Graphics performance of Hermes and Kaiser

[clarence17]

Good day everyone. I recently red the htc class action lawsuit website by many unsatisfied owners of the Kaiser. From reading the site, it looks like the Kaiser is one of the devices which lack certain drivers. The Hermes is not listed there however. Between the Hermes and Kaiser, which one performs better when it comes to graphics? To people with both devices, is the Kaiser significantly much better than the Hermes when it comes to playback of videos, games etc? I'm thinking on what to buy, the Hermes or the Kaiser. Does the Hermes outpace the Kaiser due to lack of drivers? Or does the new chipset of the Kaiser make up for the missing drivers and outpace the Hermes? Thanks.

[ultramag69]

Honestly, Hermes is getting long in the tooth - its probably NOT possible to get a Hermes from a carrier anymore.
Kaiser is a pain with the graphics drivers. There are newer HTC models that outstrip both in performance and graphics, I'd look into one of them.
I'd like the touch pro myself, pity its so expensive in Oz....:(

Cheers...:D

[vwkess]

I was faced with this choice a while back myself. I did not want to sign a 2 year contract for a new phone and I wasn't happy with the phones that T-Mobile had in my area at the time, so I decided to buy one outright. Didn't want to shell out $700+ for some current models so it came down to the Hermes or Kaiser. I ended up going with a refurbished Hermes for $150. I wanted the Kaiser because of the additional RAM, but I did not like the video performance which I watch a lot of on my phone (you can find youtube videos of the Kaiser video performance). I understand the the updated software video drivers have improved performance quite a bit, but it does not help 2D drawing. I think the screen lag time would just drive me crazy after a while. For me, the Hermes would be perfect if it had 128MB, but I do get by OK with the 64. I guess it comes down to what you use it for. I think the Hermes is a good bet to hold you over until better phones with better batteries become available... or until the prices on current phones get more reasonable. The Hermes does what I need it to do and has just enough memory for me to run Spb Mobile Shell with a nice theme (littlerain wm7), Palringo for IM, Kinoma player for streaming video/audio and email in the background all at the same time without running out of memory. If I want to run Skyfire or Google maps, I would have to close Kinoma, but I probably would not need or want to run Kinoma while using those apps anyway. Good luck! I think the Hermes is a good choice, but I would definitely get a new one or factory refurbished one over used if you can find it.

[clarence17]

I did that too. I bought the Hermes, the Cingular 8525 version, for $160. Nice $500 savings:) With CorePlayer, it plays videos nicely, although it needs to be converted to 320x240 resolution first. I have a Core 2 Duo PC so converting videos is a snap. Has anyone seen Coreplayer benchmarks of the Kaiser and Hermes? Or other bechmarks? All google hits I find do not compare the Kaiser to the Hermes but to newer phones. How do they compare? Thanks.

[dzelaya18]

I've always used TCPMP, both on my Hermes and my Kaiser, and videos have always played smoother on my Kaiser. People can say what they want about the Kaiser being slower/choppier than the Hermes due to the video driver issue, but my Kaiser has always been faster and more responsive than my Hermes, period, even before we got the software drivers.

Not only that, but once you've watched a movie on a fully brightened Kaiser screen, there is no contest. The Hermes screen, with the brightness set to maximum, isn't half as bright as the Kaiser with brightness set to half. The movies are just so much more vibrant.

I resisted the urge to get a Kaiser for a long time, but when the opportunity arose ($160 bucks for a Kaiser, bought right out of an AT&T salesman's pocket) I took and never looked back. Kaiser is faster in every way, and the additional memory is great to have. Oh yeah...and being able to fire up Touch Flo 3D (with working software drivers) is fun.

I still have fond memories of my two Hermes...sold one, kept one for old times sake. :D