i-mate Smartflip Review

Messaging:

The message interface does not seem to be very convenient, at least as far as we are concerned. The standard text, multimedia and e-mails are all in one and the same menu. To write a new one is in fact easy, but you get to know that there are ready templates (only for MMS) only when you start writing a new one and open ‘Menu”. You must use the same menu in case you do not want to send a message you have already started writing – otherwise the standard navigation with the ‘back’ arrow and the red receiver will not do – the message will not be closed, but just minimized (by the receiver button) at best. For instance, there will be no indexation if there are no messages in the inbox – you will simply see a blank screen.

With the settings of the e-mail account you can limit the download of messages to: Just today / 3 days / 5 / 7 / 30 / All days. Another restriction you can impose is: Headers only / First 500 bytes / 1000 bytes / 5000 bytes/ Entire message.

Connectivity:

For local connection it supports Bluetooth version 1.2 and a lot of profiles, including the wireless multimedia A2DP for stereo sound. You can also connect it to a computer by a USB cable plugged in the right-side port of the telephone. You will need an installed Microsoft Active Sync on your PC in order to achieve an easy synchronization of the phone with Microsoft Outlook at your will.

The telephone has the standard Windows Mobile Internet Explorer adapted to smartphones. It is a good browser and capable of opening Internet pages the way you are accustomed to watching them on a computer. We used the ‘full screen’ regime to make use of the whole screen area – simple pages as Google are easily loaded but if you choose to open something heavier as PhoneArena.com for example, you will need to wait, because you rely on EDGE. Unfortunately this page turned out to be too heavy for the slow connection and it was impossible to load all the photos.