I got my 8525 just over a week ago and I give the device a solid 8 on a scale of 1 to 10. I’ll keep this simple:

The Goods:

Improved Usability - They added some buttons to launch the start menu and to select the close or OK button. They also replaced the “slider” button on the 8125 with a Blackberry-style scrolling wheel. The wheel has a select function by pressing it, just like on the Blackberry. They also put an OK button there, which I have yet to use, but understand why it’s there.

Speed - This is better in two ways. The phone itself. I have a lot of contacts. Something like 1200 of them. The phone “queries” these contacts when I am looking for a phone number, typing an email or a text message. My 8125 was brutally slow at this. This baby has no problems with them. The second way is the connectivity. I am one those people that actually hit google from the phone every once in a while or lookup and address on Yahoo Yellow Pages. The speed hitting the net is as Cingular claims most of the time… “near broadband” speeds.

Size / Footprint - In a couple of words… it’s smaller. As someone that used (and liked) the 8125 quite a bit, a reduction in size is great. It makes the keyboard a but smaller, but still a great size. I consider it ideal. I had a Treo 650 and the keyboard was my complaint about it. I am not small and neither are my hands, so keyboard sice is important to me.

Camera - It’s a 2 Megapixel and the new Camera software is great. It is actually better than the third-party CoolCamera app that I was using on my 8125.

The Not-So Goods:

Battery - Here’s a retread… In a couple of words, it’s TERRIBLE. I am hoping I have a bad battery. The phone doesn’t last a day for me. Just to give you a sense for my power profile, I do not use Bluetooth, so it’s off, I do use ActiveSync with DirectPush for email. I do not use Wifi, so it is off. I think my screen goes dark after 10 seconds of being idle. I have nothing good to say about the battery life.

“The Dongle” - Instead of simply using miniUSB, like the 8125 did, the power interface into the phone is something different. No idea what it is and I am frankly not that interested in researching it. I hope there is a reason for this additional interface because it sure is a pain. This pain is only made worse by the fact that the battery life is not good. You lose this thing, you can’t charge it.

Windows Mobile 5 - This is not specifically about the device, but I simply wish that the “SmartPhone” features could exist on these devices. I especially loved the fact that my 2125 automagically changed my profile to meeting based on a meeting on my calendar. Bring it to the PPC version Microsoft!

Memory Card - I am cheap. Why change from the MiniSD to the Micro SD? I know why. To sell more memory cards. Just kidding, sort of. I went from a nice 2GB Mini to a 1GB Micro on my 8525. Admittedly, I have less than 100MB on the card, so it’s not a capacity issue for me. The digital camera was an unexpected beneficiary. Merry Christmas Canon Powershot!

I used to say that my 8125 was my favorite of all the devices I have had, and I have had a few. I have a new favorite and it’s this one. The battery issue could potentially be a show-stopper for me, but I plan to check with Cingular on this and see if they can help me.

Here are a few pictures of the 8525. You can see a slideshow with some more here.