i-mate SPL

Above the display, you’ll see the ear-piece of the SPL. It’s positioning to the extreme right of the phone will make you fiddle with the phone around the ear trying to look for the perfect position to get the best volume. In most cases, you won’t find it. Even the loudspeaker on the SPL isn’t loud enough.

Software support on this Windows Mobile 5.0 smartphone is very standard affair with your Windows Media Player, Internet Explorer Mobile, Pocket MSN, and Outlook Mobile. The messaging/email client works well, doing POP3/IMAP also, but Internet Explorer is no match for the new Series 60 3rd Edition web browser.

The SPL has a 2 megapixel digital camera. The cam takes out average quality photos. It doesn’t have any auto-focus mechanism, nor does it have a flash for night shots. Even video recording isn’t up to the mark with really low frame rates.

The phone runs a TI OMAP 720 processor at 200MHz. The OS is Windows Mobile 5.0 Smartphone Edition AKU3. There’s around 64MB of RAM in the phone and 128MB of ROM. There’s also a miniSD memory card slot, however, isn’t hot swap. SDIO is also supported.

The device is also a tri-band GSM phone with GPRS support, but no EDGE. Bluetooth is stuck at v1.2 and even USB is stuck at 1.1. There’s no USB Mass Storage support so you can’t drag and drop files onto the device directly. You need ActiveSync or sync it via Windows Media Player.

Speaking of USB, the device – like most WinMo phones – has a standard miniUSB slot which is used for data transfer as well as recharging. The battery life of the SPL was not too good – I don’t talk too much on the phone and even then I could stretch it out to a maximum of two or three days, and that’s on the higher side.

The i-mate SPL costs Rs. 16,500, which is high for a device with so many issues with ergonomics, performance and tech specs. If you’re looking for a sleeker smartphone, get the E50. If you’re just looking for a sleek phone, stick to the SLVR L7.