Review of the i-mate ultimate 8150 pocket PC

This review was done by a member of the ce4arab.com forum with the handle "alkandery75", I just translated it from arabic by myself becuz translation engines suck big time (actually I suck too, but I'm better than an engine!), all thanks go to ce4arab.com and here's a link for the original thread in arabic http://www.ce4arab.com/vb7/showthread.php?t=97064

Today lets take a thorough look at i-mate's new PDA, which is a member of the revolutionary "ultimate" series ... What defines the shape of this handheld is the presence of a keypad below the screen, which means that using it with one hand is much easier than other pocket PCs and makes it handy in all times and occasions, other great features of this i-mate will be -GOD willing- discussed below in this review ...



PDA specs:
- Windows Mobile 6 professional
- Intel processor 520 MHz
- Quad band
- 3G 3.6 Mbps (HSDPA)
- 256 MB ROM
- 128 MB RAM
- size 118.5x60.5x15.5 mm
- 2.6 inch. high resolution VGA touchscreen (262K colors)
- WiFi (WLAN) 802.11 b/e/g/i
- Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP
- Very high res. XGA video out
- FM radio with RDS
- SD card slot
- 2 MP camera, with secondary front facing video call VGA camera
- 1530 mAh battery

Box contents:

The imatecomes in an elegantly colored box with the i-mate brand on it, but we miss the handheld specs which used to be on the box in previous handsets, but still, this box might not be in its final release shape, as the PDA we're about to test is a pre-release version, now lets cut to the chase and take a look at the contents:



The pictures show that the package includes:
- A charger
- Sync cable
- Stereo headphone
- An Elegant leather case
- An extra stylus
- TV-out cable to hook it into monitors or projectors (DVI with an audio out terminal)
- A CD that contains ActiveSync 4.5 and Windows Mobile Central for windows vista
- User Licence
- User Manual
-Quick start guide
- PDA warranty (Arabic version included)

The Design:

Now we take a look at the design of the i-mate ultimate 8150 in more details:



We see in the previous image the hanset before turning it on, with the long waited for keypad, and a little joystick that would make scrolling through its menus using no more than your thumb a breeze ...



this image shows the i-mate after turning it on and setting it up, the keypad seems well lit with a nice blue glow ...



The handheld in the dark, every portion of the keypad and the monitor is well visualized which makes using it in the dark easy and comfortable ...





better views of the keypad, we notice that there are enough keys for basic control of the PDA, plus the little joystick which improves the whole experience (even better than a D-pad) and gives you easier access, especially that everything is well lit as mentioned before ...



A view of the left side of the i-mate shows us a jog dial (similar to the one on the P series from sony ericsson -- rolls up and down, pressed in for "ok") which also acts as a volume controller, and below it a separate "ok" button, the microSD slot then a button for the wireless manager then the soft reset button.



The right side shows the camera button, the TV-out port and the miniUSB port, also there are two openings, we don't know exactly why they're there, but apparently for future accessories ...



The upper side of the phone only contains the power button and the infrared port.



Only the microphone on the lower aspect of the phone :) !



the back of the phone has the camera and LED flash and a speaker, and a big clean battery cover :)



a closer look at the 2 MP 4x zoom camera with a 4.8mm lens and Autofocus ...



Behind the battery cover lies the battery! We don't see a battery lock as in older handheld, it wasn't useful anyway ...



The 1530 mAh battery ...

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And as promised, a picture of the PDA in hand and a comparison with the HTC P3600 ...





You can see that the size is pretty good for a i-mate with 3G and a keypad ...
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The operating system:

Now we're going to take a look at the software on first boot ...



the previous photo shows WM6 startup screen ...



The version and the processor type ARM XScale PXA270 at 520 MHz, and 111.66 MBs of memory to use ...



The ROM version is shown, it's not up to date as this is a pre-release version of the handheld ...



Hardware information, most importantly the data bus which is 32 bits, enhancing the overall system performance ...



confirming the size of the RAM and the ROM, the remaining of the ROM is 135.09 MB and 107.30 MB of the RAM which is quite sufficient to run many programs at the same time with no problems ...

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Preloaded Applications:



The today screen, and its settings as follows:




The previous image shows today screen after installing the arabic language and other programs ...





more images showing preinstalled applications which will be discussed later on ...






The setting appear in the previous photos and will be discussed in detail later on ...

More details about the new preinstalled software:



Microsoft office in the previous image,was actually present in some WM5 mobiles, nothing new here ...



This last image shows us the new program from imate called "1-view" , for synchronizing your important files with a dedicated server at i-mate to pretect them from being lost , more on the next images ...









The next images show the "i-mate backup" software, which can do a backup for the whole PDA, the first time takes a long time to upload the image of course, but the next times the program only submits changes to the server to it takes much less time ...






The next image shows us the RDS FM radio, as usual, it needs the headset to be plugged in .....




The "i-mate configurator" automatically detects the network of the sim card and activates the correct settings for the internet and the MMS, avoiding the hassle of dealing with your network provider ...



Streaming player, as the name implies plays video streams from over the internet ...









The camera interface and settings ...

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Extra settings:



The profile controller easily lets you switch between profiles ...



The wireless manager, huge improvements, you can now get to the settings of each one by a single touch ...

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TV-out:

One of the most anticipated features of this i-mate is the TV-out, before we start you should know that the target TV must have a DVI-in and an audio in (3.5 mm jack) to get picture and audio ...



The external display application manages the output to the external screen as follows:





The previous image shows you the menu to turn on the touchpad to get a mouse pointer on screen just like any windows on any laptop! you might start to wonder where is the touchpad on the phone?! magically, the touchscreen blacks out and it turns into your touch pad! how cool is that?!




Here we see the plasma screen with the "ultimate's" output on it, the lines you're seeing are due to differnece between the frequency of the screen and the camera we're using to take this photo, not because of the phone in any manner (they're not really present, just in this photo) ....



it's pretty fast too, don't expect this to slow down the handheld, it works like magic ...



This video doesn't look very good because of the poor quality of the video file itself.
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Conclusion:

In this part of the review we'll try to briefly explain all about the new and exciting features in the "ultimate 8150" and his brothers, leaving no place for doubts ... There's a high res VGA screen that ranges from 2.6 in 8150 and 9150 to 2.8 inches in the 6150 and the 5150 and 3.8 inches on the 7150.

these PDAs enjoy a 32 bit data bus which boosts their performance, and makes them stable on multi-tasking.

The increase in the ROM to 256MB is a great feature, but the greater one is the RAM upgrade to 128 MB, giving space for the i-mate to run many programs and stay stable.

The VGA screen which we enjoyed on the JASJAR, is the same here but comes in a much more advanced handheld, proving that VGA screens dont slow down the PDA, you can make great use of it by using real VGA programs to get as much information as possible on the brilliant screen.

the TV-out, is a very handy feature for business men and lecturers, small and large enterprises, and even for individuals to display their photos and videos on their TV for family and friends.

The FM radio with RDS will keep you company when you have some spare time on your hands.

The keypad is not a new thing in the PDA world, we've seen it before in samsungs and in the O2 stealth, only this time it comes in a very advanced handset with a VGA screen and 3G ... and don't forget the TV-out! :)

And finally, to the real conclusion, this PDA is a leap forward through all the fore mentioned qualities and features, especially if you are waiting for a i-mate with a wonderful VGA touchscreen and a keypad at the same time, and with a TV-out, this sure is your best choice, you can even use an external GPS to boost the capabilities of your handheld anytime you want.

About the release dates and prices of the 8150 and the 6150, they will officially be on the market this october (next month!) , the expected price for the 8150 is 3350 AED (912 USD) and the 6150 will be priced at 3199 (871 USD) , both models will be released at the same time.



official 8150 website: http://www.clubimate.com/ultimate/ult8150.htm
ultimate series website: http://www.clubimate.com/ultimate