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"Great device for the road warrior" on by agent00111
Pros: Size, battery life, wm5.0, wifi, bluetooth, 6button + d-pad layout, mini-USB port
Cons: no stereo speakers, camera speed
Summary: I have had my Jamin now for over a month, and have used it overseas in several countries. Because of the small size, if you put a screen protector on it, and then put it in a silicon case, you can just slip it right in your pocket just like a cell phone.. no need for a belt clip.
The battery life is excellent, I have yet to fully drain the battery, and with wm5.0, I know I can drain it all the way down without having to restore a backup.
The battery life is at the expense of performance. If you were using a PDA with a faster processor the Jamin may seem slow. If you previously were using a slow processor (I was using HP 6315), the performance will be just fine. I do overclock this to 240 for GPS and Skype applications.
Bluetooth is great, pairs with my BT headset just fine and works really well with Stowaway BT keyboard. Wifi is great for using Skype at hotspots.
The two extra buttons for softkeys helps perfect navigation while touching the screen as little as possible.
Having a mini-usb port is perfect for on the go. All I need is a standard USB/mini-USB cable, same that I use for other electronics. This also means that I can use off-the-shelf battery extender as well.
The camera speed is slow, I seem to be always taking a picture a second after I hit the button.
All in all, this is a great device. It is very professional in appearance, and has the form factor that is closer to a cell phone.
It will certainly get better with future ROM releases (all PDA's do). I'm using latest ROM version (with AKU2) and I've only seen it freeze twice in one month, I think that's about par for handhelds.
Me personally, I want the battery life because I can get more use between charges, and sometimes I can't charge for a few days. The performance is adequate enough to run all the apps I use on a frequent basis.
One other note: I think the specs say that this is a transreflective screen, if it is, it does not work very well in direct sunlight. But to it's credit, the display is very bright when indoors. -
"A very complete design with a few flaws" on by keithkegley
Pros: Great communications (Wi-Fi, GSM, Bluetooth), great size & weight
Cons: Slow processor, screen drifts out of alignment
Summary: I've had a PDA phone in one form or another for the past 8 years. I like having all that functionality in my hand, to carry around data, browse the web, play a game, do work, grab a snapshot, sms friends or to listen to music. I had the I-mate JAM for a year, and got the JAMin as soon as it was available. It's a great product, the best so far for what I like to do. It's a pitty the OMAP processor is so much slower than the one in the JAM. It IS noticeable and means I have to be patient when loading up new applications or switching contexts often. I've found some great utilities like MemMaid and AEBPlus that keep the system running smoothly or accelerate getting things done. In particular Microsoft's VoiceCommand is probably the single best productivity utility for a smartphone/PDA and works well on this device...even with the slow processor (I've had to slow down to match speed which happens to increase the recognition success). The only glitch I've not been able to solve is an infrequent screen alignment drift that requires a reboot to clear. I found a utility that reboots the device every night at 3am and diminished that problem to a slight nuisance. Overall I think this is currently the most usable, most functional, most capable PDA/phone. I often use it with a Bluetooth keyboard and usually don't need to bring my laptop since I've got everything I need in my pocket. I love that!
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"Approaching perfect convergence" on by adamlegge
Pros: Great size, PDA useability
Cons: Disappointing call quality
Summary: In the UK we're lucky to have a carrier for the i-mate jamin. Orange offer it as the SPV M600 and I got it for free on upgrade. I was using a Sony Ericsson p910i which was a great PDA/phone but this is a lot better. New to Windows Mobile which is incredibly easy to use and fits perfectly with this phone. No keyboard is a minor drag and it took my a while to get used to a new handwriting recogniser but these are minor quibbles.
No 3G but Wi-Fi works great and even viewing simple webpages works fine with GSM- great screen.
Poor call quality is the only downside I've found so far- tinny and quite quiet compared to my previous phone.
Plus make sure you buy a (Proporta?) screen protector if you're going to be using the stylus a lot. -
"A great combination PDA and Phone" on by entmac
Pros: Small, does it all. I've had them all and this is the best so far.
Cons: Could have better speaker, on front of device.
Summary: This device is finally the best marriage of phone and touch screen PDA. It is not much bigger than my RAZR in its case and so much more functional. The only drawback besides the price ($649) is the speaker on the back of the unit. Overall no better Pocket PC phone on the market. Works great as a phone. Cingular will probably take 2 years to adopt this!!
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"Don't buy this product, it is not mature yet!" on by apang11
Pros: Can't wait to return the product
Cons: Too technical to use and too much headache
Summary: I was an O2 Mini user in last 13 months and I just bought this product 5 days ago.
I will talk (may compare with O2 mini) with JAMin in sections below:
Support: The document said JAMin supports MS Office & Outlook 2000, in fact, the calendar sync is not working at all. The support guys just ask me to upgrade my MS Outlook 2000 to 2002 or above. Unfortunately my workplace can't do this just because of my device. Also, the support persons are not easy to be contact (even on-line).
Accessories: It is less than O2 mini for sure, I can't believe that there is no memory card to come with it. Only the ear-piece is better than O2.
OS and Software: At this point, I am not sure are they the JAMin problems or Windows Mobile 5.0 issues. This device always experiencing in freezing (few times a day) and I have to do the soft reset at all time. Also, the sync with ActiveSync is much slower than O2.
Hardware: It is much slower than what I am expecting. When you use the stylus to hit the keyboard, it takes 2 seconds to pick up the words.
Overall: I regret to buy JAMin, I should stay with my O2 mini even it has no wi-fi. I personally think rated 9 or 10 is over-rated (sorry, I don't mean to challenge you guys). Anyway, I would like to hear others' opinions.
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