Pocket PC Dubai - i-Mate JASJAR Review

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Page 2: Hardware: Device Orientation and Keyboard

Hardware

Firstly, let us look at the hardware of the device. I will further sub-divide this into:

1) Device Orientation

2) Keyboard

3) Swivel mechanism

4) Camera

1) Device Orientation

i) Top

You can also see two led lights one on each side of the swivel mechanism. Each of them flashes a different colour to indicate different events. Taken from the manual:

a) Bi-colour LED on the right side: Green and Orange for GSM/WCDMA standby, SMS message, GSM/WCDMA network status, notification, battery charging status.

b) Bi-colour LED on the left side: Blue and Green for Bluetooth system, notification of powered-up and ready to transmit radio frequency signal, and WiFi status

The other significant thing to note here is the external speaker for use when the device is closed in notebook mode.

ii) Bottom

Clearly visible are the white LED flash and next to it the 1.3MP camera. Details about the camera and its picture quality will be mentioned later on in the review.

Close up of the camera and the LED

iii) Front

From left to right:

a) Left stereo speaker

b) Camera button

c) IR port (consumer IR)

d) Voice recorder/Voice speed dial button

e) Right stereo speaker

One very interesting and perhaps arguable thing I would like to point out here is that the buttons on the front panel do not have a very tactile feel. I suppose the reason HTC did this, is to prevent the accidental pressing of buttons causing the device to start up and thus cause loss of battery life.

The flip side of this would be the inconvenience caused when one would actually like to use these buttons. Since they don’t have a very tactile feel, one really needs to get used to it to be able to press the button accurately in the first go. The Voice Speed Dial button and the Camera buttons are perhaps going to be very commonly used and hence the users might find pressing them to be a problem.

Which argument would you support?

iv) Back

From left to right:

a) Stylus slot with stylus inside

b) Connection for external antenna (GSM)

c) Connection for external antenna (3G)

d) Send/End button to receive and end calls. Pressing the send button for one second also activates the speakerphone.

e) Mini-USB (for charging and synchronisation)

f) Soft-reset button

g) 3.5mm Headset jack FINALLY!!! You can now use your favourite headset with your NEW favourite device

v) Left

Nothing significant here except the stylus slot at the bottom left corner. The stylus fits in very snugly, not too hard nor too easy to remove or replace it.

From the very beginning WM users have never had an opportunity to use a full QWERTY keyboard, reason being unknown. Thumb-boards have always been around but we all know that they are just an excuse for an actual keyboard, something to prevent us from banging our heads on the wall or just simply crying

Well, times have changed and might I add in an awe-striking manner. The keyboard of the JASJAR in one word put is “stunning” and I mean literally. The reason for this will be evident below. It basically comprises of 62 keys, all well spaced out with a good tactile feel. Initially my opinion was different, but after an hour with it I refused to touch the stylus even for a free of pair Gucci shoes

I am not being eccentric here, but I don’t use the stylus except for when I play Jaw-Breaker (Yeti-Fingers…sorry). All the necessary functions can be performed from the keyboard itself. An “ok” button is conveniently places to close applications. I would like to add here that pressing the “ok” button only minimises the applications rather than actually closing it. Leaving applications running in the background can take up battery life; therefore it is best to map a task-manager application to one of the hardware buttons as I did. That way, with a press of a button all the running applications get flushed.

There is no “Ctrl” button on the keyboard; therefore performing “Copy-Paste” actions using the keyboard are not possible. A “Fn” (function) button has been added, this basically gives access to the second layer of the keyboard functions. A very useful shortcut is the “Fn + right arrow key” combination which brings up the wireless manager. I see myself using this combination quite often.

There is also a dedicated button for making video-calls. For those of you who don’t use video-calls so often, this button would be the right choice to re-map to a task-manager application. A dedicated “Contacts” button is also present which can bring up the “contacts” applet between any applications.

There is also a dedicated button called “Sym” which can be used for special symbols. I rarely see myself using this button, but I suppose it is quite crucial if you are going to use languages other than English.

I would also like to add that unlike a regular keyboard, there is only a single “shift” button placed to the extreme left of the device. To some this might be an inconvenience, but after extended use, I don’t think it is a problem at all.

There is one very interesting thing that HTC has incorporated here and that is the light sensor. Its is quite obvious that even the backlight would take up some battery power especially for such a large keyboard (in comparison to thumb-boards). In low-light conditions (detected by the sensor), the keyboard automatically lights up and turns off after 10 seconds of inactivity. This in my opinion is a very good addition to the device. For those moments when the device doesn’t understand that the user is practically going blind (like me due to ageing and bird-watching

), putting your finger on the sensor or just above it for a split second combined with a key press lights up the keyboard. So, basically you are the master of the keyboard and not the other way around

That is pretty much all that you need to know about the keyboard. If you have any MORE questions *cough* get a life and a girlfriend *cough*

, just kidding, please feel free to ask.