vB Easy Archive - Tmobile SDA vs Cingular 2125

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Tmobile SDA vs Cingular 2125
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Posted by: areet

Hi guys,
I'm currently a Nextel subscriber with an i930, and it's a POS phone. It's been replaced twice and randomly resets, drops calls like no other, etc.. My contract is up next month, so I figured I'd start researching phones. I occasionally travel out of state. I've been looking at the other phones out there and WOW, I can't believe how behind the times Nextel is. Anyhow, I've been trying to compare the TMO SDA vs the Cingular 2125 phones, and they seem equal in all respects. I've been reading around a little and have been trying to make my choice. Does anyone have any input one way or another on which phone might be the better of the two? Any help would be appreciated.
*Edit*
I forgot to add, one of the features I missed most from moving from the i860 to the i930 in Nextel is the ability to use the camera light without recording. Can either of these phone's camera lights be activated without recording?

Thanks,
JohnR

Posted by: amg212

Both phones are functionally identical in all respects but two...

The TMO phone has the advantage of working on WiFi
The 2125 has the advantage of being on Cingular instead of TMO :-)

Posted by: kaplanfx

Quote:

Originally Posted by areet

I forgot to add, one of the features I missed most from moving from the i860 to the i930 in Nextel is the ability to use the camera light without recording. Can either of these phone's camera lights be activated without recording?

Neither phone has a camera light. The camera is decent quality outdoor but very grainy in low light situations (I have the SDA but I believe both phone use the same cmos and same HTC software).

-Kap

Posted by: taco gawd

The camera on the SDA blows. Then again, I came from a K750i.

Posted by: Mark Larson

The SDA looks better and has wifi. And it has the advantage of being on T-Mobile's network. You'd be surprised how many minutes you can get

Plus data is cheap on tmo and data is the raison d'etre of Smartphones.

Posted by: ilvla2

Quote:

Originally Posted by amg212

Both phones are functionally identical in all respects but two...

The 2125 has the advantage of being on Cingular instead of TMO :-)

That's an opinion, not fact.

Posted by: z3bum

I have the SDA, which is the newest HTC Typhoon model you can buy. Why get the Cingular version when it is already old? That and T-Mobile is a much, much larger company from a global perspective. True Cingular has more US customers, but I think T-Mobile has been more helpful in my experience. Also, they don't mind you buying whatever handsets you like, and will always unlock stuff for you, at least one phone every three months.

Having WIFI on the SDA is just cool, and works quite well, especially when streaming XM radio.
Mike

Posted by: Blackforge

The Cingular 2125 is application locked by defaut. The SDA of course isn't.

I like having the extra media buttons (not everyone does) on my SDA.

The Wi-Fi works at home and at work. (WPA!)

I can use my 4.99 T-zones for almost everything I need through the T-mobile proxy. Plus I can tether easily.

Area Dependent:
I tend to get a little better coverage in North Alabama where I live on T-mobile than Cingular. At my parents house (who are on Cingular) they get 0-1 bar. I get full signal with the SDA (2-3 bars before).

Posted by: richy240

Quote:

Originally Posted by z3bum

I have the SDA, which is the newest HTC Typhoon model you can buy.

Isn't the SDA a Tornado model?

Posted by: ToadX

Obviously, the SDA is better since it has the added functionality of WiFi.

Posted by: areet

Thanks for the input guy, SDA it is.

Posted by: rosullivan04

IMHO, I would go SDA... the 2125 is extremely flakey from Cingular. I had very bad results on my stress test... I managed to lock it up more than any other Windows phone I have used yet, including the initial batch of 220s.

Posted by: ChrisFB

FYI - The most recent issue of Laptop magazine compares these two head to head. SDA came out equal or better in just about every respect except pricing (keep in mind I'd be a lot more inclined to trust a forum than a mag but since the article is pertinent to your decision why not have a look). The battery life on the SDA was quoted as significantly better (I think 17 days standby and 6.5 hours talk - seems outrageous so not sure if that was accurate).

Posted by: amg212

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChrisFB

The battery life on the SDA was quoted as significantly better (I think 17 days standby and 6.5 hours talk - seems outrageous so not sure if that was accurate).

Doesn't make sense. The devices are built around the same core hardware and use fundamentally the same ROM (and can be cross-flashed to be identical). The batteries are - I believe - the same. Taking WiFi out of the picture (which would drain the SDA), how can the life be any different?

Posted by: rosullivan04

Makes perfect sense. The 2125 comes with plenty of Cingular bloat, while the SDA has a cleaner install. More programs = more processor usage = less battery life; I doubt the 17 days is accurate though.

Posted by: ChrisFB

Actually, I rechecked it earlier and forgot to update. I don't know how my brain got that in it but the battery life for talk and standby was marginally longer for the SDA (not 17 days though

). Nothing huge but significant enough if this is an important variable. Of course I forgot the actual quoted stats again but I'm sure they are online.

Posted by: tyronewheatley

Tmobile SDA has wifi.... Cingular's doesnt...
game over!

Posted by: Global Mobility

I have had my SDA since the first day it was publically available in stores and I think I have used the 802.11 feature on it about three times just to check that it works. I use the SDA as my secondary handset to have a feature rich phone/organizer with the smallest footprint possible--so far it's a winner. I subscribe to unlimited GPRS VPN, and it works very well on the EDGE network where I live and work. That said, I find that PIE renders pages equally as fast when I'm using EDGE when compared to 802.11. So, it might be that PIE is the bottleneck with regards to 802.11 (5Mbps) vs. EDGE (130Kbps) speeds.

The Cingular 2125 has a better keyboard layout in my opinion. I end up pressing the media keys on the SDA by accident most of the time. Not once have I reached over to press it deliberately. Given that I don't use 802.11 on the my SDA too much, my vote would go for the 2125 due to its nicer keypad layout--I believe that the input (keypad/mic) and the output (screen/speaker) are the two most important components of a smartphone, and the SDA gets a slight thumbs down with regards to the keypad.

Both are great handsets and like the previous poster mentioned, can be cross flashed with ROM from either 2125/SDA. Interesting is that once an SDA is flashed with the 2125 ROM, the 802.11 feature is available afterwards leading to the conclusion that WM5 has the drivers already built-in for it.

Posted by: mgti

Subject says it all. Really want to know if anyone has successfully installed goodlink on a T-Mobile SDA? Any issues with the install? Most importantly, did you get it to work with a corporate goodlink account?

Thanks MGTI

Posted by: Daijoubu

I'd get the i-mate SP3i, dirt cheap at mobileplanet.com/expansys.com/.ca

Posted by: mgti

All, Just to let you know. I got the SDA to ensure fully supported by the carrier. Got the data service, downloaded the good OTA and so far have been using it without issue (for 1 hour).

Conclusion: GOODLINK works for SDA at the 1 hour use test.