"Hope You Like JAMin, Too" (1/3)
i-mate JAMin Pocket PC Phone
- Bob Marley
INTRODUCTION
Ever since I bought the
JAMin I havn't been able to get that song out of my
head, but frankly, I'm mighty proud to be jammin'! The JAMin is the latest Pocket PC
Phone from i-mate. It's also known as the HTC
Prophet, Qtek S200, XDA neo, Dopod 818pro, and will
certainly take on a few other brands as other
carriers pick it up. Read on to see what grounds
this device is set to break!
WHAT'S HOT
The i-mate JAMin is a lot like the
original
i-mate JAM (HTC Magician). Some new additions
include 802.11b/g, Bluetooth 2.0, 200Mhz TI OMAP
CPU, 128Mb ROM, 64Mb RAM, 2.8" QVGA screen, Windows Mobile 5.0, and a
much improved 2MP camera. The JAMin also adds quadband GSM/GPRS
and EDGE similar to the
K-JAM it supercedes.
|
Device (no cover) |
Size (inches) |
Weight (grams |
ounces) |
|
i-mate JAMin |
4.18" x 2.31" x 0.68" |
150 | 5.30 |
4.40" x 2.30" x 0.90" |
180 | 6.40 |
|
|
4.80" x 2.88" x 0.76" |
186 | 6.56 |
|
|
4.60" x 2.79" x 0.82" |
165 | 5.82 |
|
|
4.25" x 2.28" x 0.93" |
160 | 5.64 |
|
|
4.92" x 2.81" x
0.71" |
210 | 7.40 |
|
|
4.18" x 2.31" x 0.68" |
150 | 5.30 |
|
|
4.70" x 2.90" x 0.70" |
175 | 6.20 |
|
|
4.60" x 3.21" x 0.58" |
138 | 4.80 |
|
|
5.17" x 3.03" x 0.59" |
187 | 6.60 |
|
|
4.50" x 2.80" x 0.64" |
158 | 5.57 |
Click on any of the above handheld links for the review.
WHAT'S IN
THE BOX
The JAMin comes with a Mini-USB cable, AC
adapter, stereo headphones with talk button/mic/volume
control, vinyl case, extra stylus, software CD and
manual.
(all images link to higher resolution)
THE DEVICE
Let's take a closer look at the device
itself.
Black is the new silver! The JAMin's body is encased in a hard rubber non-slip black shell. Very stylish, and very comfortable.
The JAMin's form factor is the same as the original JAM. You still can't beat this "smallest Pocket PC" form-factor for pocketability!
The 11 button navigation area at the bottom of the JAMin is the best design I've ever seen on a Pocket PC Phone. All future Windows Mobile devices should have this hardware button layout. It's by far the most user-friendly for one-handed navigation. (The Treo 700w also has a similar layout.)
On the left side you see the Camera button, volume slider button, Communications Manager button, and a lanyard hole. If you hold down the Communications Manager button, it will activate another custom function who's default assignment is the voice recorder.
At the top, you see the SDIO slot. Yes, that's right it's regular SD, not the new Mini SD or Micro SD memory slots found in other phones. That means you can still put a nice 4GB SD memory card in here for all your music and movies.
On the right side is the infrared port, power button, and the stylus silo. If you hold down the power button for about 4 seconds, the JAMin will bring up a Yes/No dialog asking if you want to continue with a full power off. If you choose Yes, it will shut the device off completely, meaning it won't use the battery at all. That means the device won't wake up for appointments, phone calls, emails, text messages or anything until you turn it back on and boot up.
On the bottom of the device is the soft reset button, Mini-USB port, 2.5mm 4 connection headset jack, and a microphone hole.
On the back is a reflection mirror, speaker grill, external antenna port, and 2 Megapixel camera lens. The ring around the camera lens can be rotated to switch it to macro mode for close-up photos.
Here's the JAMin with my Bluespoon 5G; still the world's smallest Bluetooth Headset. I was pleasantly surprised when using my bluetooth headsets with the JAMin. The bluetooth connections seem to be very much improved. Where Bluetooth headset connections would get significant interference when turning your head or going behind a wall on other i-mate devices, Bluetooth connections on the JAMin are practically flawless. I can actually use a bluetooth headset while in a different room! By the way, the bug we saw in the K-JAM where activating Voice Command via a bluetooth headset won't work if the device is in suspend mode is fixed in the JAMin. Yes, if the JAMin is in suspend mode in my pocket, I can now activate Voice Command via the Bluetooth headset with doing any registry hack.
The i-mate JAM, K-JAM and JAMin are similar in size, but the K-JAM is significantly thicker, as it has a slide-out keyboard.
In our stack-up, you can see how thick the K-JAM is on the bottom. The JAM and JAMin are exactly the same thickness.
The stereo headphones included are the same ones that come with the i-mate K-JAM. The Talk button, volume control slider, and microphone are on an in-line plastic piece lower down the cord. There's also a little plastic clip that attaches the two headset wires together. This can be used to go around your neck and keep any tugging pressure off the ear buds headphones. (Note the name of the song playing in Media Player, click to zoom if neccessary.)
