Anyone in the US using the i-mate?

[possmann]

I'm shaking my head (and fist) at Moto for going with the miniSD format on the MPx100 and seeing all that I want on my smartphone is the 2003 OS and onboard bluetooth I'm looking at purchasing the i-mate (most likely from Arne (http://www.ppcw-shop.net/product_info.php?cPath=10&products_id=3&osCsid=783b72ceedc694610f3ed75c558ae75f).

Has anyone done this yet? Anyone on the T-Mobile network using the i-mate? Thoughts/feedback and advice would be great!

Was setup as easy as dropping in your SIM card (from your old phone) and powering the phone up or are there "gotchas" along the way?

Looking at using a bluetooth headset as well - any recommendations?

[NYC567user]

I got one of them i-mate 2 thingies.

Being an ex XDA user running on 2003 beta OS from T-Mobile, this unit fares much better in reception. However, there are gotchas.

Although it is easier, to implement as you describe it....just pop in your SIM card and go....and setting up free WAP is a small process....

The battery is till an issue, unlike Orange's E200 (same model), i-mate still has to resease an update to fix the battery issue. This is due to the new SD i/o slot being acessed by the unit and using up battery much more than it needs to. So and average charge will last you about a day...for me it's ok since I have a charger at work and car.

Also, although it does have Bluetooth and my Belkin BT headset works with it....these is no serial profile on this pre-ROM update unit. So if you want to use Mapopolis for Smartphone over Bluetooth it will not work until the patch is released. The smartphone Orange E200 has the patch and I read reports it does work with this.

What I do love about it:

The MP3 player Sd card, I can put a large size SD and lsited to music.
Use PocketMusic for MP3s...what is good about it? When you take a call over your headphones (the normal wired ones) and you are listening to a song..the MP3 will pause....you take the call....and then the other end or you hang up, the music starts playing.

Also most of the things I needed to do on my old XDa can be done on this unit. It only take a bit of getting used to T9...

Radio coverage is better than the old XDA, adequate with specific T-Mobile units wired to work with T_Mob network. Since this is a generic radio stack, it will work ok.

Enjoy

[possmann]

Thanks for the input!

have you tried downloading the patch from the Orange site? I wonder if that would work on an i-mate...

Well I'll be looking forward to replacing my aged Moto P280 with this HTC device in the next couple of months. Where did you get yours from?

thanks again for your feedback.

[NYC567user]

Tempting as it is...I have not used the Orange ROM update. In case there are problems I do not have the ROM of the i-mate 2 in file format to go back to. Thus I will wait for now....Mapopolis Smartphone is still in Beta and I can do with their battery issues with my chargers.

that brings me to one other issue....there are very few acessories...the good thing is that you can re-use the chargers for the XDA on the i-mate 2. And Vaja has a decent case for the original Smartphone...that might be used.

I got my smartphone while abroad. I now started to see it more on specialty stores for the average same price of $600 range.
These specialty stores are still carrying the phone but not acessories.

I'd say get it from Arnes, just for the sake of supporting a fellow Smarphone website. The others will charge you tax..so it might be more expensive.

[possmann]

Thanks for the advice and tips!

I am really surprised that T-Mo didn't take off with this phone. I even checked their site in Germany and no smartphones are listed. I wonder which one they will go with and when????

:roll: I wish they had a better selection of phones - especially a smartphone. Bad marketing move if you ask me.

[NYC567user]

I spoke with the T-Mobile guy for the Northeast that tests devices about 2 months ago. They did receive the SPV 2 devices, but they encountered the battery issues, dropped calls and bad reception on the T-Mob network and the cost per device was too high to carry them.

They kind'a got stuck with a few thousand XDA that had similar situations the previous year....so they are now more careful to take chances with unproven devices. It's too bad that the device manufacturers are still rushing devices into the markets without proper testing and R&D.
I think they are looking at Oragne's experience to see what step to take next. The good thing is that ROM upgrade is out...

Sometimes I feel we are the manufacturers R&D, because half the time the answers are found here after users risk their handhelds with ROM upgrades, and beta code...or software tests.....have you tried calling the carrier's help lines? ha ha ha...

Thus we still love the devices...hopefully as more brand name manufacturers (like Motorola) develop correct radio software and more telephone oriented "bugless" OS add-ons to MS Smartphone we will see Smartphone take more market share.

[cvdbl]

Have a smartphone 2 as well. Am using it on tmobile. very happy with it. No issue with customization or anything: you can find all params on the net (or ask one of us).

Am using the unlimited GPRS plan. Wonderful device for that. I have installed an email redirector at work so that I can get my corporate email on my phone at all time. very handy.

[Jon Westfall]

Using both smartphone2 and i-mate pocket pc edition without a problem on T-Mo in the us.