A few more i-mate Ultimate 9502 comments

Now I have used the device for a few days. And it is a nice device. But despite the 1660 MA battery – the battery life of the 9502 is not very good.

A charge lasts maximum a day with my usage. That is 1/2 of my E90 – and I use them in the same way.

I installed Opera Mobile 8.65 on it – and it works fine – apart from every time I start up the application I get an Error message with a fault in Opera.exe file. Ignoring the error and pressing continue – gets me straight into Opera and everything seems to work.

Then I checked the Micro SD. And what a sunrise – only supports standard Micro SD – no capacity higher that 2GB. Come on i-mate – this is 2008 - and 12GB Micro SD cards are available. My 8GB SDHC card does not work in the Ultimate 9502.

I don't really care about “VGA” output for presentations. I want a Phone that works like a charm.

I guess i-mate lost out great when HTC pushed them out and so far I can’t really see a recovery for that – apart from buying your phones from HTC and not i-mate.

The screen is nice though – but gets damn greasy – and does not really work well in the sun. Even though it is nice and bright indoors – outdoors you can hardly read it on highest brightness settings. And this is despite i-mate HQ is in a very sunny city of Dubai.

The Power button has problems as well. Very hard to press to get the screen to turn on. It is in an awkward place for most people – and really annoy me. After pressing it it takes 0.5 – to 1 second before you have any reaction.

So in my book -the i-mate Ultimate 9502 – is not really a winner. At maximum a limited device to a very limited user group. So on to Souq with this one (the eBay of the Middle East..)

Unboxing the i-mate Ultimate 9502

Just found a new gadget in Dubai. Expensive L but got it anyway. Available in Sharaff DG in Times Square Mall Dubai as of today. I do already know I'm not keeping it – but just wanted to try it for a few days. J

Here are a few un-boxing pictures for your pleasure J

Unboxing the i-mate Ultimate 9502 – The Box	Unboxing the i-mate Ultimate 9502 – The Phone
Unboxing the i-mate Ultimate 9502 – Phone and Accessories	Unboxing the i-mate Ultimate 9502 – Front and Back uncovered
The Belt Pouch	The Belt Pouch
Unboxing the i-mate Ultimate 9502 -Charger and Tips	Unboxing the i-mate Ultimate 9502 – the Ugly Headset
Unboxing the i-mate Ultimate 9502 – AV Cable	Unboxing the i-mate Ultimate 9502 – Software
Unboxing the i-mate Ultimate 9502 – The Manual	Unboxing the i-mate Ultimate 9502 – The Spare Pen
Unboxing the i-mate Ultimate 9502 – The Battery	Unboxing the i-mate Ultimate 9502 – Side View
Unboxing the i-mate Ultimate 9502 – Side View	Unboxing the i-mate Ultimate 9502 – Top View Power and Pen
Unboxing the i-mate Ultimate 9502 – First Boot	Unboxing the i-mate Ultimate 9502 – Date Setting
Unboxing the i-mate Ultimate 9502 – okay - READY

 

So here you have the Ultimate 9502 – with pictures. I have now used it for 12 hours – and my initial thoughts are:

1. Nice with real headset mini-jackplug (works with my nice Nokia Headset)
   
2. Screen is very nice – but a bit small for this big device – and it is a shame it does not tilt like the TyTN II.
   
3. Buttons are a bit "cheap" - but keyboard inside is great despite its small size.
   
4. The device feels slow. Slower than my Nokia E90. Changing from Landscape to Portrait can take a while
   
5. My SlingPlayer works fine with it – and very stable – and uses the full screen. Not like the Nokia E90 version…
   
6. Battery cover has small (very small) pins for locking – I think they will break if you are not careful.
   
7. Speaker is crap compared with my E90s – low in volume and distorts.
   
8. Call quality is nowhere near the E90.
   
9. The nice dialer i-mate had with HTC is not there anymore –and there are not really a lot of "punch" software in the pack like HTC provides
   

So in general – if you want Windows Mobile – this is a great device for you. One of the best out there – HTC does a better design job – but no normal sized HTC phones are available with 640x480 screen. Some of the design elements seem like crude Russian mid 1970s inspired. So it is built like a tank apart from pen and battery cover.

Windows Mobile is Windows Mobile – so not a lot to say about that apart from it supports the 1970s built like a tank (in Russia)

Thanks for taking the time to look in on us J and if you want to buy a slightly used i-mate Ultimate 9502 – ping me.