i-Mate JAQ3

i-Mate JAQ3 I-Mate who are one of the premier distributors of WM phones have had much success with previous models such as the JAM, Jamin, JasJar and many others. Last year i-Mates distribution of HTC built devices came to an end when HTC began distributing themselves I-Mate, not a company to toil on it's troubles, analysed the upcoming manufacturers and have selected TechFaith Wireless for the manufacture of the i-Mate JAQ3. The JAQ3 is a messaging device and then some! No need for extending, sliding, or flipping to access the keys, the keyboard is always present and ready for action. The excellent 320 x 240 screen is in perfect proportion to the shape and style of the device. And it's the first Lanscape QVGA phone edition messaging device available! But it's under the hood where the real action takes place. 4WM's alliance with Clove Technology has brough about this review, so before delving into the review proper I'm taking this moment to introduce Clove to those that may not be aware of the company and its services and for those that are; a little extra insight. Clove technology have been around since the dawn of PDAs, both my dad and I bought accessories from Clove for our beloved Psion organisers in their various forms 3/3a/5/5mx. For this reviewer dealing with Clove is like a trip down memory lane! To get a better understanding of Cloves proud history I posed the following questions, their answers are printed below. How long has Clove been selling WM devices? Clove was established in 1992 when we sold the Psion range of organisers. We started selling Windows Mobile devices as soon as they were launched, although the first versions were very poor. Now WM make up over 60% of our machine sales and the OS has become far more felexible, user friendly and stable. Does your store have a physical location and can customers drop in? No - we are only mail order but we do offer advice over the phone and by email to ensure a customer makes the right choice of products. What range of devices do you carry? We carry a wide range of devices, at present the best selling ranges are from Fujitsu, Acer, Eten and HTC. We sell a large number of windows powered smart phones. What value add services do you provide? We are keen to offer what our customers require, we have a number of bundles and try and keep customers informed by our website and newsletters. We are also keen to get feedback from our customers - good or bad (hopefully good!) so we can improve our service. How long have you been interested in gadgets? I suppose always! I remember at school buying the thinnest calculator when they first came out, the first Seiko digital watch used in the James Bond Film and the first Psion organisers with a "massive" 16k memory. What's your favourite current device and why? My favourite for screen and features is the Fujitsu N560, but I actually use the HTC TyTN What's your best seller? Fujitsu Loox N560 is best selling GPS Pocket PC, Eten M700 is best selling smartphone. Thanks very much to Chris for the review opportunity, Clove technology can be contacted via mail at sales@clove.co.uk or on the website http://www.clove.co.uk Back to the JAQ3 then! Let's take a look at the specs of this device. The JAQ3 Overview. Microsoft Windows Mobile 5.0 for PocketPC AKU 3.2 GSM/GPRS/EDGE Quad-Band 850/900/1800/1900Mhz WiFi 802.11b/g 128MB ROM & 64MB RAM Stereo Bluetooth 1.2 Micro-SD card slot 2.0 mega pixel camera 2.4" 65K LCD touch-screen Scroll wheel In the Box That wonderful box-opening feeling! Here's a little amatuer video clip of the box contents and the device itself. This clip is presented from YouTube but if you'd prefer to download and watch offline on your PocketPC you can right-click and choose save target as - here Excuse the sniffles I've been under a cold! A comment on the contents. The inclusion of the full printed manual is excellent, the JAQ3 functions slightly differently to other devices I've used and having the manual to fall back on before google is really great. The included slip case is one of those that you'd be better leaving in the box in favor of a better one or failing that none! The simplicity of the device is best utilised nekkid! The most impressive feature of the device is it's slimness, it's so slight in comparison to the Hermes and about half the weight in hand. The screen is quite possibly the best I've ever seen in a PocketPC, possibly the orientation suits it better or the sheer size of the screen is ideal for the display resolution, I can't quite decide, but whatever, it's absolutely perfect. It's also set close enough to the front of the device to enable finger tapping on the close button. This was something that annoyed me no-end on the Hermes. Now that the JAQ3 is out of the box lets have a look at the operating specifications for the device. Specifications As mentioned the JAQ3 is manufactured by TechFaith Wireless, they also manufacture the Ubiquio range of devices so they are not a newbie to the world of PhoneEdition WM devices. The JAQ3 shares it's innards with the Ubiqui 501 and i-Mate have customised the features to better suit their experience of customer needs. The replacement of the volume keys with the scroll wheel is just one example. Manufacturer: TechFaith Wireless Code name: Pebble Supplier: Clove Technology Product Name: JAQ3 Price: Varies depending on contract but see our front page coupon for Clove.co.uk! Dimension: Size 126mm(L) x 67.5mm(W) x 14.5mm(T) Weight: 160g with battery pack. Processor/Chipset CPU: TI OMAP 850, 200MHz Memory: ROM 128MB RAM 64MB LCD Module 2.4" 65K Colour Transflective 320x240 touch-screen LCD, with backlight GSM/GPRS/EDGE Functions Speech services with EFR/FR/AMR codecs Emergency call DTMF tone generation Call holding, waiting, forwarding, barring SMS texting GPRS class 10 GPRS CS 1 to 4 coding scheme supported 3V/1.8V SIM operation SIM application toolkit Over the air provisioning - where available. Internal antenna Talk time up to 4 hours Standby: 150 hours. Keyboard/Buttons Scroll wheel & Action Function Power button Reset Button Send and End Phone buttons Left and Right soft key buttons Side buttons - OK/Start Menu, Camera Five way naviation d-pad 39-key full QWERTY keyboard with accented character support. Camera button Messaging & Internet Explorer buttons Start & OK buttons Notification Three-colour LED (Red/Green/Yellow) Notification styles - LED, sound and vibration Audio Handsfree Stereo Bluetooth Supports 64-chord MIDI, MP3, WMA, WAV,AMR 2.5mm audio jack Video Supports MP3, AVI, ASF, WMV, AMR, MPEG4 Power Removable and chargable Li-Ion Capacity - 1200mAh Camera 2 Mega pixel Supports still image and video capture Connectivity & Interface WiFi 802.11b/g Bluetooth V1.2 Class 2 Transmit power Supported Profiles Generic Access Profile Serial Port Profile Object Push Profile DUN (Dial-up networking profile) Hands-Free Profile Generic Object Exchange Profile A2DP (Advanced Audio Distribution profile) AVRCP (Audio/Video Remote Control Profile) HID (Human interface device profile) SAP BIP Activesync Profile 11-pin mini-USB 1.1 connector MicroSD Card Slot with Cover Included Accessories AC Adapter USB Sync/charge cable Stereo Headset with microphone Carrying case Included Software Windows Outlook Mobile: Calendar, Contacts, Messaging, Tasks Windows Push Mail (When used with appropriate Exchange server) Internet Explorer Mobile Windows Media Player 10 Mobile Picture & Video Viewer ActiveSync Client Pocket MSN (Hotmail, Instant Messenger) Calculator Voice Notes File Explorer MMS Client: MMS 1.2 supported Java Virtual Machine (J2ME. CLDC 1.1, MIDP 2.0) i-Mate Suite 30 Day trial CA eTrust Antivirus SIM Manager ClearVue PDF Viewer 3 i-Mate Games Interfaces Positioning Device: Touchscreen Navigation Pad/Jog: 5-way navigation block Expansion Slots: MicroSD, TransFlash Serial Connector: 115200bit/s USB Connector: USB 1.1 client, 12Mbit/s Infrared Gate: IrDA 1.2, 115200bit/s (SIR/CIR) Bluetooth: Bluetooth 1.2 Wireless LAN: 802.11b, 802.11g Wireless LAN Speed (max): 54Mbit/s GPS Module: Integrated Comparing the i-Mate JAQ3 to the HTC Hermes To effectively judge the size of the JAQ3, I've taken a couple of comparision pictures, what they don't show however, is that the JAQ3 although longer than the Hermes feels much better in the hand. From the position of the Scroll Wheel on the left and the right hand side connectivity ports, one can assume the device should be held in the left hand. Holding the device in the right hand means that the thumb naturally falls on the USB port and it's not entirely comfortable. The thinness of the JAQ3 is very obivious when positioned next to the Hermes. It's the slimest device I've had the pleasure of trying out. There is the very noticible lack of shirt-pocket bulge when the JAQ3 is contained within. Being also less weighty, I had to keep reassuring myself that it was still there! i-Mate have made a unique decision on the shell of the JAQ3, so confident are they in the stability of the OS and their software that they've hidden the reset button below the battery cover. This is the first time I've encountered a PocketPC without a reset button on the outside. The other buttons are positioned as follows. Left hand side - Scroll Wheel with Push-click Left hand side - OK/Start Menu Button Left hand side - Photo Button Right hand side - Power Button There is no dedicated notes button which for me is fine but it also means that there are less button customisations available for user configuration. The extension stylus is tucked neatly in the bottom right of the device, removing and inserting the stylus is not a trival task as it's held quite tight and the 'lip' is very small. However, you really don't need to worry about it too much, the device is made to be operated without the stylus and there were really very few tasks for which I needed to make use of it. Similarly, inserting a MicroSD card into the device requires considerable effort as the slot is held beneath a rubber cover making it difficult to push-lock the card in, or take it out. I was unable to insert the card using my fingers and had to rely on the 'lip' end of the stylus to fully insert the card. This also means that there is very little chance of accidently removing it and the addition of the rubber cover will help to keep dust out of the device. The JAQ3 is primarily a messaging device, it's market position is the same as HP's iPAQ 69xx devices in competition with the various Blackberry devices. The common feature among these is the fixed keyboard. The AKU version being 3.2 has a keyboard indicator in the notification area of the today screen, this shows either 123 or abc depending on the current input type. i-Mate have customised the control to allow numbers to be entered by default and pressing the FN key will return to text characters. This minor customisation makes using the JAQ3 very easy. The input will auto-switch depending on the current activity, so when messaging for example, the input switches to abc, from the dial-pad the input is 123. The keys themselves are well positioned and easy to manipulate while providing a good level of tactile feedback. All the most common characters are present with at most, two button presses required to access all keys - symbols are access by pressing the FN key first, followed by the symbol. The white backlight is activated when a button is pressed and effectively illuminates the entire keyboard making night-time or night-club texting/messaging an easy task. The keys are spaced enough to make using your thumbs a very simple feat. The shape of the keys is somewhat unusual in the way they are raised from the face of the device, while not triangular they do have a 'tip' that could possibly become uncomfortable with long messages. I didn't have any discomfort during my use however, and found the keys to be better than those on the iPAQ 6915. The position and size of the D-PAD make its use also very easy and much more comfortable than that on the Hermes which seems to have a smaller 'down' space. Likewise the OK, Windows, Messaging and Internet Explorer dedicate buttons have a seperate feel to them that makes their 'blind' selection effortless. The back of the device contains only the Camera lens and the battery cover. The camera lens is recessed enough to prevent accidental scratches which is again something that the Hermes can be susceptible to. The battery cover feels a little weak but it's firmly held in place. Removing the cover reveals the battery, the reset button, and SIM card slot. Beneath the battery are the various labels and serial numbers and also the model name of Pebble. The Screen I've already commented that I'm very impressed with the screen on the JAQ3. Its considerably smaller than the screen on the Hermes and this lends itself very well to the QVGA resolution. Additionally, this is the first landscape QVGA screen-enabled phone-edition device available. The screen can be rotated in 90 degree steps, so you can look at a portrait screen if you'd prefer although, I expect that in doing so you'd be looking at a specific application rather than for pleasure. I found that PDAMills Gamebox Solitaire II caused a funny flip on the screen where the game when loaded caused the screen to invert 180 degrees. Holding the device upside down to play the game isn't ideal but it did work. In my testing this was the only application that caused the inversion, luckily too as exiting the application caused the device to enter portrait mode and meant that you had to rotate the screen manually back into it's landscape operating mode. Headset Something that's become a real contention point on recent HTC device is the combined Sync/Audio port forcing the user to use the propietary headset. Thankfully i-Mate with the end-user in mind included a standard 2.5mm stereo headset with microphone for convience. Unusually the jack is on the right hand edge of the device and you must take care when choosing a case! The included slip-case has holes to allow the headset to be connected while stored. Trip through the Value-added software. When the device is first powered on, the usual screen calibration excercise needs to be completed, after which the customisation files are applied. i-Mate provide some nice add-ons within these customisations. Profiles 3 Games - Blackjack, Jam-Jammy and Pool Voice Commander 1 View Backup i-Mate configurator Club i-Mate email. CA eTrust Antivirus The profiles application in particular is very useful and it has a today screen plug-in too. It's easy to configure and easy to switch between the different modes without using the stylus. The Voice commander is very full featured and includes training facilities to improve on the voice recognition. i-Mate 1-View requires an active internet connection and account with i-Mate. It allows you to upload photos, music, videos, documents etc and enables access to these files from wherever you happen to be. Simiarly Backup is an online backup and restore tool enabling remote wireless data backup policies to be enabled for the device. i-Mate configurator detects your service provider and attempts to automatically configuire the available connections for GPRS service. This saves the user remembering or congifuring these settings manually. However, being as I'm in Ireland the configurator produced a warning that it didn't have the settings needed. Users of i-Mate devices can have access to an exchange enabled email account provided by i-Mate for those users that don't sync directly to their own Exchange infrastucture. While installing the customisations the Anti-virus product is not actually installed, rather an icon is placed in the programs folder allowing the end user to install the application if desired. This is a good example of i-Mate implementing customer requests. Currently the risk to WM5 devices from Viruses is very low and as such the overhead in running the anti-virus software can be avoided. Be warned though, that it's really only a matter of time until some serious and wide-spread harmful virus makes its entry and in that situation you'll be thankful for the inclusion of this software. Settings The settings applets on the JAQ3 are for the most part the same as any other device, there are a couple of unique items - Profiles and Voice commander. It is worth noting that as defaults 'Incoming Beams, 'Error Reporting' are turned off which serve to increase battery life and enhance device operation. The configuration of the profiles program is very easy, choose the profile, set the volumes, ring type and ring tone and press or tap the OK button. Its simplicity can be applauded but on the other hand the ability to rename the profiles or include BT or WiFi activation is unfortunately missing. The ROM and AKU3 The JAQ3 came with 'Microsoft Windows Mobile 5.0 with Messaging and Security Feature Pack, Microsoft Windows CE 5.1.422 (build 15633.3.2.0)', the '3.2.0' indicating that it has AKU3.2 loaded within the ROM. "AKU" stands for "Adaptation Kit Upgrade" and is a MS upgrade to the ROM that hardware manufacturers can apply to Windows Mobile devices. Quite often there is a large delay between the availability of the AKU to the manufacturer and an available ROM update being available. New soft boot logo Better integration of SIM / USIM contacts Alphabetic sorting of SIM / USIM contacts in contacts list view Improved 'Internet Sharing' Much improved quick start wizard with 'skip' for tutorial, settings setup at boot time vCards over SMS SMS Multiple Recipient improvements One handed PPC folder navigation improvements Windows Media Pplayer full screen video on all devices Smart-type search / dialing Large number of preconfigured Email providers (including GMail) Save SMS to SIM The Applications Looking at the applications in the screen shots here, there are the standard set of productivity applications including, tasks, calendar, contacts as well as the usual office mobile tools, word, excel, notes. The camera application however, has been customised and is completely different to that on the Hermes. The Camera The camera software included on the JAQ3 provides easy access to a range of functions including Photo modes, Zoom, Lighting, & digital effects. An easy 'always-available' brightness slider is present on the focus window too. Taking pictures is quick even at the highest settings and the results are 'ok' or almost identical to other devices in this range. i.e. they won't be replacing your digital camera anytime soon. Options for the camera may be changed from the menu and are immediately applied. The JAQ3 uses a new Wireless Manager allowing simple touch activation of the available services. Phone Bluetooth WiFi Additionally the settings for each can be accessed from the right-hand soft menu. WiFi support is present for both 802.11b and 802.11g connectivity, and when configured to my router provided good all round coverage even in spots where the Hermes lost connection. I found that fixing the router to 802.11b gave a greater range of coverage but this is likely down to my router. Bluetooth version 1.2 works as well as other devices running the Microsoft BT stack. My car connection was flawless and audio was clear and undistorted. Running a BT GPS connection was no trouble either and again the beautiful screen made naviagation very easy on the eye! Vodafone Services The Vodafone Services applet allows customisation of text alerts, phone services, inclusion for special offers and chat-based games. This is however a feature of the inserted SIM Card rather than a feature of the phone. When used with a different provider you may or may not see similar settings depending on the configuration of the SIM Card. Phone In using the phone for making and receiving calls I found the quality of the calls to be excellent and on par with the Hermes. There was no distortion on either end, I was however in a good signal area for the duration of my tests. I had no trouble making or taking calls while BT or WiFi were active either. Processor The i-Mate JAQ3 uses a Texas Instruments TI OMAP 850 processor (200MHz). The benefit of the processor at this speed is the increased battery life, however the disadvatage is in the responsivness of the device. Out of the box the device functions and performs well, it's when you add third party software that things get very slow very quickly. In a simple comparison test I used the built in file explorer to browse the windows folder on the device. This is the largest folder on any WM device and while not scientific, gives an indication to the performance. The out of box time to browse the folder was 8 seconds. When I installed a couple of third party applications this time increased to over 10 seconds. With this device I would be hesitant to use a memory manager and the task switching seems to be a lot quicker than reloading the applications. The available memory from first start was 41.4MB which is about standard on a 64MB RAM device. It's enough to load in the most taxing application and use task switching rather than effective closing. Conclusions 4WinMobile rating:- 85% I've used the JAQ3 for four days including push mail, wifi browsing and active BT in the car. In that time I've recharged the device once. That said, the JAQ3 struggles with loading programs into memory, this is something that may be addressed by a ROM update. Some reading I've done demonstrates that the processor is operating at 180MHz which apart from being below spec is also quite slow for a demanding user. I'd like to see 3G and a faster processor in this device, that would make it ideal for my use. Pros and Cons Pros Great Screen Slimness AKU3.2 Build Quality. Very good battery life (1250mAh battery) Value-Added software. Volume Voice Quality. Simple profiles program! Dust cover on the MicroSD slot. 2.5mm audio jack Cons No 3G. Sluggish Processor Weak Battery Cover Hard to insert and remove MicroSD card. Position of audio jack and USB connection.