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The Cingular 2125 proves that a powerful business smartphone doesn't need to look like it is all business. While it lacks Wi-Fi, the 2125 makes few other compromises along the way, and wraps up its features in a surprisingly svelte package. It offers quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE worldphone service, a 1.3 megapixel camera, Outlook mobile e-mail, and many - but not all - of the functions of standard Windows Mobile Pocket PCs.

Design
The Cingular 2125 measures 4.6 x 1.8 x 0.7 inches and weighs only 3.7 ounces. It is surprisingly small in the hand with a nicely contoured body that makes it comfortable to hold. We give it high marks for comfort and style. It's a candy bar-style phone, as opposed to a flip phone, so the controls and number pad are always exposed.

You'll want to learn the keyboard lock command quickly (press and hold the red end call button) to avoid accidentally calling people on your speed dial list.

The 2125 is gray-blue in color with silver accents. The button layout will be familiar to cell phone owners. We like that the designers have reduced the number of buttons overall by making some of them do double duty. This requires that the user learn those double functions, however, and spend a little time with the quick start manual.

We also like that the side buttons are placed high and require a little effort to push, reducing the chances that you'll hit them accidentally. There are a lot of smart design choices in the 2125, which is made by little known Taiwanese original design manufacturer High Tech Computer.

One of the few design failures is the power button, located at the phone's top front. It looks like a standard button, so the logical guess is that you can push it. But no, it doesn't work that way.

Rather than pushing in, you need to push down. It helps to dig a fingernail into one of the grooves around the button and tug down, because the whole area is a button, not just the circular area marked by the power symbol. It's not a huge problem—once you know how to turn the phone on you know—but it's a strange way to welcome people to a phone that's otherwise simple to use.

Two lights below the power button let you know the phone's status. They'll tell you if the phone has a decent charge, if the phone is charging or syncing, if you're connected to the network, and whether or not Bluetooth is on. You'll find a simple chart explaining the lights inside the quick start guide.

Below the screen are two contextual buttons whose meaning changes depending on what's on the screen. When you're on the home screen, the left one opens the Start menu and the right one opens your contacts. Below them are dedicated buttons for opening the home screen or going back one screen, and below those are the standard start call and end call buttons. In the center of the lower four is an easy to use navigation bar for selecting items on the screen. Click it to use it as an enter button.

The screen is a 2.2-inch TFT color display with a 320 x 240 pixel resolution. We found the colors nice and bright. A light sensor sits below the number-pad, activating a backlight in dim or dark conditions. This only occurs when you're actually using the phone; the backlight doesn't pop on anytime the room is dark.

The back holds the lens for the 1.3 megapixel camera, next to the customary self-portrait mirror. The lower back panel slides down to reveal the battery. Unfortunately, you'll need to remove the battery to access the miniSD card memory expansion slot. This is inconvenient, but you're going to see a few trade-offs in a phone this small. There's also 64 MB of RAM and 64 MB of ROM.


Rear View, Showing Camera

On the left side, the top button calls up the Comm Manager, letting you know your system status at a glance. You can start or stop Bluetooth from here, change the volume, or start ActiveSync. Holding this button calls up the voice recorder. Below it are two volume control buttons. The right side holds only the camera button, which calls up the camera and takes a picture if the camera is already on.

Software & Accessories
The Cingular 2125 is powered by Windows Mobile 5.0 Smartphone edition, so it's not identical to the Pocket PC Phones. The interface is mostly the same, but organized differently to better fit a smaller screen. For example, call up the Start Menu and you won't get a vertical list of programs, but an icon view of the first nine items. Click the button at the lower left of the screen to see the next nine.

This phone doesn't come with a stylus and there's no touch screen input. Instead, you type using the phone's keypad, as you would when sending a text message. This Windows Mobile version doesn't include Microsoft Office, but you can view Office documents by installing the ClearVue Suite, which is on the included CD. You can't edit the documents, though.

The phone includes messaging software (including apps for text messages and e-mail), Calendar, Internet Explorer, the Windows Media Player, a Task Manager, a few games, and more. The icons for the last five used applications appear along the top of the home screen, so you can quickly access them.

The 2125 comes with a durable belt case with a magnetic enclosure, which we appreciate. It's rare that any phone or PDA comes with a usable, attractive case. You'll also get a CD with ActiveSync and additional applications, a connection cable for your PC, a power cord, and a stereo headset.


Bundled Belt Case

Performance
No matter what we threw at the Cingular 2125, it performed well and was always easy to use. We never had a problem with call quality in the New York City area. And we could seemingly talk as long as we wanted, as the smartphone got excellent battery life.

Setting up an e-mail account was simple, because the phone looked up the connection information for us. The 2125 supports Microsoft's new push e-mail solution, Cingular's Xpress Mail, and Good Technologies GoodLink services.

We wouldn't want to type a report on it, but using the number-pad to enter brief messages wasn't too slow.

While browsing the Web over the EDGE (Enhanced Data for Global Evolution) connection with Internet Explorer was slower than it would have been Wi-Fi, data moved swiftly anyway.

Photo quality seemed a little dark in our test shots, but we like that the phone has optical zoom and a few fun effects. Music sounded fine, with full treble and decent bass, when played through the included stereo headset.

T-Mobile's own compact Windows Smartphone - the recently started shipping SDA - includes Wi-Fi and features dedicated audio buttons, not available with the 2125; even though they are built from the same reference design.

The Cingular 2125 sells for $299 with a service contract. We think it's a smart purchase for people who need to stay connected, but still want a compact cell phone.