17 replies to this topic

[Metoo]

eXpansys are selling off the i-Mate 8502 for £99.99 (or less with voucher)!

The units are apparently brand new (branded as Telstra) but do not come with any manufacturer warranty, however you are covered against DOA and early faults by their 10 day returns policy. They ship with WM Pro 6.0 but a 6.1 ROM upgrade is available from the i-mate web site.

It's OK by today's standards there's nothing spectacular about the specs or looks, but it seems a reasonable deal to me for a cheap WM Pro 6.1 device that has front QWERTY, 400MHz CPU, 128MB RAM and extra trimmings such as GPS and WiFi - and even a scroll wheel.

Click here for details.

Any existing 9502 users out there?

[PaulOBrien]

Pretty ugly but well specced!

Thanks for the heads up metoo!

P

[Metoo]

Paul, on Sep 3 2009, 11:42, said:

Pretty ugly but well specced!

Thanks for the heads up metoo!

P

Actually it's not that bad in the flesh. No fashion item (nor is it designed to be) but looks fine as a "business" phone, albeit a bit dated due to the bezel and non-flush screen.
Size and appearance wise it reminds me of a slightly elongated, matt black version of the Sony M600/P1 (width and thickness are almost identical). Looks good with an all black WM theme. Despite the full qwerty keyboard, it's narrower than my E71 and XDA Orbit 2 so is very phone-like and comfortable in the hand despite being a full-blown touch screen PocketPC. So far it's working well on 6.1 and is seems to get things done quicker than the Orbit - probably because, as an ex-Treo and BB user, I'm used to using the keyboard shortcuts to get directly where I want instead of hunting and pecking at the touch screen or scrolling  through menus.

Edited by Metoo, 03 September 2009 - 11:56 AM.

[vinaymanro]

Metoo, on Sep 3 2009, 12:55, said:

Actually it's not that bad in the flesh. No fashion item (nor is it designed to be) but looks fine as a "business" phone, albeit a bit dated due to the bezel and non-flush screen.
Size and appearance wise it reminds me of a slightly elongated, matt black version of the Sony M600/P1 (width and thickness are almost identical). Looks good with an all black WM theme. Despite the full qwerty keyboard, it's narrower than my E71 and XDA Orbit 2 so is very phone-like and comfortable in the hand despite being a full-blown touch screen PocketPC. So far it's working well on 6.1 and is seems to get things done quicker than the Orbit - probably because, as an ex-Treo and BB user, I'm used to using the keyboard shortcuts to get directly where I want instead of hunting and pecking at the touch screen or scrolling  through menus.

Beware handest has NO Warranty!

[Metoo]

vinaymanro, on Sep 3 2009, 13:30, said:

Beware handest has NO Warranty!

There's always one.     Didn't you read the first post?
The units are apparently brand new (branded as Telstra) but do not come with any manufacturer warranty, however you are covered against DOA and early faults by their 10 day returns policy

Edited by Metoo, 03 September 2009 - 01:50 PM.

[vinaymanro]

Metoo, on Sep 3 2009, 14:45, said:

There's always one.     Didn't you read the first post?
The units are apparently brand new (branded as Telstra) but do not come with any manufacturer warranty, however you are covered against DOA and early faults by their 10 day returns policy

I absolutely did, but felt it worth reminding people.
I've had 2 and both were DOA! Had a refund now. Might just go for the HP Voice Messenger instead.

[dave106]

so were they 'Telstra' branded and what does that look like?

[Metoo]

dave106, on Sep 4 2009, 11:42, said:

so were they 'Telstra' branded and what does that look like?

Hardware-wise the only customisation is a small T logo at the bottom of the battery cover (which probably could be removed by the "sugar cube" method if you were that bothered).
The WM 6.0 build has a Telstra wallpaper and a few apps and bookmarks relating to their services, and customisations loaded after a hard reset. The network configs and timezone are also preset for Telstra Australia, so you have to enter APNs etc, manually for UK networks on first use.
Fortunately the WM6.1 upgrade removes all of these, leaving just a Telstra animation on boot up which you see for a couple of seconds. So in the end you're left with just a vanilla WWE WM 6.1 build, plus the i-Mate remote config and management apps and services (which I've also disabled to free up memory and CPU).

Edited by Metoo, 04 September 2009 - 12:51 PM.

[Metoo]

vinaymanro, on Sep 3 2009, 18:18, said:

I absolutely did, but felt it worth reminding people.
I've had 2 and both were DOA! Had a refund now. Might just go for the HP Voice Messenger instead.

Just checking but, are you sure you left them long enough to get sufficient charge? Don't forget they will have been sat on a shelf for a long time. Also you have to press the power switch for a good 4-5 seconds to switch on from cold (until you feel it vibrate) and even then on the original build there's a slight delay before you see the boot screen. That's longer than many other phones and could easily give the impression that the device was dead.

As for the HP, that's not really an alternative for me, as it's not WM Pro, doesn't have full QWERTY, and seems to get some pretty bad reviews, ranging from an unpredictable navpad, poor battery life and signal handling, to genral bugs and freezes. Also previous experience has taught me that HP support for mobile devices is as bad (if not worse) than i-Mate or Toshiba! YMMV, of course.

Edited by Metoo, 04 September 2009 - 01:25 PM.

[dave106]

Metoo, on Sep 4 2009, 13:47, said:

Hardware-wise the only customisation is a small T logo at the bottom of the battery cover (which probably could be removed by the "sugar cube" method if you were that bothered).
The WM 6.0 build has a Telstra wallpaper and a few apps and bookmarks relating to their services, and customisations loaded after a hard reset. The network configs and timezone are also preset for Telstra Australia, so you have to enter APNs etc, manually for UK networks on first use.
Fortunately the WM6.1 upgrade removes all of these, leaving just a Telstra animation on boot up which you see for a couple of seconds. So in the end you're left with just a vanilla WWE WM 6.1 build, plus the i-Mate remote config and management apps and services (which I've also disabled to free up memory and CPU).

Thanks for the info! May have to get one then, have been looking for a replacement for my 3yr old Sony M600i thats similar and this seems to fit perfectly! Same size and qwerty keyboard (never got on well with touch only inputs after having the M600i for so long) which were my 2 main priorities with added extras like gps,camera,wifi and wm6.1 that I dont have at the mo.

[cubik]

I've had mine now for a week. There was a bit of a wait while Expansys obtained more stock, but it finally arrived.

I have to say, I was a little anxious about the 'no warranty' clause, but it really doesn't matter as this piece of kit, while not the most aesthetically pleasing design, has all the connectivity I want from a device.

Upgraded to Windows Mobile 6.1 straight away. The screen is nice, bright and responsive. Plenty of space for productivity apps (I don't use WM devices these for games) and TomTom.

GPS is great. First fix is nice and quick and replaces my old Holux236 (and c550).

Will be interesting to see if i-Mate release a WM6.5 update for this one, though I won't be overly disappointed if they don't.

To be honest, I'd happily say "get one while they're hot" with this device.

[Metoo]

cubik, on Sep 5 2009, 00:30, said:

Will be interesting to see if i-Mate release a WM6.5 update for this one, though I won't be overly disappointed if they don't.

Won't happen.

Quote

To be honest, I'd happily say "get one while they're hot" with this device.

I've got to agree. Cheap and bland enough to have as a spare "go anyhwere but do everything" phone for when you don't want to risk carrying a flashy £500 device downtown or on holiday etc. If you don't have Exchange, the free SecureIQ remote wipe facility adds to that security.

Edited by Metoo, 05 September 2009 - 03:42 PM.

[DarkWanderer]

I was just reading a review of this phone before buying one on expansys, it apparently doesn't have SDHC support.  Can anyone confirm this?  Does WM 6.1 fix it?

Review here: http://www.mytodaysc...te-8502-handle/

Edited by DarkWanderer, 07 September 2009 - 01:17 PM.

[Metoo]

DarkWanderer, on Sep 7 2009, 14:14, said:

I was just reading a review of this phone before buying one on expansys, it apparently doesn't have SDHC support.  Can anyone confirm this?  Does WM 6.1 fix it?

Review here: http://www.mytodaysc...te-8502-handle/

Yes it's fixed in the new ROM - I'm using an 8GB card without any probs.

Edited by Metoo, 07 September 2009 - 02:47 PM.

[Metoo]

Metoo, on Sep 7 2009, 15:46, said:

Yes it's fixed in the new ROM - I'm using an 8GB card without any probs.

Looks like it's all over now - the CEO has scarpered the country and left all his employess high and dry...

http://www.itp.net/5...mate-shuts-down

[r4nd0mn15h]

I bought one of these, so far im pretty happy with it, id like to know if its possible to get opengl es working on it. i tried this http://www.vincent3d.com/ but im not sure what im doing to be honest.
I also read that the new 6.5 would only work on phones that have a hardware 'windows' button...well these do, what the chance of getting a vanilla 6.5 working?

[Loconinja]

eXpansys UK are selling these for £89.99 today.

Now that iMate have gone, is the 6.1 ROM upgrade mirrored somewhere?

[rameses]

Loconinja, on Feb 19 2010, 11:01, said:

eXpansys UK are selling these for £89.99 today.

Now that iMate have gone, is the 6.1 ROM upgrade mirrored somewhere?

Yes, the ROM is also available from Expansys, it's a sticky in the 8502 support forum.

I've got one and it's a really good phone.