i-mate officially adds 8502, 9502 to Ultimate line

Those two rather dashing new models in i-mate's off-again, on-again Ultimate line that we peeped all the way back at CTIA last fall are finally official. The 9502, undoubtedly the more interesting of the pair, is almost Sidekick-ish in its design, featuring a VGA touchscreen that slides to the side to reveal a full QWERTY keyboard. The 8502 meanwhile makes do with a more traditional form factor, sticking the QWERTY pad below the 2.6 inch QVGA display up front. Both models feature HSPA (yes, both HSDPA and HSUPA), TV out, and integrated GPS, hence earning their keep in the thin-but-growing Ultimate stable. Still no word on release or pricing, but since they've both been kicking around since CTIA, we imagine we'll see 'em in the pipe before too long.

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 12th 2008 3:29PM]

No read link?

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 12th 2008 4:54PM]

Is this GPS or AGPS? Is there touchscreen on this thing / WM6?

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 13th 2008 8:29AM]

Yes it is touch screen WM. The GPS chip is the gpsOne in the Qualcomm MSM7200 chipset. It is capable of both stand alone and assisted mode. Assisted is much faster and more accurate, but im not sure if a carrier can/will charge for it. Anyone know? Would ATT be able to tell that you are in assisted mode?

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 12th 2008 4:54PM]

sweet, more vaporware

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 13th 2008 8:31AM]

Hummm nice...

Since October I kept looking on www.pdadb.net and the "released date" is always pushed a bit... in october it was "November 2007", in November is was bumped to "mid-December", in january, it jumped to mid February and today, the date was pushed another time... "March 2008"

This is the first device to promise a real upgrade over my HTC Universal. Is there any other device with VGA screen, 256MB ROM /128MB RAM, GPS, QWERTY, running winmo6... Ok ... Let's be patient.

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 13th 2008 8:31AM]

Any new hands on pics?

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 13th 2008 10:00AM]

i-mate have both models on display at their 3GSM booth. They are functional and you can try them out by yourself, by the way, so they're not exactly vaporware. Of course you won't be able to test stability, battery life and the GSM or GPS connection, but you will see that the build quality and overall speed are quite good (the keyboard is really good on both models). Since they let anyone toy with these, I would guess they're pretty sure nothing will look bad and thus that the release date is fairly close (barring any supply problem, of course).

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 13th 2008 10:50AM]

Are you there? Can you or someone else go to the memory tab in the control panel and let us know how much free and total RAM it has(after a soft reset if you can). Someone with a preproduction unit reported some pretty low memory. Thanks.

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 13th 2008 11:45AM]

Sorry no, I was there only on Monday & Tuesday, like your run-of-the-mill company stooge. But as I said both models are accessible on i-mate's booth, so I would be surprised if no one did a hands-on preview by the end of the week (*WINK*WINK* Hey, what do you think, Engadget Staff? *WINK*WINK*)...

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 13th 2008 6:07PM]

I love the concept of each of these, but why did they have to make them so ugly? Also, they look huge. The comparison pic with the iPhone helped, but not with the 9502. Maybe the ugliness makes them appear larger than they are.

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 13th 2008 11:45PM]

@JonK: Thanks very much for the answers on the GPS & touchscreen, I appreciate it!

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 13th 2008 10:12PM]

being made available in Australia in March 08.
http://www.cnet.com.au/mobilephones/pdaphones/0,239036203,339285886,00.htm?ocid=nl_d_13022008_lat_l8

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 22nd 2008 2:17PM]

i like it can u get it unlocked anywhere??

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 31st 2008 9:26AM]

The iMate Ultimate 8502 is out and on sale. This seller is offering international delivery. Check it out:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=170206646941&ssPageName=STRK:MESE:IT