vB Easy Archive - Cingular 8525: How well does it function as a phone?

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Cingular 8525: How well does it function as a phone?
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Posted by: onyx1121

I am interested in the 8525, but I am worried about how well it actually performs as a phone, especially with respect to ease of use.

For example: if I want to call someone in my contacts and I pull the phone out of my pocket, what do I have to do? On my current phone I can simply hit the "down" cursor to bring up the contacts list, and then I scan either scroll manually through the names or use the keypad to jump to the contacts beginning with the letter I type in. I then just highlight the name, and hit the call button.

How easy is something like this to do on the 8525? My main concern is I do not want to have to pull out the stylus every time I want to make a phone call or call a number already in my contacts.

Any opinions or insights as to how the 8525 performs as a phone in terms of ease of use?

Posted by: mush10

It performs fine as a phone. First of all, it has fantastic RF. Second of all you have your soft keys, one of which is/can be set to contacts. Finally, there are a number of software programs that allow you to touch the screen to pull up your contact list and call from there. When I say touch the screen, you can have Icon's that are large enough to use without the stylus. In all, it is very effective as a phone with one-handed use.

Posted by: custom875

Great phone. Just hit contacts from the today screen and then scroll down to the contact you need.

Posted by: onyx1121

That is good to hear; I was worried about that. I will definitely be giving the phone a try :-)

Posted by: mush10

Quote:

That is good to hear; I was worried about that. I will definitely be giving the phone a try :-)

Best phone/device I have owned to date.

Posted by: speckledpig

I like how it has the "letter groupings" on the top of the contact list. I have LOTS of contacts, so it's nice to be able to touch "mno" or whatever to jump to that section.

My initial impression (I just got 8525 yesterday, see thread here: http://www.howardforums.com/showthread.php?t=1104390) is that it still isn't *quite* as easy as it was with my 6230b. But the phone is much more powerful, so it's worth it.

Posted by: hominamad

I've had the phone for a month now and I'm considering getting rid of it. I've had problems with the phone freezing up, not hanging up when I want to, and certain buttons periodically not working. I tried doing a hard reset today and I'm going to wait a few more days to see if it solves the problem. Then I'll either ask for a new one (inc ase this is defective, or switch to something else.

Anyway, I think the phone volumen is too low and the vibrate isn't strong enough for me. I also don't like that there are no builtin ringer profiles. I got an app to do this but I think that may have contributed to the freezing problems.

Posted by: BNickO

Quote:

Originally Posted by mush10

Best phone/device I have owned to date.

I agree totally.

Posted by: speckledpig

The vibrate is much stronger than my 6230's was. What did you have before?

Posted by: hominamad

Two devices - Blackberry (for work) and a regular Samsung phone as my personal phone. Now I'm using the 8525 for phone and email. My fear was that it would be able to do one well and not the other, and so far it seems that may be the case. I think its a really cool phone, but I've just been having a lot of problem with it. Maybe mine is defective?

I used to complain about the Blackberry, but now there are a lot of things about it I see were great. I think overall its OS is more "usable". I may take a look at the pearl.

Also - I think that the battery life is pretty terrible - but I sort of expected that. It barely lasts a full day and thats with very low usage. I mean, I'm connected to my company's exchange server all the time but don't make that many phone calls thorughout the day. The 7120 used to go for 2-3 days without a charge. Don't know how the newer ones do.

Posted by: speckledpig

If you're using Wifi, that eats up the battery. I learned that from a friend who just got one of these things last week.

Try it for a day without the Wifi and see the difference.

Posted by: hominamad

I don't think it's really wifi. I have the unlimmited data plan and am using push email with Exchange server. That may eat up battery too, but it's separate from the WiFi functionality.

Posted by: irockash

On the phone issue... i find it easy to use the on screen phone keypad to find contacts. The buttons are big, you can setup speed dial, and when you look for contacts, you can put in their first inital, last name; or either of the two.

Posted by: k2snowboards88

Very easy to use as a phone and dial contacts. HTC included a feature called "smartdial". Itsthe l great because you just hit the send button to bring up the dialer. Then you have a phone pad on screen that you can touch with your fingers. As you dial, it brings up a list of possible matches. Its kind of like a web browser where yyou start to type a url and a dropdown list shows up with possible matches and narrows as you type. Its easy because unlike with a regular phone where you have to press each number a few times (3 presses of #1 for the letter c) you can just press it once and move onto the next letter.

Some people fine the onscreen dialpad too small to use with your fingers. You can download a free program called "eten dialer" that gives you very large buttons that are the perfect size for fingers. I suggest getting the one made for smartdial because the other ones eliminate that feature.