i-mobile 902 review (dial up beware)

**marco712** · 02-21-2007, 02:12 AM

Ok well this is my first review of any phone so excuse me if I am not up to par. Most of my comparisons of the camera will be to the sharp 903 as this is the phone I’m most familiar with and is considered by many to be a high quality camera for cell phones.

For starters we’ll start with
-Look and feel
-Menu
-Sound
-Camera

Look and Feel:
The i-mobile 902 has a rather “plastic” look to it, but in your hands the plastic feels pretty strong. However if you put some strong pressure on the casing it will slightly bend as well there are minor creaks here and there. The size of the phone is roughly the same as a SE k750.

The screen 320 x 240 and is very bright, I have ran into problems with the screen when viewing it from any other angle but face on. If you view it from any other angle the screen becomes unreadable. Additionally, the earpiece for this phone does not seem to have any sort of dust filtering system as dust easily invades the screen.

Because the plastic of the phone is a smooth plastic it is easy to get fingerprints on it, as well if your hands have any sort of grease (eg after eating pizza or fried foods) the phone is rather slippery.

Buttons are large and easy to press with the exception of the “2” button as it is only a semi circle which takes some time to get used to. The joystick of the phone is satisfactory but at times is “pushed in the wrong direction.” I find that often when pushing down, the phone reads this movement as down-left. In all the keypad and joystick do make a large “click” noise when pushed. This has been noted by several of my peers when testing out the phone.

Menu:
The menu layout is similar to that of Sony Ericsson; however, the similarity is only a small one. Icons follow as (from L-R Top to bottom) SMS, Call Register, Contacts, Settings, Media Player, Gallery, Organizer, Fun and Games, Services.
When scrolling through the sub-menu by pushing right on the joystick it automatically opens up the folder you are looking at. Pushing by any other means would open up an options menu.

The menu in general is satisfactory and takes time to get used to as there is sometimes a 1 second pause between selections.

Media of any sorts cannot be moved all at once, they must be moved individually. Moreover, there is no one step option to move media from memory card to the phone or vice versa, all moves made between the 2 must be manually navigated through the menu which makes for a long process. Eg. Memory card -> memory card folder --> Memory card folder / phone folder  phone folder  choose folder  OK
Folder may be manually made on the memory card however it is not possible to create folders on the phones memory.

Sound:
The i-mobile 902 has a very loud speaker which is convenient for both listening to music and using the speakerphone. At the loudest setting the speakers show little distortion / crackling and is very clear. The speaker’s level is comparable to that of the SE K750.

The phone carries both an MP3 player and a Radio. The radio transmission is very nice sounding and the user may also choose to record from the radio. The mp3 player comes with 3 different skins all of which are very nice. One 2 of the skins the mp3 player shows both the song currently playing and conveniently displays 2-3 of the songs which are cued up to be played.

Camera:
The camera quality of the i-mobile 902 is comparable to the sharp 903, at times beating the 903 and at others losing out.

I-mobile 902's camera focus is similar to the SE autofocus system which takes about 1.5-2 seconds to focus on far away objects. In macro mode the autofocus system is much slower and takes 2-3 seconds and is suceptible to hand shaking. This is done via counting from the time the user pushes the picture button until the picture taking sound occurs. Saving the picture takes no more then 1 second.

The i-mobile's camera menue is also similar to the SE's in that it is horizontally navigated, there are no keypad short cuts like on the Sharp 903. eg. on the Sharp 903 pressing "6" on the keypad automatically brings the camera to night mode. In the i-mobile one must press "options" then scroll to night mode.

In comparisons the Sharp 903 picture taking of far away objects and in macro mode uses about 1-1.5 seconds.

I will now leave comparisons pictures for readers to decide for themselves which camera produes better pictures.

I-mobile / sharp 903

Indoors:

Outdoors

with sun

Macro

full resolution

night time auto

night time - night mode

Negatives:
-Menu can be slow at times
-Pictures on occasion will save as only random specs and colors similar to just the noise of channels on TV meaning that there was a write error and the photo could not be saved properly.
-The mp3 player at times automatically adds the same song to the playlist several times in a row or randomly throughout the playlist.
-Phone’s memory at times does not copy information correctly from the memory card. Eg. Transferring a picture to the phone may result in a distorted and fragmented picture, or at other times retains its name, but when viewed is another picture all together. This is thus far deterred me from transferring pictures to my phone.

Positives:
-nice mp3 layout and skins
-nice loud earpiece and speakerphone
-solid feel to the phone.

Final comment:
In general the phone is acceptable despite it’s writing errors and difficult transfer process. I would recommend the phone for those who are camera phone enthusiasts, however for those looking for functions and speed this phone may not be ideal for them.

**cklchoi** · 02-21-2007, 04:08 AM

Good review marco, I hope you don't mind me adding a few things (having also used both)

-> In my opinion the camera performs considerably better than anything out there so far. Although alot of it has to do with the user, I've found that the imobile gave more consistent results, and wins by a large margin on night shots (strong xenon flash, and excellent long exposure shots). I also favour the imobile's access to more settings than the 903SH, such as ISO and Exposure Value.

I'm sure these photos have been linked to at some point on this forum:
http://forums.hardwarezone.com/print...&page=23&pp=30

-> Requires a few more button clicks to open folders etc than the 903SH menu

-> A2DP works flawlessly; it paired up with my Sony DR-BT10CX headset first try. However, I will note that when broadcasting multimedia through A2DP, the mp3 player won't run in the background.

-> Reception in North America isn't as strong as the 903SH.

-> Smaller than 903SH!

-> Photo viewing via the photo gallery is much better on the imobile. The 903SH takes forever to update its file list and you can't view in grid-preview.

-> I miss the size of the 903SH screen

**marco712** · 02-23-2007, 02:47 PM

thnx cklchoi!

i agree with what you said, alsoi find the i-mobiles camera sensor to not be as sensitive as the 903's the 903's sensor changes according to light, the i-mobile seems to be slower to pick up low light or bright lights

**marco712** · 02-24-2007, 12:51 AM

been playing with the camera, settings on EV make a big difference, the pictures above are at EV0 , EV+.3 makes a lot of difference

one problem i've ran into is that the screen being so bright really gives a different impression of the picture you take. For eg the pictures below when viewed on my screen were all shown as over exposed. If there was the option to dim the screen then it could give a more realistic impression of the picture taken.

**braindead5400** · 02-26-2007, 01:19 PM

I wish they were more readily available, that way I could get a used one. I don't really want to pay for a new one when I've heard of so many bugs with the phone

**ajamils** · 03-08-2007, 03:32 PM

Originally Posted by braindead5400

I wish they were more readily available, that way I could get a used one. I don't really want to pay for a new one when I've heard of so many bugs with the phone

I've been using one for a while now and I haven't come across any bugs. Been really happy with the phone so far (except for it being a little slow compared to 903)

PS: My 500th post

**DiGdUb** · 03-09-2007, 01:33 AM

i've not encountered any bugs with it so far as well.

**ajamils** · 03-09-2007, 08:02 AM

Originally Posted by ajamils

I've been using one for a while now and I haven't come across any bugs. Been really happy with the phone so far (except for it being a little slow compared to 903)

Except for the dust getting in

**braindead5400** · 03-09-2007, 11:03 AM

Originally Posted by ajamils

I've been using one for a while now and I haven't come across any bugs. Been really happy with the phone so far (except for it being a little slow compared to 903)

PS: My 500th post

I figured you had one since your taste in "rare" phones is pretty similar to mine.

I've read about problems over at mobile-review, so I'm a little apprehensive, but the price of the phone has come down to the point where I'll probably just get a new one.

**marco712** · 03-11-2007, 08:27 PM

no bugs? really? when i assign caller ID pictures it gets all screwy and shows a different picture than what i assigned when i click the thumbnail.

but then when the person calls the correct picture appears.. it's weird

**invite2Islam** · 05-30-2007, 01:15 AM

So any updates after several months of usage?

braindead is apparently not taking his 902 to the grave with him...

**braindead5400** · 05-30-2007, 07:14 AM

I don't keep my phones for very long, but I can tell you that I haven't experienced any of the negatives the OP listed except for the menu being a little slow

**invite2Islam** · 05-30-2007, 10:23 AM

thanks, braindead.

by the way, i talked to my dad this morning to feel him out about his current cell phone (a several-year-old SE camera phone, when phones get that old, you know, they do not like to give their age...) and he's recently decided that it suits him fine.

he had been talking about how much he liked the video on my dash, which says something about how little time he spends tracking cell phone features, and that was why i thought i should get him a phone that he would like to use (and he is an avid user of his 5.0 MP digital camera).

what resolved him that his phone was just fine? he recently decided bluetooth headsets were a waste of effort (after trying one my sister gave him) and he just bought a portable dvd player -- so at least now he has better video than my dash.