i-mate's Smartphone2 is eerily similar to other Smartphones, and with good reason. Read our Australian review.

There isn't much to distinguish the i-mate Smartphone2 from other Smartphones such as the O2 Xphone and the Optus Smartphone, and there's a good reason for this. Several companies market this phone under their own branding, and you may be familiar with it as the O2 Xphone, QTek 8080, or Orange SPV e200.

Telstra is the first carrier to offer the i-mate branded phone and Australia is the first stop in an Asia Pacific roll-out of the phone, distributed by Carrier Devices. In the box you get the phone, manual, a cradle, and AC adapter. The AC adapter can be plugged into the cradle, or directly into the phone with a supplied adapter. You also get a stereo headset, which can be used both for listening to MP3 music and for hands-free phone operation. As far as improvements go, more memory, Bluetooth compatibility, a camera and faster CPU distinguish this model from the original i-mate Smartphone.

The main reason you'd plump for this phone is probably its capacity to be used as a portable PC, with its capacity to synchronise with your Outlook email, calendar and contacts. Running on Windows Smartphone 2003 software, the tri-band phone carries an impressive storage capacity, with 64MB of Flash ROM and 32MB of RAM. The handset measures 120 x 50 x 23.5 and weights a hefty 130g, although that's pretty much par for the course for most PDA/phone hybrids. The 65,000-colour display (176 x 220 pixels) takes up a fair proportion of the front panel but the phone is smart looking if a little clunky.

A USB docking cradle links the phone to a Windows PC using the ActiveSync application. Bluetooth allows for wireless connections to headsets, PCs and other Bluetooth-enabled gadgets.  Other time filling features include downloadable games and applications, and the pre-installed Windows media player allows you to the transfer music files from your PC.

Other features are typical of what you would expect on a Smartphone and probably the only reason you would choose such a phone over something funkier, a bit smaller and perhaps less cumbersome. Applications include email and phone messaging, voice recorder, calculator, contact manager, calendaring, the Explorer browser, the previously mentioned Windows Media for playing videos and music files, and there's even solitaire if you want to pass a few idle minutes.

On the left hand side of the phone are the on/off button, a camera/voice recorder button, and the earpiece volume. At the lower half there is a port for an SD or MMC card to increase memory. The control buttons at the bottom of the screen include a five-way joystick, two soft keys and a button for answering and one for rejecting calls. Below these there is a button for returning back a page and one for returning to the home page.  The right hand side of the phone has a slot for hands free equipment and a stereo headset, which is bundled with the phone.

One minor gripe is that once you have switched on the phone it takes its time to boot and for you to get going--about 45 seconds. But the blue backlighting that greets you is attractive and softens some of the blow and, once in, navigation is pretty slick. Programs are accessed via a menu list, which show nine programs per page, and these can be accessed either by scrolling using the joystick or using the shortcut numbers.

The homepage is straightforward enough. The screen is divided into six main sections. From the top you see the battery life and signal, then a menu of most recently launched applications, time and date, appointments and missed calls, profile details and finally MSS, SMS, and email message alerts. You can sit all of this on top of an MMS photo you have taken.

Another gripe is with the SMS function. During our test period it proved impossible to find any way of using predictive text. You can insert predefined text which is found in the options section as you type an SMS. You can also save your own frequently used words and phrases which can be accessed by using a shortcut number. This process however is pretty time consuming for the serious texter.

Overall it's not a bad looking handset for the number of uses it has. The VGA camera has a 3X zoom for your snaps and short videos. The camera is decent, although lacks a flash, but has settings including dim, fluorescent, incandescent, and daylight. You can switch between the camera and video features easily, and both allow you to choose different light settings and effects.

The battery life of the i-mate Smartphone2 is stated at 90 hours standby, and the phone ran, with occasional use, for around 2 days before needing charging.

There isn't much that sets this apart from other Smartphones, it's probably just a question of where you can get the best deal if you want this level of functionality and, more specifically, Outlook synchronisation and Explorer on your mobile phone. For checking email on the move, occasional web browsing (using Pocket IE), and keeping check on your contacts and calendar, there isn't much wrong with this phone.

i-mate Smartphone2
Company: Carrier Devices
Price: TBA

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