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Review : HTC Hermes with unofficial Windows Mobile 6 March 12, 2007 [Pocket PC phone] | By Edward J. R. Surely you could spend money and buy yourself new phone with Windows Mobile 6, but if you already own HTC Hermes in one of its incarnations: 
... then you can get ROM upgrade with Windows Mobile 6 and obtain in this way a phone with the very latest version of Windows Mobile: 6! After all HTC Hermes has genuine scroll wheel, 3G with HSDPA, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and fast processor. It is a bit thick and lacks GPS but if you already own it, then it may be not bothering you too much. Since people could have doubts whether this upgrade to Windows Mobile 6 for HTC Hermes works, we have tested long-term and exhaustively this combination to give you impression whether you should carry out this upgrade or not... Firstly let's take a look at About dialog to see exactly about which version of OS we are talking about: 
First of all good news: HSDPA works with Windows Mobile 6 and it works even faster with Windows Mobile 5.0! Secondly all applications are working fine and Windows Mobile 6 is very stable in HTC Hermes. Generally following applications tested and working: TomTom, Wisbar, Adobe Reader. Buetooth seems to work better - for example stereo Bluetooth headset R35 I-Clip now correctly pauses/plays. Now Windows Mobile shows you for each contact the last time you called them: 
Windows Mobile 6 shows you all your outgoing / incoming calls to a contact and the duration: 
Notice the delete button in email application (Inbox): 
Calendar application has a nice scrolly ribbon showing when you've got meetings: 
MSN Live supports multiple tabs, can send voice clips, emotions: 
Now also Internet Calling is integrated into Windows Mobile: 
... but without 3rd party software or Microsoft servers it is not working. It is not a fully functional SIP client. Windows Media player looks similarly to the one from Windows Vista: 
Word Mobile now properly displays word documents: 
Internet Explorer supposedly now supports mobile Ajax to a higher extend but no revolutionary changes here: 
Dialer application, when you type numbers, shows you the letter combinations: 
All in all: lots of little improvements. To see HTML emails (one of new features of Windows Mobile 6) your email provider has to upgrade to 2007 version of Microsoft Exchange. 
Conclusion: the unofficial Windows Mobile 6 ROM upgrade works fine with HTC Hermes. We have tested it with HTC Hermes connected to T-Mobile UK network and even HSDPA transfers were faster. Since (unfortunately) HTC is not clear, which models of their phones will get upgrade to Windows Mobile 6 and which will not get it, you may be interested in prolonging lifetime of your phone just by getting this upgrade. Obviously if you need thinner phone or more features (built-in GPS?) then purchasing new phone would be preferable. In any case remember, that you do the upgrade at your own risk and you may lose warranty.  Post your comment (free registration is required to post, but if you register you can edit your posts later) [ 14 Comments ]
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