I have had a Cingular cell phone for over 10 years (known as Houston Cellular in years past). I have also had a PDA for the past 10 years, including Windows Mobile based HP IPAQ's for over 5 years. I have always longed to combine the two devices into one. However, for the most part, cell phone PDA devices were not up to the quality offered by the HP IPAQ's.Recently, I took the plunge and tried out a few PDA phones from Cingular. First I tried the new Nokia PDA in the store - this one has the long horizontal screen. Unfortunately, the keyboard is not lighted and I decided to opt for the latest Palm Treo instead. I kept the Palm for about 3 days - it is a very nice phone with a sharp screen but the Palm operating system pales by comparison to Windows Mobile. I did like the one button switch on the top of the Treo that turns vibrate mode on. However, I felt that the exposed cramped keyboard was not the best for a tall man with big hands.Mainly because of my bias in favor of the Windows Mobile platform, I exchanged the Palm for a Cingular 8125. For those who are not aware, this phone is Cingular's incarnation of the HTC Wizard and the T-Mobil MDA.I have now had this phone for about 6 weeks. For starters, I need to state that I have not tried e-mail connectivity - I paid the full price for the phone and Cingular did not require a data contract, just a 2 year agreement for the cell phone services. I work for a large energy company and getting company e-mail on a private PDA is still in the future for security reasons.However, I use it to connect to the internet using the Wi-Fi that I have set up at home with a Time Warner Roadrunner cable. The 8125 took me about 15 minutes to set up and reliably connects to BBC Pocket PC version every day in a matter of seconds. By contrast, my HP IPAQ 4705 running Windows Mobile 3 has hiccups every third day that needs me to ping to the server, re-enter the password, etc. Of course, you cannot compare the 8125's display to the IPAQ - the 4705 has a gorgeous 4 inch display. Having said that, I must add that the 8125 has a sharp 2.8 display that is quite adequate if not quite as spectacular.I have read a review on CNET that states that the 8125 gives reception problems in Sugar Land, Texas. I live in Sugar Land and I can tell you that this phone has a clear strong reception everywhere in Houston. The Palm Treo was much inferior by comparison - I had difficuly hearing in my car with the Treo pressed against my ear.As I wrote above, I do not have a data plan with Cingular and so I cannot comment on this aspect of the phone. It does have an excellent voice dial feature - as long as ambient noise is low, the phone reliably picks up all my voice signatures and dials the appropriate contact. This is the best way to dial with this phone as using the hidden sliding keypad is not easy, especially if you are driving (it is usually best not to use a cell phone at all while driving). Bottom line, I am quite satisfied with the 8125 as a cell-phone. Note that it is not as bulky as it appears in the pictures.Now for the PDA capabilities. Again, do not compare the screen to a 4705. It does not have the real estate that the 4705 does and therefore all fonts will be that much smaller. Other than this, the 8125 is the equal of the 4705. I added a 2 GB mini SD SanDisk card that I got from Amazon at an incredible price. It works beautifully and I am able to load large applications including talking dictionaries on the card, thus freeing up phone memory. I have SciCalc, Pocket PC Chess Grandmaster, Pocket Stars, Lextionary, MSDict with Slovo-En, Pocket Music, Resco File Explorer and Today add-in, Pocket Quicken and Code Wallet among other apps running smoothly. The keyboard is as good as it gets for such a small device - it is backlit and the keys have a nice reassuring feel.The sweetest feature is the sound quality from the stereo speakers. With Pocket Music and the AAC add-in, I am playing Bollywood music at about half the volume level. The sound is very sweet - of course do not expect bass from the teeny speakers! This device beats the hell out of the IPAQ 4705's mono speaker. By the way, the camera on this phone is not much more than a toy - I would only use if I did not have a regular camera around and had to take a picture for some reason. There is a flash but I doubt that it makes any difference to the picture quality.I have a car charge adaptor and the USB cable auto charges when connected to my laptop. Regarding Auto-Sync issues, there is no problem as long as you do not have a fire-wall like Zone Labs running. Shut down Zone Labs and the auto-sync works just fine. Windows Mobile 5 is an improvement over Ver. 3 - it does not need re-booting much and it is easier to manage apps from your laptop.I have taken one star away because I think the PDA/phone marriage has still not fully matured. I know that people have connectivity issues. Furthermore, HTC could have improved the ergonomics on this phone. Turning on vibrate mode needs a few screen taps - I have not figured out how to use a single buuton to do this yet.All in all, I must say that this phone is worth the $400 that it costs. Unfortunately, Cingular unlike T-Mobile and Sprint will not offer phone insurance on their PDA phones. So I lose this phone and I am out of luck....To conclude, this is an excellent PDA phone for those comfortable with the Windows Mobile operating system. If you have realistic expectations and recognize that the PDA/phone marriage is stil evolving, you will not be disappointed. Kudos to HTC for a well-thought out and executed device.