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And, apart from that horrid keypad, some of the other controls are quite nicely thought out. The mini joystick embedded in the numeric keypad, for instance, works well for navigating around the Windows Mobile 6 interface, as does the jog wheel on the left edge. The addition of a button on the side dedicated to launching the Wireless Manager is a nice touch too.

I also like the fact that the 8150 can be charged up very quickly. Put it in 'fast charge' mode and it's replenished in a couple of hours or so. Unfortunately, the battery life itself brings it all back down to earth with a resounding bump. The seemingly capacious 1,530mAh was rarely good enough for a day or so of occasional use. In the three weeks I used the phone I never managed to extract more than two days from it, and this was without Bluetooth or the Wi-Fi adaptor switched on.

Verdict

The i-mate Ultimate 8150 certainly crams in plenty of features - it's fast all round and jammed full of the latest smartphone goodies. Plus there's that rather unusual extra of being able to output to an external monitor or projector.

But features aren't everything when it comes to phones, and the size, design, and battery life of this one are not up to scratch. If you desperately want the display output it's pretty much unique. If you don't, the TyTN II still rivals it for features but in a smaller, much more usable package, whereas those from Glofiish are vastly more stylish.

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