This is a bit off topic:

My old Nokia 6xxx series phone gave me many years of service before the seal between the LCD and the outer plastic clear screen finally went. The phone collected lint from my pocket rendering it unreadable in direct sunlight. I could pop off the back and front covers and clean the screen but would only get a few days out of it. Maybe I needed to work on my laundering technique instead? Time for a new phone...

I have always wanted a Microsoft Windows Mobile Smartphone so I decided to give the Cingular 2125 a try. A phone that I could program with the CF and sync with all my Outlook contacts! To top things off, Cingular is currently offering their Media Net unlimited data plan for $20 per month so now I could even read my email. Seemed like a no brainer to me.

At first I really loved the phone. The display is bright and beautiful. The much talked about power button isn't really that bad. You just need to realize that the button is really just a bump on the hard plastic strip that runs across the top of the phone. To push it, push perpendicular to the plastic strip and not the faux button. The strip is attached and hinges slightly at the right hand side of the phone. The faux button is on the left and is more of a guide than anything else. I was able to set up the phone and sync to my back end Exchange server without much effort.

The Dark Side: After using the phone for a day, I found that my average to slightly large hands were just too big for those tiny keys. The phone is almost the same size as my previous Nokia but the screen takes up most of that real estate. I also found that about 35% of the time I would make the wrong selection with the little joy stick (another result of the large screen and small key area.) Lastly, the Media Net access was painfully slow. I was quickly regretting my choice.

I returned the phone and exchanged the 2125 for a Motorola RAZR which seemed like a much better fit for my fingers and hands. I also went with the RAZR because it is the same phone that my wife has and having a single set of chargers and connectors is nice. My only complaint with the phone is that you can't page in the address book and scrolling a contact line at a time is very slow.

One other minor complaint about the RAZR is that Motorola decided to orient the LCD (and front polarization) at 90 degrees to what is normally done. On most of the active LCDs that I have used, the screen gets brighter and darker as you change the angle of tilt by moving the top of the screen closer and further away from you but when you do this on the RAZR, the brightness remains relatively constant. On most LCDs as you move from left to right the brightness remains constant at least until you move way out to one side or the other. Again, my RAZR exhibits exactly the opposite behavior. I notice a subtle difference in the brightness of the image viewed by my left and right eyes. I am guessing that Motorola did this to better handle the "flip" aspect and thus the different vertical viewing angles of the phone?

If Motorola were to put Windows Mobile on the RAZR form factor, they would have a big hit.