Review: Cingular 8525 / HTC Hermes

Cingular 8525

Cingular 8525

Cingular 8525

Cingular's 8525 is a Windows Mobile 5 Pocket PC device. It shares 99% of its design and specs with a handful of other devices that were also HTC Hermes reference design, including the HTC TyTN and i-mate JasJam. All of the Hermes based devices share a large touch screen display, quad-band GSM and triband HSDPA/UMTS support in addition to 2 megapixel cameras and WiFi data. About the only thing that gets dropped from the original design in the case of the 8525 is the forward facing VGA camera for video calls, something that Cingular does not currently support.

Physical Aspects

The Cingular 8525's basic form factor is similar to earlier HTC developed QWERTY Pocket PC devices, such as the T-Mobile MDA (HTC Wizard) and the Sprint PPC-6700 (HTC Apache). It is a 113mm x 58mm x 22mm (4.5" x 2.3" x .87") block form traditional PDA that weights 176g (6.2oz) and has a slide out QWERTY keyboard. When the keyboard is exposed, the screen is used in a landscape format. When the keyboard is hidden, the 8525's display reverts to the normal portrait mode common to most PDAs. The keyboard is made of of closely fitting, domed rectangular keys. The keys are reasonably attractive and are also easy to use. They offer good, solid tactile feedback and are easy enough to locate by sense of touch alone. The dedicated Start, OK, and twin softkeys on the keyboard make the 8525 reasonably easy to use without the stylus for many tasks.

There are a number of controls available when the keyboard is tucked away, as well. For example, the left side of the 8525 has a scroll-wheel with select function, a dedicated OK button, as well as a PTT (Push-To-Talk) button. An uncovered microSD card is also located on the left. On the right side one will find the power button, the Comm Manager access button, and the camera shutter. The stylus silo is located just around the corner from the camera shutter, on the bottom. Also on the bottom of the 8525, you'll find the miniUSB charging/data port and the release for the rear battery cover. The battery cover itself covers most of the back, and wraps around the 2 megapixel camera.

The QVGA resolution (240x420 pixel) touch-screen display dominates the front of the device. It is pretty bright at its top brightness setting, but can be set to any number of dimmer settings in order to conserve power. I found the touch screen's alignment to be spot on for the duration of our test. The d-pad controller and the buttons that surround it also worked pretty well. I find the two softkeys to be a bit small and far away from the screen for my liking, but that is not a major deal. Above the display is where you'll find two dedicated function keys, one for Pocket IE, the other for the Messaging application.

The Cingular 8525's fit and finish appear to be pretty good. Our review unit is still scratch free after a number of weeks and quite a bit of travel. I do have a couple of complaints, though. When the keyboard is hidden, I find myself often popping it slightly out of place when I grip the 8525 to remove it from my pocket, or when I attempt to press the camera shutter button or the power button. Thankfully the display doesn't switch to landscape orientation until the keypad is fully extended, but I still found the keyboard movement very annoying. There is no similar problem with the keypad slipping from the extended position, where it seems quite secure. I also don't like the uncovered microSD card slot. An inopportune bump can eject the card, and when there is no card at all the slot makes for an easy entrance to the phone for dust.