Quick Imate SP5 Review

[Guest vdk]

Previous phones owned: Nokia Mitac Mio 8390

Appearance and Feel

In my opinion the best looking smartphone out there. Even after showing it to people who didnt know it was a smartphone, I always got compliments about the phone's looks.

The size is smaller than expected and can easily fit in your front jeans pockets without any discomfort. Weight and feel is good, the phone feels solid all round with grey plastic on the back and battery cover.

Screen

The screen doesnt seem much better than my previous smartphone the 8390. The SP5 gives clear and bright images, however expectingly, it is hard to read in heavy sunlight.

Camera

Pretty weak in my opinion, only at 1.3MP. Even at the highest resolution, other phones with similar 1.3MP cameras provide better image quality. The pictures tend to lack colour or depth.

Windows Mobile 5

Same as the previous versions of the OS but with minor treaks. The new OS doesnt 'feel' any different to my old MITAC 8390. Updated is the Windows media players, but it cant play divx files. I installed Betaplayer which can play all sound and video file types e.g. xvid, wma etc.

WIFI

Probably the main drawcard for this phone. Few phones can claim to have WIFI capability. Even fewer can claim to have a WIFI in a 'normal' mobile phone size. Connection is simple, just press the button on the top left side of the phone. A connection manager will pop up where u can select bluetooth or wifi connection on. Once selected, a list of networks will appear. Select one and fire up IE. Very simple and easy. I tested it on the campus wifi network and had no problems with using a login and password to connect.

Pros:

*Bluetooth and WIFI

*MiniSD expansion, phone can be used as a media player

*Phone is relatively easy to use, OS is easy to navigate

*Best looking smartphone out there

*WIFI has lots of potential, hopefully a prog to access folders on networks, and Scype

*Nice bright and clear screen

Cons

*Lacks the useability of a PDA, limited software support compared to a PDA

*Internet on a small screen

*Price, cost me my left kidney ;)

*Battery life is must less than a normal mobile, but this is expected of a smartphone

*No docking station, only cable connection, however you can buy a third party docking station

*Processor is slow. Movie sometimes skips on playing a 2MB video file.

Ratings

Looks: 8/10

Features: 9/10

Useability: 7/10

Overall: 8/10

Edited November 1, 2005 by vdk

[Guest chrisc28]

Screen

The screen doesnt seem much better than my previous smartphone the 8390. The SP5 gives clear and bright images, however expectingly, it is hard to read in heavy sunlight.

So true with summer just around the corner....

Camera

Pretty weak in my opinion, only at 1.3MP. Even at the highest resolution, other phones with similar 1.3MP cameras provide better image quality. The pictures tend to lack colour or depth.

I think it lacks sharpness.

[Guest Chiz]

Ratings

Looks: 8/10

Features: 9/10

Useability: 7/10

Overall: 8/10

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Thanks for the review.

Chiz

[Guest gilesjuk]

I think it lacks sharpness.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

That would be due to poor lens etc, it also lacks any kind of focus control too.

The camera unit is probably some generic off the shelf unit where as phones with a better camera have had such a unit designed for their camera.

Edited November 1, 2005 by gilesjuk

[Guest Looby]

Here is an Autumnal picture I just went outside and took with my i-mate SP5. The camera pics are really no better than the standard VGA units but they look fantastic on the phone screen which they are designed for. ;)

[Guest Looby]

A shot of a pic taken with the SP5 on the screen. ;)

[Guest gilesjuk]

Well it's still leagues ahead of older digital cameras.

[Guest Looby]

I couldn't agree more. It does everything it is designed to do. If you want a really high-quality pic it's best to buy a 6megapixel camera. ;)

[Guest gilesjuk]

I couldn't agree more. It does everything it is designed to do. If you want a really high-quality pic it's best to buy a 6megapixel camera. ;)

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Plus if you've used the K750 or W800 you'll know it's slow taking photos. You have to ask people to keep really still while it focuses, it also seems to take the photo at the very last second when the light goes out.

I wouldn't say it's best carrying another cam about, I would rather HTC make Windows Mobile phones excell in something. As it stands the only rare feature it wifi. If they added a good camera that could do 320x240 video with a really good frame rate (maybe optical zoom) it would be a popular unit. Add stereo mic or input for them and you'd have a phone that you could record all manner of events, would be a popular choice with techie parents etc.

At £300 the Sp5 isn't as expensive as say the Nokia N90 which is a good £100 more, so HTC can afford to make their phones more sexy and add some nicer video options. As it stands they just seem to make some very minor variations of each model. The SP5m was a bit unecessary, they could have used a better remote and had all those music buttons on a wired/bluetooth remote.

I would have preferred an SP5 and a higher end SP5Pro for example with all the video and camera power. A hardware encoder chip or additional DSP is the solution to compressing so much video data quickly.