Project PDA

The Cingular Wireless 8525 smart phone is a modish device embracing a lot of attractive communication features in its rather small and slick body. The Windows Mobile smart phone is a robust answer to a lifestyle that involves a lot of movement. Its highlight feature is its big but never bulky keyboard!

Interface

Cingular Wireless LLC's new 8525 smart phone lets user type in with a keyboard that slides in and out to suit the user requirement. Though the keyboard, per se, is rather large for the size of the smart phone, the screen size of the device has remained unaffected by the presence of a comprehensive computer keyboard abroad. The best part of the package is that Cingular 8525 does not sacrifice the lightness and compactness of a regular state-of- the- art mobile handset in a bid to provide a keyboard that makes data entry much simpler and faster, in turn rendering the user experience with the entire device highly convenient and charming.

The screen size in Cingular's new 8525 Smart phone is 2.8-in., having 320-by-240-pixel display, which is more or less the standard screen size you get in the market for such a device minus the keyboard. Cingular 8525 uses portrait mode when the keyboard is slid in and switches automatically to landscape mode when the keyboard is outside its haven. This feature is in tune with any regular smart phone with keyboard. The keyboard in the Cingular 8525 has all the buttons you can expect in a mobile phone handset except the call taking buttons, which are given on the fore of the smart phone handset.

The smart phone sports a jog wheel on one of the sides in company with some assignable buttons. The reset button is aptly placed at the bottom of the phone that plainly relieves a user from unnecessary hassles. The handset also reserves a button on one side for Cingular's upcoming push to talk service, indicating it can be accommodated. However, there is something that is missed too. The smart phone device leaves the user navigating through the entire menu in order to control the volume in the phone. This means in case you are supposed to keep your handset quiet in a public place and you forget to put it to silence, it will take at least few seconds of focused attention to your handset before you are able to mute your phone. Searching down the menu for volume or audio silence control, reaching out the menu options and selecting suitable options is imperative procedure to follow to set the handset for soothing speaker settings.

Beyond the Interface

A robust model of modern mobile technology, Cingular Wireless LLC's new 8525 smart phone is good news beyond the interface aspect too. The smart phone boasts of a full-fledged Windows Operating system that let the users run the entire assortment of applications meant to run on Windows. The device already includes Windows Media Player 10 for playing audio and video on the handset. There is a Mini-SD slot on the side to store tunes.

Cingular Wireless LLC's new 8525 smart phone is composed of a 400-MHz processor with 64MB of RAM. Empowered with Pentium IV, the highlight of the device is that it is able to keep as much as 31 MB RAM free upon fresh start-up! This indicates the technological superiority of the device in terms of considerable memory efficiency. The memory efficiency is definitely unlike other contemporaries that would like to believe themselves as competition.

Camera phone

The smart phone also has a 2-Mega pixel camera with a user interface quite akin to an actual digital camera. This renders the device quite convenient and nice to operate. The downside of the camera phone is that it fails to eliminate the so-so flash with a credible one, which puts it at part with most others in the market. The device uses a LED for flash, which fails to do a good job if the distance between the object and camera is more than one foot.

Wireless Phone

Another highlight of Cingular's 8525 smart phone device is its Wi-Fi support, Bluetooth and Cingular's 3G network. Cingular's Wi-Fi supports both 802.11a and g. The smart phone can serve as a 3G modem for laptops both by means of cable and Bluetooth, subject to discretion.

The method and procedure for setting-up a Wi-Fi connection with WPA security enabled is highly user-friendly with the smart phone. The Wi-Fi connection lets the user connect where 3G coverage is poor. In simple words, user will find themselves well connected on their laptops even when out of their metropolitan margins. This also includes easy, cheap and steady voice over IP service by Skype and the likes even when out of the facilities of a big city!

However, what may bother a prospective buyer of Cingular Wireless LLC's new 8525 smart phone is the lack of enough sync provided between Cingular's Xpress Mail and desktop mail. The device does not automatically update mail, contacts and calendar with respect to desktop computer. It needs an Exchange Server such as Microsoft Exchange or Lotus Notes to perform all sync operations, except read mails on desktop.

Add-ons

Cingular Wireless LLC's new 8525 smart phone serves users with some add-on services that are already installed for their convenience. The device lets user watch channels like CNN and Lifetime on their phone by subscribing to MobiTV. Cingular lets users pay for these services from the cell phone bill itself, instead of a separate subscription. Cingular also enables user to install a navigation program called TeleNav. The handset, however, does not sport a readily available Global Positioning System function, which will need a separate Bluetooth GPS to avail.

Conclusion

In gist, Cingular Wireless LLC's new 8525 smart phone is a slick Windows Mobile device that is fast and memory efficient. Its Bluetooth 3G network, stylish and useful keyboard, large display screen and Wi-Fi technology are its highlight features that lend a niche to the user when on a move.