i-mate JAQ3

With a combination of features rarely found in one smart phone, including a touchscreen display, QWERTY keyboard, and 802.11b/g Wi-Fi, the i-mate JAQ3 certainly impresses on paper. Unfortunately, a number of critical components--processing performance and call quality, in particular--fail to measure up, seriously undercutting the JAQ3's potential. Furthermore, U.S. carriers don't currently offer the device, which leaves you to contend with the harrowing full retail price of $499. (Also note that the JAQ3's successor, the JAQ4, has already been announced and will feature Windows Mobile 6.0 and a few design tweaks, though little else in the way of upgraded specs.)
 
With its long, thin, roomy dimensions and matte black coloring, the JAQ3's straightforward design is a significant improvement on the original version. Measuring 5 x 2.7 x 0.6 inches, the new model isn't particularly sleek, but it fits comfortably in the hand (and pants pocket), and its soft-plastic back has a pleasing, vaguely rubber-like finish that enhances your grip. At 5.6 ounces, however, it's a full two ounces heavier than the Samsung BlackJack.
 
That bulk accommodates some noteworthy features, however. Chief among them is the crisp, vibrant 2.5-inch display, which has a 320 x 240-pixel native resolution and supports touchscreen functionality, unlike a number of competing devices. That said, the JAQ3's display is best suited for productivity tasks; video looked choppy, with quite a few dropped frames, and the JAQ3's speakers delivered weak, tinny audio.
 
The excellent, full-sized QWERTY keyboard consists of 39 stiff backlit keys that offer a winning amount of tactile feedback; they were a pleasure to type on. The telescoping stylus worked well on the touchscreen (as did fingers), but it's inconveniently stashed in the bottom-right corner of the device. We found the JAQ3's navigation controls intuitive and easy to use; you get a scroll wheel on the left side, a four-way rocker switch (with a central Select button), and buttons for the Windows Start menu, OK, IE, e-mail, two dedicated Windows Mobile keys, and Call Send and End keys. Placed along the side are device on/off and camera on/off buttons, a headphone jack and mini-USB port, and a microSD slot is on top for additional memory.
 
The JAQ3 runs the Pocket PC edition of Windows Mobile 5.0, which supports push e-mail and includes the mobile versions of Word, Excel, and Internet Explorer; i-mate also offers Windows Mobile 6.0 for the device--a worthwhile upgrade, in our view. The company equips the JAQ3 with a compelling collection of homegrown and third-party software, including an e-mail client, a wireless backup utility, and a remote-access tool that gives IT managers the ability to wipe data off the device if it's lost or stolen.
 
A quadband, unlocked (850/900/1800/1900 MHz) world phone, the JAQ3 supports GPRS/EDGE data (but not 3G), the older Bluetooth 1.2 standard, and 802.11b/g connectivity. During our testing, the device quickly located and connected to our network and speedily loaded our favorite sites. The phone's reception (using a Cingular SIM card) was mediocre, however, registering fewer bars than average, and call quality was marred by some echoing and distortion. The JAQ3's battery will deliver four hours of talk time, which is about average, and up to six days of standby time.
 
The 200-MHz processor and 22MB of memory (which can and should be boosted via a microSD Card) don't have enough muscle to run multiple tasks simultaneously, and we experienced some drawn-out delays when launching applications. Strangely, the only way to wake the phone from its standby mode is to depress the power button; similarly annoying, the screen doesn't automatically lock when making calls, which can result in unwanted navigation during conversation.
 
The JAQ3's integrated two-megapixel camera delivered passable still image and video quality; we found it easy and intuitive to navigate through the camera's settings, which include 4X zoom, contrast, saturation, and resolution. About the only thing missing is a flash.


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