 "i-mate SPL")
Phones have been getting slim and stylish and phones have been getting smart, but there aren’t too many smartphones out there that are really slim and stylish. i-mate’s Smartflip can come close, but it isn’t without its share of problems. The new SPL smartphone looks good, but does it fit the bill?
Indeed, the SPL is very SLVR-like. It’s slim, and around 12mm, it may be one of the slimmest Windows Mobile smartphones out there, behind the Motorola Q. It has a glossy, piano black finish unlike the SLVR or the RAZRs. The glossy surface is quite a fingerprint magnet, but it can be wiped clean with your jeans or something, so personally I never have any problem with this kind of a finish. The device feels a little heavy at around 106gm.
The keypad on the SPL is also very SLVR-like with a similar look, including the blue blacklight. It’s flat and offers good tactile feedback, but the demarcations on this keypad are a little too flat and flush with the surface. This makes it a little difficult to handle without looking at the phone, like while driving or so. The keys are wide enough, but they aren’t too high, and their close proximity to each other is also a problem. The navigation pad’s direction keys are small, and you might end up clicking the Internet Explorer or the ‘2’ button instead of clicking up or down. Typing SMS was also not a very pleasant experience.
The display is fairly large at around 2.2 inches. The 65k-color QVGA display makes the text looks extremely fine and crisp, but the icons still have jagged edges as if it’s a 176x220 display. It’s bright and vivid in closed environments, but in sunlight, the display goes dull and is almost unreadable.
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A couple of years ago, the Sagem myS-7, a Windows Mobile 2003 phone, that I couldn’t stop raving about because of the speed of the UI. Windows Mobile 2005 on the SPL is the exact opposite. It’s slow. It’s old Series 60 slow.
Above the display, you’ll see the ear-piece of the SPL. It’s positioning to the extreme right of the phone will make you fiddle with the phone around the ear trying to look for the perfect position to get the best volume. In most cases, you won’t find it. Even the loudspeaker on the SPL isn’t loud enough.
Software support on this Windows Mobile 5.0 smartphone is very standard affair with your Windows Media Player, Internet Explorer Mobile, Pocket MSN, and Outlook Mobile. The messaging/email client works well, doing POP3/IMAP also, but Internet Explorer is no match for the new Series 60 3rd Edition web browser.
The SPL has a 2 megapixel digital camera. The cam takes out average quality photos. It doesn’t have any auto-focus mechanism, nor does it have a flash for night shots. Even video recording isn’t up to the mark with really low frame rates.
The phone runs a TI OMAP 720 processor at 200MHz. The OS is Windows Mobile 5.0 Smartphone Edition AKU3. There’s around 64MB of RAM in the phone and 128MB of ROM. There’s also a miniSD memory card slot, however, isn’t hot swap. SDIO is also supported.
The device is also a tri-band GSM phone with GPRS support, but no EDGE. Bluetooth is stuck at v1.2 and even USB is stuck at 1.1. There’s no USB Mass Storage support so you can’t drag and drop files onto the device directly. You need ActiveSync or sync it via Windows Media Player.
Speaking of USB, the device – like most WinMo phones – has a standard miniUSB slot which is used for data transfer as well as recharging. The battery life of the SPL was not too good – I don’t talk too much on the phone and even then I could stretch it out to a maximum of two or three days, and that’s on the higher side.
The i-mate SPL costs Rs. 16,500, which is high for a device with so many issues with ergonomics, performance and tech specs. If you’re looking for a sleeker smartphone, get the E50. If you’re just looking for a sleek phone, stick to the SLVR L7.
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| i-mate SPL
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| **Street Price |
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