i-mate JAMin review

The 71mm screen is small for a handheld, but because its 320x240 pixels are squeezed into a relatively small area, text appears very sharp and clear. There's no denying, though, that people who have difficulty reading small print may find it less than perfectly legible at times.

Both Bluetooth and 802.11b/g Wi-Fi are included along with infrared, which is sometimes omitted from handhelds these days but remains useful, in our opinion.

The camera, whose lens sits at the back, shoots both stills and video using the main screen as its viewfinder. You can cycle through various settings using the navigation button. These include MMS video, stills for use with contact information and sports shot and burst modes.

Depending on the type of shot and its resolution, there's a maximum of 10x digital zoom available, however images do become very grainy at this zoom level. More useful is the macro mode, which you activate by twisting a circle surrounding the camera lens. This allows you to get to within about 80mm of the subject of your photograph, and may prove a useful feature.

The standard Windows Mobile 5.0 software bundle is boosted by several additions from i-mate, including ClearVue PDF reader, a voice control tool for dialling contacts and launching applications, a Zip file manager and the Skype VoIP software. Finally, CA's eTrust Antivirus software can be installed, although there are no known Pocket PC viruses in the wild and installation will consume precious system resources.

Performance
We found some operations a little sluggish on the JAMin, and after we'd synchronised our contacts and calendar to the device the pre-installed Skype software refused to run.

There is no official estimate of battery life from i-mate, but in our tests we found it to be roughly what we'd expect from a Windows Mobile 5.0 handheld. When the JAMin played MP3 music with its screen forced to stay on, we got 7.5 hours of battery life.

This device's compact dimensions will appeal to anyone looking for a functional but convenient connected handheld. Our only real concern is the issue we experienced running Skype.

Additional editing by Kate Macefield