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| Home >> Handheld & PDA Reviews: Samsung BlackJack II Black Smartphone (AT&T) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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User Submitted Samsung BlackJack II Black Smartphone (AT&T) Reviews (cont...)Date: 2008-06-01 Jury's still out. Nothing great so far Got this on Memorial Day. Nice qwerty keyboard, tactile enough. Scroll wheel seems like its going to fall off. BATTERY LIFE SUCKS. I think its because of 3G but I found a way to disable it by typing *#1546792*# then go thru the menus. Few phone calls. Some SMS. It's lasted for 2 days without loss of first bar of power. Still observing though. I hope I didn't get a refurbished phone though. Got it from BestBuy. Date: 2008-05-30 Can't Tether Via USB Per AT&T support, you can't tether the BJ II via USB, much to my chagrin. Date: 2008-05-23 Don't buy this annoying, flimsy phone! [...] I've had this phone for a week now and already it's obvious that this is a piece of crap, like most of Samsung's phones. On the plus side the phone gets good reception and good battery life. However the phone comes with many annoyances that I think are good enough reasons not to buy it. These problems are due in part to Samsung's idiotic design, Microsoft's crappy Windows Mobile software, and unreasonable restrictions set by AT&T. 1. Flimsy physical design -- After only a week my phone already looks a year old from scratches and scuff marks even though I've been babying it. (I either keep this device by itself in my pocket or on a table.) Already there are small but VERY NOTICEABLE SCRATCH MARKS on the screen. There's just something about this screen that makes these tiny little scratches very visible. I'm afraid that in a few months my screen will be near impossible to read! It also already has the kind of scuff marks you'd find on a year-old phone. Also the wheel already looks cruddy and it's not like I have constantly dirty hands or anything. I think its very tiny grooves too easily trap dust and other gunk. So what appears to be a very slick casing is, in my opinion, utterly worthless for most people in just a few weeks time. 2. VERY ANNOYING 3 key unlock -- Since this isn't a flip phone you're going to need to lock the phone when you put it in your pocket, bag, or what have you. Locking is easy -- just hold down the End key for 2 secs. But to unlock it you have to press 3 buttons: first the power button (top side of the phone), then the left soft key (below the screen), and then the * key (middle-left of the keyboard, and not easily found at first). A very difficult combination to make. What a ridiculous and unnecessary procedure, and probably my biggest annoyance with this phone since I end up unlocking it many times a day. 3. Voice/text message tones sound only once -- I miss my old phone which would tone/vibrate every few minutes to remind me that I still have unread/unlistened messages. This phone will only tone/vibrate once. There have been many times that I didn't know I had a message because I somehow missed the notification. Very annoying! 4. VERY LOUD startup and shutdown sounds -- AT&T provided the stupidest startup/shutdown screen with this phone. It plays a very annoying swooshing sound, much louder than even my ring tone! Before I turn off my phone at night I have to put it in silent mode so I don't wake my kids! 5. Useful features are locked down or limited -- First, ringtones can't be more than 300KB in size, which limits you from using most ring tones on the market. Second, the phone's GPS is locked down in a way that it can't be used by apps like Google Maps and Windows Live Search. Un-freaking-believable. Some web sites list ways you can hack your phone to work around this, but they're only for the fearless! 6. Undetectable home keys -- Like most keyboards, the Blackjack 2's keyboard has little notches on the F and J keys. However they are so small that you cannot feel them. They're absolutely worthless. 7. No alpha-numeric mapping for 800 #s -- Don't plan on dialing 1-800-COMCAST or other such numbers from this phone unless you know the actual numerical equivalent. Understandably, the phone's numeric keys don't show that 2 is "ABC", 3 is "DEF", etc. since the number keys are already paired with letter keys on the keyboard. But there could be ways around it, like showing the alpha-numeric mapping on the screen as you dial. There was such a hack for the first Blackjack but that hack doesn't work on the Blackjack 2. This list is just from my first week of use with this phone. There may be more issues I have yet to come across but I felt it necessary to warn anyone considering this phone to AVOID IT AND GET SOMETHING ELSE. I also recommend staying away from Samsung phones altogether. I've had 2 other Samsung phones before and they all suffered from manufacturing defects, major bugs, and usability annoyances. The first Blackjack had major antenna problems that didn't manifest for months down the line, so I'm very pessimistic that this one also will have latent problems. Date: 2008-04-22 Not for the beginner The only complaint I have is that the unit doesn't manage voice calls very well. It notifies you that you have missed a call, but provides no date or time the call came in. It has a general call log which is hard to find and provides very limited info. If you like logs for "Missed Calls", "Dialed Calls", and "Received Calls", this is not the phone for you. Probably because its emphasis is on mimicking a computer. Maybe I'm not ready for that yet. Date: 2008-04-03 Lots of problems It's a decent keyboard cellphone, will all the features you want and even some you don't want. There are a couple bugs. The GPS is hinky and seems not to perform around tall things like buildings and trees. The buttons freeze somtimes, requiring you power it off. Teh battery life is short... three hours tops. But the real problem is Microsoft Sync. The phone uses flash memory, so you should be able to add and remove files via USB cable in a click & drag fashion. This is standard for ALL other devices with flash memory. To get pictures off I have to Sync it with Outlook and email them to myself or use HP snapfish. If I want a new ringtone I have to Sync it and let it import the file. In the mean time it's automatically seized control of my laptop and is using all the CPU trying to suck in all the data in Outlook... even though don't have or use Outlook. I have no option to stop it, nor can it connect to any other email system. So in sum, phone decent, sync interface is junk.
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