Inexpensive Pocket PCs a Reality: the i-Mat

Frys is now carrying a new Pocket PC brand from Hong Kong, called Matsunichi. The product is called the "i-Mat". It's using a 300 Mhz XScale CPU, a QVGA scren, 32 MB ROM, 64 MB RAM, it has an SD slot, headphone jack, a microphone, IrDA SIR and a scroll wheel button. It comes with Windows Mobile 2003 (not SE), office, mp3 player and other extra software.

I quickly used the PDA at Frys (Palo Alto, CA) today and while it has the same vertical size as other PocketPCs, it's considerably thinner and light. Frys sells the PDA for $219 which is the cheapest Pocket PC price around today and considerably cheaper than similarly equipped PalmOS devices.

Comments

This is a reasonably priced PDA indeed.

I love my little i-Mat! I was a bit skeptical at first because I didn't know much about Matsunichi, but I don't regret my purchase one bit! It's very light, has excellent features, it's small, but not so small that the screen is too difficult to see, and it's very durable. I love it! I also got mine at Fry's. I only wish Matsunichi's site offered some new downloadable software (games and utilities), and now I'm looking for a car adapter because I use this thing everywhere! It comes with Excel, Word, and Media player which I use a lot on the road. I haven't had a problem at all hotsyncing with my computer either. I can check my emails, download movie times, all kinds of cool stuff! I even have Pocket Quicken so that I can keep track of both my own checking account and business accounts instead of writing it into a register. It is so awesome and time-saving! I don't regret my purchase for getting this!

OK, the i-Mat seems to be a great deal, but I tried to install the software and it is all in Chinese! Did we get the wrong CD's? How did you get it to install the hot-sync, Office, etc. software? I'm about to take it back.
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