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Pocket PC Phone Reviews i-mate JAM Pocket PC Phone Editor's rating (1-5): Discuss this product Where to Buy Check out the i-mate JAMin, the Windows Mobile 5 follow-up to the JAM Reviewed June 20, 2005 by Lisa Gade, Editor in Chief Why is it that some of the sweetest phones never make it to the US? The XDA II comes to mind, which was both hugely popular overseas and quite powerful as a Pocket PC and a phone. Now the i-mate JAM (code named HTC Magician, and sold by T-Mobile Germany as the MDA Compact and by o2 as the XDA II mini) has taken every market by storm except the US where no carrier offers it. Fortunately, the device is offered by a few importers in the US, and we received ours from David Weiniger's playfully named Mad Monkey Boy's Gadgets online store, a reasonable and reputable importer. Indeed, thanks to importers, the JAM is enjoying a good deal of success in the US even without carrier support or subsidy. What is the JAM? It's the smallest Pocket PC phone to date, being similar in size to the palmOne Treo 650 and much smaller than the Siemens SX66. Though it lacks those competitors' built-in keyboard, it does have a reasonably fast processor, Bluetooth, an SD slot and a camera. If you're not a constant emailer or SMS hound, the JAM could work well for you. It's available in two GSM tri-band versions: 850/1800/1900 MHz for the US (particularly for Cingular and AT&T users) which we received for review and an 900/1800/1900 MHz version for Europe, Asia and largely T-Mobile users in the US (we'll cover bands in detail later).   Features at a Glance The JAM runs Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition, has a 416 MHz processor, 64 megs of RAM, Bluetooth, and SD slot supporting SDIO and a 1.3 MP digital camera. Since the device is small, the display area is only 2.8" diagonal rather than the more common 3.5" screen used on other QVGA Pocket PCs. In the box you'll find the unit, 2 styli, USB sync cable, world charger, stereo headset, black nylon belt clip case, software CDs and manual.

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Design and Ergonomics

The i-mate JAM is a small and curvy creature, with strongly rounded corners that put a new face on generally rectangular PDA designs. It is significantly smaller than any other Pocket PC Phone Edition model currently on the market and is small by PDA standards. As phones go, it is large— though not impossibly so. It will fit in most pockets, and though larger than many current feature phones or MS Smartphones (those are the ones that run Windows Mobile Smartphone edition, not Pocket PCs), it is not awkwardly large or ungainly.

The JAM's clean, minimalist look is appealing and it won't strike terror in the hearts of techno-newbies who might be overwhelmed by a plethora of buttons and controls. The display dominates the front face, with the earpiece slit centered above the screen, and a lower control cluster at the bottom, comprised of a 5-way directional pad surrounded by call send and end buttons and calendar and contacts buttons. The SD slot is on the top edge, the power button on the right edge, while the camera, voice recorder and volume slider are located on the left side. Though quite small, the side buttons are easy to operate, and the slightly domed front buttons have good ergonomics. The mini USB sync port (same as used by the Audiovox SMT5600) is located on the bottom, as are the 2.5mm headset jack, reset hole and mic. Both the charger and sync cable connect to the sync port and thus you'll only be able to use one at a time, though the JAM does support USB charging so you can top up the battery via the sync cable.

The i-mate JAM has a metal casing with a light silver finish and a black ridged band surrounding the sides, which makes it easy to hold. The finish doesn't show fingerprints, and is attractive. The camera lens and self portrait mirror are located on the back of the unit, as is the battery door. The SIM card lives in a slot under the battery. When you remove the rear battery door, the unit automatically shuts off.

Horsepower and Performance

While not the fastest Pocket PC on the block, the JAM has a respectable Intel XScale PXA272 processor running at 416 MHz. That's the latest, greatest PDA processor from Intel, with the fastest Pocket PCs such as the Dell Axim X50v and HP iPAQ hx4700 running the 624 MHz version. So 416 MHz isn't the fastest you can get, but it is very fast by Pocket PC Phone standards, which need step down on processing power a bit in order to increase battery runtimes (no one wants a phone that lasts only a half day). The processor compares well with the 400 MHz Siemens SX66 (aka XDA IIs and MDA III) and trounces the HP iPAQ 6315's 168 MHz TI processor. And the JAM beats out the Siemens SX66 and iPAQ in video playback!

The JAM has 64 megs of RAM, 57.41 megs of which is available for your use, and 64 megs of flash ROM, 7.60 megs of which is available. You can use the SD slot to increase memory using SD memory cards, and you can use a variety of other cards such as SD WiFi, 56k dial up modem and more since the JAM supports SDIO. SanDisk's SD WiFi card works well with the JAM, as does their SD WiFi + 256 meg memory card.

Mad Monkey Boy's Gadgets also sells the PocketPCTechs.com 128 meg upgraded model, for those of you who can't survive with so little built in memory. We received this model for review as well and the additional memory was more than welcome. Though RAM consumes power even when the device is turned off, we found that the 128 meg version had only 10% less runtime than the standard version. The folks at Pocket PC Techs have a well-deserved good reputation and we heartily recommend this model for power users. Do keep in mind that the upgrade will void the manufacturer's warranty however. Mad Monkey Boy sells both GSM versions of the JAM with the 128 meg upgrade for $190 more than the standard JAM.

Phone Features and Reception

The JAM is an unlocked GSM device which means you can use it with any carrier's SIM. If a phone is locked, as are most sold directly by US carriers, it can only be used with a SIM from the carrier who sold you the phone, and not a competing carrier's SIM. Since the JAM is unlocked, you can switch SIM cards and carriers any time you wish and as frequently you wish. The JAM comes in two flavors, varying only in the GSM bands supported. The 900/1800/1900 MHz version is great for use in Europe (primarily 900 MHz), Asia (primarily 1800 MHz, but some 900 MHz) and in the US where T-Mobile is the largest 1900 MHz band GSM carrier. If you use T-Mobile and also travel the world, this is the model for you. If you are an AT&T or Cingular customer in the US, you'll likely want to opt for the 850/1800/1900 MHz model we received for review. While these carriers do use the 1900 MHz band, they also heavily rely on the 850 MHz band (which incidentally provides much better indoor reception than 1900 MHz). This means you'll get the best US coverage with the 850 MHz model, though the drawback is you won't get very good reception in Europe and parts of China where 900 MHz is used heavily. How unfortunate that the JAM (and many other high end phones) aren't quad band, offering all four bands currently used around the world!

Reception is strong with the JAM, bested only by some Nokia models and the GSM Treo 650 which have the very strongest RF. The phone has held a signal in relatively weak reception areas, and maintained both connection and call clarity. Both incoming and outgoing voice quality are excellent, though incoming voice volume isn't as loud as some other Windows Mobile Pocket PC phones like the Siemens SX66, Samsung i700, Audiovox PPC-6601 and XDA II (also designed by HTC). The phone's volume is certainly adequate and compares well to other recent GSM phones on the market, but nothing beats the incredible volume of the other Pocket PC phones.

Like all Pocket PC phones, the JAM has a large on-screen dialer application with numbers that are large enough to dial using a finger. This screen has a call send/end button, a speed dial button, call history button and a hold button that appears when in a call. You can mute a call by tapping on the mic icon in the task bar, bring up the address book by tapping the Contacts icon and open Notes if you wish to jot down notes or drawings when in a call. You need not tap out phone numbers using the on-screen dialer, and instead can make calls with one press using the speed dial function. Speed dial can hold up to 99 numbers (1 is assigned to voicemail), and if you wish to use voice dialing you can purchase Microsoft's Voice Command. I-mate has customized the standard dialer screen, adding a small window that mimics a standard cell phone LCD. When you begin to tap in a number, it shows the nearest 3 matches in Contacts, and you can tap on a match, then press the on screen call button to dial quickly.

The phone comes with IA applications that not only manage the camera but handle picture caller ID and distinctive ring. The Windows Mobile OS doesn't currently offer distinctive ring (setting a desired ring tone to a specific contact) so it's great that HTC had added this feature to the Magician.

All Pocket PC Phones have flight mode, and the JAM is no exception. Simply tap on the signal strength meter on the menu bar and select flight mode to turn off all wireless features. You can still use the PDA functions when the device is in flight mode. The device has a speakerphone. To activate it, press and hold the call send button for a second or two when already in a call. The speakerphone is not terribly loud compared to other phones however. If you prefer a headset, the device will automatically route calls to the included stereo earbud headset when attached, and mute MP3 or video playback when a call comes in. You may also use Bluetooth headsets with the device, though voice dialing is only supported when using the phone or a wired headset, not a Bluetooth headset (this is currently true of all Pocket PC phones except the HP iPAQ 6315).

The phone has class 10 GPRS for data which provides throughput around 45k on average in our area. We wish it had EDGE (so far a no-show on Windows Mobile phones) but alas it does not. Given the screen resolution and rendering capabilities of Pocket Internet Explorer and third party web browsers, a faster data connection would be ideal to speed up page load times which can approach 20 seconds for a desktop optimized web site.

When you launch Pocket IE or your favorite 3rd party web browser such as NetFront, the device will automatically make a GPRS connection. As with other Windows Mobile 2003SE phones, it will maintain that connection even when you're done using the Net or have powered off the phone. Don't worry, the connection is dormant and won't eat up data unless you have the phone scheduled to connect to the Net to check email or ActiveSync wirelessly on a schedule. To manually disconnect from GPRS, simply tap on the data icon at the top of the Today Screen and tap on disconnect.

Battery Life

The i-mate JAM has a user replaceable 1200 mAh Lithium Ion polymer battery. The battery lives under a large door on the back of the unit and when you slide that door down and off, a switch automatically turns off power to the PDA, ensuring that your data remains intact when you swap the battery. This does mean that each time you remove the battery door, even if you don't take out the battery, the unit will soft reset (reboot).

The battery capacity isn't terribly high by Pocket PC phone standards, but the JAM does use less power due to its smaller display (the display is one of the biggest power consumers) and because the unit has 64 rather than 128 megs of RAM like the Siemens SX66. RAM uses power even when the device is turned off, hence less RAM means longer battery life. The JAM made it through a day of active use which included 40 minutes of phone calls, an hour of surfing the web, playing a few video shorts and listening to MP3s (screen off) for an hour. If you're a heavy PDA and phone user, you'll likely charge the JAM each night, whereas light users might manage an every other day charging regime.