Advertisement

Cingular 3125 / HTC Star Trek reviewed

Ever since the RAZR popularized the concept of thinness as a selling point for mobile phones, the industry has been flooded with dozens of copy-cat devices attempting to cash in on the trend for anorexic handsets. Until now, Windows Mobile devices have largely skipped past this fad, with the majority of said phones either being chunky candybars or wide QWERTY phones. The first of no doubt many WinMob phones to take a good stab at combining RAZR thin beauty with Windows Mobile's business practicality is the HTC Star Trek (or Cingular's 3125 if you prefer the numerical name). As well as looking substantially more attractive than most of its peers, the 3125 does the most important core features of a cellphone very well: for example, the 3125's long lasting battery life will go down well with potential buyers, though Cingular may have gone slightly overboard with their higher capacity cell that add a lot of junk to the phone's trunk. The relatively low price ($149.99), vibrant internal and external displays, and great reception combined with the unparalleled design for a device of its type all point to the 3125 being a good phone. Unfortunately, as is so often the case, a number of niggles mean that the Star Trek isn't quite a great phone. An array of outdated features like Bluetooth 1.1, USB 1.1, an average camera, and the lack of Wi-Fi, 3G UMTS, and an IR port will disappoint certain buyers. There are also a couple of notable, but relatively minor design no-nos, like the microSD slot being located underneath the SIM card, and a single proprietary data, power, and audio port awkwardly located on the side of the phone. PC Magazine said that if you "think of the handset as a cutting-edge smartphone ... you'll probably be disappointed", with The Unwired saying that the 3125 is "a lifestyle and fashion-device which can also attract regular mobile phone users" and Laptop Magazine calling it "just smart enough": what we think they're trying to say is that the 3125 is a phone that will satisfy business types with an eye for design, but has a far too limited feature set to keep power users happy.

Read - Laptop Magazine
Read - PC Magazine
Read - The Unwired
Read - Mobility Site