Features
The I-mate Jaq3 offers a number of improvements over the Jaq as well as some proprietary apps to differentiate it from other Windows Mobile Pocket PC phones. First, as we noted in the beginning, the Jaq3 runs Windows Mobile 5 (Pocket PC Phone Edition) and not the latest Windows Mobile 6, so you'll miss out on some of the cool enhancements like e-mail search and the new Calendar ribbon. You do get the full Office Mobile Suite, including Word Mobile, Excel Mobile, and a PowerPoint viewer. ClearVue PDF is onboard if you need to view PDFs.
Outlook Mobile comes with the Jaq3 as part of the Office Mobile Suite and supports Microsoft's Direct Push technology for real-time e-mail delivery. I-mate includes its own e-mail client, which you can set up via the phone's Club I-mate e-mail app. Instant, text, and multimedia messaging are all supported.
In addition to these apps, the Jaq3 also ships with the I-mate Suite, which provides productivity and security tools to the business user and a solution that allows IT professionals to manage the device. There are three apps in total: I-mate 1-View for remote access to your desktop or network; I-mate Backup for remotely backing up data and; I-mate Control so your company's IT department can remotely configure or troubleshoot the Jaq3. There are a couple of other extra utilities and PIM tools, such as an eTrust Antivirus app, a calculator, a voice recorder, and a download agent.
The I-mate Jaq3 is a quad-band phone so globe-trotting execs will be able to use the mobile overseas. The address book is limited only by the available memory (the SIM card holds an additional 250 contacts) and is quite robust. You can store up to 11 numbers for a single entry as well as home and work addresses, e-mail, IM screen name, birthday, and spouse's name. For caller ID purposes, you can pair a contact with a photo, a caller group, or one of eight polyphonic ringtones. You also get a vibrate mode, a speakerphone, conference calling, voice dialing, and a SIM manager.
The wireless options are improved on the Jaq3, namely it now has integrated Wi-Fi (802.11b/g). The Wireless Manager immediately found our test access point, and we were able to connect and start surfing the Web in seconds. Bluetooth 1.2 is still onboard with support for a number of profiles, including A2DP for stereo Bluetooth headsets, hands-free kits, object exchange, and dial-up networking (DUN) so you can use the Jaq3 as a modem for your laptop. There also is an Internet Sharing utility in the Programs menu that can help you set up the device for DUN capabilities, either via USB or Bluetooth. Unfortunately, there's no support for 3G, though it does operate on EDGE networks.
The final enhancement is the addition of a 2-megapixel camera with video-recording capabilities and a 4x zoom. There's no flash, but there are brightness settings and a choice of five environment settings (auto, daylight, fluorescent, tungsten, or night). Other editing options include different effects, three quality settings, and seven resolutions. However, videos only have one resolution option, but you can set the recording length to 15 or 30 minutes or to the limit of available memory. Onboard memory is limited at about 60MB for user storage, so save these types of files onto a microSD card. Photo quality was disappointing as images looked slightly blurred and the colors were dull.
Performance
We tested the quad-band (GSM 850/900/1800/1900; GPRS/EDGE) I-mate Jaq3 in San Francisco using Cingular service, and call quality was pretty poor. There was a noticeable hiss as we were talking to our friends, so much so it was quite distracting, and our callers said we sounded crackly and muddled--not good. Activating the speakerphone actually helped clear things up on the other end as friends said the audio was better, but we thought they sounded far away and had a hard time hearing them. The one bright note is we had no problems pairing the phone with the Logitech Mobile Traveller Bluetooth headset.
General performance was subpar. The smart phone is powered by a 200MHz processor and there's only about 20MB free to run programs, so when we had numerous applications open, the device slowed to crawl. Also, the screen froze on us several times, and we had to power the handset off then on again to get back on track. Web browsing on the Jaq3 was fairly quick with EDGE speeds, though we would much prefer 3G. Multimedia performance also was pretty bad. Songs played through the phone's speakers sounded weak and lacked bass; however, plugging in the included headset definitely improved the situation and could stand in for your MP3 player if you're in a pinch. Video playback was choppy, and the audio and video rarely synced up.
The I-mate Jaq3's battery is rated for 4 hours of talk time and up to 6 days of standby time. In our tests, we were able to get 4.5 hours of talk time on a single charge.
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