Up close and personal with the Qtek 9600 (Hermes)

French site PPCReviews has managed to score a Qtek-branded copy of the hotly anticipated HTC Hermes, and thanks to some decent Google translation, we've managed to take away quite a bit from the thorough review. Many folks are expecting the Hermes to be a superstar compared to its already good older brother, the Wizard, but PPCReviews is a bit bummed out about the switch from miniSD to microSD expansion, the lackluster battery performance, rather portly 175 grams, and lack of true VGA display. Of course, we all know the good stuff the Hermes brings to the table by now, and the review ends on a happy note, confirming that the 3G and fresh 400MHz Samsung core work wonders for the device. Pardon the interruption, everyone; you can go back to incessantly refreshing Expansys' TyTN product page every few minutes in the hope of an early shipment.

[Via kaitech.hk, thanks Ajit]

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 11th 2006 4:20PM]

So where are the cool non-Microsoft powered mobile devices? Symbian? Palm?

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 11th 2006 5:13PM]

Synergy - check out the N80, E61, N91, and E70. All Symbian, all cool in their own way:

N80 - Wifi and 3MP cam and killer screen and 3G
E61 - Symbian Blackberry, essentially (w/ wifi and 3G
N91 - 4GB HD, 2MP cam, 3G, WiFi
E70 - 2MP cam, 3G, WiFi, in a Nokia 6820 form-factor (phone/qwerty dual keypads)

Check fonegrabber for current ebay pricing.

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 11th 2006 5:31PM]

An excellent article as always. Keep up the good work.

[PhilR8 Posted Jul 11th 2006 7:52PM]

What's up with the left-handed scroll wheel? Otherwise a beautiful device. A mm or two smaller than the Apache/Wizard.

Also, I never realized just how big the Star Trek is. It's huge!

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 11th 2006 8:58PM]

i bought the 8125 a month ago after selling my treo 650, heard about the hermes, returned it before my 30 days were up (200mhz was just little slow for me). I just bought a mpx220 in the meantime until the hermes drops for cingular (hopefully soon), however i must say, the 8125 looks sleeker than the hermes. The hermes seems too bland and the dark gray body just seems boring.

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 12th 2006 7:20AM]

Interesting to see they recieved a XDA Trion version of the device, rather than the version being branded for HTC. The device is not going to be branded Qtek at all, and the networks devices will be co-branded

Been playing with this thing for a few days and there are one or two things that they missed.

The OK key on the side of phone also acts as a start key when in the today screen, meaning you really can do just about everything one handed.

I've seen in some places that the shape of the mini usb plug has been causing some concern, but the actual cable is standard mini usb. Just the socket is an odd shape, so your PSP cable will still work with this.

I have had no issues with wifi, it even picks up the wifi router of my neighbour across the street. Even my PC doesn't do that from my room!

The Radio on this is a godsend after the nightmare that was the universal. In my house i am right on the edge of a 3g signal, and the universal was forever jumping between GPRS and UMTS, and as a result, i got horrendous problems caused by the handover. HTC seem to have adjusted the sensitivity and so at home i get GPRS, at work i get full 3G signal. I may lose the 3g at home, but at least i have a consistent connection now wherever I am.

The battery has been fine, i am using push mail on t-mobile uk and it has been working fine and only needs charging every other day, even after the usage it gets for work.

Anyway, got to go, the breeze/MteOR has just arrived in the post!

[(Unverified) Posted Nov 3rd 2006 8:33PM]

Hello there,

Please feel free to read my personal review of HTC TyTN:

http://mygadgetworld.wordpress.com/2006/07/22/htc-tytn/

http://mygadgetworld.wordpress.com/2...estsmartphone/

Best regards,

Leif