You can see the MTekk IT Services First Look review here.

Thinking of purchasing one in Australia? We strongly recommend Press Digital. They are genuinely enthusiastic about these devices, and have a very strong committment to supporting their customers. This can't be said of many resellers of these devices, and they've certainly impressed us!

Known Problems

This list may not be complete - but should serve as a useful reference to some of the more serious problems we've noted. Other problems may be found and discussed in our Forums - why not pop in and ask?

GPRS doesn't disconnect after the timeout period (such as 10 minutes)
One user has had a Bluetooth hardware not present error, so there may be a few problematic units in the first batch.
Battery can discharge when connected to USB (if the battery is below a certain level)
Poor battery life caused by applications such as IA Caller ID. A ROM update will probably resolve this, but there are a few workarounds.
Some users have reported phone hangs, necessitating removal of the battery. It is unclear as to whether this may be a misbehaving application, but we've not experienced anything more than an application hang ourselves.
O2 XPhone (Chinese language version) still displays Bluetooth menu in Chinese when English is selected as the language
O2 XPhone (English language version) does not offer Chinese as a selection
On a hard reset of the O2 XPhone, O2 customizations and T9 text input are removed. There is a utility to permit recovery of these customizations and T9 Text Input here, but it's only for the Chinese language version.
O2 XPhone and unbranded (ie. non-Telstra) i-mate Smartphone2 ship without Australian provider settings. For O2 Xphone users, a utility to obtain these settings can be downloaded here.

Recommended Firmware

i-mate Smartphone2

The ROM update currently available for "i-mate Smartphone" on the Club i-mate and Carrier Devices websites is for the old model, and should not be applied to this phone.

There is now a ROM update available for the i-mate Smartphone2 at Club i-mate. Fixes reported by Carrier Devices are as follows:

Rom version: 1.10.15.2
Radio version: 1.16.00

Fixes

Improved Battery Life
Improved Audio Quality
Improved MMS client
Headset Bluetooth bonding improvements
Bluetooth Serial Port Profile support
Latest Service Pack 3 from Microsoft
Service codes added to Speed Dials
Call Waiting sound
Latest Radio version

As always, you need to be aware that the update will erase all your settings, installed applications, calendar, contacts, email, and miscellaneous. Ensure that you have synchronised before applying the update, and be prepared to reinstall any third party applications.

WARNING: Restoring your device using Sprite Backup for Smartphone or a similar product could potentially cause unexpected issues. We always recommend the "start from scratch" approach. However, should you choose to restore and have issues, the worst to expect is likely to be a need to "hard-reset".

You can login to Club i-mate to download the update, or try the following URL:

http://www.clubimate.com/Support/RUUv2.60Inst1.10.15.2_CDL_v1.11.15.32.zip

For Telstra i-mate Smartphone2 owners, you will probably want your Telstra customizations back; to do so, login to the Club i-mate site, and visit this page.

For Arabic language support, you can download the customizations here.

O2 Xphone

There are no updates currently available. It is not advisable to apply the Carrier Devices update as this may cause warranty issues; especially since HTC now appear to be trying to prevent flashing with older ROMs and ROMs from other providers. Should you choose to do so, you may render your device inoperable or be unable to change back to your correct ROM.

The i-mate Smartphone2 (aka Orange SPV e200, QTek 8080, HTC Voyager, O2 Xphone)