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PRODUCT REVIEW
The Cingular 8525 is a top-shelf Pocket PC phone
By James Booth
"Never mess with a good thing." At least that's how the old adage goes. But HTC (High Tech Computers) has never been one to be restrained by convention. Although you may not be familiar with HTC, if you have a Pocket PC phone, it was probably made by HTC. In fact, under a variety of brands, and as many service providers, HTC is the largest manufacturer of Pocket PC devices in the world, including the Cingular 8525.
"So what's with all this aka?"
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Few thought the much-praised 8125 (aka T-mobile MDA, HTC Wizard) could be improved upon, but HTC has done just that with the 8525 (aka HTC Hermes, HTC TyTN) shown in Figure A.
FIGURE A
 
The Cingular 8525/HTC TyTN. Roll over picture for a larger image.
So what's with all this aka?
As I said, HTC is the largest Pocket PC and smartphone producer in the industry. Many of their devices are built on a core platform, then rebranded for various markets and/or service providers. Therefore, the Cingular 8125 was also the T-mobile MDA. Both were built on HTC's Wizard platform. Likewise, the Verizon XV6700, previously covered here, and the Sprint PPC6700, previously covered here, were built on HTC's Apache platform.
The Cingular 8525, the next evolution of the 8125, is also marketed as the HTC TyTN, and its core platform, the HTC Hermes. While there are a very few subtle differences between them, the information in this article will generally apply to all three.
Packed inside
Inside the box is the 8525, of course, an AC adapter, USB cable, a Y-adapter cable, two styli, a Getting Started guide, and the software installation CD, featuring Activesync, Outlook 2002, and the electronic manual.
The 8525 brings with it an impressive array of specs.
Running on Windows Mobile 5, the Cingular 8525 is a quad-band GSM phone with GPRS/EDGE/3G data access capable of operating on any GSM network worldwide. It has a 400MHz Samsung processor, 64MB of RAM, 128MB of Flash ROM, a 2.8-inch QVGA (240X320, 64k color) screen, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and IR, a 2MP digital camera, a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, and a microSD expansion slot. And it's all powered by a 1350 mAh Lithium Polymer battery.
The 8525 was also set up for PTT (Push to Talk), which was not available on Cingular's network when the phone was released in November 2006. A ROM update was released on April 25th, 2007 that activated the PTT feature, as well as bringing a few minor fixes.
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