Mobile Burn reviews Cingular’s 8525, a Windows Mobile 5 Pocket PC device. The HTC Hermes design features a large touch screen display, quad-band GSM with HSDPA, a 2 megapixel camera (sample photos) and WiFi.

Considering it supports HSDPA/UMTS data on all three bands, and EDGE/GPRS on all four world GSM bands, the 8525 has a good start on connectivity.

In the Philadelphia area we managed speeds as high as about 850kbit/s on Cingular’s network, which is about half the speed we obtained over a WiFi network connected to Verizon’s FIOS network.

The 8525 has plenty of other connectivity options, though, including the 802.11b/g WiFi support we just hinted at, Bluetooth 2.0, infrared, and a miniUSB cable connection. The Bluetooth system includes support for not only normal headsets, but also stereo devices thanks to the A2DP profile.

While the Cingular 8525 is a solid performer in most regards, it fails to show any real greatness. It has a good display, a good keyboard, and great connectivity options and data rates. But it is also very bulky, quite heavy, and more than a bit cumbersome to use at times.

In short, this is not what I consider to be a good mainstream consumer device. For such users I would recommend a Windows Mobile Smartphone device, or even a Pocket PC like the i-mate JAQ3, with its Q-like (though bigger and heavier) form factor.

But if you are a real power user and need solid connectivity and the ability to create and edit real documents from your mobile phone, then the Cingular 8525 is probably a darn fine choice for you - even if it wouldn’t be for most people. I give it a “Recommended” rating.

Posted by Sam Churchill on Monday, January 29th, 2007 at 1:26 pm.