The first wave of data input was handwriting-like shorthand, which was made popular by early Palm Pilots. The second wave was thumb-typing keyboards embedded into the front of the device, first popularized by the BlackBerry.
Cingular's 8525 more satisfying approach is a small keyboard that slides out the side of the device. As the 8525 proves, this approach offers a relatively large keyboard -- for a smart phone -- without sacrificing screen size or creating a bulky device.
The slide-out keyboard allows Cingular to use a 2.8-in., 320-by-240-pixel display in roughly the same size as similar devices. My Treo 700w, for example, is about the same overall size but has only a 240-by-240 display. Like other devices with slide-out keyboards, the screen operates in portrait mode with the keyboard stowed and switches automatically to landscape when you slide the keyboard out. The wider landscape display on the 8525 comes in handy when browsing the Web and gives the screen more height when the keyboard is retracted.
In addition, Cingular did a good job with other aspects of the 8525's interface. For instance, almost all of the buttons on the face of the phone are duplicated on the keyboard, except the buttons for starting and ending calls. The device also has a jog-wheel on the side and some assignable buttons. The reset is mercifully located on the bottom of the phone, so there's no need to pop back covers, as is the case with the Palm Treo. There's also a button on the side reserved for Cingular's upcoming push-to-talk service. Notably missing, however, is a volume control or audio silence button; you must find and use the volume control menu to change or turn off the speaker.
Communications Swiss Army knife
Beyond its interface, the 8525 is, without question, a very solid Windows Mobile smart phone. Besides running a whole host of applications developed for that operating system, it's a Swiss Army knife of communications, with support for Wi-Fi (both 802.11a and g), Bluetooth and Cingular's 3G network. It can serve as a 3G modem for laptops using either a cable or Bluetooth.
Setting up the Wi-Fi connection was painless, even with WPA security enabled. The biggest benefit to Wi-Fi on a smart phone is that it allows connections when 3G coverage is poor, which typically is the case once you get out of major cities. It also means that when you have Wi-Fi access, you can use a voice-over-IP service like Skype to make calls instead of spending your talk time minutes.
On the downside, I was a bit peeved with Cingular's Xpress Mail for desktop mail syncing. I've become addicted to Verizon Communications Inc.'s Wireless Sync, which keeps my mail, contacts and calendar in sync automatically, even though I don't have an Exchange server. However, Cingular's software can only perform those tasks if you run some server-based corporate software such as Microsoft Exchange or Lotus Notes. You can read your mail without such a system, but that's about it. To sync contacts, you must perform a standard sync with your desktop computer.
Powerful and media-ready
With a 400-MHz processor, the Cingular 8525 has plenty of horsepower. There's also 64MB of RAM, with 51MB available to the user. On a fresh start-up with nothing running, I saw nearly 31MB of memory free. Depending on applications, this is a big advantage over my Treo 700w, which can have as little as 16MB free after start-up.
As a Windows Mobile device, it includes Windows Media Player 10 for audio and video playback. To store your tunes, you'd use the Mini-SD slot on the side.
The Cingular 8525 also sports a 2-megapixel camera. The user interface for the camera is quite nice, overlaying information about camera settings over the displayed image like a real digital camera would. Like most camera phones, what it badly lacks is a credible flash. The 8525 substitutes a lame LED (one of several new phones to do this), which makes no real difference to the picture beyond about a foot.
The device comes with a number of add-on services preinstalled. For example, you can subscribe to MobiTV, which lets you watch channels such as CNN and Lifetime on your phone. This isn't an exclusive for Cingular, but Cingular does let you pay for it on your cell phone bill rather than as a separate subscription. You can also install TeleNav, a TomTom-like navigation program. However, since there's no user-accessible Global Positioning System function on the phone, you'll need a separate Bluetooth GPS to make use of it.
Overall, the Cingular 8525 is fast, memory-efficient and well-designed smart phone made particularly attractive by an intelligent keyboard design and relatively large display. It's an excellent choice for corporate road warriors and geeks on the run.