Reviews and tests | Review: i-mate Ultimate 6150 and 8150

For some reason a different manufacturer has been chosen to assemble the Ultimate series than it used to be with the JAMA. It’s Arima which are well known at least for the recent O2 XDA Atom. By the way, the device is much similar to the Ultimate, even the hard reset procedure being identical. It’s for this very reason that the favourable balance will be hardly extended to new devices and the JAMA sequels (the 101 and 102 models) are no more than relatively interesting. Chances are that in the nearest future i-mate will declare themselves bankrupt - there is ample evidence of a situation close to it.

«Chances are that in the nearest future i-mate will declare themselves bankrupt»

As we have already mentioned, even the features of the lower ranking 6150 and 8150, in spite of the lack of GPS, are unique for the market. There is even a TV-output here and the 8150 model is the first VGA-smartphone to feature an alphanumeric keypad. The autofocusing camera feature is available and the casing uses metal. Finally, the devices of this line enjoy a stylish realisation; the design drew attention of many people almost a year ago in Barcelona. It was then that they began talking about i-mate’s return on the market and predicted a bright future for the company. There is no difficulty in understanding that the handsets turned out pretty ambiguous, that’s why let’s try and gain a detailed overview of the matter…

The sales package of i-mate Ultimate 6150 and 8150 is a standard mess kit consisting of typical items. Let’s note only a TV-cable with universal 3.5mm jack plug. As for the rest it doesn’t differ from the majority of other products; no memory card comes with the models.

i-mate Ultimate 6150 and Ultimate 8150 are among the first smartphones making use of the GoForce 5500 graphics processing unit from NVIDIA. This chip was announced at the same Barcelona 3GSM show in spring; since that time the next 6100 version has been already released. Running a few steps forward, let’s note that there are very few applications that support the GoForce features; that’s why for the most part the point is no more than just interesting. Though NVIDIA itself tends to attribute to the 5500 based products features formerly available only to portable consoles, TV-sets and other function-specific devices.

The NVIDIA GoForce 5500 chip is reported to provide video playback in H.264, WMV9 and MPEG-4 formats at resolutions up to 720 x 480 pixels and a rate of 30 fps, 3D-graphics processing capabilities up to 2,6M triangles/sec and 200M pixels/sec, compatibility with DVB-H, ISDB-T and DMB network standards and up to 10-megapixel cameras. At the same time it enjoys reduced power consumption due to nPower technology. In theory, should they wish to, developers can run on the Ultimate surely not Quake 4, but Quake 3 for certain. The only problem is that the GoForce chips are not so widely spread and in the nearest future hardly somebody will aim at greater project development for these hardware resources without the participation of NVIDIA itself.

As pictured by the official sources, everything looks more than reassuring:


FULL-QUALITY SMOOTH DIGITAL TV NVIDIA GoForce 5500 GPU is compatible with new network standards, including DVB-H, ISDB-T and DMB, and data formats such as H.264 and WMV9, for worldwide broadcast television. As a result the end user gets high-quality content with smooth frame rates, i.e. just like conventional television.		CONSOLE-CLASS 3D GAMING The all-new NVIDIA GoForce 5500 3D engine delivers up to 2.6M triangles per second and 200M pixels per second, barely sipping at your battery juice. You get more hours of console-class gaming – anytime, anywhere.


SMOOTH DVD QUALITY VIDEO PLAYBACK NVIDIA GoForce GPUs are capable of both encoding (recording) and decoding (play back) video at 30 frames per second — delivering smooth, jitter-free, high-quality video.		HIGH-FIDELITY SURROUND SOUND Surround sound processing and 3D audio effects will make you forget you're listening to a mobile phone. With the NVIDIA GoForce 5500 audio processor, portable audio never sounded better. High bit rate MP3, AAC and AAC+ playback at up to 320kbits/sec with equalizer effects and cross-fading are the new standard.


SHARP, VIVID PHOTOS NVIDIA GoForce 5500 raises the bar - up to 10-megapixel film-quality imaging - higher than most of the standalone digital cameras available today.		MORE FUN TIME, LESS CHARGE DRAIN WHILE TALKING NVIDIA nPower technology offloads the main processor and runs multimedia applications drawing resources from the GPU. Power required to run these applications is significantly reduced, while image quality is greatly improved.

In reality, let’s repeat once again, at the present moment the feature is no more than a nice theory.

One more unique feature of i-mate Ultimate 6150 and 8150 which allows you to output the video from smartphone via VGA-cable. The latter utilizes a separate 3.5 mm audio jack, but the length is minimal, therefore you’ll need an extension cable in most cases. The process itself is extremely simple – you should just establish a cable connection, there automatically appears a dialogue offering to output an image to the monitor without reset. At the same time the PDA screen gets switched off for some reason, though it would be more convenient, if this feature depended on the user. In any case it remains sensitive to touch and is employed as a kind of sensor to control the mouse cursor. The latter appears automatically as soon as TV-output mode is activated, hardware controls (a navigation button, a keypad and others) also remaining active.

The i-mate Ultimate 6150 and Ultimate 8150 smartphones are implemented in a classical "monoblock" form factor (traditionally for WM-based PDA-phones) with a touch screen and a block of controls below. The casing has a matte surface, that’s why it doesn’t tend to be easily soiled. The only exception is the camera, which should be handled with more care – the quality of shots gets worse, it’s an unpractical solution. Besides this very part gets worn and scratched; for a month and a half of moderate usage it accumulated a good deal of that.

And the coating of the major part of the casing isn’t durable only at first glance. Time shows and practice proves that the Ultimate is very good in this regard - after a month and a half of work the exterior practically wasn’t anyhow damaged though the devices faced environmental conditions far from ideal. During this period they travelled across almost the whole Europe, were dropped in sand and caught in the rain. The coating is worthy of the highest appraisals. Putting side the resistance to mechanical damage, the quality of implementation itself is quite high – the back cover is close-fitting, it almost does not creak on squeezing. Arima couldn’t afford producing devices of such quality formerly, but they really didn’t let i-mate down, everything is very well done. This point is of much importance for a top-class product sold at a considerable price.

The casing is made out of plastic, but it is almost completely covered with an aluminium coating. It’s a big plus – the smartphone looks and feels more solid than very many competitors. If you add a really successful design here, you will get a very pleasant combination. We don’t presume to judge the style of its design objectively, but in opinion of dozens users questioned during a month and a half of testing, Arima and i-mate really managed to guess the tastes of very many customers, including even female ones. For the time present only one colour solution is available, others are not planned for the nearest future and will be hardly released in the long term. The available combination of light metallic and classic black is doubtlessly successful. It looks fresh and at the same time is not far from habitual.

And the thing we didn’t like is the compromise found by i-mate owing to the orientation of such products towards the mass market. Obviously they intended to release a heap of handsets at once and Arima stipulated that they should bear the nearest resemblance. It concerned not only the features stuffed inside, but the exterior as well. As a result the bottom part layout of the 6150 casing is much questionable. The usable space on the panel is merely empty though, for example, a keypad could be easily placed there, which is implemented in the senior 8150 model. Here we see an inflexible platform that is more convenient for a technological process but in no way is to the end user’s advantage. At the same time the utilization of the 2.6” screen in the 8150 is doubtful, there is evidently enough room for 2.8”.

That sort of compromise between the products of the line makes the series more even-leveled, but if you consider the devices separately, the disbalance disappoints. The dimensions may be designated as more substantial than average, they are 118.5 x 60.5 x 15.5 mm, and the weight is also far from modest – 152 g. However this very point exerts quite a neutral influence on the ergonomics; it is embellished with the successful casing design. The navigation block has a fairly strange implementation, it’s not always handy. The keys could have been better spaced apart and partitioned. The 8150 employs an alphanumeric keypad; it consists of 12 keys. This element’s implementation is of average quality, in particular the segmentation seems insufficient - alphanumericals are fitted closely one against another, that's why stray keystrokes occur quite often.

The navigation button is quite handy, but the reliability of its mechanics is questionable, it’s not always convenient. In about a month it began to seize up, the control-gear isn’t much reliable. This may be a flaw of the presale sample. The power button gave rise to one more problem; its action is inert – the smartphone switches on and off after a certain amount of time, not at once. Sometimes you have to press it more than once. This also may be a presale sample flaw; we recommend these points to be better thought through, since they are raw for the time being.

The side edges are abundant in control elements, even the now rare IR-port window enjoys a smart location on the upper part of the casing - the handset can be perfectly used as a remote and on the whole it’s more convenient to transfer data this way. The power button and the stylus holder are put nearby. The left edge hosts the OK and the wireless manager buttons as well as the scroll-wheel with an enter function, the memory expansion slot and the soft-reset socket. The miniUSB interface slot (unfortunately, the 1.1 version like that with ASUS P750) employed for charging the battery, phone-to-PC synchronization and plugging in the headset, as well as the two-position camera button are available on the right edge. Besides there is a VGA-output right here (a cable is included in the sales package), which is also an uncommon point for PDA-phones. For some reason Arima hasn’t bundled a universal headset adapter (at least 2.5 mm, if not a 3.5 mm one); taking into account the integrated FM-radio available in the models, the point is of much importance.

i-mate Ultimate 6150 and 8150 are designed to be used in GSM 850/900/1800/1900 and UMTS 850/1900/2100 networks; they support GPRS/EDGE, as well as HSDPA. Wire communication is achieved through USB1.1 that makes use of the common microUSB slot. The data transfer speed isn’t high due to low-quality interface implementation. But at the same time the Mass Storage is supported. As we have mentioned above, TV-output is also available. The latter allows you to output the XGA video (1024 x 768). The VGA-cable comes with a separate 3.5 mm audio jack; the truth is, its length is minimal, which is not always convenient.

The wireless communication is represented by the IR-port as well as the Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR (Enhanced Data Rate) module and Wi-Fi. Both give raise to no reprimands and IR-ports aren’t frequently found nowadays. AD2P is implemented on a level with the closely priced counterparts. It's a pity though that should the connection be lost, the sound doesn't stop automatically, the built-in speaker is instantly activated – the same disadvantage is with Symbian-based smartphones. In addition to AD2P, the following profiles are supported:

› ActiveSync profile
› Generic Access profile
› Serial Port profile
› Object Push / OBEX profile
› DUN (dial-up networking profile)
› Hands-free profile
› PAN profile
› A2DP (Advanced Audio Distribution profile)
› AVRCP (Audio/Video Remote control profile)
› HID (Human interface device profile)

Document printing is also possible. There's also the Bluetooth synchronization, you just need to:

1. Install the Windows Mobile Media Control Centre or ActiveSync software to your PC
2. On the PDA side, run - Start > Programs > ActiveSync.
3. Activate Bluetooth both on the PC and the PDA, than engage the visible mode.
4. On the PDA side, run - Menu > Connection > Bluetooth.
5. When it’s run first, start the Bluetooth Configuration Wizard.

No support for such features is provided in the Wi-Fi mode due to security reasons, though it was possible in earlier versions of AKU (as early as WM5). Wireless Manager is functionally standard. As we have already mentioned, there is no GPS-receiver in the models. And the FM-tuner is available. Its shell is rather functional in most cases, but you won’t find any extras in addition to the standard features (such as the ability to record radio broadcasts).

As for the integrated storage i-mate Ultimate 6150 and Ultimate 8150 enjoy worthy implementation, there are 128 Mb of RAM and 256 Mb of ROM here, which is quite sufficient for basic functionality. As we’ve mentioned, the memory card slot is the microSD standard. It keeps with the full hot swapping support; traditionally no memory card comes bundled.

i-mate together with E-TEN, Gigabyte and few others promote VGA screens with the Ultimate 6150 and 8150, the reasoning given to customers being a fourfold increase in pixels displayed. That sort of marketing is strange enough, taking into consideration that the physical size remains the same and with 8150 it is even smaller than with the majority of smartphones - on a level with Gigabyte GSmart i350. It’s a rather niche tendency since none of the large players has followed it. We have already mentioned in our reviews, that this point is more likely to be a marketing trump, rather than an essential advantage. The reason is more that evident - it is a small physical size of the screen.

If you view similar smartphones’ screenshots on a desktop computer, the difference is sure to be obvious and doubtlessly positive. The point is that even on a sub-notebook with a 10-12” display you will see the comfortable 640x480 that won’t ruin your eyesight. It’s absolutely another matter with a smartphone which screen often has a diagonal less than 3”. Some web sites are a torture to view at an VGA resolution even in a calm environment, imagine doing the same during a bumpy ride in public transport.

The Microsoft Company have initially went through a good deal of preliminary inquiry to get to know what the ideal balance of ergonomics is. The conclusion looked exactly like a 3.5’’ QVGA (320x240) display which found a wide implementation in many of their PDAs based off the Windows Mobile software platform. Over the course of time pureblood PDAs got to lose their market importance, so most manufacturers switched their priorities to PDA phones. As a result each manufacturer tried and maximally approached phone criteria, having minimized the device dimensions. The first module to suffer was the screen. It squeezed from the usual PDA dimensions down to 2,8’’ or sometimes even 2,6’’ or 2,4’’.

Some of the manufacturers were quick enough to make a real hype out of their VGA-standard matrices which let the screen elements become smaller. This, quite expectedly, shattered the ergonomics concept developed by Microsoft. Aggravated by the awkwardness of the Windows Mobile interface, this misbalance is exactly the thing that keeps the WM OS lagging behind Symbian-based solutions.

The quality of this element in the Ultimate 6150 and 8150 is average; moreover, the latter has got a somewhat small screen diagonal. The maximum brightness level is good, but no more than that. The view angles could have been better. The colour rendering gives rise to no reprimands; it’s on a level with the closely priced counterparts. The screen looks well in the sunlight; the info stays quite legible.

The interface implementation is typical of Windows Mobile phones. Here there is no such firmware innovation as TouchFLO with HTC. The top line is used for displaying service indicators like the battery life meter or signal quality, the clock as well as the wireless protocols availability, Bluetooth, GPRS/EDGE, 3G, Wi-Fi, the list of launched applications. The bottom line contains info about context button functions.

The main part of the desktop can be customized to your liking. By default it shows th date, the carrier info, the owner's personal data, messaging stats, the tasklist and schedule, and the indicator area (battery charge, display angle, wireles module manager and backlighting level). The user can customize the order in which these fields follow or remove some of them from the screen completely. Today Desktop can feature a custom picture or a photo.

There are two kinds of menus in these phones: the quick access menu and the main menu. The former is activated on pressing the Start button and essentially is a vertical list that contains 7 items, info about the 5 recently launched applications as well as grants access to the main menu and settings. The main menu is a list of applications very much similar to a regular Windows-styled window with icons and application names below them. A maximum of 12 icons per screen are allowed.

The Phone application is entirely in charge of the phone talks, which can be activated either by pressing the Call Button or by activating the corresponding menu item in the Start menu. The main screen of the Phone application hosts three tabs - Calls, Quick Dial and Phone Settings.

Contacts are stored within the Contacts application. The SIM-card stored contacts share the same list with the user-memory stored contacts. A SIM-stored contact can be transferred to user memory and vice versa. The PDA phone supports three types of contacts:

MS Outlook contacts can either be created directly on the PDA phone or synchronized with a PC or an Exchange Server contacts database. Each contact stores a few phone numbers, e-mail addresses, instant messaging contacts, home and work addresses and misc info like post, date of birth, etc. Each Outlook contact can be associated with a unique picture and ringtone.
USIM/SIM card contacts. Any of those can only store a name and a phone number.
Windows Live Contacts are used by the Windows Live Messenger (MSN). Likewise the Outlook contacts, Windows Live contacts can contain detailed data about the person.

Only one telephone number is allowed per USIM/SIM-card stored contact. If you copy a user memory contact to SIM/USIM, the SIM Card Manager program splits any multiple phone numbers associated with a single contact into separate contact records for the USIM/SIM card memory. A special suffix is added automatically to the names of such duplicate contacts to tell between them (by default "/M" stands for Mobile, "/W" for Work and "/H" for Home).

To dial a number, you can equally use the Phone application, the Contacts book, the Quick Dial or the Calls menu as well as the SIM card manager. Traditionally there's support for Smart Dialing which makes dialing easier than before. Once you input the initial symbols of the phone number or the person's name, the phone filters all the contacts automatically to fit the search criteria. This sorting works automatically for contacts stored both in user memory and on the SIM card and is applicable to the contacts book and the call log (missed, outgoing and incoming calls). This saves a bit of time while searching for some person's name in the phonebook.

By default, the call log displays information about all calls but it's customizable to filter missed, outgoing and incoming calls only, sorting by name is also present. Besides the name and the number each record in the log stores the time, the date and one call or all calls length.

The only limit to the size of the contact book is the current amount of free user memory available. Up to 12 phone numbers of different types, 3 e-mail addresses, home and work address, web page address and a plenty of other details like Assistant's Phone Number can be associated with every contact. It goes without saying that each contact can enjoy its own ringtone and picture as well as belong to one of the customizable user groups.

The i-mate Profile Controller is utilized for the profile management, the standard WM settings being in their place as well. The interface is stylish and handy, and the functionality pleases with the following items: a ringtone, a type and a volume of calls.

Traditionally the Messaging application is used for composing, viewing and sending SMS and MMS messages as well as e-mail messages. Once you get a new message, the Today screen displays a special reminder symbol. You can sort your messages in a number of ways, for example you can sort your e-mail messages by topic.

An incoming message is indicated by a pop-up window regardless of the menu the user is currently browsing through. The message can be instantly opened, deleted or ignored. That stands to reason that all the messages are stored within the same folder, at the same time shown in a tree-like structure allowing for easier navigation. We reviewed the keyboard input above, there are no problems when using MioKeyboard, everything is highly convenient.

E-mail can be set to be delivered automatically (you specify the interval before each message is received or sent automatically). Sorting by date is possible. You can activate simultaneous sending and receiving of mail, set a mailing schedule when roaming abroad and sort incoming messages by size prior to downloading them to the phone.

If you use a Microsoft Exchange 2007 server the message will be delivered instantly and not on the next synchronization. Full HTML support is present. If the message contains several attachments, all of them are downloaded, but you can activate delayed downloading mode. You can use hot key combinations for quick access to the messaging functions like Reply, Forward, etc.

An able security system is in the place. For example, in ActiveSync any outgoing message can be digitally signed and encrypted automatically prior to sending, an IRM (Information Rights Management) capability allows you to limit access to messages in the way you like.

Calendar is used for scheduling events and meetings, this day's schedule can be displayed on the Today screen. If your PC has a copy of Outlook installed on it, you can synchronize the schedules. Reminders can be set in the form of sound signals or screen flickers.

The Calendar application can also be used for arranging meetings via e-mail with the users of Outlook or Outlook Mobile. If the recipient accepts the proposition, the meeting is automatically added to their schedule. When the person affirms to participate, your schedule is automatically updated with an acknowledgement. The Windows Mobile platform has long been known for its strong points in the corporate sphere.

The standard vCalendar file format is supported for exchanging information about scheduled events; the corresponding files can be exported to the PC version of Outlook.

The Tasks application is used for scheduling events which can either be set to be one-time or recurring. You can set up reminders and sort them by categories. There's a tasklist which automatically highlights in red expired tasks. You can set a reminder that will be automatically activated on every occasion when open your schedule to add a new event.

The Notes application helps you to store quick notes. You can input the text from the keyboard, put it down in handwriting or use voice-to-text processing as well as convert handwritten notes into text files or send your notes to other people. If a letter crosses more than three marking lines, it's processed as an image, otherwise - as text. To select an image for further removal or copying just hold your stylus pressed to the screen where the image is for a few moments..

Office Mobile comprises three applications used to view and edit Microsoft Office documents - Word Mobile (viewing and editing of *.doc, *.rtf, *.txt and *.dot files), Excel Mobile (viewing and editing of *.xls files), PowerPoint Mobile (playing *.ppt and *.pps files).

Explorer is a basic file manager that serves for browsing media folders. The standard Calculator and Search applications are available as well.

1-View serves to remotely exchange files using server space or wireless data transfer protocols. The traditional Backup application is also available, but it is focused on making backup copies of the user data.

ClearVue PDF is used to handle *.pdf files.

The smartphone is compatible with the following graphic file formats: *.bmp, *.jpg, *.gif, *.png. A simple Photo and Video Manager is preinstalled to help the user make simple changes to the files, like rotation or trimming.

It does better at handling audio and video files:


Windows Media Video	.wmv, .asf	Windows Media Audio	.wma
MPEG4 simple profile	.mp4	MP3	.mp3
H.263	.3gp, .3g2	MIDI	.mid
H.264	.mp4, .3gp, .3g2, .m4v	AMR, narrowband	.amr
Motion JPEG	.avi	AMR, broadband	.awb
		AAC	.m4a, .aac

The selected media file can be sent by e-mail, transferred to another device, played as a slide show, sent to a person through the Windows Live MySpace network and so on.

The preinstalled Windows Media Player Mobile allows for opening video and audio records, both local and network playback is possible. The three main display windows are:

• Playback control keys (Play, Pause, Next, Previous and Volume) and the video window.
• The playlist showing the currently played file as well as files that are going to be played.
• The media library that stores audio and video files as well as playlists.

The voice recorder serves, quite expectedly, for talk recording. The records can be further sent via MMS or e-mail, or transferred through a wireless connection. Recorded fragments can also be used as ringtones. The records are stored in the AMR-NB (Adaptive Multi-Rate Narrowband) format.

Streaming Multimedia Player is utilized to view streaming video files, it can employ universal HTTP-links. Traditionally for i-mate, the player control applet sits on the Today Screen, which allows you to manage playbacking without launching the main application.

This element with i-mate Ultimate 6150 and 8150 is weak enough - 2 Mpix with autofocusing. E-TEN glofiish X800, for example, has got a similar module. The majority of other top models have been already long since equipped with 3 Mpix cameras, particularly HTC Touch Cruise and TyTN II, ASUS P750, Mio A702 and others. For a top-class product offered at an above-average price that sort of solution is hardly sufficient. It is strange, that against the background of stuffing advanced in many respects we have a camera module of such quality.

There is no protective lens cover, so it's highly advised to use the camera as carefully as possible - the grease that sticks to the lens is able to cause serious photo quality degradation. Besides, the objective insert is susceptible to scratching. The LED flashlight with average performance is available as well as the mirror for self shooting. The shooting aspect is horizontal; a large touchscreen is used for controls and settings. The button is two-positioned; all the necessary settings are available. The interface doesn’t give rise to any reprimands either.

The phone is able to take pictures at resolutions up to 1600x1200 and shoot video clips at resolutions up to 320х240. A 4x digital zoom is available. The view-finder performance is average, the inertness is moderate. And the image saving speed is low, that’