Hermes -- Engadget

hermes posts

HTC announces TyTN II / Kaiser for Europe

by Evan Blass posted Aug 28th 2007 at 8:52AM

Well it's not quite as good as, say, AT&T informing us that we can walk down the block and pick up one this afternoon, but at least HTC has finally given the Kaiser / TyTN II / 8925 an official place in its lineup. Announcing the quad band Windows Mobile 6 handset for European carriers this morning, HTC revealed that Orange, Voda, T-Mobile, and o2 will all get their hands on this Hermes successor, and all the HSDPA, WiFi, and built-n GPS goodness that comes with it. We wish we had more info on plans for a US release, but with TyTN II hitting the EU in October, we suspect it's only a matter of weeks until we can toss the old 8525 into the retired gadgets drawer. [Warning: PDF link].

The 2006 Engadget Awards: Vote for Gadget of the Year

by Ryan Block posted Apr 16th 2007 at 2:34PM

This is it, the moment you've been waiting for. After all these long months you can finally cast your ballot for the 2006 Gadget of the Year! Our Engadget Awards nominees are listed below, and you've got until 11.59PM EST on Wednesday, April 18th to file your vote. You can only vote once, so make it count, and may the best gadget in all of 2006 win! The nominees: Apple MacBook Pro, Dell 3007WFP-HC, HTC Hermes / 8525, Nintendo Wii, SanDisk Sansa E280R, Slingbox PRO, and Sony PlayStation 3.

The 2006 Engadget Awards: Vote for Smartphone of the Year

by Ryan Block posted Apr 14th 2007 at 2:51PM

Now's your chance to cast your ballot for the 2006 Smartphone of the Year! Our Engadget Awards nominees are listed below, and you've got until 11.59PM EST on Sunday, April 15th to file your vote. You can only vote once, so make it count, and may the best tech win! The nominees: BlackBerry Pearl, HTC Hermes / 8525, Motorola Q, Nokia N93, Palm Treo 750, and Sony Ericsson P990.

Cingular 8525, BlackJack now for sale

by Ryan Block posted Nov 16th 2006 at 1:17AM

Hey you -- yeah, you. Cingular 8525, you know the one, right? Ok, and the BlackJack? The i607? Right, those two hype HSDPA WinMo handsets are now officially for sale, $400 and $200, respectively, after two year contract (with unlimited data) and rebates. Just save some for the kids, ok? They're tired of getting coal in their stockings because of your sick device addiction.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Cingular 8525 released, reviewed

by Ryan Block posted Nov 6th 2006 at 12:41AM

So, Cingular's finally announced their 8525 -- what a relief. As we suspected, it'll set you back $399 (with two year contract -- sorry, no price yet listed with 1 year or no contract) when it launches November 16th but LAPTOP has the first official review of the unit, which resulted in a 4/5 star rating. There isn't really much to tell here that one didn't already know (except that the ok key underneath the wheel is now a deactivated Push-to-Talk button), but just in case you hadn't been following the Hermes, it's generally regarded as a pretty slick piece of kit. Outside of the usual software package, you can, of course, hook up with MobiTV, Good, and any other supported services on Cingular's network. We definitely take issue with the five hour talk time, though, our Hermes is lucky to get a couple (and with data, forget about it). Still, for your $400 you're unlikely to find a hotter Pocket PC phone on the US market.

Read - release
Read - LAPTOP review

Cingular launches 3G-enabled 8525, sort of

by Chris Ziegler posted Oct 31st 2006 at 2:08PM

It's still forwarding us back to the old-skool 8125's product page at the moment, but a tipster has managed to coax Cingular's site into giving up the goods on the 8525 -- Buy Now link and all. We're guessing it has something to do with region or Premier account status, we're not sure, but the point is that a select few are able to place their orders for Cingular's first HSDPA smartphone as we speak. Breaking out the wallet might be hard to justify for folks in 2G areas coming from an 8125, but if speed and power are top priorities, lick your chops as you read the full specs (highlights include a 400MHz Samsung core, 2-megapixel cam, and that fabulous 3G radio) after the break.

[Thanks, John]

Update: Judging from commenters' experiences, it's sounding like there's some buffoonery going on behind the scenes over at Cingular HQ -- the phone may not be shipping to anyone yet after all. In the meanwhile, enjoy the literature and imagery we've scooped, and we'll let you know what's going on as soon as we do.

Continue reading Cingular launches 3G-enabled 8525, sort of

Palm Treo 680 and Cingular 8525 price and release!

by Ryan Block posted Oct 28th 2006 at 4:34AM

Ah yes, this is what we've been so eagerly awaiting. Enough pussyfooting around with the Palm Treo 680 and HTC Hermes / 8525 coming to Cingular -- we know they're due. We need prices, we need dates. And according to what appears to be a recent Cingular marketing presentation, we've got 'em:

Treo 680: $424.99 straight, $349.99 one year, $249.99 one year with unlimited data (and $100 rebate), $274.99 two year, $174.99 two year with unlimited data (and $100 rebate; their ad, however, shows a $200 list price, but it's good to know we can count on around two Benjamins. Expect it November 5th (tentative).
Cingular 8525: $559.99 straight, $484.99 one year (not including $50 rebate if included with unlimited data), $409.99 two year (also not including that same rebate); expect it October 29th.

See, now that wasn't so bad, was it? Both came in right around where we'd expected and hoped; between the Dash, the Q, and the 680, it looks like that $200 price point is the sweet spot for ever-slimming smartphones. And the 8525 ain't too bad either, considering what you're getting.

[Thanks also to djnth]

ASUS goes Hermes style with Mars II

by Chris Ziegler posted Oct 26th 2006 at 12:58PM

If imitation is truly the sincerest form of flattery, HTC must be turning beet red right about now. The Mars II from ASUS follows the HTC Wizard / Hermes formula down to the letter, featuring that fabulous side-opening QWERTY keypad we'd now be lost without, an Intel Xscale PXA270 core making haste at 520MHz, 128MB of ROM, 64MB of RAM, UMTS, 802.11g, Bluetooth 2.0, 2-megapixel shooter, and a 2.8-inch QVGA display (why no love for the VGA?). As you may recall, we were able to correctly call all the specs out last month with the exception of the name and the ODM, which we'd heard would be HTC -- and given the Hermes-esque dimensions and feature list, who could blame us? Look for the Mars II to grace O2's networks before too long as the "Xda Zinc," but thanks to the old-skool tri-band GSM radio sans 850 support, we're going to be putting our import plans on hold.

[Via phoneArena]

Cingular 8525 spotted (again)

by Ryan Block posted Oct 24th 2006 at 3:07AM

Thar she blows. We're not going to pretend like there's any surprise left here -- it's the 8525 in all its tri-band UMTS / HSDPA glory, it was on Cingular's page, and it looks like they're about ready to go. Yep, all we're waiting for is a price and release date. Yep, just gonna keep on waiting. Cingular?

[Thanks, JeShUa, Matt, and jetfxr]

Continue reading Cingular 8525 spotted (again)

HTC Herald unmasked

by Paul Miller posted Oct 6th 2006 at 12:47PM

Try as they might, no HTC phone stays hidden for long, and it looks like the QWERTY-rific HTC Herald is the latest of their smartphones to fall prey to a rather convenient leak. As previously rumored, the Herald brings all that HTC Hermes spec love, but in a 17mm-thick form factor. According to hands-on action going on over at SoloPalmari, they're measuring 18mm of thickness, but minor quibbles aside, the phone does seem to be in possession of a 2 megapixel camera, 2.8-inch QVGA screen, miniSD slot, 64MB of RAM, 128MB of ROM and of course that lovable QWERTY keyboard in a notably thin form factor. Unfortunately, nothing much could be verified as far as radios go, such as WiFi and 3G data, but we'll keep our fingers crossed for the Hermes' full complement of 802.11b/g, UMTS and HSDPA. Keep reading for a couple more pics.

Continue reading HTC Herald unmasked

O2 Mars and Jupiter, followup to Hermes, Breeze

by Ryan Block posted Sep 5th 2006 at 12:49AM

Oh hell yes, did we call it or did we call it? That mystery device has a keyboard, and it turns out that HTC's totally sick successor to the Hermes / TyTn is the O2 Mars which nails the aesthetics where the Hermes suffers so, and will supposedly come equipped with a 520MHz XScale, GPRS / EDGE / UMTS (sorry, no HSDPA), 64MB ram, 128MB flash, WiFi, Bluetooth, miniSD, and a 2 megapixel camera. Ok, so maybe we're only excited about this thing because it's one of the only QWERTY devices we've seen lately out of HTC that wasn't a little hard to look at (Excalibur, we're lookin' at you, buddy), but we don't need to excuse our love of gadgets, so if you'll let us continue our fawning. Thank you.

P.S. -Sorry, we didn't mean to gloss over the Jupiter, which appears to be the successor to the Breeze -- there's just not a lot of info there. Click on for some pics.

[Via the::unwired]

Continue reading O2 Mars and Jupiter, followup to Hermes, Breeze

Cingular 8525 (HTC Hermes) in the wild

by Chris Ziegler posted Aug 30th 2006 at 3:02PM

It's with mixed feelings that we greet the Cingular 8525's first live shots in the wild. Yes, it's apparently real, and yes, it matches the renderings we posted not long ago, but these pics also seem to sadly confirm our fear that this particular rendition of the Hermes will be coming to American buyers sans front-facing cam. There's no crying in cellphones, though, so we're going to do our best to concentrate on the positive: the 8525 should improve significantly on the 8125's speed thanks to a new processor, and of course, it's hard to argue with HSDPA. We don't have ship date for this puppy, but given the pics, the state of Cingular's 3G network, and the general availability of Hermes variants worldwide, we'd say that "real soon now" is an appropriate attitude to take.

[Thanks, Notorious Jatt]

Cingular 8525 (HTC Hermes) renderings leaked?

by Chris Ziegler posted Aug 20th 2006 at 7:38PM

If you're familiar with the Hermes and you know that it's coming to Cingular 'fore too long, these supposed renderings of Cingular's variant (henceforth known as the 8525) should come with no surprises -- except one, that is. Note that the Hermes' front-facing cam is conspicuously missing here, allegedly removed at Cingular's request since their video calling infrastructure isn't quite ready for prime time. Of course, we would've preferred that they leave the cam in, disable it, and cut a new firmware down the road to re-enable it when video calling is live rather than ask HTC to cripple their hardware, but we're sure the corporate suits had their reasons.

[Thanks, anonymous tipster]

HTC Trinity revealed?

by Paul Miller posted Jul 1st 2006 at 12:46AM

We've just spotted what purports to be the HTC Trinity, and while it's looking quite a bit different (and a bit less sleek) than the last time it surfaced, the specs are just as spiffing. The Windows Mobile 5.0 actually doesn't look too much different than HTC's Hermes, with the main addition of GPS and some reworked face buttons. There's 64MB of RAM, 128MB of ROM, a 2.8-inch QVGA display, Bluetooth, WiFi, EDGE, HSDPA and a microSD slot. Just like the Hermes there are VGA and 2.0 megapixel cameras, and the phone is similarly slim at 0.7-inches thick. No more info as to when this will be out, and we can't say we aren't disappointed about the fairly generic look, but there's always a chance (hope) this report is a bit off.

[Thanks, Sean]