i-mate's innovative PDA-phones

by Darius Chang |


MWC 2009
BARCELONA-- Jim Morrison, CEO of i-mate, said that too many vendors have been copying technology and interfaces from each other. Instead, he plans to innovate, not imitate, the company's handsets such that each model is unique in its own right. The i-mate Centurion (shown above) is a credit card-sized, non-touchscreen PDA-phone with a full QWERTY keypad. Though tiny and really light, we've tried out the keyboard and found it surprisingly usable. This model will retail at US$550 when it launches in the middle of this year and will run Windows Mobile 6.5 when the mobile OS launches.


The i-mate Legionnaire is a tiny touchscreen PDA-phone running on Windows Mobile 6.5. Priced at US$500, the key feature of this phone is that it can fit into a specially designed UMPC (named the Warrior) and act as the touchpad. Like the Celio Redfly, the larger XVGA display will replicate what's shown on the PDA's screen and provide full functionality, even video streaming. It has a separate battery which can charge the phone at the same time and there's even HDMI output. Best of all, this device will be available at the same time as the Legionnaire in Q3 2009 for what seems to be an affordable US$199.
Darius Chang
About the author

Tracking laptop and PC trends since 2005, Darius Chang may have been knee deep in bits and bytes but is certainly not a binary person. Under that big and soft exterior holds a marshmallow core which dotes on his god-daughters and nephew. Suspected of ADD, his interests span disparate fields such as sustainability studies, diving, sports, politics, etc. A true jack of all trades, but master of one (maybe two).

Darius Chang, Senior Writer

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