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Last weekend I decided I would make the switch from Cingular Blue to Cingular Orange (legacy ATT to Cingular). I did this for a few reasons.

1. I had a few hours to kill
2. They no longer make or offer any AT&T phones (phones that can take an AT&T SIM card)
3. I knew I would have to do this one day (see item #2)
4. Cingular finally has their act together when it comes to “Premier” customers which Microsoft is (I get all sorts of discounts).
5. It’s cheaper! (well I do have to pay for incoming SMS now, Dammit!!!)

I did a comparison of what I pay now and what I would pay under Cingular and my bill ended up about $15 cheaper a month. Not bad.

So, when I went to the store, I decided I may as well get a Cingular 2125 (HTC Faraday) so that I could get the cheaper data plan. You see, Cingular considers a device like the 8125 (aka HTC Wizard) a PDA and charges you $45 for data. However, they consider the 2125 a Smartphone and only charge $20 a month. Both phones are pretty much running the same OS, so go figure.

Anyway, as you may recall, I’ve been using a k-jam for the past few months. Generally I’ve been pleased with a few notable exceptions:

• The GPRS connection flakes out on Cingular’s network. This seems to happen as I go in and out of service.
• It’s difficult to use with one hand
• The Pocket PC version of Windows Mobile 5 is half-baked. It’s somewhat optimized for one handed use and completely useless without a stylus in some situations. You also can’t do things like copy and paste with the keyboard.

I’ve found that I’ve been really surprised by how much I like the 2125 and the Smartphone form factor. I can drive the device with one hand, do things faster, make phone calls quicker, and multi task easier (due to the back button).

I think that the usability of the Smartphone form factor is much better. Unfortunately, it’s a real shame that Mobile team could not have made the distinction between the two more seamless. And there are just some silly differences between the platforms like:

• Dialing a phone number on Smartphone is 10000% easier
• Pocket PC has 4 Alarms and Smartphone 1
• Smartphone uses a huge font for the email application which is annoying
• Smartphone has a better camera phone and MMS support
• Smartphone is easier to navigate
• Web sites are easier to browse on Smartphone
• Reminder and alerts are easier to dismiss on Smartphone
• Smartphone has phone profiles and can switch to “meeting” when your are busy (automatically)
• Pocket PC has much better task support
• Pocket PC has File Sync and Notes support
• Smartphone has much better Bluetooth support and you can dial phone numbers from a bluetooth headset w/o turning the phone on

But the final kicker is that now that I have a teeny tiny laptop, I don’t need a big PDA like phone device. I can get by with a smaller read only device optimized for phone use, and use my little laptop with tons of battery live and a broadband wireless connection the rest of the time.