After having an Xda II, which came with a desktop cradle, it was a foreign concept for me to not get one with my JasJam. Considering I continuously sync with my works calendar, contacts and email, it wasn't long until I ordered a third party one off the Internet.

A couple of weeks ago Mr Gadget offered me a review unit of his new Mr Gadget iMate JasJam/Dopod 838 Pro Desk Cradle Charger, which I believe are unique in design, having the Device in a landscape orientation so that the keyboard can be exposed. I obviously jumped at the chance and so here is my review after 2 days use.

In The Box

The unit I received came wrapped in bubble wrap, and included the following:

• The cradle with permanently attached USB cable.

• An A/C power adapter with mini USB end.

• A stylus.  
  

     

The cradle felt solid, much more so than the other cradle I have. The power adapter is the first I have found that actually charges my JasJam when it's screen is on so I was stoked with that. The stylus is a clear plastic, which at first seemed tacky to me but I soon realized the purpose of its design.

Using the Cradle

There isn't much that you can do to put a cradle through it's paces, however, there are characteristics to look for. This cradle holds the JasJam nice and tightly, and accurately guides the device to the connector. It normally takes me a while to get used to placing a device into its cradle but this one comes together beautifully.

When docked, you can easily press the buttons without the cradle sliding around or device twisting on the connector, which is a major problem with upright cradles. With the screen slid open, you can easily control the device with the keyboard and punch out SMS', emails etc.

One problem I encountered was that the Jog Wheel can be scrolled and pressed while sliding the deice in and out, which can be annoying but nothing major. I wonder if it will be fixed on future revisions?

When plugged into USB or AC power, there is a blue LED that glows quite bright. The clear plastic stylus fits in over this LED and so the stylus glows blue, which looks brilliant especially in darker rooms. The stylus can be easily removed and used on the screen when you need it. It isn't meant as a replacement to the device stylus, rather it is a stylus that is handy without removing the device from the dock to get at the real stylus. I did find that the stylus fits quite loosely in the hole, however, this could be intentional.

I did find that the angle of the device was a little too shallow, so the screen was a little hard to read at times, but if it was any more upright, you would probably find that when you pressed the keyboard, you would just nudge the cradle around your desk.

Improvements

Aside from removing the extra plastic from around the Jog Wheel I have two extra ideas to improve the cradle:

1. Remove the permanently attached USB cable and instead provide a USB to mini-USB cable. This would remove the extra wire dangling behind when in carge only mode.
   
2. Add some kind of magnet to the cradle so that the reed-switch is triggered without having to open the keyboard to orient the screen in landscape mode. I don't think this would have a detrimental effect on the device since it is using flash memory and the leather case provided with the JasJam does infact trigger the reed-switch (accidentally).

Conclusion

I found the Mr Gadget JasJam cradle to be much better for my scenario than the other cradle I have. I found I could use my device much more when I was connected with this cradle, including sending short emails and web browsing. Despite the one issue with the Jog Wheel I am very happy with the cradle and so it gets a fantastic 9/10.

The i-Mate JasJam/Dopod 838 Pro Desk Cradle Charger is available from MrGadget.com.au for the price of $59.95 and is fully compatible with other HTC Hermes devices including the Xda Trion and HTC TyTN.