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 Bad
It a pretty cool phone but there are a couple of things that should be fixed to make the phone the best.
Camera should be improved to maybe to 3.2 Megapixel.
Screen should be bulit less fragile.
Keyboard should be bigger and rubber.
Reception is bad.
Should be smaller.
Less freezing.
Stonger bluetooth.
If all of this would be changed the phone would the best od all!
OMG
This phone was not the right phone phone from me. I bought this phone first of all because I am a very busy man and it was a good way for me to be organized. I had transfered all of my important infomation and I sold my iPaq. The 6th day of having the MDA I found that all the infomation had been deleted due to a malfunction and it was gone for good-meaning it could not be retrived no matter what. I decided to continue to use this phone and decided to give the phone another chance. I used my phone to surf the web and found that it kept freezing while in the middle and the web app kept closing up. As far as signal goes it was a little below average and found that speaker was bad because it was to soft and the voice kept breaking up. Camera was good although I have no real purpose for the camera I decided to give it a try and it was average. When I tried to connect my wireless handset it was kind of hard and for some reason kept disconnecting. This phone was giving me way to many problems so I switched to a Sidekick which was ok for me to use and knew that all my information was backed up-my number one concern.
ADDICTED
I am completely addicted to this phone! I have tried every phone in our store and this is the only one I really want to keep FOREVER! It does everything!
*1.3 Mp camera- with awesome features like color change options, templates, flash, and night and day lighting contrasts
*Media Player 10- I can store my audio books, songs, and movies from my home computer
*Bluetooth technology that allows me to connect to calls wirelessly as well as listen to my music!
*Active Sync- sync files, outlook email, calendar, contacts, notes, and tasks
*Microsoft Office- Word, Powerpoint, Excel
The only problems I have is it freezes up every once in while when you get to many programs running at the same time so what you have to do is every once in a while go into the settings and memory and manually close down the programs you don't need up. Also the business email is a little more difficult to set up than the Blackberry, but after you have it set up, you are good to go.
Cingular 8125 Great Choice
I purchased the 8125 from cingular about 2 weeks ago. To make a long story short. This Pocket PC makes the Sidekick and Treo look like solar powered calculators.
Lets start with the Pros:
Good signal strenth (but which holds true to any wireless carrier, it depends on your area. Some carriers are weak in certain areas).
Clear sounding earpiece. Good volume level.
Bluetooth, sync software, etc. work very well with this phone.
Web browswer, EDGE GPRS technology is VERY fast. Fastest i've seen on a mobile device yet.
battery life is EXCELENT. With the amount of power i'd guess this thing uses, the battery life is more then sufficient.
QWERTY keyboard makes text messaging, email, etc. very easy. Great part about this though, its optional. If you don't want to use it, there's a pop up keyboard, or transcriber that you can use, right on the lcd screen.
1.3 megapixel camera takes very nice pictures. However, pics at night u should probably not bother taking. The little LED light they decided to use as a flash doesn't help much.
Stylus and touch screen work flawlessly.
Ok ok. I can sit here literally ALL DAY and talk about the great things about this phone, so it might be shorter to talk about the cons:
Just like a mini computer, RAM is limited, and it tends to freeze from time to time, if you have to much open at one time. The developers of Windows Mobile, i guess didn't feel it was necessary for the user to be able to close open applications. They felt the phone would handle this on its own... however it doesn't. Not a huge problem tho, because there is a way to close any and all open applications... so in short, Problem solved.
Other then that, at this point i feel this is a VERY solid phone. Generally, everything works great, and is the closest thing you'll get to a laptop in a mobile phone. Its great for personal, and business use. Outlook, Excel, Powerpoint, and word are nice editions. Recommended buy.
Just got it and love it!
Just got this phone and it's my fav. of all time I believe. I have an SMT5600 which I like but this is much better. I also have a Nokia 8801 which is nice but a little too much $$$ for this little guy. Also have a 7290 Blackberry which I like but not the goodies like the 8125. All of these are gonna be on ebay in a few days, except the 8125 of course.
The 8125 is a nice size and is easy to use once you get use to it and get the hang. Give it a try!
MDA and ringtone issues help needed please
I've had this phone for just about a month now from T-Mobile. Like some of the other reviewers I would like to agree. The software and initial support from T-Mobile has been downright bad. I like the phone. Like any other PC or Smart phone type device. There are certain things to learn, things to review and things you already know. What I didn't like about the phone is the almost impossibility of getting ring tones into the media player then over to the "RINGTONES or RING" file. If everything isn't just perfect...WHAM you get no ring tone. You are stuck with the few, and the bad given to you by T-Mobile and the manufacturer. By the way...Just who manufactures this phone? To hear T-Mobile you would think they are the manufacturer. And why is it...I get the ring tones into the file. Set them through the ring tone and sounds program...Yet when one of my contacts call, and this can be any of them...It doesn't use that ring tone? Yes, I tried installing a third party ring tone program, but it wasn't any help. That program has been removed completely from the device. T-Mobile support has not been any help. That isn't new news anyway!! Anyone else out there having the same issues? If you can help I welcome your suggestions.
Thanks in advance.
Cingular 8125
I must say I have owned them all and barnone this is one of the best PDA's out there. I didn't give the 8125 a 5 as a rating only because its not a perfect phone and there will never be one. But that a side if looking at it..... get it. Well worth the money. I have had it lock up on me here and there only when trying to fly through programs. The only thing I can really say that hurts it is the internal reception of it. My Razr had better but like I said nothings perfect. I heard a lot of things about the camera and there are all not as true as one would think.
Great Phone - Buggy Software
Had the phone for about two weeks. The phone itself is very nice. Fairly intuitive for someone that is familiar w/PDAs and cell phones. Fits very comfortably in the hands. Love the screen. Love the look.
WiFi works great, Camera so-so but not a deal buster, voice command works very well, speaker works sufficiently.
Don't mind that it is difficult to use with one hand though many people complain about it. I bought the phone knowing it is a little trickier...what are you doing trying to read email and sending text messages while driving anyway???? ;o)
The only thing I am very disappointed with on this phone is the whole synch software package and Mobile 5 is a little shaky. ActiveSync 4.1 is STILL very buggy at best...unstable, connect-disconnect instability, Outlook Connector w/Hotmail/MSN is unreliable. What is the use of synching if you have to manually check your MDA, Outlook and MSN/Hotmail to see if the information transferred properly? It has been a VERY, VERY frustrating experience. Many soft resets and even a few hard resets!!!
-Duplicate/Missing Calendar Events
-Duplicate/Missing Contacts
-Duplicate/Missing Notes
-Edits in entrys of all categories sometimes sync accross the board, sometimes not. Haven't been able to figure out why.
After about two weeks of messing with it, I discovered that the alerts on my calendar was not working at all. All the alerts I was receiving on the MDA was from my MSN Calendar. I checked all the settings to no avail. I finally took the phone back to T-Mobile and they tried to get the Alerts to work on the Calendar with no success. They have offered to replace it with a new MDA but they no longer had any in stock so I am on a waiting list.
Hopefully, the phone I got was just a lemon and the new one will prove to be much better including the sync functions.
Keeping my fingers crossed. I'll post again to let you know what happens w/the new phone.
I forgot i ever owned a treo
If you work in an office prey that you run Exchange 2003... Remote Active sync rocks! I have read elsewhere on this review board about the lack of software, and i have found more software then i know what to do with.
I had to reset my Treo twice a day just because it froze... I Had three of them and they all did it. A friend of mine works for ESPN here in CT and works in the "Treo Support Department" they replace about 15 treos a week. Some of the newer PDA's are Cingular 8125's and have only had one go bad because the user thought punching the screen would make it react faster!
The bluetooth on this device is far superior to the treo and the keyboard is a lot easier to use . I would recommend this thing to any GSM user. I have had a lot of phones and a lot of smartphones and this is the best so far!!!!!!
Great convergence device
I have had the T-Mobile MDA since the day it was released and so far, it has been great.
Pros:
- I can access my email anywhere - I now use the MDA more than my laptop for email.
- If I need driving directions, I don't need to print anything on paper anymore.
- The phone has a very sturdy feel to it and is smaller than I expected.
- It connects perfectly to my wireless router at home.
Cons:
- My Gmail does not work on this phone in Pocket Outlook e, but when I contacted Gmail, they said it is something they need to look into.
- I can't download complete Hotmail messages - I have to click on a link if I want to get a complete message.
- The battery is good, but drains rapidly when using WiFi.
