i-mate JASJAR Review
By recrem

The i-mate JASJAR is one of the Pocket PC giants, sporting an impressive VGA screen (480 x 640 pixels), 3G network compatibility and Windows Mobile 5.0.  This review has been a long time coming due to a previous ROM being very unresponsive and also appearing quite buggy.  After the latest ROM release, i-mate have asked me to have another look at the JASJAR and write my review based on this latest ROM.

What's In The Box

As with most Pocket PCs on the market, here is what you get:

• i-mate JASJAR
• 1620mAh Li-ion Battery
• Companion CD
• Pouch
• Mains Charger
• USB Mini Sync Cable
• Spare Stylus
• Instruction Booklets

Also standard is a 2 year warranty, which is a very nice addition to have and 24/7 technical support through Club i-mate.

Case

The JASJAR is only a tad wider and thicker than my old XDA II, but feels half as heavy again.  The JASJAR appears to have a nice brushed aluminium finish with a solid construction.  The clam shell like design gives it a micro laptop feel when the display is opened, and rubber feet on the underside help to grip on polished surfaces.

The display hinge has been well thought out and designed, and appears solidly constructed.  The unit that i-mate have sent to me has slight movement in the hinge where I would expect it to be fairly firm.  Since this is a review device, perhaps it has come into the hands of less gentle people than myself and the hinge has suffered slightly.  This would be the weakest part of the device, and if it were my own, I would be very careful of the hinge.  Another weakness of the hinge is the ingress of dust.  With the territory I cover from Dubbo, there is a lot of fine red sand / dust that I would be fearful of getting into the joint and damaging it over time.

I haven't had much experience with Pocket PC keyboards, but have had a play with a Palm PDA with keyboard.  I must say that the JASJAR keyboard is a joy to two finger type on.  This is a full qwerty keyboard with each key dome shaped to help the user find them in low light conditions.  When it is really dark, all the keys are backlit to make it even easier.

The VGA Touch Screen is absolutely amazing!  After playing with various applications including Excel and Word Mobile, Adobe Reader and OziExplorer, a whole new world of sensational screen real estate has opened up.  Most of my work documents can be viewed clearly and almost in full, on this screen.  My Excel spreadsheets display beautifully, and ClearView PDF does a great job displaying various schematic drawings and component overlays.  The biggest drawback on QVGA devices is how much of a document you can easily see.  Internet Explorer Mobile on a VGA screen makes surfing the net an enjoyable experience with much less scrolling than with a QVGA device.

The front edge of the unit houses the following buttons and controls: Stereo Speakers, Camera Button, Voice Recorder / Voice Recognition Button, Infrared Port, Backlight Button and Volume Slider Control.

The rear edge of the unit houses the other buttons and controls including: Phone Send / Speakerphone Button, Phone End Button ,Stylus and Stylus Slot, WCDMA  and GSM Car Antenna Connectors, Mini USB Charge / Sync Connector, Soft Reset Button and Earphone Jack.

The left edge of the device houses the Power Button and standard sized SD Card Slot.

Performance

I have been using the i-mate JASJAR every day now for around 4 weeks and have loaded all the software I rely on to see how it copes.  Some of the software used include:

• Code Wallet Pro

• Microsoft Voice Command

• OziExplorer

• Pocket Breeze

• Pocket Informant

• Skype

• Spb Weather

The first noticeable point is how darn big the VGA screen is.  All the Today Screen applications look nice and rich with detailed icons, text and so on.  All text is very easy to read on this screen whenever it is shaded from direct sunlight.

Since the initial test period when I had a play with this device back in February, i-mate have made many improvements to the performance of this device.  In February, the JASJAR was very slow and unresponsive and left me feeling quite disappointed in the device.  Due to the recent ROM upgrade the majority of issues have been fixed and the device feels quite responsive and seems to handle most tasks with ease.  MS Voice Command works well, as does Pocket Informant and OziExplorer.  Pocket Informant is a good program to test with as it seems to place a high load on the processor when loading and initializing.

Another point worth mentioning is that I haven't had any need to soft reset the JASJAR except when installing some software that requires a soft reset to complete the installation.  The operating system has proven to be quite stable.

Although the JASJAR is able to handle most tasks easily, I have noticed a lag in refreshing the Today Screen especially when Program Memory has only a few megabytes free.  Shutting down any programs that aren't used frequently helps minimize this lag.  Programs I like to keep running in the background include Pocket Informant and Excel Mobile.  The screen shot of the JASJAR memory below shows that with the above programs installed, there is a little more memory to play with.  Program memory quickly runs out when a few applications are running in the background and this is something to watch out for.  I would like to have seen a shortcut to the Running Programs screen as part of the ROM implementation as I find myself going to this screen often.

MEMORY

The JASJAR comes with stereo speakers along the front edge of the device and I have found listening to music through them to be a bit on the tinny side.  Music listened through the wired headphones sounds much better.

WiFi and Bluetooth work as expected.  I haven't had any problems connecting to WiFi networks at home or work and loading times for different web pages is on par with other devices.  The JASJAR doesn't natively support A2DP which I found to be a bit of a let down.  I tried testing A2DP with the BlueAnt X5 headphones and the only option I could select while pairing was hands free.

I have a Pocket PC DVD collection optimized for QVGA screens and when played on the JASJAR they are very tiny indeed!  Some movies appear to "stutter" on other devices but the JASJAR handles these segments with ease.  I am unsure how it would cope with movies optimized for a VGA screen though.

Where I live, we have no access to 3G networks so I have been unable to test out any of the 3G functionality including video calls or high speed data.

The last point I would like to mention is the battery.  With the VGA screen, backlight, 520 MHz processor and inbuilt phone, I have found that the battery lasts easily for two or three days of light use before it needs to be recharged.  I often spend a few days away in the field with work, and while testing the JASJAR, I haven't needed to pack the AC charger in my bag as the JASJAR can cope without problems.

Software

i-mate have added the following software to the standard features of WM5.0:

• Ring tone SW polyphonic MIDI ring tones SMF/ SP MIDI MP3, AAC, ring tone

• DirectShow Filter for WMP

• Camera / Camcorder

• Video Telephony

• ZIP

• Smart Dialing

• Pictures Enhancement

• T9 Phone Pad

• Wireless Modem

• Wireless data manager (UMTS/GSM/GPRS, Bluetooth,802.11b)

• MMS with video clip support

• DRM: OMA 1.0 engine

• Java virtual machine (J2ME, CLDC 1.1, MIDP 2.0,JTWI)

• PDF Viewer

The latest ROM release includes the messaging and security feature pack along with direct push for emails based on the Microsoft Exchange Server.

CALCULATOR

The Calculator is a standard WM5.0 inclusion and I have included a screen shot to show how it looks on a VGA screen.

CAMERA

The Camera application works fairly smoothly but is only 1.3 mega pixels in resolution.  The photo above shows that the picture quality is on par with other 1.3 mega pixel devices.

COMM MANAGER

The Comm Manager is an easy screen to control all the radio's on board the JASJAR.

EXCEL MOBILE

I love using Excel Mobile on the VGA screen as there is so much screen space to view the spreadsheet.  Excel Mobile is a standard WM5.0 feature and is a cut down version of the desktop application.

Phone

Once again, the phone is a standard feature of WM5.0 for phone devices and on the big screen dialing numbers with a finger is easy.  All phone calls made and received have been of a good standard, with audio quality sounding good both ways.  Reception of phone service is also on par with other devices.  The only part I don't like is when a call comes in, the JASJAR has to be opened to see who the caller is.  Taking a call while the JASJAR is closed feels unnatural so I began opening up the JASJAR, rotating the screen and taking the call in portrait mode.

SOLITAIRE

Solitaire is a standard WM5.0 card game that I like to play from time to time.  I have included a screen shot here to show how good the graphics look on a VGA device.

WORD MOBILE

Microsoft Word Mobile is another standard feature of WM5.0 and due to the large amount of screen available more of the document is visible on this device.  I have a few technical "cheat sheets" made specifically for the Pocket PC platform to help me with certain tasks while I am out in the field.