Customer Reviews

Samsung BlackJack II Phone, Black (AT&T)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

Personal background: I am a medical resident who loves tech/gadgets, and who has used a PocketPC (HP Ipaq 1910) since 2003 and a Blackjack (i607) since 2007. Currently an AT&T customer.

So I recently sold my Blackjack I on the world's favorite auction site and bought a Blackjack II (i617) from the same site. Here's my breakdown, but keep in mind that some pros and some cons are based on the phone or the operating system. Anywayz...


The Good:

1. Design
I thought I would hate it when I saw the first images released months ago, and did not like the glossy appearance when I first tried one out at an AT&T store, but actually owning one now, I think it's great. The shape simply feels good in my hand. It is nicely weighted, but not too heavy or too light. The width is great, and is also not too wide or narrow. Obviously, this depends on your own hand size. The glossy surface I found I prefer to the matte/soft-rubbery surface texture of the original Blackjack. IMO, it looks much more upper-end than the original. The glossiness is not a big deal in terms of being a fingerprint magnet because there is not much exposed to the fingers, except for the soft keys. This device is not a fingerprint magnet like, say, a black iPod or a Sony PSP. Much attention has been paid to details, and it is a very clean design. No more "jog dial" on the right side (more on that later), and only a MicroSD port on the right and a proprietary port for power/headphones on the left, and both are covered with a removable and "swivel-able" cover. I compared this with various other smartphones including the Motorola Q9h and various Nokias and Blackberries, and think that they all look quite cheesy and tacky compared to the i617. Of course, design is subjective, but I really like the design.

-Scroll Wheel
The jog dial on the right side of the i607 is indeed gone, but not missed at all. I used the jog dial extensively on the i607 and so I was initially concerned that it would be a pain to navigate on the i617, but not so at all. The direction pad also functions as a spinning scroll wheel, and it works great. It cannot be adjusted for scroll speed, but it will scroll through contacts, mp3s in your library, etc., with much speed and ease. For menus, though, like the start menu, it is not as speedy but hardly slow or cumbersome. I find it much more comfortable to use than the jog dial on the old Blackjack or the Moto Q.

-Keypad
Improved significantly by slightly wider buttons. They do not seem much bigger, but the ease of typing has increased noticeably for me, and it is possible to type much quicklier. Also, the number pad are located next to each other which is an improvement over the i607.

-LED
Useful in that the light shines red when charging, and green when fully charged. Otherwise, not so useful in that there is no documentation of what magenta and blue lights signify, and no ability for the LED to continuously flash when there was a missed call/message. Still, better than no LED.

2. Performance:
Of course, performance matters more for a smartphone, and the i617 does not disappoint in any respect. The RAM memory has been upped from about 50MB on the Blackjack I, to about 100MB on the i617, while onboard storage memory ROM has been upped to approximately 150MB from about 50MB as well. The processor is an ARM 926E at about 300Mhz, a modest improvement from the i607. Basically, this all means that the i617 can handle programs with more ease and with better multitasking. It opens applications noticeably faster than the i607, and can handle more open applications at the same time. I personally have tried several third party programs, including Skype, SlingPlayer Mobile, Pocket Nester Plus (a Nintendo NES emulator), Garmin Mobile XT (GPS navigation software), Opera Mobile browser, and a variety of Skyscape medical software (including Tabers medical dictionary and Washington Manual), and all have run swiftly and smoothly. Also, Windows Mobile 6 runs at a decent speed on the i617.

3. GPS:
Built in GPS receiver is one of the best features of this phone. I have used it successfully, out of the box, with Google Maps, Microsoft Live Search, and Garmin Mobile XT without any problems in Baltimore, New York, and points in between. On average, it takes the i617 about 2-5 minutes to pick up the satellites from a cold start in the city. In certain locations, like the parking lot of Walmart in Baltimore, it picked up the satellites in 10 seconds from a cold start (e.g. turned on after being powered off)! Note, there are reports that some i617s do not have GPS enabled out of the box for use with non-TeleNav applications (e.g. Google Maps, Live Search, Garmin, etc.), but you can google the way that others have worked around this issue (involves hard resetting your phone until it works, or installing a hack... checkout modaco-dot=com for more details). The other great thing about GPS integrated is that you can use it in your car with only one charger to charge both GPS and phone, which is nice after using a bluetooth GPS receiver on my i607. And you will need a car charger as the GPS is a power hog.

One nice improvement over the i607 (not sure if it's the phone or WM6), but when actively using GPS in an application, the backlight will not turn off, which is nice when you are using it in the car. On my i607, I would need to go to power management settings to turn the backlight on when using GPS and turn it off when I was done with it, which was a bit of a hassle.

4. Smartphone!
Yes, it is great having a smartphone versus a cool, yet dull iPhone. You can use programs like Skype (works decently with 3G network), SlingPlayer Mobile (also works well with 3G), NES and SNES emulators (with individual games ~1/3 of a MB in size), all sorts of cool 3rd party software. YouTube works as well! Not with Windows Media Player 10 Mobile, but with TCPMP (the core player mobile player) which is a free-download. I have sat in a deli in New York streaming YouTube clips in fullscreen (320x240 resolution) with minimal stuttering. It is seriously awesome.

Unlike the iPhone (a great phone otherwise), with a smartphone, not only can you use a huge number of 3rd party applications, but you can also easily hack your phone (search for i617 hacks) to change you start menu, get rid of the power on/off video and sounds, edit backgrounds, and basically change things to your preference.

5. MicroSD:
Yes, you can use 8GB MicroSD cards! I have a Sandisk MicroSD that I bought for about $82 and it works without any problems. Supposedly, they will work on the i607 as well.

6. Music/Video:
MP3s sound great on the i617 as they did on the i607. Videos look and sound great too, and can be easily created with freeware (like 3GP converter). I have made tons of TV show, movie, and music video files this way, and with a 8GB MicroSD card, you can store A LOT of media files on your phone. At least as much as the 8GB iPhone ;)

7. Ringtones:
You can, of course, use your own MP3 files as ringtones, which is great. Sadly, there is a size limit of 300KB, but you can easily hack this so that you can use any size MP3 for a ringtone (involves a simple deletion of a registry key, which can easily be done).

8. 3G and Tethering:
3G is absolutely a required feature on any smartphone, and this will enable you to stream YouTube, SlingPlayer Mobile, etc., on your i617 without difficulty, and without need of a wifi hotspot and additional subscription fees. Also, you can USB "tether" this phone and use it as a high-speed modem for you laptop when you are traveling (especially in 3G regions)! How cool is that?

9. Various Preinstalled Applications:
I like using World Map (improved from i607), the PDF viewer (which sadly runs out of memory when trying to view the New York MTA subway map, but works fine with other PDF files I have used), the calculator, and especially the alarm (can set multiple alarms, with specific ring tones, and personalize-able days of the week and times). Java is now included in the i617 so that you can use the gmail application (although I prefer the web-based gmail better) and other java applets.


The Mediocre:

1. Windows Mobile 6:
WM6 offers some improvements over WM5, the most noticeable one perhaps being the inclusion of Office Mobile. With this, you can view Powerpoint, Excel, and Word files, and you can edit Excel and Word files. While nice, it is not that great as it is just not really feasible to edit or view a huge Excel spreadsheet on the tiny 2.4" screen, and the functionality and viewing options are limited and make navigating difficult. Word fares a bit better, and can be considered a useful addition. Powerpoint files, oddly, cannot be edited with Office Mobile, which is odd because PPT files are the only ones that can generally be viewed decently on the 2.4" screen. An entire slide looks decent when viewed on the screen, so long as it is not jam packed with text. It takes about 5 seconds to transition between slides, which makes it frustrating when viewing a long PPT presentation.

2. Battery Life:
Samsung improved upon the much maligned (unjustly, IMO, as much of the drainage occurred as a result of the phone automatically switching between 3G and EDGE networks, which could be addressed by using a simple "hidden" application already present in the i607 to set the data network to only 3G or EDGE) battery life of the i607 by putting a 1700mAh lithium battery as the standard battery. This is significantly larger than the 1100mAh standard battery of the i607, and almost the capacity of the 1800mAh extended battery of the i607.

Still, the i617, because of its better processor and the increased demands of WM6, drains more quickly than the i607. With the extended battery, my i607 would last easily over a full day of usage, but the i617 will struggle with heavy usage. Yet, I have not had problems with battery life, with moderate usage, and simply charge once a day. Personally, I would have preferred a 2000mAh and a slightly thicker phone. But most users probably do not need more battery life anyway.

3. Camera/Video

Camera was upped to 2 megapixels from 1.3, but still no flash or autofocus. Yet, pictures have turned out okay for me, and video recording has been decent, with ease of saving or sending recorded clips as multimedia messages.

4. ActiveSync:
ActiveSync has been pretty lame since I was using my HP Ipaq 1910 in 2003, and it is no different now. Still clunky and annoying to use. Not very useful in synchronizing website favorites, your Notepad entries, etc.


The Not So Good:

1. Proprietary Headphone/Power Connection:
This is annoying in two ways. First, that you need to buy Samsung headphones or use a clumsy 3.5mm adaptor to listen to audio. Second, because the jack is different than the i607 jack, so if you are upgrading from the Blackjack I, sorry, you need to get all new chargers and headphones. Annoying but at least the OEM headphones are decent.

2. Windows Media Player Mobile:
This is a WM6 problem, but it is lame how Microsoft did not improve serious design flaws in WMP10. Namely, the inability to designate a specific file for addition of songs to your library. Instead, you can only choose either "device" or "storage card," which is a problem if you have a lot of non-music audio files on the storage card, say, from your GPS navigation program. Thus, ALL FILES must be added to the library. A major annoyance that sadly was not addressed from WM5. Also annoying that you need to install a different media player (TCPMP) to watch YouTube videos. It would be nice to just watch videos straight form the mobile YouTube site.

3. Lack of Accessories Included:
I did not really mind, but many people will not be happy that the i617 does not include anything except for a wall charger. At least a set of headphones for that proprietary jack would have been nice. Otherwise, you can find good OEM stuff on that famous auction site or here on Amazon from 3rd party sellers.

4. No Lanyard Hole:
Strangely and presumeably for aesthetic reasons, Samsung has gotten rid of the lanyard "loop/hole" from the i607, meaning that you cannot loop a wriststrap/lanyard onto the i617. I was annoyed at the omission of a simple and obvious feature, but I have adjusted to being more careful with it but still find it aggravating that such a small feature was omitted.

5. Inability to "Map" Right Soft Key:
The old Blackjack had the ability to define/map the right soft key to be a shortcut for any application you choose, but they (Microsoft or Samsung?) have gotten rid of that ability, so it is stuck to opening your contacts list. There may be a way to hack this but I have not found one yet.

6. Less Functionality than Windows Mobile Professional (for PDA phones):
Yes, this is a WinMo Standard phone, so you have less functionality in a variety of settings, including a pretty watered down and simplified "tasks" which is quite useful in the PocketPC version.


Bottom Line:

Whew! Apologies to anyone who wasted precious minutes of their lives reading this review, but really I cannot say enough about this phone. Finally, I have a smartphone that is nearly perfect for my purposes and lets me do just about as much with a phone as I ever wanted. Loved the Blackjack I, but this one is a HUGE improvement on the original. Easily the best smartphone on the market IMHO.

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.

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.

When I first got my BJII I was dissapointed with its features. For one, there was no voice dialing, the supplied applications were sparse, no push email, non-standard plug, slightly sluggish Windows mobile software, and a glossy black finish that got dirty easily.

However, once I started "pimping" my BJII, I couldn't believe how awesome this little phone is and was able to correct nearly all deficiencies. Let's start with the voice dialing: You can get MS' voice commander 1.6 to work with the BJII and it will provide not just voice dialing, but even voice command of the phone itself. For example you can speak "What's the battery level?" or "What are my appointments tomorrow?" and have it speak back to you what it is! No training of any kind is required (those with old voice activated phones know what I'm talking about). It simply works incredibly well. MS really has something over its competitors on this one. I'm not sure why they don't further exploit this strength.

Next, the paltry supply of applications is easily remedied by looking at the vast array of windows mobile software out there. The built-in IE browser is horrible, but a download of Opera Mobile and Opera mini provide excellent results. The built-in media player is horrible too, but again, a download of the (free) TCPMP player provides excellent media playing ability. The BJII has 128mb of system memory which is about double of what a typical smartphone has. This means you do not have to worry about killing apps just because of running out of memory.

Some other applications I use are: LedAlerts -- uses the built-in LED which has many colors, to inform you of incoming emails, sms, voicemail, and missed calls, which will have a unique color blinking every second. I love this, as I can quickly assess whether I have something awaiting me without having to even touch the phone. Really, this functionality should've been included by Samsung, but the software is only $15.

Googlemaps -- doesn't need much explanation. This free application provides the same functionality as the full fledged website, just without a neat fast working application in the phone. Uses the built-in GPS. Microsoft also has a similar application but works more clunky than the google version. However, the MS version has voice activated features which is really cool. I keep both of them on my phone for now.

Vtap -- view youtube videos through this application. Works 100% well.

Push email -- through a service by a firm called SEVEN (search for it on google), you can get free pushemail right through the built-in email client. Push email means your email is delivered to your phone when it arrives, rather than the traditional way of having your phone retrieve the email at pre-determined times. The benefit is that push-email arrives nearly instantly and you don't waste battery life with needless connections.

There is a lot of storage space on the phone, but you can take advantage of the micro SDHC port which supports up to 8GB (the largest at this writing). I bought an 8GB card for about $40.

Get a screen protector, only a few bucks. A shell casing is also only a few bucks and helps protect the phone if it falls. And oh, for the proprietary connector, headphone adapters are sold at a famous auction site for less than $10.

As for the phone itself, it's sleek, lightweight, and allows for one hand use due to its smaller width over the competition. The scroll wheel, while not perfect, does allow for alternative entry rather than continually pressing the directional buttons. The keypad is decent enough for typing. it's never going to replace a real keyboard but it's good enough for the job. And, oh, I also have a bluetooth keyboard which paired right up, so I could use that external larger keyboard during trips if I needed extended typing sessions.

Windows mobile is indeed slow to boot up, this is a major deficiency on all phones running this system. The OS is slightly buggy too, but no more so than the Palm OS in my opinion. The phone runs at 260mhz, I was able to overclock it slightly to 276mhz which provided some improvement in speed, but not considerably. The phone is fast enough, with only sluggishness the first time a program loads. Otherwise, the huge 128mb system memory is able to cache all the regular running programs for quick access to them.

Overall this phone rocks! I love the customizability and its sleekness is awesome. I knock off a full point as a lot of these extra enhancements could've been implemented by Samsung as stock features. But you can add them yourself at minimal cost.

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.

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.

Great product. Free with 2 day shipping...and I just ported my number over from Verizon. Everything went well, and there's no ridiculous rebate to send in to get screwed on. That's what happened last time with my Motorola E815 (Verizon).

Why did I get this phone? I'm in the medical field, and need to stay up to date with emails, calendars etc...and we have Microsoft Outlook Web Access, which synced up perfectly with the wireless data plan. I've downloaded epocrates and Google Maps. Medscape mobile is great too. I was looking at Blackberry, but the lack of 3G was a deal breaker. Also, this was the smallest form factor and had the largest battery (1700mah).

Everything is great so far.

Until they release the iPhone 2 (hopefully 3G, GPS, 32gb...I wish). But this Blackjack II should tide me over until that ideal iPhone2 comes out at a reasonable price (I'm guessing about Jan 2009).

I picked this for a couple of reasons:

1) reasonable price (with contract extension)
2) Napster support
3) QWERTY keypad

Pretty low demands, i know. but this has exceeded my expectations. Despite a rather long startup, the phone functions well jumping between programs once it starts up. Moving media between the phone and computer is a breeze (windows mobile and a Windows PC, pretty good fit). I haven't delved too far into the Outlook integration/syncing, since I don't use outlook.
Call clarity is very good, compared to my old Motorola phone, and texting/emailing is a breeze with the "desktop"(main screen) layout and keypad. Its fairly customizable, and if you're a little more industrious, many websites can step you through other ways to modify the phone.

The one thing I haven't yet figured out is how to do standard "copy and paste" (if its even possible) with things like addresses (both web and physical). But aside from that, I am extremely pleased with this phone and its really become an asset in my day to day life.

As a Windows Mobile phone, I love everything about it. So whatever you think a Windows Mobile phone should do, this one does (with the exceptions below).

Notable pluses:
- Excellent keyboard
- Excellent cell reception
- Good battery life

Notable minuses:
- Not enough CPU power to be a viable media device. Audio actually slowed down when I played and audio file and did anything else. Forget playing video (even formatted for this small screen).
- GPS takes FOREVER to lock on.
- No WiFi.

I bought this phone to replace my HTC 8525, and am very pleased. My wife owns the i607 (Blackjack I), and I am quite pleased with this phone in comparison. It has far better battery life, and the keys are just slightly further apart on the Blackjack II compared to the BJI...and this is a welcome change! I have big hands, and find this device quite comfy for one handed text messaging/typing, which was impossible with my 8525! It performs at quite fast speeds, and works great on the 3g network. I unlocked the GPS (using the Modaco GPS hack), and am using it with Google maps... it is BEAUTIFUL! If you don't want to invest in the unlimited data package, consider Garmin Mobile XT... for $89 you get it installed on a 4gm MicroSD card, and all the maps are pre-loaded. I hear it works great with the BJII's built in GPS. Many people aren't fond of the scroll wheel, but I actually like it. It is quite accurate, and feels great. The only gripe I have about the phone so far after using it for over a week is that there is no voice dialing feature! I am sure I will find some 3rd party add on, so this is no big deal... but it would be a welcome feature... as would integrated wifi! All in all, this is a great smartphone, and I am quite satisfied with my purchase.