Cingular 8525 (HTC Hermes) in the wild

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]

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 30th 2006 3:38PM]

I really wish they'd used the keyboard on the T-Mobile version. This looks very similar to the 8125 keyboard which I hate. Other than that, it looks awesome and I'll probably still plunk down 500 bucks for one.

Anyone want to buy a hardly used 8125??

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 30th 2006 5:40PM]

The real question is if Cingular is going to pull a Verizon and cripple other features of the TyTN/Hermes (other than the missing vidcon camera)...

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 30th 2006 4:04PM]

i kinda like the keypad, it is better then the 9300 and 8700 by far. so far htc has the best smartphone's and pdas on cingular. we sell a ton of 8125 even with out internet service. cant wait for high speed!

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 30th 2006 4:00PM]

Let's hope that along with the speedierprcessor the phone reception got A LOT better. My wife has an 8125 and the phone portion is spotty at best, where the RAZR still kicks it like a ninja.

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 30th 2006 4:25PM]

Jel,
Yes
contact me at gmail. (togrli)

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 30th 2006 4:54PM]

badmojo---

Buhwawawa Razr...

Puhleez

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 30th 2006 5:12PM]

Whee.. I'm still shooting for the sept 17th release date. I hope that the price is under 300... but you never know do you?

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 30th 2006 5:18PM]

I'll get one the day it's released. I'm really looking forward to it.

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 30th 2006 5:21PM]

I already know I'm going to get one, I'm ready to trade my 8125 in when it's time; all I want is a release date but since it's Cingular, I doubt I'll get that anytime soon.

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 30th 2006 9:15PM]

Although I'm glad to see that Cingular might actually be moving forward with this phone, I'm certainly glad I bought a TyTN!

Having Cingular's support for the device will make it a lot easier when calling Cust Svc ("No, I have an 8525...")

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 30th 2006 6:23PM]

Unlikely that Cingular would pull the Verizon when it comes to crippling functions. It seems to be one of their pride points that they don't sell you ripped down versions of harware (at least amongst us geeks). My friend got the Verizon version of this phone, and we had to use the BIOS hacks to open up the functionality. He was so pleased with it once he did though. Verizon is a strange and mystic word, that translated means "ripping out the customer's life blood because they are too stupid to realize that we're robbing them blind". I make my own rigtones, thank you!

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 30th 2006 7:17PM]

come on guys...if you want a guaranteed non-crippled version of this phone, just buy it direct from HTC. the price is down to only $750.

don't have the money? just use the guide Northwest airlines gave to its employees being laid off:
http://www.mnheadhunter.com/mh/2006/08/northwest_airli.html

you'll save up those pennies fast!

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 31st 2006 4:48PM]

Ok, so a friend who's a longtime cingular store employee told me they haven't heard of this yet, and they usually get training 2 months before a release. What should I make of that?