Hang on, we've been here before haven't we ? Yep, the iMate Ultimate 6150 and 8150 were designed with a similar idea. Keep the handsets looking the same but twiddle with the specs.

On the right we have the grey unit, aka the GSmart MS800. This has 3G + HSDPA and video calling, however the black unit on the left is the MW700. This only gets quad-band EDGE / GPRS and no 3G, therefore no face-pointing camera.

Both units do however get a pretty respectable specs list and they don't look too bad either. Apart from the fact that the round silver navigation band doesn't spin, it's an instant feel-good factor from both handsets. Given their similar design we've lumped them both into one review.

Specs (Both devices) -

- Windows Mobile 6 Professional
- Marvell PXA270 CPU running at 520 Mhz
- 240x320 pixel screen
- 2 megapixel camera
- microSD, 256Mb ROM, 64Mb RAM
- WiFi (802.11b/802.11g), Bluetooth, GPS (SiRF Star III chipset)
- FM Radio

On the left of the phone is a reset hole for poking your stylus if things go wrong. Below that is a camera button protected by some little stud things to presumably stop you hitting it by accident. It's also indented for even more protection.

The scroll-wheel doesn't spin all the way round, it instead rocks up and down and you can push it in to select stuff. I like this sort of thing for one-handed control of a phone. Below that is a microSD card slot for adding extra storage complete with some wording ...just to let you know.

At the bottom of the phone you've just got your miniUSB port for charging and sync'ing with your computer. You can also see the microphone hole and, to the right there's the stylus.

The stylus, once you pull it out, is a fixed-length stylus in black metal.

On the right there's a 2.5mm headphone adaptor for listening to your favourite tunes and doing hands-free....

.... whilst at the top is a nice chunky power button which is again protected from accidental presses. Notice the front-facing camera on the MS800 - this is really the only way you can tell the difference between the two handsets physically (apart from the colour of course).

Up front there's a whole load of chunkiness as far as buttons go. There's six buttons which are big, bold and easy to locate. The bottom-right button can be held down to turn GPS on or off, plus you can tap it quickly to go back from the application you're using. The lower left (Windows Start) button does a similar trick - hold it down and you get some quick-launch options to let you switch profiles, rotate the screen, adjust brightness or close programs. Press it once and you get the regular Windows Start menu.

The navigation system works well, once you've ignored the fact that the silver band doesn't spin. Everything is well build and sturdy with the navigation control providing good feed-back.

Now, unless I'm very much mistaken I couldn't find a way to lock the screen. It seems that if you simply tap the power button it'll sleep quite happily and pressing any key other than the power won't do anything. I've also noticed that GSmart have added something within the Settings function to turn off the touch screen functionality during a call to save power and also stop you accidentally launching stuff with your ear. Nice touch. It'll also vibrate when an outgoing call is answered - something I've only ever seen on the HTC Touch Diamond - plus you can turn it on or off. Nice touches.

While we're still looking at the outside, let's flip both devices over and look at the rear camera then show you some of the shots it produces

Both camera are auto-focus 2 megapixel shooters without a flash. They sit next to the external speaker and you can see them here covered by their protective peel-off covers (we weren't allowed to keep these units unfortunately). The camera software is pretty sweet and the auto-focus happens quickly. The resulting pictures were bright and vivid. Low-light shots camer out fairly well too, which is excellent considering there's no flash here. The camera software comes with a huge range of options too, with several screen modes, effects and settings.  I loved the GPS tagging too - this is excellent if you're travelling around and want to record exactly where you snapped a photo. It'll warn you about leaving this function on, which is another good battery-saver.

Here's some shots I took on the phone. My one major gripe with phone manufacturers is when they DON'T set the camera to it's highest available settings as default - this happened here, with the pictures below all snapped on 1280x960 instead of the highest 1600x1200 setting. Doah!

At this point I felt like a software AND hardware video was needed. There's a lot of very interesting tweaks to the software, with a control panel called "Smart Touch" inside the device to ease you through the sometimes tricky Windows Mobile navigation process. Although it didn't perhaps look as well produced as the HTC TouchFLO and TouchFLO 3D system it worked quite well..

That QuickMark software is something we touched upon a couple of years ago, and I thought it deserved it's own little video...

Take the back panel of the phone away and you'll find yourself a 1300 mAh battery which performs well. It's the same on both handsets - in fact, you can probably try to play spot the difference over the next few photos !

The SIM card goes into the top-left section, just above where the stylus finishes...

Inside

Inside we're met with a mainly green screen and some funky GSmart animations on bootup and shutdown. Instantly you can see that some thought has been put into the device, and this is always a plus for us here at coolsmartphone.com. You can even adjust the startup and shutdown animations if you want ! Blimey! Where were GSmart a few years back when we all craved these tweaks ? :)

The screen above is taken from the main GSmart "Smart Touch" system, which - I have to say - works pretty darned well. Sure, it's missing the odd bell and whistle that you could find on competitors like the HTC TouchFLO system, but it does the finger-prodding navigation well and I've rarely cursed at it...... ...always a good thing. In fact, I'm going to completely ignore the standard Windows Mobile "Today" screen here because I'm sure we've all looked at it far too much these past few years. It includes all the usual stuff - contacts, Live Search (which no-one uses, it's Google, let's face it) tasks and the date. However, back in the Smart Touch world we've got funky drag and drop action with this shortcut manager, which lets you plonk new apps into the slider mechanism at the bottom of the Smart Touch screen. If you haven't already seen this in action on the video below, go see - it's very fluid.

On the above screen you can also choose the "Wizard" app which lets you quickly rotate the screen or adjust the brightness - even switch profiles. All really quickly and easily.

In the "standard" program listing we've got some lovely extras from GSmart. The Phone Manager folder includes a block list and SIM manager, whilst in the Multimedia folder we've got an Audio Mixer, Voice Recorder, Java app and a Photo Editor which I showed on the video above. All great stuff and added value.

Along with the GPS photo-tagging you also get a GPS tracker to plot your journeys. In the Tools folder there's a Magnifier, Pocket Remote (it'll let you control your PC to some extend) and a backup utility to stop your important documents vanishing. In Settings you can tweak the SMS settings, switch the band, look at the network broadcasts and much more.

Conclusion

Whilst these phones run Windows Mobile 6 (as opposed to 6.1, which nearly all new Windows Mobile handsets roll out with now), I instantly took a liking to them. The design, whilst perhaps simple at times, works well and the handsets perform as expected. I've used the phones for several weeks now and I struggle to find anything bad to say about them. The GPS lock is fast and spot on, the camera produces excellent photos, the call quality is good, the interface is good, the screen is bright and crisp, the device is a mere 15mm thick and it's got WiFi and great network connectivity (in the MS800 at least.

I'm not totally sure who the devices are targeting - the design of the exterior does lack a little flair, but the OS improvements seem to push this towards the personal customers. For me, I'd recommend this to someone who wasn't IT literate but needed a PDA for their job - it'll sync your contacts, email and calendar - it'll do your push email, it'll remind you about that important meeting, but it's got a friendly face and a rather nice interface underneath.

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