I got a new phone not that long ago but held off on writing a review until I got better aquainted with the phone:

The Choice
I love my Sony Ericsson P900, but it’s not a terribly ergonomic phone. It’s wider than the T-series phones and either has a bad number key pad or non-tactile feedback touchscreen depending if you keep the flip on or not. I also don’t like the idea of getting so much… facial oil… on the touch screen (I’m of partly Irish descent). I decided as long as I wanted to switch phones, I might as well try out the most recent version of Windows Mobile. I decided against the MPX due to the fact that it’s much bigger than the P900 (and not out yet) and against the HTC Magician (i-mate JAM, MDA Compact, XDA II Mini), which was about the same form factor as the P900.

That left true MS Smartphones: the Motorola MPX-220, HTC Typhoon (SPV C500, Audiovox SMT-5600, i-mate SP3) or the HTC Feeler (i-mate SP3i, T-Mobile SDA). I’m on T-Mobile USA, so the MPx-220 and SMT-5600’s 850 MHz band would not be an advantage. I like the boxy Feeler look and the joystick over the tapered Typhoon with the rocker, so the SP3i it was.

The Phone
For anyone who loves the SE T61x form factor and wants a MS Smartphone, this is it. It truely looks like the T’s younger, slighly less refined brother. SE has a definite edge in terms of style and materials. That’s not to say that the build quality of the SP3i is bad - it’s quite a solid phone with little flexing and no squeaking - but its shell is mostly plastic as opposed to the brushed aluminum T. It’s impressive that the SP3i is just a few mm taller than my T616 and has the same width and depth. The screen area, however is about 50% larger. To put the extra 2 buttons (the call and hangup keys) on the phone, i-mate has moved they keys down and made them bigger, so that the edges of the keys touch.

The keys are sloped to make them easier to push, but it’s much more uncomfortable and hapazard-feeling than it should due to how close the keys are to each other. My hands are pretty thin, so people with pudgy fingers might want to stay away. The T68 and T616 were much nicer, but the SP3i is nicer than the P900. The joystick feels quite nice. I’ve heard people complaining about it, but it’s always felt responsive and accurate to me. The one problem I did have is that at a store yesterday, while putting the phone back into my belt holster, the joystick lip caught on the holster and popped off. I’m lucky I noticed it flying off. It was kind of tricky to put back on, but once you align it, it’s just like new. This is extremely worrysome for the future.

Call quality is rather good. It seems better and clearer than the SE phones I’ve had over the years. Reception is decent. Initially it seems worse than it really is because the indicator goes from 0 to 4 bars instead of 1 to 5 like the SE phones. The test for my phones is usually my company’s server room: lots of RF deep in a concrete building in a bad part of NYC for 1900 MHz phones. The P900 and Nokia 3650 can get reception there, but the T616, T68 and SP3i cannot. The SP3i does outperfom the T-Mobile Sidekick, but that’s kind of like saying you have a better sense of humor than the Germans. :| The phone will pick up a new signal within 10-15 seconds after exiting a tunnel.

Charging is done through the USB jack. As long as a PC has the smartphone drivers installed (that means ActiveSync), the phone will charge from a normal USB cable attached to a computer. A wall jack charge cable is also included in the box, but not really needed if you have a PC lying around. A car charger would be more useful, but that’s not included. Charge time is excellent: less than two hours. Unfortunately, I have trouble getting more 2 days out of the phone with moderate usage. The battery itself is removable. Tucked underneath the battery is a SIM slot and, oddly enough, the slot for the miniSD card. Just what I need, yet ANOTHER tiny memory card format. No miniSD cards came with the i-mate.

The camera is nothing to write home about, but it’s a decent 640x480 camera. The quality is almost identical to the P900. There’s also a self-portrait mirror on the back of the phone in case you had a burning desire to know what you look like in a funhouse mirror. The phone is much faster than Smartphone’s reputation. I’ve never had to wait to for a menu to come up or a program to load from main memory.

Since the phone supports music via Windows Media Player, included in the box is a wired stereo handsfree set. Much like the P900, the phone doesn’t use standard 3.5mm headphone jacks. It uses 2.5mm. So much for using your swanky high-performance earbuds without an adapter.

The Software
If you’re used to the SE interface or UIQ, Smartphone OS will take a little time to get used to. The joystick is for navigation and selection, the right softkey is for context-sesitive menus and the left is for whatever the programmer of the app you’re using thought would be a good idea at the time. It could, almost randomly, mean Done, Select, Go, Favorites or Home. The context-sensitive menus aren’t much better. Control Panel applets are notorious for shoving functions into menus when they could be items listed on the main screen. That’s not to say Smartphone doesn’t have its good points. The Home screen is well-laid out and informative for the user using the phone as a PIM aid, and the MRU programs list on the Home screen is particularly nice.

The real strength of Smartphone is great Outlook integration and good PIM integration into the OS. I use Oulook 2003 for personal contacts and calendaring, and this fits like a glove. By far my favorite feature is the contact search. By typing in 54, Elite Limo, Dr Xxx Kinberg, Jill Xxx and Linda Xxx (no relation) come up. Typing 5 cuts it down to just Jill Xxx. If there were any contacts in the 545 area code, they’d show up too. Very slick. Pocket IE is up there with best as far as small-screen Web rendering. The only thing it doesn’t do is multiple windows. Otherwise it’s more than a match for Opera and NetFront. What’s really missing from the built-in software package are document viewers. There’s no way to view, much less edit a Word, Excel or Acrobat document without 3rd-party software. With PPC, Word and Excel are built-in and there’s a free Adobe Acrobat Reader.

I have the world version of the SP3i (900/1800/1900MHz) that has Windows Media Player 9. Reportedly the US (850/1800/1900MHz) version comes with WMP 10 and support for both Janus and actually advancing within a song or video. Even though WMP supports MP3 perfectly, the phone can’t use MP3 files as ringtones. It can only use MIDI, WAV or WMA.

Bluetooth works, but for the most part it’s not well-integrated into the OS. OBEX (file transfer) and DUN (dial up) work, but they need some significant effort or additional software to do so. You can’t send a file via BT without 3rd party software (SmartExplorer) and you can’t send pictures from the camera app via BT (only via MMS or Email). Oddly enough, you CAN send contacts via BT by using the “Beam Contact” function, but you can’t send files via “Send via IR”. :shock:  Setting up DUN properly is an adventure. First of all, the included instruction manual gives incorrect instructions. Then you have to set the proper initialization string in the modem in XP and make sure that you have the correct settings in the phone itself in two different control panel applets. i-mate tech support emails were never responded to. :evil: The sad part is that the BT stack looks functional. It’s just the software implementation in the standard application software that’s crap. I don’t use BT headsets, so I didn’t test that feature.

ActiveSync is definitely more stable than when I last used it 2 years ago and works well for syncing with Outlook, program installation and viewing files on the phone via Windows Explorer. Strangely, ActiveSync can’t back up a Smartphone like it can with a PPC, nor is there a built-in backup utility on the phone to save to memory card. There are 3rd party utilities available, but what does MS have against backing up a smartphone?

The Verdict
Was it worth it? I grew to really appreciate my P900 after being initially blah on it. I even dumped my Clie and went to the P900 exclusively. As a phone, it’s better than the P. Calling, form factor and call clarity are all better on the SP3i, as is its Outlook integration. IE replaces the P as my on-the-spot email and movie listing checker with aplomb. The only things I really miss are the P’s stylus and the P’s above-average reception. It’s definitely a step up in terms of functionality over my T616, but I’d say it has more of a phone thrust than the P900 without losing the functionality.

Pros:
- Small form factor
- Good call quality
- Generally good build quality
- Great Outlook compatability and nice contact search
- Quick USB charging
- IE rocks

Cons:
- Poor battery life
- Inconsistant BT implementation
- No built-in file viewers or backup software
- miniSD card underneath the battery
- Not the most comfortable keypad
- Flying Fickle Joystick of Fate