i-Mate Jama 201

Every already in a while, you may acquisition yourself in a $2 shop, attractive at artificial junk. Somewhere in amidst the amaranthine little blooming army men, blatant ponies with baneful acrylic and clover Elvis mirrors, you'll apparently acquisition a affected adaptable buzz or two. Toys, afterwards all, accept to move with the times, and the accepted new bearing of kiddies can't be accepted to get by with braid and broiled bean cans forever.

Why are we bringing up affected adaptable phones in a analysis of a buzz that costs absolutely a bit more? Well, aloof as those affected adaptable phones attending somewhat like absolute mobiles but abridgement the analytical apparatus to accomplish them absolutely functional, the i-mate JAMA 201 looks all the apple like a able Blackberry-style smartphone — except that it's defective aloof about aggregate that you'd demand in a absolute smartphone. Sure, it's bargain — but it's aloof not acceptable abundant for a absolute purpose.

Design

So accepting accustomed what the JAMA 201's aggravating to do, it is account pointing out that it absolutely looks the allotment of a Blackberry-style smartphone, appropriate bottomward to the abounding QWERTY keyboard. Like best Blackberry clones, the keyboard is on the absolute baby side, but again there's alone so abundant key amplitude you can address to 113x63x14mm account of architecture space. Sadly, there's still a few flaws actuality as well. The amplitude bar is, alike for a smartphone, appealing baby whichisaproblemifyouwantoseparateoutyourwords. The keys additionally accept a audibly glossy feel to them, which makes it all too accessible to accelerate over the key you advised to columnist and mis-type.

The five-way directional pad and alternative keys aloft the keyboard accept the aforementioned glossy feel problem, and it took us a lot of accommodating alliteration to get acclimated to the actuality that alone the basal bisected of the alternative keys assignment with any affectionate of believability back selecting things. The USB adapter — for both charging and abstracts alteration — hides abaft a absolute solid elastic cap that is adamantine to remove. It was aggravating to accessible back we bare to, and we accept this activity it'll apparently breach off best JAMA 201s rather quickly, alike if alone accidentally.

Features

The JAMA 201 is a Windows Adaptable 6 smartphone active on a 300MHz Samsung processor with 128MB of ROM and 64MB of RAM. That's not a decidedly beauteous aggregate for active Windows Adaptable 6 applications, but the boilerplate account doesn't end there. Critically for a avant-garde smartphone, it lacks any affectionate of 3G connectivity; this is carefully a tri-band (900/1800/1900) GSM phone. The applied aftereffect of that? You charge to achievement and adjure that cipher sends you any decidedly ample emails, and browsing accelerated websites — like, for example, i-mate's own flash-heavy alms — is an exercise in acute patience. The JAMA 201 is Bluetooth capable, but has no built-in Wi-Fi. It has USB connectivity — but it's alone USB 1.1, continuing the apathetic theme.

Performance

If you've apprehend the appearance branch — and if you haven't, abashment on you for absence advanced — you're apparently not activity to be too abashed back we say that the JAMA 201's achievement was on the apathetic side. Both basal Windows Adaptable 6 applications, and alike the interface itself was slow, which you'd apprehend on such a abecedarian processor. In aggregate with the abridgement of 3G abstracts speeds, however, the 201 block into the annoyingly apathetic bracket for best of the pertinent applications you're acceptable to demand to use a smartphone for.

Like best smartphones, the absolute adaptable telephony allotment of the JAMA 201 is about an afterthought, with the dialling console actuality adequately baby and the built-in apostle absolutely tinny. As with best phones of this size, alive out optimal ear adjustment can additionally be a challenge. The JAMA 201 is rated with a array activity of up to four hours allocution time and up to 150 hours standby. On abstinent usage, we managed four canicule afore array levels got woeful, which is apparently at atomic partially a action of the lower ability requirements of GSM and the abridgement of Wi-Fi.

The JAMA 201 does represent a claiming to the smartphone bazaar in that it brings an apart Windows Adaptable 6 belvedere to bazaar for alone $489. It's aloof that in accomplishing so, it makes so abounding compromises, and strips so abundant out of what we'd demand from a absolute smartphone forth the way as to cede itself functionally redundant.