Last Friday my service provider (staying anonymous for someone's benefit...) phoned me informing me my contract was up for renewal. Yeah, I was kind of aware it should be around the time but I've been so busy with life (just surviving most of the time) that I just didn't get to it yet.
So after the call I decided to just go and browse around to see what is available (since I haven't been paying attention to what is new these days). At first the IMate K Jam caught my eye but then I started browsing further and saw the IMate JAMin which seemed even better. That afternoon after work I went to the (anonymous service provider) shop and they happen to have just one left in stock. Well, I though, I better grab it since it might be gone soon.
I'm not a professional reviewer so the following is just my opinion about the phone compared to my previous IMate Qtec 2020. I used my old phone heavily for things like the phone, scheduler, tasks, notes and a few games (when I was bored and waiting somewhere for someone). The biggest thing that bothered me about the old phone was the short battery life (at most 2 days). Seeing that it is a PocketPC phone this was normal. At times I used it heavily and then it lasts just over a day. I still have it and will continue using it as a plain PocketPC device.
As for the new phone, first thing, the looks: It looks much better being black and smaller. The colour just let it looks more professional and 'cool'. It feels more like a 'phone' being more compact. The old one always felt a bit awkward as a plain phone - although as a PocketPC device the larger size was always a plus). The JAMin is more compact and the screen in smaller but it still is workable as a PocketPC device. The screen seems a bit less responsive for two reasons I suspect. One, the CPU is slower (which helps with conserving battery power) and two my Qtec 2020 was probably 'worn in' and I knew exactly how to use the screen.
My favourite new feature (and also the one I hate the most some times) is that the screen and buttons can be locked like a regular phone. The old one didn't have this which caused several 'funnies'. One thing that do seems to be a problem with this model is that the speaker is a bit soft and it is hard to make out what someone is saying unless you press the phone hard against your ear. Also if you pick a custom ring tone that uses a wav it plays very softly. It is almost as though the phone ring volume only applies to standard built in ring tones and not custom wav or mp3 files. At least it has the ring and vibrate option so you can still 'feel' it rings.
As far as the software goes it has the standard Windows Mobile 5 set which includes Pocket versions of Word, Excel, Powerpoint, MSN messenger and Media player. What is nice is that it also have a centralize 'Com manager' where you can enable/disable all the communication options like wifi and bluetooth. One nice thing is that it also now has built in support for zip files.
The phone software is much improved over the old model. It is still not a regular cell phone but it does have few features not even a regular cell has - you can attach a note to a call and save important info related to that conversation.
Then there is the 2MP camera. I'm not a big fan of cameras in phones but this one seems to be at least semi-useful. The pictures are not that bad - especially compared to the Qtec 2020 where the screen display was 'larger' that the actual photo!
All in all I'm satisfy with this 'device'. It still have all the features my old Qtec 2020 had (some may work a bit differently) plus it has some new and useful functions added. Someone trying to compare it as a phone itself to a regular cell might be disappointed but then the real power of this device is in the integration between a PC and a phone. If you are a person on the move or need some 'personal computing power like a proper mobile address book, task list and calendar this phone is for you.
Well, there you have it