iMate Ultimate 8502 Video Review by Mr.Gadget Australia!

Great Initial Review, looking forward for a full user experience opinion.

I have some questions:
1. How much did it cost ? and can it be purchased unlocked ? any OnLine Stores sell it?
2. How usable is the keyboard ?
3. How is the screen in direct sun light ?
4. How long does the battary last for low/avarage/Extreme usage ?
5. How good is the reception (its a phone first) ? (inhouse/outside/etc.)
6. How good is the sound quality (how well can you hear others/how well can others hear you) ?
7. how strong/clear are the speakers ?
8. can you post some pictures smaples taken with the camera (indoors/outdoors/night w/o flash)?
9.how long does it take to recharge ?
10. can it be operated easly using one hand ?
11. how good is the XGA Out when connected to TV or Projector (for Movies/Presentation files) ?
12.how much of the memory is free for user applications ?
13. Does it suppoert 4gb microSD ?
14. Does the device work fast ? or does it hang ?
15. how good is the GPS Signal ? (in car ride/in buildings/etc)
16. How comfortable is the joystick compared to regular 5-way D-Pad ?
17. how good is the sound quality of mp3 using the 2.5mm jack ?

that’s all i can think of, i will really appriciate an answer to some/all of the above questions.

enjoy your new 8502 phone

Ido sure you put down enough questions?

1. I believe it’s locked to Telstra since they have exclusive rights in Australia
2. Keyboard is ok, no where as easy to use as say the Jasjams. Easy to make mistakes since keys are small
3. Screen is readable in sunlight
4. Haven’t had it long it enough to do proper tests of battery life. But so far it’s living up to its expected standby and talk times.
5. Reception is as good as any Telstra phone I’ve had. Nothing different here.
6. Sound quality on telephone calls is good but I find max volume isn’t super loud.
7. Inbuilt speakers are clear and loud - better than Jasjams
8. Photos coming soon
9. 45 minutes or so using USB cable charger
10. Jog dial & OK button on the left make it easy to operated with one hand.
11. Hooked it up to my TV however resolution made it very squarish. If you can adjust your TV accordingly it would be great
12. Right now with SPB Shell 2.0 running I have 80MB Storage Free and 27MB Program Free.
13. With the SDHC patch fix yes it supports 4GB I believe. I’ve installed the patch but only have a 2GB card - forums say it works.
14. Performance if fantastic - it will glitch when trying to perform tasks while just beginning ActiveSync but that’s normal
15. GPS only works outside not in buildings
16. Love the joystick
17. The packaged 2.5mm headphones aren’t Sennheisers but sound decent. Need to find my 2.5mm to 3.5mm.

Hope this helps

I’ll definitely order a screen protector next week from you, been looking for one the right size (don’t wanna have to cut one to size). Any idea approximately when they are coming in?

Thanks for the details. I have my own now and so far it is great! I can confirm you can buy them unlocked, as I’m on the Optus network and it’s working fine. Except you get an annoying Telstra splash screen on startup! Anyone know how to get rid of this? Anyway, I digress. It is definitely unlocked apart from some of the Telstra branding here and there.

Thanks again for all the info Mr G.

I got mine from a Telstra shop. I dunno about online stores, but given they are a Telstra exclusive, I imagine you could only get it from Telstra online or from a third part with a Telstra contract.

By the way, for those that are interested, the SDHC patch is working with my 4GB Micro SD.

Hey here’s another question…has anyone tried playing video above 320×240 on this yet? Just tried it and it so stuttery it’s unwatchable. Looks like it may have the same issues as the TytnII with the chipset and drivers.

So my question is, what’t the point of being able to output VGA (i.e. SD TV quality) via the video output if the unit can’t play them?! I quote from the box “The ultimate BIG screen experience…view your photos, videos, emails and the internet on the big screen of your television…” Yes, enjoy the big screen video experience…at 320×240! (and even that stutters every now and then at higher quality).

It’s still a good phone though, I really like the form factor. But if you’re counting on being able to play video on the ‘big screen’, you might want to think again…

Sweet dude! Is this your new phone now?
Just checking - it’s a pocketpc and not a smartphone, right?

By the way, check out my new site - http://tiiny.com
Very useful if you surf on your pda / phone a lot…

Hey Mr Gadget. I didn’t rip a DVD, I converted an exisitng DivX file. When you ripped the DVD, did you rip it at 320×240, or at a more TV friendly resolution? Mine copes reasonably well using a 320×240 file converted using Pocket DivX Encoder, but if I drop a DivX file in at say 640×368, the phone virtually can’t play it using TCPMP. It’s just completely jerky and stuttery. That’s fine for most things, since I usually only watch on the small screen anyway, but in order to output to TV, you’re gonna need a higher res. Can’t really watch TV at 320×240. Again, not expecting a Pocket PC should be able to do this, except that that is one of the features they market the phone with - watch your videos on the big screen! OK, great, it outputs at VGA quality, but that’s not much good if the phone can’t play the file.

So just interested in what res you ripped your DVD at? And which app do you use to play them?

Hey guys. If you want to speed up your 8502, get a program like MemMaid (or something similar that lets you edit startup processes) and disable the imate service that is running. There is only one imate service - not sure what it’s called now. But that bad boy takes up about 2.5MB of memory! Perhaps it is for the IQ service or something (which I’m not using). My phone is noticeably quicker without it, and on soft reset starts with around 39MB free. And so far that’s for no loss of functionality.

I just wanted ask how your 8gb SDHC card is going Mr Gadget? Is it a Sandisk? My 4GB Transcend (a cheapie, I know) worked with the SDHC patch but kept dropping out when not in use, so I had to reinsert it to get the phone to pick it up each time. I tried a Sandisk 2GB and it’s been flawless (with the SDHC patch still installed). But of course, the 2gb card is not SDHC. So now I’m not sure if my card is working fine now because it’s simply a different brand and card, or because it’s not SDHC. I suspect the former, which is why I’m interested in how your 8gb card is going? I want to get a Sandisk 8gb, but want to make sure it works consistently. I read somewhere that Taiwanese cards can be prone to this problem, which the Transcend was.

Just wanted to know where to get the sdhc patch
can you please post the link
Thanks

Hi Peach, it depends what you are going to be using it for. The Motorola Q is an older device so it’s not much of a comparison - 8502 basically kicks it butt in all areas.

Only thing the Q has over the 8502 is perhaps more easier to use keyboard since it is wider?

@yossil: SDHC Patch Link - http://tinyurl.com/3afztk

It’s now official that there are WiFi and SDHC patch conflicts…

Hi JMann, it was official because I experienced the issue personally
The conflict isn’t browser based rather bus related as SDHC and WiFi are trying to tap the same hardware resource?
I got my 8GB SDHC to work however reverted back to my 2GB since I had 2 weeks worth of installations, data and music that wasn’t easily picked up in the new card. Will re-do it when I have time, but can confirm that the full memory amount appeared in the Systems > Memory Information section.

Have a great weekend guys

Agree agree.

Good thing is, iMate is actually not too bad when it comes to releasing new patches for bugs in their devices. I can name many other manufacturers who are notorious for leaving their new customers in the dark.

…iMate don’t let me down!!

Astro, I didn’t even touch the proxy settings and was able to surf the web, pull RSS feeds etc out of the box. Just ensure that your card is NextG enabled?

Is the camera a fix focus or auto-focus we see both information on different web page