I-Mate SP3i: 01/23/2005
Purchased From: USTronics.com
By: Carlos E.
I was originally drawn to the SP3i over the holidays because of its size,
good aesthetic design, Microsoft Smartphone software, and seemingly advanced
hardware. When I did receive it, I was impressed at how beautiful it was
for a Microsoft-based device, which until recently have tended to be big
and relatively undesirable in 'coolness factor'. However, from that point
onwards, my experience with the SP3i only went downhill.
I want to begin with the positive aspects of the SP3i first. It's synchronization
with the Microsoft Office Suite is flawless, and each individual application,
such as the Calendar is very well executed. The address book, for example,
was absolutely a joy to use with the regular phone keypad.. I could type
the letters of someone's name as if it were iTap (it's not), and it would
show me names that had those probable letter combinations in either their
first OR last names. Very few phones in the market can do this. Most Nokias
and Sony Ericssons, for example, look up names by their last name and nothing
else. This came incredibly handy when trying to find someone's information
when the contact database was very large (as is the case with mine).
Another major plus for the SP3i, in my book, is its battery life. I was impressed
that I could carry a conversation ON BLUETOOTH, for 4 hours and 15 minutes
until I got a warning. Simply amazing for a phone of its complexity, hardware,
and screen.
Regarding the screen, it is very beautiful. Very beautiful. It comes alive
particularly when playing one of the many included games.
But that is where the compliments end. The i-mate SP3i lasted all of a week
in my hands because it just became more and more unusable until it flat out
was just no longer functional. The culprit? The joystick.
At first, I thought that the phone was slow, but upon playing with the phone
for a while, I realized that pushing the joystick to the right or down was
substantially less reliable than up or to the left. With time, this degraded
to the point of complete failure, leaving me to use keyboard shortcuts exclusively.
I was amazed to find that on the web other people had experienced similar
problems leading me to believe that it is a problem inherent to the design
of this handset.
To add to other poor design critiques... the MSFT Smartphone software still
needs some refinement, for example, you can't hit the 'call end' button to
exit out of a game and straight into the phone application. Another annoyance
is that MMS address book lookup is broken and doesn't work the same way that
SMS address book lookup works. Why the inconsistency? I have to scroll through
my entire address book to find a name with MMS, but I can just jump to a
name when composing SMS.. odd. very odd. In addition to the MMS annoyance,
browsing through the list of applications by hitting the 'more' button becomes
tedious, scrolling up or down through the entire options would be far better.
A major aspect of having a smartphone (that I was looking forward to taking
advantage of) is their inclusion of 'superior' phone web browsers. In the
case of Microsoft's products, they have pocket IE. Although Pocket IE worked
well, the SP3i's ability to browse the web consistently was horrendous. I
was able to get the phone configured correctly after much fighting (look
for settings at bottom of this review), but even when it worked, it was sporadic
and unreliable. Mind you.. it was not the wireless carrier's fault. I popped
my SIM into my other phones and they all worked fine, it seems that this
problem is one that is plaguing MSFT smartphones for the MPX series from
Motorola, I heard, is also having similar problems.
Lastly, and what ultimately made the SP3i a dead fish for me, was the reception.
Although usable, it is by no means stellar. At best, I give it a 6/10 in
the RF department, cutting out early and not being able to find signals where
many of my other phones have. There is also some speaker buzzing when you
have the volume up, which can become annoying.
In conclusion, I feel that this phone is not one that I can recommend. It's
quality control based on my experience and those of others increases your
chances of having an experience similar to mine. If i-Mate can clean up those
problems, they have a potential hit phone in their hands.
Internet Settings->
A hodge podge of different versions of the same thing taken from the web:
Email connections connect via "the Internet" and when I look at
my Data Connections, "Internet connection:" is set to "PDA
Connect"
Menu -> Edit Connections from the Data Connections Menu and selecting GPRS
Connections gives:
Menu -> Edit gives:
Connects to: The Internet
Access point: wap.cingular
User name: WAP@CINGULARGPRS.COM
Password: *************
Primary DNS: 0.0.0.0
Secondart DNS: 0.0.0.0
IP Address: <blank>
Password is CINGULAR1
THe Proxy Connections is the only other item in "Edit Connections" that
has any entries (Dial-up and VPN have no connection information)
Under Proxy connections, I have PDA Connect, and editing this I have:
Connects from: The Internet
Connects to: WAP Network
Proxy: wireless.cingular.com:80
Type: HTTP
User name: <blank>
Password: <blank>
Wap
Name: Cingular
Homepage: http://device.home
Service type: WAP
Gateway IP 1: 66.209.11.61
Port 1: 9201
Domain 1:
Service type 2: WAP
Gateway IP 2:
Port 2:0
Domain 2:
DNS 1:
DNS 2:
Timeout: 10min
CSD No 1: +14152441012
User name: 1: WAP@CINGULAR.COM
Passwrd 1: CINGULAR1
Speed: 1: 9600
Line Type: ISDN
CSD No 2:
User name:
Passwrd 2:
Speed: 9600
Line Type 2: ISDN
GPRS APN: wap.cingular
User Name: WAP@CINGULARGPRS.COM
Passwrd: CINGULAR1
MMS
Name: MMS
Homepage: http://mmsc.cingular.com
Service type: WAP
Gateway IP 1: 66.209.11.61
Port 1: 9201
Domain 1:
Service type 2: WAP
Gateway IP 2:
Port 2:0
Domain 2:
DNS 1:
DNS 2:
Timeout: 10min
CSD No 1:
User name: 1:
Passwrd 1:
Speed: 1: 9600
Proxies: Enabled
Primary Proxy: wireless.cingular.com
Port: 80
Secondary Proxy: wireless.cingular.com
Port: 8080
Access Point: wap.cingular
Authentication Type: Secure
Username: WAP@CINGULARGPRS.COM (upper case)
Password:CINGULAR1 ( upper case)
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