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
More things to know:
This phone is fabulous, and everything wrong with it aside from any personal-type preferences such as form factor are completely fixable.
Remember:
1) There is a firmware update.
2) It has a dual-core processor. It can be overclocked. The program you want is OMAP.
3) This also means that it can be under-clocked, to conserve battery power.
4) As with your desktop, there are almost an infinite number of programs to install
5) 2 gig mini-sd cards can be bought for less than 100.00.
I love this phone.
MDA
All around I have enjoyed this phone. It certainly isn't perfect however.
I bought this phone in early January as well as a Samsug t809.
PROS:
Does just about everything
Easy menu
Good size and durability
CONS:
Slow phone, I do not use the organization part too much so i haven't experienced any of the glitches that i am hearing about with the day planner, however I am experiencing several problems with the phone that are making me actually pull the battery out to reset it, and I have a hard time accessing my storage device form time to time it doesn't read it, i have a scan disk card and it works fine in the other devices i use it in. I keep the phone in my pocket and consequently preform unintended actions on my phone. Also i have it for t-mobile which makes my service disappointing.
Amazing
I have been using Cingular for a long time and I needed to purchase a new phone, Cingular didn't really offer anything that I liked at this time so i went looking to see if I could find something else. That's when i stumbled upon this wonderful piece of technology. At first I was hesitant to get a Pocket Pc device because of size and awkwardness. But after using it for a while it functions very well as a phone and is much smaller than a Treo.
This phone has everything you can ever want and more. It has the best camera I've ever seen in a phone, Full games such as age of empires, sim city just to name a few, Full internet browsing works great with Cingulars Edge high speed, bluetooth wifi, email, easy to use keyboard.
Even though Cingular doesn't offer this phone yet you can get it off ebay or from Mad Monkey Boys which i reccomend. I was scared that it wasn't going to work properly in the US yet but everything works perfectly for me, it takes a bit to setup but all the information you need can be found at www.howardforums.com.
What a Phone!!!
I got this phone about 4 days ago, and I am impressed!
The keyboard is EXTREMELY usable, the screen is sharp, bright and clear and it's Windows Mobile 5.0 so over-the-air syncing works as expected.
I find that the unit is pretty snappy... but there are times I wish I had more horsepower.
CONS of the unit are: It's a little thick... of course I'm coming from a RAZR so anything would seem thick... Windows Mobile doesn't seem all that stable (I find myself reseting the phone every day) and it's expensive. I would also like to see more applications available for the phone WM5 doesn't have much support yet.
All in all... it's a HUGE feature upgrade form the RAZR... it's a HUGE form-factor upgrade from the Siemens sx66... and it's very usable. I recommend it.
Pretty good smartphone
I would get this phone again. However there are some small issues with it that I'd like to talk about.
Screen is not visible in the sunlight, forget about it
The battery life with a touchscreen/keyboard combo, your always going to have low battery. I loved this phone, but hated charging 24/7.
Dropping calls: It'd seem I'd make a call and the person I was talking to would ALWAYS ALWAYS seem to say Hey, your breaking up. I'm not sure why, because it was only that phone. It has happened with this and a treo. So I'm not sure if it was just a smartphone con.
I would get this again though, because everything else is a pro.
mda (4)
Gone through 4 MDAs, Mobile 5 Microsoft. The green answer button does not activate all the time. The phone states Edge, not available after a few days-same area. Countless hardresets, tech support can not figure out why.
Looses email quite frequently. Not recommended for the business environment.
Dont be a Sucker!
I read a lot of positive reviews posted about this phone and I wonder if all those users were still in some kind of infatuation with their phones and blind to the objective failings of the MDA that make it ineffective as both a phone and a PDA. Just reading the negative reviews confirms that others have had the difficulties that I had with this phone, and I gave it the real benefit of the doubt for 16 months until satisfactorily smashing mine in a million pieces without the slightest remorse.
Just confirm these problems with other negative reviews:
TERRIBLE RECEPTION!!! That is a fact that I verified by using my sim card in other phones on the same network. The reception is very poor and then the phone takes up to 20 minutes or more to "find the network." I could be standing outside in an area with good reception and it still cant reconnect. Is it the phone or windows mobile? Its not the network.
LOW MEMORY AND FREQUENT CRASHES!!! This is probably partly windows mobile and partly the need for greater onboard memory. Even with third party memory management software, this phone sucked. As another reviewer complained, just open the slider and watch it crash as it tries to adjust the screen to horizontal view. The worst part is having the phone crash by incoming call.
These two problems alone make the MDA a terrible portable phone. By the end, I was willing to give up all the PDA features just for a reliable phone.
Other than being bulky, it made an ok PDA. Windows mobile is full featured but as fatally flawed as most microsoft products. Im no Apple fan either, but I'd settle for a primitive Palm OS anyday for its speed and small footprint.
cingular 8125
I've had the phone for around 8mo and have been generally impressed with the feature rich device....until this evening.
The touch screen display has frozen up on me tonight. I've done soft resets and r/r the battery to no avail.
If it is returned to one of the ATT same day replacement centers, am I risking that they may charge me for replacement in a future billing. I have read that they unilaterally declare device physically damaged sometimes when no such evidence exists? At that point, how would one contest such a determination and the subsequent charge, which may postdate the replacement by several weeks?
Just what I needed!
I've had many Smartphones/Pocket PC's: SDA [I still use that one on my emergency line], Q, VX6700, Treo 700w and wx, 3125, MPx220, Blackjack, 2125 [and a couple Symbian and Palm ones, here and there], and now I have the MDA.
Pros:
Awesome camera/video (can be changed to 2MP for pictures).
Durable phone, as long as you don't drop it on the front.
Easy-to-use keypad.
I always have no less than 3-4 bars of reception. Go, T-Mobile!!!
Good battery life.
Windows OS.
Many programs can be downloaded into it.
Bubble breaker is much better on Pocker PC's.
Unlike the Treos that I had, the e-mail actually works!
Word and excel!
Big screen.
Came w/ a leather case.
Cons:
Not as much memory as the Treo 700w [47.46MB internally, to be exact], but that's what mini SD's are for.
Trying to find more cons.
Altough this is an older phone, it still rocks. If this phone keeps up, then I won't need a Wing. Only time will tell.
The 8125, Great PDA
I bought this PDA about a month ago and have had nothing but fun with it. The user friendly design, the features, and all this phone can do really make it a great addition for my business and personal life.
Pros
- Wifi enables me to check email pretty much anywhere
- Synch with my laptop for easy contact info and emails
- Text, Text, Text Messaging. It seems that this is the most efficient way to communicate. And the QWERTY keyboard makes it a snap.
- I got used to the 'digital' keypad and I really like it.
Cons
- It can be hard to text with one hand (although I'm getting better at it).
- More 'hot keys' on the outside of the phone. Something like the new 8525.
I give this phone a 4.5 rating and would encourage anyone thinking about upgrading to a solid PDA to think no more and get this phone.
