i-Mate JAMin Review
By:
Docc
February 06, 2006
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Page 1: Intro, specs, contents,
device orientation and description
History was created with the
advent of
i-mate
JAM (HTC
Magician). I simply cannot explain how
well the JAM did, it more or less created a cult similar to the iPod
generation. It was the first PPC phone edition device to attract the
“fashionista’s”
Does the i-mate JAMin (HTC Prophet)
re-create history? Read on to find out
Before we get to the
review, I would like to take this opportunity to thank
i-mate for loaning us the device for
this review. I would especially like to thank Nadine at
i-mate for being so supportive and
organizing everything so fast. Thanks Nadine, you’re the best!!!
I would also like to thank Ramzi for helping me get the device.
Alright then, lets get
to it
 .
As always I am going to describe the device categorically.
Specifications
I am not going to send you
to la-la land with all the details, so just going to tell you the
details that’s worth your while
1)
WM5 (state of the art OS,
no new surprises here)
2)
Quad-Band
(850/900/1800/1900 Mhz)
3)
GSM/GPRS/EDGE (EDGE aka
E-GPRS)
4)
128Mb ROM / 64Mb RAM
(standard configuration found in all devices)
5)
True 2.0MP CMOS camera
(best in its class)
6)
64k, 2.8” TFT touch
screen
7)
SDIO (thankfully not
Mini-SD
)
8)
WLAN b/g/e/i compliant
(e/i to come in future RU’s)
9)
BT 2.0 without EDR
For a full list of
specifications, please visit
this link.
Contents
The contents of the package
are as follows:
1)
JAMin (duh!!!)
2)
Battery (1200 mAh 3.7vDC
Li-ion Polymer)
3)
Charger
4)
Headset (2.5mm
 )
5)
Mini-USB cable
6)
Case (standard magnetic
snap-closure, with slide-in belt-clip) [Meh]
7)
Extra stylus
8)
CD with AS 4
9)
Manuals.
Yes, Yes, I know, you want
to see the pictures. Our reviews are never complete without plenty
of pictures. Keep the tissues ready (for the drool, and perhaps
tears
 )
1)
The box
2)
Contents (upper
compartment)
3)
Contents (lower
compartment)
4)
Contents UC spread out
5)
Contents LC spread out
Ergonomics
This is one aspect of the
device which has made it a runaway hit in the past and will do the
same this time around too. As far as the form factor is concerned,
it is absolutely similar to the JAM and hence will not only appeal
to JAM users but also to people who didn’t go for the JAM because of
lack of WiFi and Quadband
Materials used are perhaps a
mix of high-grade plastic and some metal (can’t tell as I don’t have
a lab to test that
).
The material has some anti-slip kind of finish which allows a good
grip. Similar to the Jasjar, it is well contoured, no boxed ends
thus giving it a very ergonomic feel when held in the palm of your
hand. It also feels quite small because it has rounded margins (just
the way the brain interprets certain things
) The carbon-black colour which is thankfully NOT glossy, gives it a
very professional look. At 153g, its quite light for what it can do
and can therefore be used for extended calls without experiencing
fatigue.
Being a Jasjar user, it
amazes me to see how tiny this device is. Its probably even smaller
than a lot of those Symbian Series 60 phones Nokia churns out before
people can even say “Nokia”. It is really easy to carry this device
in your shirt/trouser/coat pocket because of its small form-factor.
Only thing one must be careful of about here is the TFT touch
screen. It is no secret that these touch-screen’s are prone to
cracking and cost a kidney to repair. I’ve already sold one of my
kidney’s when my first i-mate PPC’s screen cracked
,
can’t really afford letting that happen again, as this time around
my life depends on it….literally!!!
Device orientation
and description
Front
The front of the device
houses a 65k, 2.8” TFT touch screen.
The screen display’s vibrant colours with accurate saturation
and no noticeable yellow hue. Just above the screen,
placed in the centre is a speaker. Unfortunately, the problems
that the JAM had in regards to the speaker is shared
by the JAMin too. I found the speaker
volume too low and absolutely inaudible in loud areas such as
busy streets, malls etc
I thought HTC would have learnt a lesson and corrected this
error, but the booming sales of the JAM perhaps deterred them
from taking any action in this regard.
There is a Bi-coloured
LED for GSM standby, GSM message, GSM network status,
notification and charging status.
There are also 2
respective LED’s (blue & green) for BT and
WiFi notification. All these LED’s are housed within the
speaker grill itself. Just wondering,
but maybe some of your hardware techie’s can shed some light on
this. Do you guys think that the reason the speaker volume is so
low is because they had to use a fairly small speaker to
accommodate these LED’s in the same area??? I could be way
off-track but logic makes me consider this as one of the
possible reasons.
Below the screen is
where all the action is at, a single roughly 4cm x 2cm area
housing 6 buttons and a D-Pad!!! Is this eligible for a
Guinness
record?!?! The 6 buttons are as follows:
1)
Left soft key
2)
Right soft key
3)
Answer key
4)
End key
5)
Start key
6)
End key
Placed between all these
keys as shown in the image is the central D-Pad which I must say
is a pleasure to use. I find it to be very responsive and
extremely easy to use. It’s a 5-way D-Pad with the
central button supporting “press-down” action to confirm
actions. Infact, I can go to the
extent to say that this multifunction console
is the best, I have used till date (including non-PPC devices).
Addition of the soft-keys have
made the whole process so much more convenient. It just
surprises me as to how this wasn’t incorporated in the earlier
editions of the OS. One handed-use is now possible thanks to
these soft-keys.
Tip: Soft-keys can be
remapped
Back
Most significant aspect of this
area of the device if the Camera
The back of the device
houses the “new and improved” (sounds like a shampoo
AD
) camera module. A true 2.0 MP CMOS camera has now been
incorporated which I must say, takes very good
photo’s. As I have mentioned in the
preview, the pictures taken with this device are comparable to
the highly appreciated SonyEricsson
K750i. I have attached pictures taken in different settings at
the end of the review just to give you an idea of what this
camera is capable of. If I were to be picky, I would say, the
only thing missing here are the flash LED (which is basically
useless except for close-range shots).
Start-up time for the
camera is roughly 4 seconds so you might miss those spur of the
moment shots like when you see a Bugatti
Veyron pass by. Ok who am I kidding,
even the high-end camera’s cannot snap-up that monster when
its on a joy-ride. Just for info, a
Veyron has already been spotted in
Dubai and orders for 12 more have already been placed (each
costs around AED 4 million ) Ok, so who’s buying me one?
The ring around the
camera shows a small indentation in the margin. On rotating
the ring
downwards with your nail, the device is now capable of taking
picture in “Macro mode”. However, the lack of a flash LED makes
the macro mode difficult to use in low-light conditions.
Capture mode options
are similar to its WM5 predecessors. These are:
1)
Photo
2)
Video
3)
MMS Video
4)
Contacts
Picture:
This is basically to snap a picture and directly be able to use
it for Caller ID.
5)
Picture
Theme:
Basically captures pictures and places them in themed frames,
similar to what we had seen in its predecessors. New themes can
be downloaded and added in the future. Something cool to make
your 5 year old girl go wowww. Apart
from that, I don’t see any practical sense in it.
6)
Burst:
This is similar to what we see in digital cameras. It takes
pictures with split second intervals, maximum up to 30 images at
a time. Just keep the camera button or the D-Pad button
continuously pressed and it will continue taking pictures
(maximum 30).
7)
Sport:
Similar to burst mode, can take pictures at split second
intervals for a pre-defined time or frequency.
Resolutions
at which pictures can be taken are:
1)
Small (160 x
120)
2)
Medium (320 x 240)
3)
Large (640 x
480)
4)
1.3M (1280 x
1024
5)
2.0M (1600 x
1200)
Different Ambience
options are:
1)
Auto
2)
Daylight
3)
Incandescent
4)
Fluorescent
5)
Night
6)
Grayscale
7)
Sepia
8)
Cool
9)
Negative
Next to the camera is a
fairly useless uber-tiny
self-portrait mirror at the margin of which is the speaker
grill.
Speaker grill
The significant
thing to mention here would be the speaker grill that is
located at the curvature of the mirror on the right side.
Again, it is fairly disappointing to note that the speaker
provided is of poor quality, produces hollow sound which
again is fairly inaudible. I just don’t get it, why is it so
difficult to change the speaker? I’m quite sure the flaw had
already been brought to their notice with the
JAM . Why they didn’t take
efforts to rectify this MAJOR fault is beyond my
comprehension. Whether I should call it over-confidence or
recklessness, I don’t know.
Right below the
camera/mirror area, is a metal strip on which “2.0
megapixels” is engraved.
There is a slide out battery
cover, which finally (thankfully) is NOT thin as wafer.
Top
Only noteworthy aspect
of this area is the SDIO compatible SD/MMC slot.
They got it right this time by NOT using the Mini-SD slot. I am
not saying that there is something wrong with the Mini-SD
format, its just that a lot of people have already invested a
considerable amount of money on purchasing large capacity
2Gb/4Gb SD cards which would be rendered useless if a mini-SD
slot was used. Also, with the SDIO slot, there is endless scope
for 3rd party accessories. A few interesting ones
that have shown up in the past few weeks are SDIO GPS and SDIO
TV-tuner. Its always nice to know
that options are available for technology add-ons that haven’t
been natively supported
Just for information,
lately mini-SD slot accessories have begun showing up, a simple
example being the Spectec
WiFi card. Also, large capacity
cards have begun showing up lately going as high as
2Gb. It will definitely not be able
to catch up with SD anytime soon, but it is not a format to be
disregarded.
Bottom
From left to right:
1)
Soft-reset button
2)
Mini-USB port
3)
2.5mm Headset
jack
4)
Microphone
The bottom of the
device has slots for the mini-USB port and the 2.5
mm
headphone jack. Is it really that hard to incorporate
a 3.5mm jack? MP3 players hardly 3 x 3cm sizes have 3.5mm
jacks, so why can’t most of the PPCPE’s/cellular
devices available in the market today?!?! Someone in the
design team isn’t really doing their job well.
Mini-USB port is
used for charging through the standard charger or
sync/charge through the supplied cable.
Left
On the left side,
there are 4 area’s of
significance (from left to right)
1)
Camera button
2)
Volume slider
3)
Communication’s
manager
4)
Silo to attach a
carry strap
The camera button
is ergonomically placed as when the camera application is
initiated, the screen switches to right-landscape thus
placing the camera button in a position accessible to your
index finger (similar to regular
camera’s). Snapping up shot’s is thus
a easy and quick process
Tip: Central D-pad
button can also be used to take pictures.
Volume slider
is well placed in between the two buttons and easily
accessible to the thumb when placed in the palm of the left
hand. The slider has just the right amount of spring action
and does not move by itself creating a sound as if something
is moving on the inside (as with the first generation
i-mate PPC/XDAII).
Communications
manager is a tad different in
comparison to other WM5 devices. On pressing the button, 4
connectivity options are available for access/modification:
1)
WLAN
2)
BT
3)
Profile (option
to switch between general and vibrate)
4)
Activesync
In the other WM5
devices such as the Jasjar, the
options available were, WLAN, BT, Phone,
All on/off. I suppose this new configuration (in the JAMin)
makes the device more user-friendly as more options are
easily accessible.
Silo to attach a
carry strap is provided but no strap is provided with the
package:
Right
On the right side,
three area’s of significance are
present:
1)
Power button
2)
Stylus silo
(adjacent to power button)
3)
Infra-red port at
the bottom
The power button
can not only be used to put the device in standby mode but
also completely switch off the device. This option was found
in the K-Jam too, but unfortunately, wasn’t available in the
Jasjar. Correct me if I am wrong
but I feel this has more to do with the registry than
anything else. I feel if the correct entry is located, this
action can be performed in all WM5 devices.
Those who are fond
of using the IR port to control their multimedia
devices, or TV/Video/Hi-fi etc
will be happy that this function has been reserved. I
haven’t got the opportunity to
test the range of the IR port, but will update this as soon
as possible.
A point worth
mentioning here is in regards to the Stylus silo. I
find the stylus to fit nice and tight into the designated
silo and am sure that even with rigorous
use, the fit would not become loose. Some K-Jam users
have found their stylus to randomly fall out as the stylus
does not fit firmly into the silo, this problem will
definitely not occur with the JAMin.
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