear buzzing on your computer speakers before it even rings. Unable to transfer large files to storage card. RF emissions is high you may want to use your hands-free more often. MP3 playback is a bit quite. Signal reception is only fair.
It sounds like I hate this phone, but I don't. It is one of the best phones I've used so far, it just isn't perfect.
Not perfect, but I like it anyway.
Overall, the Cingular/HTC 2125 is an OK almost-smart-phone. Great "phone" performance. WM5 is featureful, stable, but a bit quirky. So-so device ergonomics.
Pros:
- Excellent voice performance and speaker phone.
- Usable IR compatibility with Palm devices.
- Voice tagging is a neat idea.
- OK camera.
- Interesting customizations are possible, if not exactly easy.
- Battery life w/ BT and IR enabled is pretty good.
- I really like the WM5 "Home" screen. It compensates
pretty well for awkward navigation elsewhere.
- 131Kb data rate in a Cingular partner EDGE service area.
- It's possible to tether using a Mac w/o any special downloads, but...,
see "Cons".
Cons:
- Voice tagging implementation is marginal.
* Annoying truncation behaviour when recording a voice tag.
* Navigation of voice tag functionality is odd:
E.g., Voice tags can be added from the "Menu" of the object to which
they will apply, but can only be manipulated afterwards from the
"Speed Dial" application. This makes dealing with the truncation
behaviour inconvenient.
- Visual annunciators malfunction:
* Blue LED BT indicator sometimes stops blinking.
BT headset functions normally..., just the LED stops working.
* Signal strength status bar item periodically indicates no signal, but
phone works fine.
- Daylight readability of the display is poor to fair.
- Thumb-stick ergonomics and reliability stink.
- Having to lock the keypad prior to placing in "holster" to avoid
spurious keypresses is annoying.
- Having possible problems with the Moto HS850 headset and this phone.
When dialing via voice tag, the phone/headset connection is
dropped after the tag is recognized and the phone begins dialing the
number. Happens 1 in 4 calls, in both busy and "quiet" 2.4Ghz areas.
- 31Kb data rate when tethered through IrDA to a Mac. Have
not experimented to determine where the bottleneck is.
Needing Help
At First Glance I loved this Phone the apps
are great the bluetooth works flawlessly, but i can't seem to Copy my Contacts from the Sim to the Phone. This Is a BIG problem for me since I Love to use the voice dial feature! But other than that i love this Phone!!!
Pretty Good Phone
This is the first Smartphone I have owned. But it has a lot of nice features. I have had it for about 3 weeks.
Pros:
Best Signal Reception and speaker quality I have ever had, No dropped calls and can always hear the caller. (Cingular Sacramento CA area)
Good connection to Internet.
Excellent screen
Media player works great for music and video.
Games run well.
Camera takes pretty good pics and although there is no flash, there are various settings, including a night mode which take pretty good pictures in dim light
Cons:
Applications continue running even when you think you have closed them, you must go to task manager and shut things down.
Phone locks up occasionally requiring you to remove the battery - this is infrequent and not that bad of a problem.
Overall this is a really nice phone, Especially when it is being used as a phone, which is a big Plus.
Cingular 2125 and Bluetooth activation
A cool apps you might want to download for the Cingular 2125 is a bluetooth app that allows you to use a hotkey to turn it off and on.
Here's the link...
Simple Bluetooth Toggle App
http://www.modaco.com/index.php?showtopic=99493
Clarification
First reviewer, you're talking about the Cingular 8125. The 2125, which is the susessor to the SMT5600 (on Cingular's website) is only $199.) with 2 year contract. Anyway Pro's are; WM 5, 240X320 chrisp clear 16 bit screen, Joystick control, EDGE, (on screen E for EDGE & G for GPRS), improved 1900mhz , with expanded antenna in Hump, Voice Command, sound clarity, & many others.
Pro's; I suppose NO Wi-Fi, although that's not very important to me, since it has EDGE.
WI-FI ???
hey guys....???
dont you miss WI-FI???
I am thinking of buying this phone but my bigggest CONS are that there is no WIFI...
vycko
good phone
I like the phone the camera is good and lets not forget i think it is pretty user friendly. The one thing i dislike about the phone is that the power button is too hard to press as we all know im sure and when i got the phone the button was acctualy broken when cingular sent it to me and now i have trouble exchanging it but overall i say its a good phone.
Still undecided?????
I have had treo 600 for year and just recently purchased this model hoping it was better......This phone is $299 with 2 -year service agreement (Cingular)...you only get $100 rebate if you sign up for 2 year unlimited data plan of which lowest is $19.99/month....what a rip!
Pros:
1. Size...size...size....size factor for PDA phone....excellent...better than any Palm 600/650 for this element
2. Screen size good given phone size
3. Camera is pretty good even without flash
4. video cool....
5. T9 for locating contacts much better than I thought it would be
Cons:
1. Power button SUCKS....takes two hands to turn off or do quick list because so hard to push----why they didn't adapt a Nokia style key lock is beyone me....vs. quick list....
2. location of min-SD card
3. one hand operation on treo 600 better
I am still evaluating....main reason switched from treo 600 was audio quality....but not sure this is any better.....may just be result of Cingular service....
would love to have small PDA with excellent audio quality...but seems to be beyond the service providers out there out there.....
Actually I would rate betweeb 3.5 and 4.0 right now....gave the phone the benefit of the doubt right now.....
I've returned the phone!
Good phone as reviewed by others. Phone off/on is not an issue with properly pushing button downward, rather than inwards.
But data part in my area at least was way below Edge speeds of 100-200kbs. Screen is too small.
Coolest thing is streaming Windows Media formatted radio stations easily and quickly (with IE Favorites set up).
Bottom line is this is an embarrassment to cingular for a customer to not have any UMTS generation phones available right now. The phones with any internet capabilities at all should all be UMTS, not old technology.
This is an old technology which for me, loaded pages in my area more like a 28kbps connection.
Cingular, get the new phones on the tarmack and dump the old technology now!
The support is also very poor. It's branded "Cingular," but the support site at HTC isn't on cingular's site!
And laptop connect was advertised as available at $39.99/mo. But support reps. tell you you need to be in a $70 per month or so to plug to your laptop. Really poor sales knowledge!
