Motorola A925

A good phone with great features.

The performance of the Motorola A925 is hampered by the inability of 3 Network (Hutchinson) to provide signal capacity for Voice/Text and Video even in populated places like London at all times, The Customer service is very poor and that does seriously compromise this phone.

I have been using the Motorola A925 for two weeks now and despite its battery performance I will not change it. I just love it.

The pim functionality are brilliant. For phone calls I hardly take it out of my pocket, I use the bluetooth headset, have you tried voice call?!. Even then, using the touch screen I can dial faster than on a smaller mobile phone, and no mistakes as the virtual keypad has plenty of space between the keys. using the stylus is a breeze and the touch screen is very accurate (remember to calibrate it first).

I use the calendar and to do list a lot. I Like the contact application as it full contact application and not just phone numbers and at any time you can view the whole page for any contact.

I love watching videos on its landscape mode, just download some and try it. Synching with PC is a matter of pluggin the cables and installing the software. I am using Windows XP home edition, install the software and connect the cables and away you go, you can do full backup of you mobile, or restore it. You can also use Microsoft explorer to manage files on the internal and external memory. Did I mention it comes with 32MB MMC/SD card? I like this as I have a lot of these cards for my Digicam and so I don't have to invest in buying new cards.

I have a POP3 email on NTL, and I created a pop3 email on the phone and there you go, I can download and read all my emails on my phone with full HTML support and attachments. The Browser is brilliant and I had no problem viewing web pages. You can even add additional plugins for the browser (they are on the supplied CD).

You can also create an IMAP account on your phone, you can also synch over the air (contact 3 to create an account for you).

Phone conversations are very clear, especially through the headset. it has never dropped a call, never switched itself off (as reported elsewhere - it only does this when the battery has been completely drained), by the way if you completely drain the batteries and recharge them you get much longer life out of them (at least three times).

The supplied cradle is handy as it can charge your phone, your spare battery, and also sync to the computer at the same time (and you can still use the phone while charging).

Signal wise it is unfair to blame the headset, it is your network that is at fault. I live in Swindon and I always have full signal even inside the house. Outside I get the full 3 network, i.e. 3G and it is brilliant). Even there is no network it switches me to O2 or orange or Vodafone transparently, so there is always a network somewhere i can use for my calls. I must admit though this is has only happened once; I always get full 3G from 3 with excellent signal in Wiltshire. I also found an application that let you use the GPS functionality independent of any network and it actually works. I put the phone outside (you need a view of the sky to track the satellites) for 20 minutes and voila I got a fix on my home location and did the same at work then I plotted a directional route. Other commercial applications even supply maps with their GPS software. These applications come supplied and readily installed on a MMC/SD card, so just plug it into the slot in the phone to use the software.

On 3 network you can use the quick map to find where you are, at the moment ti shows the way by walking but soon they will update it to show you how to drive there (I need this believe me, I have terrible memory for memorising my way).

Now here is some tips that I find useful on saving battery power, if you are not using bluetooth then disable it (you can still use the supplied headset to make/terminate calls through the headset switch), do the same for GPS, and the same for GPRS (the always on network) and enable them when you need them. if you are running some software that you no longer need then close it. if the status led at the top of the phone (the tiny light next to the GPS antenna) is on you can switch that off as well and it will save power.

All in all it is a powerful and a sophisticated phone and only let down by its battery life (I can live with it or buy a higher capacity battery form Motorola for 50 quid), also 3 (the network provider) has crippled this phone and many of its powerful features are either hidden or disabled. For example, you cannot use the browser to browse outside 3 network (some say you can but I haven't found a way - yet), the GPS is not mentioned anywhere in the manual, and what about its fast modem?!! Nada, not mentioned at all.

Do I recommend it, well... if you can live with the short battery life (but remember you have to batteries) and the size (look at the specs), and if you can live with 3 then yes definitely get it.

Or wait for A1000 model and get that.

Motorola A925 - This has to be the smallest all dancing "brick" so far. But due to very poor signal coverage all on-line functions are compromised. The applications built-in and available on-line are well designed and complement the Symbian OS.

I still await the A1000 eagerly as it has a better camera.

I've only made 2 video calls in 1 year so I'm not bothered about that function but then I've only had enough signal strength standing under the mast!