Samsung BlackJack Review

Display:

The phone’s screen is on the smaller side at 2.25-inches diagonally, but it makes up in quality what it lacks in size. The display has a 320x320 resolution, and 65,000 color output. Colors are bright and crisp, and the text is very easy to read. The quality of the display also makes the phone perfect for its multimedia capabilities, such as watching videos, emailing, and more.

Keypad & Navigation:

The keys on the BlackJack are somewhat compact, but that is expected for the size of the phone. The controls on the phone consist of Talk and End keys, a back button, two soft keys, a shortcut to the Today screen, and right in the middle there’s the four-way directional toggle keys that allow you to navigate the phone. A couple of times when trying to use the toggle keys to move around, I’d accidentally hit one of the neighboring buttons. This I believe is due to the fact that the buttons are close together, and that the toggle buttons are on the same level as all the other buttons on the phone. If the buttons were slightly raised, I think that would eliminate the accidental hitting of near-by buttons.

On the right-hand side of the is also another form of navigation – a thumb scroll-wheel and a back button , which BlackBerry users are sure to be familiar with. For scrolling through e-mails and web pages, it made more sense to use the side scroll-wheel than it did to use the toggle buttons. These side controls also work to control other phone functions. If you click down on the scroll-wheel and hold it down for a couple seconds, a quick launch menu will pop-up, allowing you to easily access various applications on the phone. Holding down the back button on the side will activate the camera.

On the left side of the phone there is a headset/power adapter jack, and volume adjustment. At first glance you might think that the Samsung BlackJack is compatible with mini-USB adapters, but upon closer inspection you’ll realize that it is not. The BlackJack features a proprietary port that forces you to use only Samsung sold products that work with the port. This also means you can’t use a standard headset with it. But, thankfully the phone does come with a cable that works with the port, allowing you to hook it up to your computer, and a travel charger.

The phone has a full QWERTY keypad, but no dedicated number buttons. Instead, the numbers buttons are highlighted in grey, which makes them stand out against the rest of the buttons in black. All of the number and letter keys are oval in shape, and are easy to use. Composing text messages and e-mails was easy enough once I got used to the phone.

Internet Connectivity:

The Samsung BlackJack features broadband-like internet speeds through Cingular’s UMTS/HSDPA Broadband Connect network. Both UMTS and HSDPA are 3G technologies that allow you to connect to the internet via phone at speeds you’re used to on a regular computer with broadband internet. This was one of my favorite features of the phone. It was so nice to be able to surf the web on the phone, without having wait all day for pages to load up. If you live in a more rural area, however, you might not have access to the 3G network as it is not yet available everywhere.

The BlackJack phone works with Cingular Music and Cingular Video, which allows you to purchase music and video content to view on your phone. Without the 3G, this would be a pain. But with the high-speed internet, downloading a video and loading it up was actually pretty fast!

Operating System & Other Features:

The Samsung BlackJack runs off of the Windows Mobile Smartphone Edition operating system. What this means is that like other phones that run off the Windows Mobile Pocket PC edition OS, you won’t be able to get the Microsoft Office Mobile Suite or document editing capabilities. However, the phone does have the Picsel Viewer Suite, which at least allows you to view Word and Excel documents, PowerPoint presentations, and PDF files. You cannot, however, edit the files or do anything other than just view them.

You can access both corporate and personal e-mail accounts with the BlackJack. It allows you to access Outlook, as well as POP3, IMAP, and SMTP email accounts. If you get the Cingular Xpress mail service, you can also have direct push technology for real-time email delivery to your phone.

Other features of the phone include instant messaging (AIM, Yahoo!, and MSN), text messaging, video messaging, calendar, contact lists, stopwatch, world clock, unit converter, tasks lists, notes, and a voice recorder. A microSD card slot is located on the side of the phone, which allows you to expand the phone’s storage capacities.

Camera & Video:

Unlike the BlackBerry, the BlackJack has a camera, which is a nice extra touch. The camera can take shots up to 1.3-megapixels, and has a 2x digital zoom lens and self timer. The camera can be used to take still photos, as well as video recordings. Shots can be taken in a variety of resolutions. I took a few photos, and they turned out nice and clear, with bright colors. The photos were not washed out like I have seen with some other phone’s cameras.

Phone Calls & Address Book:

The Samsung BlackJack is a great phone for world travelers, featuring quad-band support. This means that your phone will work in over 180 countries around the world. The address book can be as big or as small as you want, and its capacity is determined by the amount of available memory on the phone. The SIM card alone will allow you to store 250 contacts. Each entry can hold up to 12 phone numbers, a few email addresses, job titles, instant messaging screen names, and other details. As well, you can assign entries group IDs, ringtones, or pictures that will be displayed/played when that person calls. The phone has Bluetooth, which will also allow you to use a wireless headset.

Overall Performance & Rating:

After having used this phone for the past couple of weeks, I again would have to say that I am pretty impressed with it. I utilized the Cingular Wireless service, which will soon just be known as AT&T Wireless due to some mergers that happened last year. The calls were crystal clear, and I experienced no dropped calls. Applications loaded up quickly, and the camera functioned well. The phone came with an extra battery, which was also nice to have when I ran out of juice suddenly on the phone because I forgot to charge the battery overnight. And surfing the internet, that was awesome with the 3G.

All in all, I found the Samsung BlackJack smartphone to be a great little device. It’s slim enough to fit in a pocket, and just big enough not to get lost in one. Out of five stars, I'd give the BlackJack a 4-star review.