Cingular 8525 vs BlackJack vs Treo

I've spent the last two months trying to figure out what to do to replace my old Treo 650. The call quality was horrendously bad and I decided that I had finally had it.

I've been a Palm user for over ten years, including owning several Palm Pilots and Treos. The Treo has met my needs for years, but I haven't been entirely happy. Once when the Treo stopped working it took them 10 business days to get me a replacement (since I run my business on my cell phone this was ridiculous - particularly since the Treo is a premium-priced product).

My wife got a Samsung BlackJack, and I like it. However, I wasn't sure if it would meet my needs and if I would be happy with Windows Mobile. I also started reading about the Cingular 8525, which looked like a pretty good solution.

To compare the phones I used the Product Management concept of use cases. I made a list of the most common things I do with the phone - things that I knew I could do quickly on the Treo. Here's a rough version of the list in no particular order:

1. Turn phone to silent
2. Check Voicemail
3. Add a task and prioritize it
4. Lock and unlock the phone
5. Answer the phone
6. Check email
7. Redial
8. Dial contacts (speed dial and dial others in my 1200 person database)
9. Use the calculator
10. Check the daily calendar
11. Synchronize with Outlook
12. Make a conference call
13. Take a picture
14. Look at a monthly calendar

After doing some reading I decided to try out the Cingular 8525. I knew I could return it within 30 days, so I wanted to run it through the paces and make sure it would be as easy as the Treo and deliver great phone quality.

The end result: the Cingular 8525 is a GREAT phone. The sound quality on calls is excellent - it sounds like I am on a land line. The keyboard and touch screen are excellent (the touch screen is the main reason I chose the 8525 over the BlackJack - I am very used to touching the screen to quickly make choices.) I can dial contacts and launch applications by talking (which is much safer than clicking around buttons when driving). The email and web browsing are quite good on the 3G network (after I set up a Cingular Media Net home page similar to my personal home page on my computer I finally understood why anyone would want to use a cell phone to access the net). The games are great (Solitaire is bundled and I bought Tetris.) The screen is bright, big and beautiful. The battery life seems very good, and the sychronization works well with Outlook 2003. The 2 Megapixel camera takes excellent pictures, and it really feels like you are using a real camera (I am now convinced that in the near future I will never buy a separate camera). And finally, the bluetooth works great (especially with the noise-canceling headset I purchased with it).

Overall I am very satisfied.

Now the caveats:

1. When I first got the phone the battery seemed to drain VERY quickly. I turned of Versamail (automatic email delivery) and that seemed to solve the problem. After a few weeks I turned it back on and the battery life is great (I think maybe the battery had to be broken in - I'm not sure).
2. ActiveSynch did NOT work well for me at first. It would give me errors, sometimes it would access the hard drive for long periods of time and I also got errors when I tried to open Outlook - I had to reboot in order to get to my email. I installed Activesynch 4.5 and also tried a few other things I read on the net. I'm happy to say that it is working extremely well.
3. The 8525 Push to Talk button is VERY annoying. I would always accidentally hit it and then have to exit out of a dialog box saying that the service wasn't available yet. The good news is that I found a patch on the net that disconnects the button, so this isn't any issue.
4. The picture quality on the camera is excellent, though the flash pictures are too dark.

The bottom line?

I remember when I got my first Treo I was able to learn the ENTIRE thing in a few hours. It was slick, did what I wanted and worked great. I have to admit that learning the 8525 and Windows Mobile took FAR longer - after a few weeks I finally had resolved the issues above and felt like I REALLY knew how the software works. It appears to me that Windows Mobile is going to work for me quite well (I know, I know, endorsing Microsoft is politically incorrect), and the features, form factor and sound quality are excellent.

I'm glad I made the switch.

   

Comments

[James]

loved the use of the phone not the toughness or lack there of. The screen on the phone breaks very easily and no insurance available.