i-mate SPL

Phones have been getting slim and stylish and phones have been getting smart, but there aren’t too many smartphones out there that are really slim and stylish. i-mate’s Smartflip can come close, but it isn’t without its share of problems. The new SPL smartphone looks good, but does it fit the bill?

Indeed, the SPL is very SLVR-like. It’s slim, and around 12mm, it may be one of the slimmest Windows Mobile smartphones out there, behind the Motorola Q. It has a glossy, piano black finish unlike the SLVR or the RAZRs. The glossy surface is quite a fingerprint magnet, but it can be wiped clean with your jeans or something, so personally I never have any problem with this kind of a finish. The device feels a little heavy at around 106gm.

The keypad on the SPL is also very SLVR-like with a similar look, including the blue blacklight. It’s flat and offers good tactile feedback, but the demarcations on this keypad are a little too flat and flush with the surface. This makes it a little difficult to handle without looking at the phone, like while driving or so. The keys are wide enough, but they aren’t too high, and their close proximity to each other is also a problem. The navigation pad’s direction keys are small, and you might end up clicking the Internet Explorer or the '2' button instead of clicking up or down. Typing SMS was also not a very pleasant experience.

The display is fairly large at around 2.2 inches. The 65k-color QVGA display makes the text looks extremely fine and crisp, but the icons still have jagged edges as if it’s a 176x220 display. It’s bright and vivid in closed environments, but in sunlight, the display goes dull and is almost unreadable.