Cingular Wireless has only been offering the 8125 Pocket PC phone for a few months, but a replacement is already waiting in the wings.

According to widely available information, this will be a version of the HTC Hermes. The primary difference between this model — called the Cingular 8525 — and its predecessor will be the inclusion of HSDPA high-speed wireless networking, giving users data transfer speeds between 400 and 700 kilobits per second.

But this isn’t the only change being made to this Windows Mobile device. HTC has also added “OK” and “Start Menu” buttons, plus one for Push To Talk (PTT) service.

In addition, the processor speed has been doubled to 400 MHz.

Coming Soon?

Cingular has not yet announced the 8525, but its intent to do so has been known for months. This cellular-wireless handheld is currently undergoing testing on Cingular’s network, and some of the people involved in this process have been wiling to talk about it.

Most recently, several pictures of this device were posted on HowardForums. These are typical blurry images taken with a smartphone, but they are good enough to show that the 8525 will match the computer renderings of this device that appeared a few weeks ago.

Despite all the leaks, it is still not known exactly when this model will be released or what it will cost.

More About the Cingular 8525

The 8525 will use the same general form-factor as the current model, which means it will have a landscape orientation, with a QWERTY keyboard located on a slider so it can be hidden behind the QVGA touchscreen.

This GSM device will also include Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.

A 2.0 megapixel camera and a microSD slot will round out the specifications of the Cingular 8525.

Submitted by Ed Hardy @ Brighthand.com