New from i-mate: Ultimate, JAQ4 and SPL

I-mate has announced a new range of Windows Mobile powered devices including the Ultimate range, the JAQ4 and the SPL (no relation to the Scottish Premier League apparently).

First the Ultimate range, the premier collection in the i-mate product list, features five devices that share common specifications but different designs. Due to go on sale from the mid point of this year these business centric phones boast Windows Mobile 6, WiFi, touch VGA screens, 2.0 mega pixel cameras and XGA video outs.

The JAQ4 will beat the Ultimate range to be the first i-mate product shipped with Windows Mobile 6. A well sized QWERTY keyboard, five-way joystick, touch screen and GPS should allow users to take full advantage of the features WM6 offers.

Review: i-mate JAQ4

The i-mate JAQ4 measures up a little shorter and a little wider than the JAQ3, with the added width being put to good use with the inclusion of a larger 2.8" TFT touch screen, up from the JAQ3's 2.4" display. Quad-band GSM connectivity with GPRS/EDGE data takes a back seat in the speed stakes to the on board 802.11b/g WiFi, with Bluetooth v1.2 with the A2DP profile also included for short range connections. A 2.0 megapixel camera with a macro mode makes an appearance and 128 MB ROM, 64MB RAM, and microSD memory expansion are all present. The device runs the Windows Mobile 6 Professional operating system, with a battery able to last 8.5 days standby and 5 hours talk time between charges.

The i-mate JAQ4 should be available before the end of Q1 this year, though pricing details have not been announced.

3GSM World Congress - Roundup 3

Windows smartphone manufacturers have been very much in evidence. We've already touched on Toshiba, so here is what the competition is up to.

HP The HP iPAQ 500 Voice Messenger is conventional looking but quite clever Windows Mobile 6.0 smartphone that plays heavily on voice recognition technologies. This is due to be launched in the US this spring/summer. HTC The HTC Advantage (codenamed Athena) is the own-label version of the T-Mobile Ameo, due for release in March. The conventionally styled HTC S710 is a compact Windows Mobile 6.0 device with WiFi that suprisingly squeezes in a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, and the P3350 is a PDA-style device with good multimedia capabilities. i-mate The i-mate Ultimate features a large VGA touchscreen, HSDPA and WiFi, and the JAQ4 is a "BlackBerry" style messaging device with WiFi and a QWERTY keyboard.

The JAQ4 built by Inventec Appliances for i-mate

While launching its new Windows Mobile 6 software platform at the ongoing 3GSM World Congress 2007 in Barcelona (Spain), Microsoft also displayed more than 10 new handsets powered by the new operating system (OS), including models from Taiwan-based Inventec Appliances.

The JAQ4, which is manufactured by Inventec for i-mate, will be i-mate's first GPS-enabled PDA phone.

The JAQ4 uses a TI 200MHz OMAP 850 processor and features built-in Bluetooth and Wi-Fi functions.