iMate have pitched the JasJar at the mobile professional and clearly its main competitor has to be the Nokia communicator range, it's not a small device measuring 81 x 127.7 x 25mm and tipping our scales at over 285 grams. The closest real life object we can relate the JasJar to is the older Psion Series 5 palmtops, its a big heavy beast but it's aiming to stop you needing your laptop although so on that basis we'll forgive it's dimensions.

The heart of the iMate JasJar is a 520Mhz Intel processor which is paired with 128mb of RAM providing the engine for Windows latest incarnation of their mobile platform, this suits the 3.6" TFT screen will especially it's 640 x 480 pixel resolution. You can switch the interface between portrait and landscape modes at the press of a button or by rotating the pivoting screen as seen in most tablet PC's, however this does seem to take quite some time for the OS to sort itself out and resume normal operation.

Living with the phone for a week was a mixed bag, you get all the toys that the busy exec could wish for any using it in clamshell mode makes for a suitable small laptop replacement for sending a receiving emails and even browsing web pages, although we did find it best to use WAP designed pages. The inbuilt WiFi is a most welcome extra but we have to ask why it's only 802.11b and not .11g? Too much to ask for that extra speed? at least the iMate WiFi tool is easy to use and has a nice feature which disables the WiFi if its without signal for a pre determined time thus saving you battery.

Battery life was very impressive, we had feared that using the full feature set (WiFi and Bluetooth) would really dent iMates claimed 10 day standby and 8 hour talk time. However we managed around 2 days between charges with serious use of WiFi and leaving Bluetooth permanently switched on. using the JasJar as a normal mobile  we found that the Tri bands reception was good if not stunning and it managed to hold onto most calls giving an OK RF performance. Call quality isn't 1st class but more than ok, the weird thing we found was a 3 second delay when taking calls from flipping the phone open (or twisting it round) to actually answering the call, we thoughts that the 520Mhz processor would have been quicker than this.

The basic office mobility features work very well email is great when using iMates push email service and find yourself a WiFi hotspot and you could almost be sat in the office, the WiFi connection seemed to perform as well as most PDA's and our own WiFi card equipped iMate Jam, you can use WEP encryption too. The processing power of the iMate was plenty to play MP3 files while accessing a word document with an excel sheet open at the same time, the MP3 files were stored on an SD card which was tucked into the slot.

Using the JasJar keyboard proved easy and difficult at the same time, there is a full Qwerty keyboard but the keys are just too tightly packed together for anything more than 2 finger typing, that said we managed to get quite proficient and this is one of the few devices we've used where the stylus stayed firmly in its storage slot. The screen is a joy to use and the 180 degree swivel feature means you can find a comfy position to use it even when resting is those ergonomically challenging airline seats.

We had a play with a few other applications like the video calling, using a 3G network we were able to take advantage of the JasJar's 2 cameras, using the forward facing one we were able to have one of those wonderfully jerky video calls with a colleague. We also tried the Skype client that is pre loaded onto the device, strangely despite a number of attempts and trips to the settings menu we just couldn't get it to play ball, which is even stranger as our iMate Jam works a treat saving pounds by using data and VOIP instead of paying for roaming charges.

Like all Windows Mobile devices you can rely on either Bluetooth, Infrared or USB 1.1 and use active sync to push data, emails and services like Avantgo to your device, this does feel a bit like the dark ages but the mini USB jack can prove very useful. You can go wild customising your desktop and the complete look and feel of the interface and the revised version 2005 of the Windows OS is certainly one of the key selling points of the device, if only it was as stylish on the outside, we have to say its one of the plainer devices we've had in the office this year.

When you are shelling out £649 for your iMate JasJar you do have to think carefully about your needs and if you are willing to carry such a heavy device around with you. We certainly regretted having it when we only wanted a phone, its just not an option to take it on a night out or to tuck it into a jacket pocket, this is a bit of kit for the serious road warrior only or for those who are ditching that "travel laptop".

Overall iMate do have a winner here and one that we'd choose over the Nokia range, however there is a health warning, make sure you are prepared to cart it around before you buy!

More iMate Reviews

Published - 05/11/2005

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