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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: 2008-01-24 Windows Mobile Dream... I have stayed away from Windows Mobile based Phones for a very long time and my most recent phone prior to the Blackjack II purchase was a Symbian phone. I really had no great expectations with the new Blackjack II but it was time for a phone replacement and decided to give a real try for 30 days and go from there. Flat out, the phone has been worth it. A smart phone is a requirement for my line of work and this phone also delivers a wealth of features I depended on greatly with my previous smart phones to include: - tether capable - multiple Bluetooth support - Navigation product capable (GPS) - Document support, Word, PDF, Excel The display is beautiful in my opinion, the OS responsive and no signs of sluggish response. I have F-Secure loaded for anti virus and also use the XM Mobile Radio feature. While I have heard a slew of horror stories with Windows Mobile, my experience with Mobile 6 is extremely stable in my opinion. Hands down, I highly recommend the product. The only reason the product did not receive a 5 star is the lack of a true internal GPS receiver. I would have given it a 4.75 however had I been able. Date: 2007-12-16 Updated but not in my top 5. I have been searching for a new phone that does work email, can send/receive picture messages, send/receive short videos, can accept or reject meeting invites and updates my calendar over the air (aka everything the iPhone can't do). The BlackJack II is the second phone I am now using after getting rid of my iPhone (the first was an Blackberry 8310). What does the BlackJack II do well? It is thin. It looks good. It does email and calendar updates wonderfully (MS Exchange based). It does IM with AOL, MSN and MS Communicator flawlessly. The GPS feature is amazing with Google Maps (free add-on). It does IMAP email systems well (aka gmail) although some html formatted emails don't come through very well. Hardwired email and camera buttons nice. I like the dedicated silent button and cannot live without this since I have had it with the Treo and the iPhone. What does it need help with? The web browsing experience is slow even though the phone is 3G. I think this is due to the IE being a slow browser. The jog wheel has one speed (you can't tweak how fast it scrolls) and is very slow when scrolling. The battery life is about a 70% of a day if I only do voice and text messaging (aka no GPS directions, no heavy web browsing and Exchange Push feature is disabled or set to auto check email every 5 minutes instead). The text messaging is pretty sloppy cause it doesn't format the messages into a cohesive thread like the Treo 6xx/7xx and the iPhone does. You have to dig through menus to get to contacts for messaging. The camera picture quality is pretty bad relative to iphone and blackberry (slightly lower quality then Treo 680). The little door that covers the AC adapter port is flimsy and gets in the way when charging (feels like it will break within a few months of use). The LED cannot be turned off and blinks when ever a new email arrives from "any" email account configured on the device. I wish i could change the color of the LED (right now only pink) or at least tell it to only light up when i get a work email & not when personal email arrives. Better yet, allow me to have the LED light up and stay on when I miss a phone call or text message. It's of very little use but has potential. The keyboard is not as nice as the Treo but feels substantial and a bit refreshing after using the iPhone soft keys for 9 months. There are other annoyances that are more related to Windows Mobile features but I'm trying to stick to the hardware only. One quirk I will mention that I can't live down is the fact that it takes the camera 5+ seconds to come up after pressing the dedicated camera button, which is super frustrating when trying to capture moments through the day. The iPhone and Treo both took pictures within 2 seconds or less. Seems most tasks that should be faster and easier just aren't in WM6. So, there it is. If I can be of any further help, please let me know. I plan on switching back to the iPhone once it has full sync support for Exchange email and calendar features, but until then, it looks like the BJ II is the phone for now. Date: 2007-12-14 Sleak, stylish, and powerful My only caveat to this review is that I'm a smartphone newbie. That said, I have a hard time finding anything I didn't like about this phone. Starting with the looks, it's one of the few smartphones that I wouldn't feel embarrassed taking out of my pocket in a trendy restaurant or bar. That's another great thing, it actually fits in my pocket! I previously had a Samsung t509, one of the thinnest phones made, and the change hasn't been as bad as I suspected: it's not long enough to jam into my leg when I sit down, and not so wide that I can't put anything else in my pocket. Add to that the shiny black and metal frame, and your Blackberry toting friends will be hanging their heads in shame. It is amazingly smudge attracting, but I'm not overly worried about that. One good wipe-down a day takes care of the problem. I've heard some complaints about the scroll-wheel in the middle (it scrolls pages up and down), but to me it felt very much like the one on an iPod, which seems to work great for Apple. I've liked it so far, and it really helps you cruise through webpages quickly. The camera isn't awesome, there is a pronounced lag between clicking and having the image capture. However, I did notice that the "click" sound actually comes after the capture, so it's not as slow as the phone makes it seem. Still, it's something that could have been improved on. Under the hood, this thing has been a dream too. It takes forever to start-up, which had me worried, but once it is switching between tasks is really easy. Setting up both my internet and work emails were a snap (under 3 minutes, combined) and messages get pushed through quickly. Page load times are pretty snappy (5 seconds for a new page, 2+ for a link) and downloads absolutely scream. Google Maps, about 500 KB, took less than 3 full seconds. Another handy feature that I've really enjoyed is the built in GPS. With the free download just mentioned you'll get maps and directions in pretty much no time. Locating the satellites takes a little bit, and they won't track well when you're at freeway speeds, but it works really well for directions and in-city driving. The software hasn't been an issue for me yet, as I know a lot of people dislike Windows Mobile. It's fairly intuitive, but there are a lot of steps involved for tasks that don't have a shortcut on the home page (it displays the 6 most often used programs at the top). Syncing with my PC was a breeze after loading the included software, nothing got screwed up that I noticed. In short, while it's not a mobile, do-everything PC replacement, it does pretty much everything you need away from the office (or home), and does pretty much all of them really well. Some miracle anti-fingerprint technology would be nice, as would a snappier camera, but other than that I think Samsung hit the nail on the head with this one. Date: 2007-12-09 Excellent Entry Level Smartphone Its an excellent smartphone for what it does. If you want a good quality entry level smartphone then this is the one for you. The battery life is good- spending a day texting and making a few calls only made it lose one "bar" on the battery life meter. This is my first experience with Windows Mobile, and I have to say I love it. Its got a good interface, and as an added bonus you can play with the registry if you're so inclined. Doing so allowed me to get past the 300kb ringtone limit that was originally imposed on it. Design wise, its a sharp looking phone, however you should be prepared to deal with fingerprints on the black one. I ended up buying a holster + "Screen Patronus" screen protector to keep it as clean as possible. The camera does leave something to be desired. The images come out blurry at times and can look a little "faded". This is unfortunate as I assumed Samsung would have put a good camera in it. The Keyboard is very nice and easy to type on. No complaints there. All things considered, its a great entry level phone. I'm a college student, and it does everything that I'd ever want it to do. I can't say how well it would satisfy a business user, but the casual consumer will be delighted by this phone.
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