iMate PocketPC Phone Edition Reviewed

I've been able to lay my hands on iMate PocketPC Phone Edition for past two weeks. This one came with Win Mobile 2003, however it was flashed with Windows Mobile 2005 Beta codename Magneto. I though it would be nice to put up reviews for both of them :D

The i-mate is designed for mobile professionals; it is a fairly small Pocket PC Phone Edition, which includes SD I/O expansion slot for memory or add-on accessories for the i-mate.
It has wireless Bluetooth capability and features a small and sleek design. The name of the game is wireless control with the i-mate, though it does not come with built-in Wi-Fi. :(

Its powered by 64 of ROM, 128 MB of RAM and a 400 MHz X-Scale PXA263 applications processor. (this is as good as a PIII in older days). The most unique thing that the iMate has is the capability to add on an expansion backpack. It has the ability to handle VGA out; this is due to the ATI video chipset inside the iMate. The supported resolution for LCD displays is XGA 1024x768, VGA 800x600 and 640x480. It also includes extended battery which can charge the main battery on the device, giving users longer run times while using energy draining accessories like wireless networking, or playing movies and music on long plane rides.

You can keep i-mate always connected to GPRS and in the same time receive calls, MMS and SMS messages. Since this is a Class B GPRS device, it will hold the GPRS connection if there is a call, and reactivate it when the call ends. This is not possible in SmartPhones like AudioVox SMT 5600, where the GPRS connection is lost the moment you receive a phone call. Making a phone call can be done from the dialer, contacts, speed dial, call history or the SIM manager. Answer to a call is done by pressing the answer hardware button, or can be rejected by the reject hardware button. At the same time - a call can be accepted by pressing the "accept" key on the touchscreen. You can also take NOTES for a call - which then goes as a attachment with that call. This was the most amazing and useful feature that I found.

The phone keypad can be locked this is a helpful feature to prevent accidental key press. I was listening to MP3 and multitasking with no problems at all, there were no missing frames the sound quality was really good. The good part is that while you are listening to a song or watching video with Windows Media Player 10, if you received a call during that time, iMate will pause WMP, and when you are finished with the phone call, it will resume from where it was paused.

You can snap photos or shoot video clips with accompanying audio simply by pressing the camera hardware button on the side of the device, press once you activate the camera, the second time you press you take a photo. The iMate has all the features to make this equally a phone and a PDA all in one slim device. At the same time - Magneto proved to be power efficient and I would not require to charge it for a day with normal usage. One note of caution though - Magneto had lots of memory problems, which would sometimes hang the device. My advice is to wait till the final release is out.