i-mate Ultimate 9502

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Features

The 9502 has no lack of connectivity features. This includes tri-band UMTS, quad-band GSM, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and also GPS for satellite navigation. It also supports HSDPA for high-speed cellular data connections. What's less common is the HSUPA feature, which allows fast uploads over the network. This is still not supported by most operators, but in the future, it's is a feature that could be useful for those who need to send large attachments or upload photos frequently.

GPS can be toggled using the 9502's wireless manager. Unlike many of the devices from brands like HTC and E-Ten, i-mate does not provide an application to assist in getting a lock on the GPS satellites. Also, no maps and GPS software are bundled with the 9502, so the user will have to source for those separately.

One of the thing i-mate does to differentiate itself from the competition is to provide software specific to its devices. The two most significant ones are Custom i-Q and Secure i-Q. Both of them require you to first register an account on i-mate's Web site. After that's done, you can log on from the 9502 to perform certain tasks. In Custom i-Q, you can define settings like your Exchange server, other emails and even upload Windows Mobile applications. These can then be saved and the next time you get a new device or do a data wipe on your current i-mate, you can download those settings and apps which you have defined in a single step.

For Secure i-Q, once you've registered your device, you can lock or wipe the data on it from any desktop browser with an Internet connection. We tried this out and it worked like a charm, able even to cause the 9502 to start ringing like a burglar alarm. We did find a flaw in its implementation--it works based on the registered phone number of the owner. What that means is that if you don't manage to wipe your data or lock your 9502 before a thief replaces the SIM card, it's useless. This limits its usefulness and we feel the third-party service from Singapore startup WaveSecure is a more complete solution. (Ed. note: According to i-mate, every new SIM card that is inserted into the registered device should rightly appear in the user's Secure i-Q page. This means that you will be able to lock and wipe your phone even if a thief inserts a new SIM card. This did not work for us in our review, but we will be revisiting this feature again in our next i-mate review.)

Another useful feature found on the 9502 is TV-out. A cable is provided which connects to the mini-USB connector. The other end hooks up to a TV or projector using composite jacks for video and audio. While it won't replace a notebook, it's something that can come in handy as a backup when your portable computer fails.

A 3-megapixel camera is found on the rear of the 9502. In our test shots, we found the images to be sufficiently sharp, but colors felt washed-out. Not the best of performances from a camera-phone.

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