I so loved this device, and then to get it at an outandingly great price was even better! The only drawback was that it was apparently on backorder when I purchased it, so the expected delivery date was over a month away. I complained a little along with others and the date was shifted to just over 1 week or so. Overall great procuct!

I got the 8525 six months ago. It's good, and I'm happy I got it. Having said that. It's expensive, or was. It needs to be rebooted several times a week - seems to freeze on me every other day (the cingular store said, yeah that happens). Works well as a phone, though it is a pain to dial numbers by hand, the keypad is virtual (not sure what you do when you have to dial 911 in a hurry).

The Internet access has been great. We don't get 3G much in DC, and oddly get it more in out of the way places like the Chicago burbs, but even without 3g I've liked the speed of the access. I've used my phone a LOT as a modem for my Mac powerbook laptop and it works great - quite fast in fact. Having said that, you need to scour the Internet for instructions on how to connect the two, but you can find it and eventually it works.

As for the keyboard, I was a bit duped thinking the keyboard would permit me to type like a normal full sized keyboard. I type fast, like 90 words a minute, and I still have to type with two fingers on this keyboard, it's just the way it is. I find that my friends with blackberrys and treos tend to go from zero to 60, in terms of picking up their toys and doing a web search, quicker than me.

Don't get me wrong, it works well, and the wow factor is nice - people admire the phone. Also, I had to cajole Cingular/ATT into unlocking the phone for me - they refused at the store, but the nice lady on the phone did it for free when I called from Europe and begged. I bought a French SIM card and it worked great in the phone.

You'll hear varying stories on whether ATT can still charge you for accessing free wifi in Europe while still having your American SIM card in the phone. My tech friends say this is impossible. But Cingular claims it's true, as did the helpful lady on the phone who actually seemed to know her tech stuff. To be safe, remove the American SIm card if you're abroad and surfing the net with this thing - oh yeah, it really does work with foreign wifi, even without the sim card. Pretty cool.

Oh one more thing, as with many phones, I find the volume is just too low during calls. It's especially a problem when I download movies or tv shows from my computer (I use a PSP video 9 to shrink the movies and shows to the right size, then just sync the computer with the phone - for Mac users, you have to use Missing Sync and it doesn't always work, it's kind of weird, sometimes it syncs sometimes it doesn't). Anyway, yes you can watch tv shows and stuff on here, but the volume is very low and when sitting on a plan, forget it - I could not hear my shows using the headsets. I'm going to buy an adaptor so I can try different headsets on this. Oh yeah, buy an extra storage card, I got like 2 gigs for 50 bucks or something, it's worth it. I'd read the 4 gig cards weren't working as well with this phone, maybe that's fixed now. I think that's it.

Slingbox IS compatible with this phone, and it's cool as hell, I have it, and it works - but again, the volume issue if you're anywhere even vaguely loud (having said that, i was on jury duty and sitting in the courthouse in a crowded room and could hear my shows fine through the cheap earphones). So, all in all, I'm satisfied, it's cool, it works. I've never owned another smartphone or treo or anything, so have nothing to compare to. I'll consider switching to an iPhone in a year when that shakes out more. PS The size doesn't bother me, I have it in my pocket all the time, in jeans or a suit it's fine in your pants. In shorts, yeah it starts to get a bit big, but again, it's really not as large as it looks.

The camera sucks. It auto sharpens all the photos horribly - I've tried to stop it, you can't, it just does. REally really really bad photos - and I take photos for a living, but also take them for fun, you won't be using this phone for photography, trust me, it's bad. The video isn't bad however, I just don't have a reason to use it.

After reading many of the reviews, I was shocked that the 8525 was far better than I expected. I took the time to go through the online tutorial. In addition the DVD that was included was self explainatory. The battery life was better than I was led to believe, especially after the push to talk upgrade. You have more than one way to access info. i.e contacts, task, photos, etc. This is my first smartphone. I hope you enjoy this product as much as I do.

Less than a month after I purchased this exceptionally expensive phone, it stopped working. I called the vendor, and they decided that the damage was not covered by the warranty, (apparently, getting accidentally sprayed by a neighbor's garden sprinkler is enough to totally kill this phone) and after keeping me on hold for the better part of half an hour, informed me that they would do NOTHING to help. They did offer to sell me a new phone at full retail! How generous!

Is this how this company treats its high end clients? I have (soon to be past tense) full data service on two phones, and bought their top of the line phone.

To top it all off, another friend had an 8525, which got in the way of a coffee spill. They refused to help there, as well.

This phone is apparently, ridiculously fragile for day-to-day business use. I now have a $400+ paperweight. Don't make the same mistake.

i bought this phone because of all the positive reviews and i was satisfied at first. its been about two months that i've owned this phone and i have to say its not really worth the price. first of all, the biggest disappointment is that it doesn't have the same email technology as blackberries and treos. i'm talking about the direct push email feature. that means that you have to go to your inbox and select "send/receive" to get new email every time you want to check your email. that gets very annoying especially when everyone with the other pda phones have seamless integration of email on their phones.

the phone is also pretty bulky. i bought the phone knowing this already and was willing to make the sacrifice. i actually like the weight of the phone, but it wasn't worth having such a big phone without having effective email software. the best feature might be the slide-out keyboard which is useful.

this phone is also not as sturdy as most phones esp. not as sturdy as blackberries. i admit that i am a phone-dropper becuase i am very thoughtless at times. however the keyboard became loose after a couple of drops (i'm not talking about big drops, just small ones from my lap to the ground). and now the power button is stuck in the phone.

p.s. cingular sucks and they are notorious for misleading advertising. their slogan for least dropped calls is just absolute b.s. i switched from sprint because i thought sprint was bad but now i wish i was back with them or with verizon.

So I've had a Cingular 8525 for a month. Mostly, I love it. To be sure, the form factor is a bit chunky (but then again so is mine). The large screen makes browsing the web, reading and responding to email, and working with Word Mobile documents very easy. The slide out keyboard is easy to use and much more user-friendly than the tiny keys that were on my old Treo. The phone part is decent. No physical keys, but the display menu works reasonably well. (Not to be used while driving, however.) The unit linked easily to a bluetooth earpiece. Ditto a bluetooth keyboard.

Now for the bad news. After just a month, the large display cracked. My situation was exactly the same as that described by another Cingular smartphone user: "The external LCD screen on the phone cracked mysteriously. This seems to be a design flaw. Do a web search ( "Cingular 3125 cracked LCD" ) and you will find a number of owners who have had this problem. The descriptions are all the same - no one dropped the phone, they just generally pulled it out of their pocket and it was cracked. The crack appears on the *inside* (internal side) of the screen so it is not the result of physical damage by the user (no external facing dents/marks etc). Users posting in web forums report that the damage is not covered by Cingular. They also report that the phone is not insurable."

Ditto here. The phone was not dropped, it wasn't abused, it just came out of my shirt pocket broken. Although this looks like a design problem, Cingular refused to replace the unit. I ended up buying a replacement. And a case. Meanwhile, the run-around I got from Cingular (two stores and three phone calls), plus their "it's not our problem" attitude has won them a lot of ill-will on my opart.

I am only going to review the data wifi features. Its wireless b/g and has WEP, WAP and WAP-PSK security. Signal strengh is pretty good. Was able to install Skype and make and receive phone calls. Not to sure how I feel about the keyboard. Seems it would make text messaging much faster than the on-screen keyboard, but definitely not something you would want to type a word document or detailed email message. The phone is smaller than a traditional pda and thicker also. This is both a pro and a con. The smaller size fits nicely in my hands, but the screen is smaller also. From the wifi side of things this is a good phone...reasonably price at it current amount. And also can be tethered to your notebook or desktop pc through usb or bluetooth. Will I make the purchase again? Probably not. A notebook plus a GSM card works just as well plus you can keep your handphone/mp3 player. I'm not saying it a bad device because its not, it just impractical from my point of view.

I had to cancel my order because Wirefly said that the 8525 was not in the market anymore, they meant that it was out of stock. I felt sorry for the customer support agent because his English was O.K. but his script didn't tell him what to do when I asked him to clarify what he meant by "not in the market". After some clarification, they gave me the option to get a different phone but I chose to cancel. They canceled my order immediately. I again went to the Amazon site (Wirefly's) and there was no notification of the phone being out of stock. I'm curious what would have happen if I ordered it again? I think it might be like a mega millions lottery. If I try again, I might get it. Please try it and tell me if you have the winning number. Today's date is 05/21/2007.

This could have been a great phone except for its dimensions. It's too bad that all of the newer pda phones feel the need to provide every single gadget available. For example, I love the Cingular 8525 except for one thing...I don't want or need the keyboard. With a software keyboard built into Windows Mobile, and better yet, the transcriber feature that converts my own handwriting into text, I would rather the 8525 not have the slideout keyboard so it could be half its thickness. The same with GPS and Cameras. They are neat gimmicks, but not something I want at the expensive of form and function of my phone and pda. After all, I never use them.

I'm planing to buy an unlocked 8525 and use skype to make phone calls when internet is available, and buy minutes only for the "road". I think I'd save money in this way without contracts and plans. Has anyone tried this on the cell phone?
Thanks a lot for your time.

Aside from the battery life of a day, this product is great. The internet option and the keyboard has been extremely useful. For those who are a gadget freak at heart, I truly recommend this product. I have used this phone for everything from streaming music to the watching media. If you are not the type of person to charge your phone on a nightly basis, I would imagine this to be an inconvenienve for you. Otherwise this phone is great!

This is without doubt, the worst PDA/phone I have ever used. The problem that the other reviewers stated that the phone reboots, is 100% true. It locks up, does not allow transfer of data to the memory card and does not work with the software included.

Amazon is supposed to replace this poor excuse for technology with a Palm Treo, but dealing with Amazon is turning into an obtuse situation. Now I understand why the prices on Amazon are so low. The products are defective and/or second rate.

DO NOT GET THE 8525, UNLESS YOU WANT A HEADACHE IN MORE WAYS THEN ONE!

So first off, I must tell you I am a die hard Palm user since the US Robotics Palm Pilot. Since then I have tried 1 Windows Mobile device and gave it away within 1 week of purchasing it (about 4 years ago), however this 8525 is awesome.

Pros:

* Excellant integration with my MS Exchange server. The emails come right to my phone as they arrive. Of course the calender also works seemlessly.
* Decent quality photos and videos. I am not going to be doing professional work with the camera, but sufficiant for snapping photos on the go.
* Speaker phone works great. Loud, clear and easy to switch on.
* Keyboard is perfect size. Not too small, and well laid out.
* Screen is excellant quality.
* 3 G / UMTS in the markets that have the service means your emails and web pages load super fast.
* Who doesn't love to open MS files like XLS and DOC without extra applications?


Cons:
* The battery does not last an entire day of an active user. Yes I could turn some of the features that I have come to love like MS DirectPush, but I love that feature. I can't tell you what my exact talk time is, however I can tell you my Treo 650 used to last 2 days without charging. With the 8525, I have to charge half way through a day of moderate usage.

So if you have the ablity to charge your phone half way through the day and want a REALLY slick FAST feature rich phone, get the 8525.

I first was seduced by the Newer Treo 750, but just as I finished with the salesperson, another salesperson pulled out the 8525. I knew that I had to do more research. I returned the 750 the next day and got the 8525. After five months, I am hooked to the 8525. This phone is worth every dollar. Those who complain do not know how to use a stylus or find the Microsoft commands through the PDA screen. I can send and receive e-mail with ease. The keyboard is MUCH MUCH MUCH easier to use than both the Treo or Blackberry. Messaging is less of a chore. The keyboard has an intelli-sensing word program that helps speed through texting.

The contacts section of the phone is easier. Navigation through tasks is brilliant once you get comfortable with the keyboard and speed buttons. I cannot recall making a 411 calls, because I search the internet for telephone numbers. I can set URL favorites, as well. I can create Word documents and download to my computer. I upload my schedule off the firewire.

I can send photos from the 2 megapix camera, when I have the urge. Yet, as some admit, still photos are best. There should be more downloadable tones. Again, anyone who complains needs to read the manual or toy with the phone. This phone does not get the street cred it deserves. I feel like there are too many Treo and B-berry addicts who have issues with Microsoft. FWIW.

Can't hear anything on incoming calls without headphones or an ear piece. By the time I turn on speakerphone, they hang up. Camera does not take good photos of anything that is not close up. I bought it for the high speed network but don't notice any difference from dial up when using it as a modem for my p.c.. Should have bought a regular cell phone and a lap top.

I was hesitant about buying this phone since it was so expensive. But, I have to say, it was well worth the $$$$. I've been using it for a few months now and I love it!
1. It's easy to use.
2. Durable (It has fallen a few times and we have concrete floors too).
3. At first I was frustrated with having to manually change connections if I wanted to use the WiFi functionality, but since I've upgraded to the latest ROM version, I no longer have to do this. It's extremely fast on WiFi, EDGE is pretty good too. Haven't been able to test the 3G/UMTS yet (It's supposed to be availabe in my market 2nd Quarter '07).
4. Plays video and music really well.
5. I do recharge the battery a little more than I'd like (I upgraded from a non PDA phone), but with the apps and functionalities of the phone, I can understand.
6. I've used a bluetooth headset with it and it was easy to setup and could hear well. However, I'm not an avid headset user and cannot comment on the long term use of one.
7. Sound quality has been great during calls.
8. Have not experienced any dropped calls so far (I have been with SunCom/ATT Wireless/Cingular/ATT for 8 years and have experienced a few with other model phones).
9. System has been very stable and I have not had to do any type of resets or defaulting to factory settings. I have a few 3rd party programs which were easy to install and have had no glitches in using.
10. Great display. I will never go back to using a phone without touch screen.
11. If you are a heavy text message user, you'll love the phone. The slide out keyboard is great. I thought it would be flimsy at first, but I've had no troubles so far.
12. I bought an SD card for it. Had an issue at first getting it to fit correctly (thought I was going to break it). It got stuck. I got tweezers to get it out, then read on how to put it in the phone. Now it works perfectly and I've even taken it out a few other times and put back in with no problems. I guess it just takes some getting used to.

All in all, I would recommend this phone to anyone. My hubby had the 2125 and liked mine so much, he upgraded too. He uses his extensively with work and hasn't had any bad things to say so far.

this latest HTC TyTn - Cingular 8525 to be one of the very best despite any nominal shortcomings! I have had both Palm and Pocket PC (Palm, Kyocera, Audiovox) based cell phones over the past many years with inconsistent levels of satisfaction to say the least. Most of them with larger screens but often key marketing features never functioned easily enough if at all. The benefit of a data connection while maintaining a mobile call is REALLY nice and not commonplace!! The rhetoric and real experience here with all the bells & whistles are spot-on except for the battery use.

Bandwidth performance contentment with the EDGE cell network after experiencing EVDO a few years has also been quite surprising. Although the 3G or HSDPA network implementation seems to be way behind here in the USA IMHO. Specifically here on the Front Range of Colorado we have nearly as many AppleStores as New Jersey but EVDO still rules the roost for wide area coverage availability verses the next gen 3G offering of the competitors. IF you plan on amazing new customers with the forthcoming iPhone; SOMEONE needs to prioritize the network infrastructure upgrades from Cheyenne, WY to Colorado Springs, CO so the phone and data service is really above the norm!

So I've had this phone since January (paid way too much ~$500) -- it is somewhat bulky and difficult to use but I read the manual and learned the basics. About two weeks ago the volume disappeared -- phone wasn't ringing (would vibrate though) -- and incoming calls were difficult to hear (speaker phone functionality also died). After spending an hour rereading the manual and going to the website to see if maybe there was a 'hidden' volume dial I missed re-setting, I gave up and chatted on line with Cingular. Only advice they could give me was resetting to the original factory settings -- meaning reload all apps and mail, contacts, etc! I confirmed this with my IT department and noticed feedback on Cingular's chat room that others are experiencing the same problem with this model. If resetting to original factory settings doesn't work then it becomes a warranty replace. At this price, I expected to be 'delighted' unfortunately I am not.

Thought I'd post this info here, since this subject still confuses people. I just talked to a cust care representative, who confirmed that cancelling included data plan before 180-day period will invalidate $250 Amazon phone rebate.
Well, I guess that is a major turn down for me for this phone and this offer, since I don't really need a data plan, and planned to use WiFi connectivity most of the time. Any comments?

I still would like to give it 5 stars since I believe it is a great product. I'll take one star off however, due for its weak battery life, and lack of standard audio connection (2.5" or 3.5" minijack).


There are many good reviews on 8525 positive features and most are fairly accurate. Lots of good features in the 8525.

My intent is to document some of the shortcomings of the 8525 and Windows Mobile OS in the hope that MS and HTC will heed and correct in the future. I am a business user who wanted to combine my HP IPAQ 1945 and my Motorola V550 Cell phone into one device. I use a Motorola H700 headset with my old devices and the 8525.

My overall assessment is; Replacing my two 3 year old devices resulted in me accepting some compromises that I don't think are necessary in terms of functionality and ease of use. All the features I describe below were in the earlier Windows Mobile OS used by my IPAQ 1945 or my Motorola flip phone.

If readers find that there is a way to perform any of the deficiencies I describe please let me know. My suggestions in rough order of priority:

1) Blue tooth headsets. Blue tooth audio should always come through the blue tooth headset regardless of the PDA volume setting. To hear my voice commands repeated, I have to turn on the annoying sound of the PDA, so when I voice dial via my Blue tooth headset, I can hear my voice commands repeated back. I am referring to the standard voice dial that comes with the 8525. One quick solution would be to tie BT headset to the phone volume setting rather than the PDA. Even nicer would be an upgrade that allows full audio with the "VoiceCommand" software (this is documented in many other reviews). Another nice feature of my Motorola cell phone was as soon as the BT was detected the phone volume changed from vibrate to audio if it was set to vibrate. It changed back to the original audio setting after turning off the BT headset.

1a) If I request voice dial via my blue tooth headset the screen should ALWAYS display the voice dial page. Instead the initial "Owner Info" page stays up and you can't see the name on the screen unless you reach down and tap the screen. Not desirable when driving. If you didn't set the PDA to its annoying noise level you can't hear the name you requested either.

2) Need to be able to control the PDA and phone volume independently for Audio, Vibrate or OFF. For example need to be able to tie turn up the phone volume while keeping the PDA volume setting on OFF or vibrate.

3) Need to be able to program how long the display stays on. I am constantly groping to find the power button on the side to keep the display on as it turns off when I need to see something.

4) I would buy a non Bluetooth headset if one was available for long drives when my BT headset battery is dead. Only solution I see is the 8525 stereo headphones and turning on the speaker which is a little noisy for listeners while driving on the freeway.

5) Provide a built in way to make the PTT and Comm Manager, and IE Quick key buttons programmable. I would use them for many other functions; such as PTT bringing up the volume control so I can change it from vibrate to audio to speaker (need to be able to select speaker here see below).

6) Give me a way to press an external button to toggle between speaker on and off. I can't easily push the speaker icon with my fingers. Suggestion. Add a radio button on the volume control that allows you to select speaker phone. Yes you can select the phone speaker soft button, but often the display has gone blank and the keypad is showing. Turning speaker on/off should be easier.

7) Provide option to save email attachments to storage card. That was on my IPAQ Windows OS and allowed me to capture lots of attachments without running out of memory.

8) Remember the Filter setting I selected for Tasks. If I have filtered by a task category during that session remember the filter I selected. Currently I have so many tasks there is a 5 second delay to bring them all up

9) Give me a way to turn off have the Internet browser Quick Key (or make this button programmable) I am always having to close the browser because it gets hit/selected

10) Let me Edit/Paste with one step for notes, word, task notes etc. The IPAQ has "Edit" at the bottom. With 8525 OS you must select Menu, then Edit, then Copy. Keep Edit on the bottom.

Question: is there a key on the keypad to select CNTRL C for copy like what is done on a PC (the letters are underlined in the menu, but I don't see a CNTRL key on the keypad?

11) Allow the trackwheel to scroll up to the icons on the top and then use the nav button to move across the icons (might be the way to allow an external way to set audio volume)

12) If I power off the device have it remember my input selection. For example I select "Letter Recognizer". But I must reset each time I power 8525 off.



I recently got the 8525 and i loved it at first mainly because of the multi functions it could do. However eventually i found out that the phone part of this pda is not as great as my previous camera phone. My friends complain that they hear a lot of outside noise while talking. The phone ear-volume is quite low and i have to constantly put it to max it if i am in noisy places.

Pros:

Software : The windows applications - Word, Excel, Media player.
Plus : Ability to create office documents and play games

Hardware : Micro sd slot - Sandisk card cost me 20 bucks.

Wireless Internet : You could connect this device to any wireless unsecure network to get to the internet. I dont have a data plan with Cingular but i connect to the internet from home through my WIFI home network. If iam at a coffee shop i could connect to their secure network and get to internet for free.

Cons :

* A bit bulky to carry around.
* Camera is not as expected. The view finder is sloppy and cannot capture images in low light.
* Battery needs to be charged every second day (depends on usage) but even with light use i had to charge it every other day.


Best suitable for :
* Internet savvy people who are on the move.
* Email and messaging.
* As a pocket PC.
* To listen to music (need to purchase micro-sd card)

Accessories:

Boxwave leather case ($30)

Leather case by Boxwave fits pretty good and protects the device. The only problem is that after you put this case on, the phone volume needs to be set to the max, even after that you wont be able to hear the other person so well. But the boxwaver case could be opened half way and folded over.

Bluetooth

This device works very well with blue tooth.

Bottom line:

If you are ok with minor inconveniences while using the phone this is for you.












This is a wonderful device. Build quality is typical of HTC, meaning very good. The call quality is good provided you're in a decent service area (system not overloaded with AMR-HR kicking in). The scroll wheel is a very useful addition to the Hermes line and makes one handed use much more manageable. The slide out keyboard is easy to use and provides very good tactile feedback. There is a huge user community and a very large knowledge base to consult (this is perhaps the ultimate "geek" phone). The WM5 ROM it currently ships with is fairly stable and provides the usual suite of applications and productivity tools. There is a learning curve involved with Windows Mobile, but IMHO it's not nearly so bad as some ppl make it out to be. In general, things work as they are supposed to with this phone.

One drawback is that while the device does support the Bluetooth A2DP profile (stereo bluetooth sound), the Microsoft Bluetooth stack as found on this device is horrible. The phone ships with A2DP forced to mono, which means you'll have to manually edit the registry to enable true stereo sound over bluetooth. The bluetooth stereo sound is also set to a very low quality, which also involves a series of registry tweaks to improve. And even after all of that, there still exists audible inaccuracies and artifacts in the audio. In other words, don't waste your money on a set of stereo bluetooth headphones if you take your audio seriously. However, the bluetooth does work very reliably with most regular (mono/one ear) BT headsets (I recommend the Jawbone), and the call and voice quality experienced in call with these devices is perfectly acceptable.

Another audio related drawback of this device: There is not even a 2.5mm stereo jack. The only physical audio out is through HTC's proprietary jack which is also the power and data jack. The saving grace here is that the earbuds the unit ships with are actually passable, and also the availability of HTC-to-3.5mm jack adapters on the market.

Even with a few shortcomings, I would be remiss to not point out that this is probably the best PocketPC Phone on the US carrier subsidized market. It packs an incredible amount of power into a remarkably usable form factor. If you're in need of a Windows Mobile device and a fan of the slide out qwerty keyboard instead of the dedicated keyboard devices, this is your phone.

Purchased this phone as a replacement for my old skool Verizon XV6600 and I am extremely impressed. I have been a PocketPC Phone user for several years now and it appears the 8525 along with Windows Mobile 5 is very close to nirvana for this IT Professional-by-day \ GadgetFreak-by-night guy.

If you don't read anything else in my review please understand this:
1) This is a Microsoft OS and things will go bump.
2) If you are NOT in the market for spending around $110 a month for a service plan (voice and data), you have no business with this phone.

This is a productiviy enhancer, it is not %100 perfect but as a data center manager who receives around 200 emails a day along with about 200 system notifications a day, this phone does the trick.

The battery life isn't that bad as I have this thing in its cradle (not included) during the day.

Screen is bright.
The WiFi feature works beautifully.
The 3G network is amazingly fast.
Works flawlessly with my Exchange 2003 server. (Active Sync is so easy to setup, a noob could do it.)

The only reason reason I didn't give it 5 stars is the fact that it can't make me a cocktail.

This phone is also sold as the Dopod 838 Pro in Asia (it's quite popular in Singapore), and the HTC TyTN in Europe, but in an unlocked model. and quite a bit more expensive than what Cingular sells it for here. If you are using this as your first PDA phone from another non Windows product, you will think it's a heavy, over feature laden product that you will never fully use, and its a problematic one at that. Having said that, this is probably one of the best Windows PDA phones available today. The features of this phone (3.5G, Bluetooth 2.0, etc. ) are such that you would never need to bring a laptop with you. You can even install Skype Mobile on this phone. The keyboard stows away well, and has good feel.

There were initial problems with this phone in the Asian market, that have now been since resolved, and is now robust and reliable.

But one caveat to keep in mind when using this product...it runs Windows Mobile. Meaning, if you are not familiar with Windows devices, it may frustrate you...it doesn't respond like a non Windows cell phone. But, if you can overlook that, it will perform better than anything available...even Blackberry devices do not compare to this.

Many of my colleague use blackberry for emails but I give a try on this brand-new 3G/Wi-fi/camera equipped smartphone. The 3G and Wi-fi works very well in our area. It also worked very well in Europe after activation of the cellphone by Cingular customer service. E-mail and internet works very well in both locations. Addition of 1GB microSD chip actually solve many of the bluetooth file transfer issues, since I can simply stick the microSD card into regular SD cassette, and use a card reader and USB cable for file transfer from PC or Mac like other memory chips. The color calibration and default focus of the camera is very good and video is very good quality for the cameraphone. Again, 1GB allow you to take a very long video in Windows Media Player format. Installation of Good mail system automatically synchronize to Lotus Note emails, contacts, and calendar any time, any place, and automatically chime schedule notices. The only drawback are the battery life, which require frequent charges, slow keypad for phone calls (and I do not know how to silence the keypad), and a little tough keyboard touch. Lack of shift keys on both sides sometimes makes key typing difficult (especially shift+A !). In addition, Microsoft Word processing is slow, and so as Excel, which will require a faster chip. Overall, a great all-around pocket PC in this generation!

I bought my 8525 when they first came out, like two months ago right after christmas
I upgraded to a 2gig memory card and also have the GPS service
I love my phone though it might have problems time to time and some getting used to
Overall this was the best purchase for the price, I ended up spending almost $900
but I also had the bluetooth essential pack the GPS and some other features

This is the best phone out. period.
no the iPhone isn't going to beat it
the iPhone doesn't have a slide out keyboard
that's soemthing I don't want to part with
I would like to see the iPhones operating system though!
but the 8525 takes home the trophy!!!!

Hi, I just recently purchased this phone. and so far these are the problems. Yes you do have to restart the device, it does get hung, but i don't blame the phone, after all it has windows mobile 5 in it. The restart has occurred twice to me in the past week, So be careful. This phone is pretty close to being perfect. Other than the fact that it has windows, The 3G connection is crazy fast and it is amazing to have. If you take this phone be ready to take a good data connect plan as even thought it has wifi capabilities, Cingular has programed it to first connect to their data connect feature.. which in return will give u a nice thick bill.. Once you buy the phone i suggest that you get this software Spb Pocket plus. It helps shutting down softwares running in the background, and adds more features. The screen clarity is amazing and it has great features. It can connect up to 6 bluetooth devices at once. Overall i give it a 4 because of the hardware. the one star missing is cause it has Windows. Sorry Microsoft but you need to remove the bugs outta this windows too.

The phone specs looked great. Wifi, bluetooth 2.0, 3G spees, etc. etc. I was thrilled. So I ordered it and used it for about a month. I previously had a Blackberry 7290 and while I liked some things about the new phone over my the Blackberry, in many other ways it was a step back.

Others have done a good job covering the positives I'll list the problems that caused me to return the phone.

1. The Operating System
The OS running this phone is Windows CE. It is prone to often crashing and locking up. This happened to me only twice in the 2 month period. To users who are used to using Microsoft products this may seem normal but to others it is very annoying.

2. The User Interface
Not much thought has gone into designing a user interface for a phone. For many apps the critical options are hidden away from the user. Some times you have to look for the option under the "Menu" of options, other times you have to click and hold a list item for a "Menu" of actions to appear etc. And some times some of the obvious operations are completely missing. For example I almost went crazy trying to find a way to "delete all email messages" for a certain account. There was no such option. Each email had to be individually and painfully deleted manually. A friend of mine discovered that if you used the keyboard to enter the "Control-A" shortcut, it would select all emails and then you could perform the delete operation. I had no idea that Microsoft expects users to remember the Windows desktop shortcuts to perform basic functions on their Windows phones.

3. General flakiness.
I configured my Gmail account and started to get "some" email. Most of the time the phone would say that there is no email in my Gmail account. This was obviously incorrect as I sent several test emails to my Gmail account just to see if I can get my phone to go pick them up. It refused. Most of the apps on the phone showed this sort of behavior. This is a deal breaker for me. I want to have a certain amount of confidence in the reliability of the services offered by my phone.

4. Bulky and heavy
The phone is too big and heavy. The biggest and the heaviest I have ever owned. After using the Blackberry keyboard for a couple of years, I thought that I would always want a physical keyboard on my phone. The 8525 keyboard is a pain to use. You have to slide the keyboard out. It clicks into place in a way that makes you wonder how long that mechanism would last. And then the software takes its sweet time to reposition the application for you. If you need to type a quick email, this is way too much work to get there.

In the end I felt that I was stuck with a hefty phone with a physical keyboard that I will never use.

5. Mechanical issues
The keyboard slider would slide out a little bit even when you did not mean for it to. I alway found myself trying to put it back in its place.

Then I got myself a microSD card. I inserted it into the phone and the phone reported that it was not formatted. And did not give me any options to format it. So I figured I would take it out and format it elsewhere. That is when I discover that the thing was stuck for good in the phone. I googled around only to find out that this is a very common problem with the 8525. I eventually located some sharp objects to help my pry out the flash card from the phone.

Final thought:

If you want a phone to fight with on a regular basis then by all means get this one.

If want to use the fantastic feature of Wi-Fi capability of this phone without a data plan, DON'T DO IT. Wait until the service providers figure out they need to allow for Wi-Fi only and allow users to turn off data if they want it off.

I got this phone to use off Wi-Fi - at work, at home, at coffee shops, etc. It's one of the few phones that is Wi-Fi capable. I wanted to use it for free Wi-Fi access since there is absolutely no reason you should pay data charges if you're willing to find open Wi-Fi.

BUT - Cingular sets the unit up to automatically go to their data services at every chance. After specifically discussing with at least 3 Cingular reps that I was getting this for free Wi-Fi access and did not want to use data at all, I was shocked to see over $100 dollars in data charges. I called to complain and was faced with a $240 bill. The next month was over $350 and the next is back to $240. I have tried to get Cingular to turn off data to my account - which they seem unwilling or unable to do. I even had a supervisor tell me that you have to go through the Cingular data network to connect to local Wi-Fi - my analogy to Wi-Fi laptops not needing that was lost on them. I've tried to trick the auto-sign in - putting in false modem numbers and passwords. I thought that would do it. But, then came another big bill.

At this point, I'm contacting consumer interest groups to see if a class action lawsuit is the only way for Cingular to stop this.

I have had the 8525 for about 2 months. I also suffer from having to frequently reboot. Dialing numbers is difficult as the on-screen number keys are not very responsive. Voice recognition repeats the name over the speakerphone before dialing which is irritating. Dialing contacts (one handed, without a stylus) is much easier if you download software to map the ptt button to your contact list, then add your most frequent contacts to the top of the list. Data connection with bluetooth is so-so. Data connection with USB is great...had no problems. I like the device itself, but I give 3 stars due to Window$ Mobile software.

No phone is perfect, even this one but this one comes close to it when it comes to PDA phones. The phone has a lot of features that no other Cingular phone has. My rundown of the phone:

PROS:
Great sound quality while on the phone
Bright touch screen with stylus
Very good battery life
Fastest 3G network
Wi Fi
Windows mobile
excel, word, powerpoint (viewer only)
excellent slider Qwer. keyboard
usb connection
Slingplayer works terrific compared to the Blackjack
2 megapixel camera + video
macro mode for camera
nice rounded design (better than the 8125 that it replaces)
nice charcoal gray color

CONS:
Heaviest phone I've ever had
thickest phone I've ever had (still pocketable though)
Headphones not the standard kind but are included
A bit worried about the life of the slider keyboard
Expensive
All in all I would give it a 4 1/2 star rating but since that's not an option I rounded up to the 5. It really that good of a phone

I am a knowledgeable and generally happy user of workstations, laptops, and pdas of all sorts. This cingular 8525, however, is quite the deceiver. While it works well initially, as time goes by it requires increasingly many reboots. At first, I just had to reboot once a week. Oh well, a reboot a week is not too bad. As time passed, I found myself rebooting every three days. Okay, chalk that up to the fact that I'm using it more than ever. At that point, a friend told me he was having to reboot every hour, and was returning his. Well, I thought, I didn't have that problem. Ooh boy was I wrong. As time went on, I found myself having to reboot more and more frequently. How can that be? Silicon doesn't degrade. Could it be that the 8525 goes bad with the amount of information stored? With time (a month or so) the calendar function became useless: it wouldn't remind me of meetings because it was locked. I could still make calls (by rebooting and then calling), but it couldn't be trusted to accept calls.. because it was locked.
Today was the last straw: I can't read an email without having to reboot. I can't use the phone without having to reboot. I tried a hard reboot, taking out the battery and leaving it out for half an hour. That only managed to wipe out my contact list....
In sum, this device, so great at first, has a mean streak... it gives at most a couple months of enjoyable use.

I've been carrying around a mobile and a PDA for some time now, and finally decided to upgrade to one device after many years of monitoring devices and reading reviews. This one pretty much had everything that I wanted on it, namely WiFi, and had good reviews from multiple respected sources. I'm still finding all sorts of cool features on it such as the ability to take a great picture, send it in an e-mail, AND add a voice wav file to it. The ability to sync my work Outlook e-mail, calendar and To Do list is also a lifesaver for me.

The voice dialing on this thing is amazing. I upgraded from a Razer, and the voice recognition on that thing sucked. The 8525 has a wonderful microphone for recording notes or as mentioned, voice memo's when sending e-mails.

The 3G network is amazingly speedy. I live in the DC Metro area, so my reception is really good. The unlimited data plan is worth every penny. It's fun to be able to look up my favorite website, text message or e-mail when I'm out and about.

My only two complaints about this phone is Windows Mobile 5 and Express Mail. I'm a Palm and Mac user, and so the transition to Windows was a bit painful. As has been mentioned, the Palm operating system is MUCH more intuitive and easy to use. Now that I'm getting used to the foibles of Microsoft, I'm liking it better - especially after downloaded the Firefox browser!
Express mail is full of problems. If you can get it to work, huzzah for you. I ended up using the messaging client because Express mail would not push to the internet and get my Yahoo mail. The included messaging service works perfectly. The tech support at Cingular was good, and they walked me through the set up.

One download that I would highly recommend is SBP Pocket Plus. This software allows you to actually exit out of programs. Without it, the OS still keeps programs and files going in the background even if you've Xed out of it. It also helps you to organize your desired icons in a tabbed format, and makes it easy to customize the device.

Overall, I'm very happy with this purchase. It's functional and has some neat frills.

This phone has been a surprise I thought it was going to be a good phone but it's actually a great phone, from the 3G to the wifi to the software that came with it. but one of the things you don't hear about is the fact that this phone can handle two Bluetooth devices in the same time , and to my surprise I downloaded My TomTom navigator five software , that was great because I did not think it would work ,it worked fine in treo 650 , but I didn't think I would be able to download it on to my Cingular 8525 ,but it worked great , and that's how I found out, that I was able to use two Bluetooth devices in the same time , I have a BlueParrott B150TK RoadWarrior Bluetooth Noise-Canceling Headset , the best blue tooth I ever used ,maybe the most ugly Bluetooth I ever used ,I am a truck driver and it's very noisy this is the first one that works great on receiving and sending .but anyway back to the 8525 . I had my navigation system working with my Bluetooth receiver, and I was talking with my headset in the same time, you lose the vocal directions of the GPS when you talk But on your Bluetooth headset and that's it.

With excel I could keep up with my hours of work ,and you can download the things you may want that are not on the phone ,like in my case I downloaded (1-Calc - the Revolutionary calculator)This calculator has everything ,From Currency Converter to Unit Converter to
Scientific Functions and more, so basically this phone does a great job and everything I needed it to do, it does take a little time to get to know your way around, like any new phone you get a different brand, the buttons are configured differently.

Now all we need is a phone that could take out the trash. And do the dishes.


The hardware itself is very impressive, they jammed many features into this thing! I am pretty happy with it after being a little wary for the first week, primarily due to 1) Poor technical support from Cingular and 2) Windows Mobile 5. I am upgrading from the Treo 600 and WM5 sure takes getting used to! WM5 is a resource hog. Installing and using the ActiveSync software can bring tears to software engineers (yours truly included). Even when it's idle it takes up 10% of my CPU... Why can't MS just keep it simple like Palm?!? Anyway the phone itself works great, ignoring the OS.

I just upgraded from the 8125 (which I bought in June) to the new 8525, and it is worth every dollar and more. The increased speed is very evident. The new 2 mp camera is much better than its predecessor. I cannot say enough great things about this PDA...Do yourself a favor and buy or upgrade.

I have no problem with the phone itself but why are you forced to get the media max bundle when it is NOT compatible with this phone? All I need is the Data Connect Unlimited w/Xpress Mail plan and not the media max bundle...they need to fix this.

I don't think there's anything this phone can't do. 3G, watch cable TV perfectly on the go with a slingbox, GPS navigation, awesome interface. Only downsides I have found are battery life and you need to buy a 3rd party adapter to use a regular 3.5mm device (like headphones), but thats a small price to pay. Worth every penny

As a long time user of PocketPCs, I've been awaiting the opportunity to use a converged device. The processor is very responsive, even after weighting the system with extra apps like Wisbar Advanced, PocketBreeze/Contacts/Weather and iLauncher.

The always on data connection (get the unlimited data plan) makes having the internet and your email at your fingers at any time.

The device looks bigger than it really is, about the same dimensions as 2 stacked RAZRs. It fits well in my hand and can fit into many large size cell slip holsters (generic $10.00 Wal-mart case works just fine)

The one thing I do miss is the quality of the screen on the device. I've used Axim x50v/x51v for 2 years and those devices have amazingly beautiful screens. This one is a bit smaller and lower resolution that the 480x640 that I was used to.

I am in a border area where I have 3g at work and EDGE at home, I have seen speeds from 92k - 850k, which is great even at the low end, considering that you can keep the internet at your side constantly.

The device on standby will easily exceed a days use, and moderate use should still keep it through a day's typical availability. Quite frankly, the expected market for this device should have handy USB ports around :-)

Bonus points to MS for requiring manufacturers to use mini USB for power connections. No longer will I buy a tech toy that uses anything else (if I can help it). One cable to rule them all

I am still a bit conflicted by this PDA-phone. Although, I will say that after trying this phone, the Motorola Q and having a pretty good hands-on with the Blackjack and the Treo 680... this is the one that I am going to stick with. On the upside, the processor is very responsive and rarely slows down even when multiple programs are running. The keyboard is easy to type on and if you are in a 3G service area you will have amazing internet access speeds. If you are not, the EDGE service is pretty darn slow. Another bonus is that you will be able to use this phone and search the internet/use it as a modem for your computer while recieving calls. The battery is actually quite good when you consider the processor speed. It will last every bit as long as a Treo or any other PDA-phone on the market. It also has WiFi and the device will use WiFi or EDGE or 3G (whichever is fastest) automatically. In additon, it is very well built (the keyboard does not loosen or "wiggle"). The phone can be charged from either the USB cord or the supplied power cord.
The only problems with this phone is the lack of internal memory (less than 32MB after the pre-installed programs are accounted for). If there is a good way to run programs off of the memory card (which there may be), then I would give this a 5 star rating. There is no included carrying case (the 8125 case fits this phone). The phone is a bit on the heavy side and is a little thick. The camera is good only for still photos and does well outdoors. The image quality suffers alot if the subject of the photo is moving or if there is poor lighting. Also (and no fault of the phone), it has been a bit of a transition to get used to the Windows Mobile 5.0 OS.
In my mind, this phone has a few advantages over the other phones in its class including the Treo 680 (slower processor, no 3G service, poor quality camera), the Blackjack (slower processor, battery life not as good, keyboard is harder to type on), Motorola Q (terrible battery life, slow processor) but it is larger and more expensive.

I've had this phone now for 2 weeks and it has met all of my expectations and exceeded them even. I upgraded from the 8125 and just about everything is a huge improvement!
The 3G(UMTS) is very impressive with it's speed. I even use this phone as a modem on my home pc and it's nearly identical in speed as DSL when surfing the net or downloading file/music etc.
Camera is very impressive with clear resolutions for a camera phone with the 2MP.
I also use a bluetooth headset 2.0 with this and mine works wonderfully with sony erriccson; it's quite intuitive and picks up the signal instantly. The 'blackberry' scroll wheel is a huge plus on this phone and I find myself using this feature more than any other buttons.
The mini cpu has doubled from 8125 so this baby is faster, stronger, and smarter!
I will also be using this unit as a GPS device thru Telenav($10 per month for unlimited use). This will just about meet all your needs if you like windows os and until we get improved 3G rollout here stateside which is still about 2 years away, this baby will satisfy all your technical needs! For other needs, your on your own!!!