Every day is Christmas as you discover another present this high powered phone offers

I am a manager of a Cingular store. I have only been working for Cingular for about 1 year. I had never before seen the point in text messaging. (why push 50 buttons to get my point across, when i can push 7 and talk to you). However that is how everyone in my industry communicates, so naturally I was turned onto the full qwerty keyboard. At the time I was considering to make a phone change, I was using a Blackberry 7130c. I have only owned the 8525 for a little over a month, and I must say, I miss the Crackberry. Understand that my job does require the need for such a sophisticated phone. I simply bought it to understand it.

What I love about the phone:

Litarally, everyday I discover another feature I didn't know existed. I do like the size of the keyboard even though coming from the suretype technology of the Blackberry it was definately a frustrating change. I like the voice activated dialing, and how well it works. I didn't like the original placement of the button for voice dialing, but I discovered how to configure the buttons to better suit me. The camera takes a good quality picture for a phone. The only problem is I have a 2 year old daughter that I'm always trying to get that perfect shot on, but she is too fast for the slow delay it has after you press the button. Speaking of the buttons, you can set this phone up so the touch screen never has to be touched. I find my self using the stylus less and less. There are alot of more likes I could probably come up with because I love the phone, but I do have some dislikes.

What I hate about this phone:

The size. Don't quote me, but I would say it's probably the heaviest phone on the market. I miss the true push technology of the blackberry. I can't get the express mail to work right for me so periodically I will send and recieve to see if I have mail. I have read this in other reviews, but it's true!!! I can't stand the push to talk button on the phone. The feature is not yet available for that device and it gets bumped all the time. The prompt will not leave the screen unless you take it off. If you decide to purchase this device here is a friendly tip to combat that button. The phone uses the trackwheel that is very similar to the Blackberry. There is no need to pull out the stylus and hit the microscopic button that will no doubt take you at least four times to do successfully. Just push the trackwheel in.

3G technology is not everywhere yet. For example I live in central Oklahoma. 3G is not in the OKC area yet. Dallas and Tulsa are updated and I took the 2 hour drive to Tulsa to test it out. WOW!!! Something to get excited about! If you are in a 3G market you can also tether the phone to your laptop with either the USB cable that comes with it, or via bluetooth.

My final take on the 8525 is this. The whole point behind purchasing a device such a this one is to simplify your work life so you spend less time working. The phone is expensive, the plans to use this device efficiently are expensive, but doesn't the possibility of actually getting off work and not sitting in front of the computer for hours everynight trying to play catch up make it worth it?

With Cingular or now, the new ATT, and most other carriers for that matter. You have thirty days to test drive the phone before your locked into it for the length of the contract. That's all I have to say, but I will leave you with some great advice. We all rely on cell phones too much. Nobody writes down phone numbers and addresses anymore. They plug a huge amount of information into their little addictive friend. We all know someone who has lost a phone as well as the phone number for everyone they know. In business that can sting a little bit. 25.00 will buy an extra SIM card that you can copy all that information to. Keep it in a junk drawer just in case.