A new Phone Edition device that's barely larger than a Smartphone.
Not too long ago I swore off PDA-cell phone combos—the so called "convergent devices." They were too large and the battery life was too short. I opted for a non-Windows device—the Nokia N-Gage, Symbian Series 60 smartphone. It was a great phone, but entering data using its T9 input method was a chore. I yearned for a touch screen and more PDA functionality. Then I saw the JAM Phone Edition device from i-mate.
Small and beautiful
I'd seen pictures of the JAM online, but they don't do it justice. The JAM is a Pocket PC Phone Edition device, but what I pulled out of the box was smaller than my N-Gage smartphone and only slightly larger than my iPod. Finally, a convergent device that is roughly the size of other "candy-bar" style phones—I simply could not believe it! Plus, it features built-in Bluetooth.
I received my JAM from the i-mate phone store (http://www.imatephonestore.com). They included a T-Mobile SIM card to test it out. I have service through Cingular and was unsure of compatibility, as the JAM does not support the 850/800 band. I discovered that Cingular in my area (and others) runs on the 1900 band, which the JAM does support. Even though the phone says "roaming" when I tested it with my Cingular SIM, I did not incur roaming charges and the phone worked wonderfully. It ships with a carrying case, battery, charging cable, USB cable, headset, a Companion CD, and the standard manuals.
The single SDIO card slot is located on the top.
The mini-USB connectivity port, headset jack, soft reset, and microphone are located on the bottom edge.
The other thing that struck me was its sheer beauty. It has what appears to be a brushed aluminum case front and back, which matches my PowerBook perfectly. A rippled black plastic band goes around the edge, giving you enough traction to keep it from slipping out of your grasp. The clean and simple front has a blinking notification/charging LED above the screen, and four buttons surrounding a square directional pad below it. The top edge holds the SDIO slot. The left side has two more buttons preset to activate the camera and voice recording, with a volume up/down slider between them. The bottom has the soft reset hole, 2.5 mm headset jack, mini-USB port for both charging and syncing, and the microphone. The right side has the power on/off button, stylus, and IrDA port.
The JAM has a 2.8 inch diagonal color touch screen, smaller than the screen on most Pocket PCs, but with the same 320x240-pixel screen resolution. If you have eye problems and have trouble with small print, it's probably not for you. But if you've used Pocket PCs with the larger 3.5" screen without any problems, you'll probably find the size acceptable after a short amount of time. One other thing I noticed was that the screen required firmer taps than my Axim X30. This is not necessarily bad, but takes some getting used to.
Camera but no keypad
Printer-friendly version
