Phones - Samsung BlackJack II

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AHTOXA
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Phones - Samsung BlackJack II

Post by AHTOXA »

Samsung BlackJack II

Style - 4.5
Quality - 5
Ease of use - 4.5
Software and performance - 4.5
Ability to customize - 4.5

Style
This phone is a good looker. Gloss black with limited amount of chrome-looking plastic is stylish. The layout is ergonomic is user-friendly. I have seen much worse looking smartphones, such as the Moto Q.

Quality
The phone is well build and has not had any issues as far as construction and hardware goes. I'm not the easiest on my equipment but it has fared well. It's solid even when dropped on hard surfaces. lack of a hinge surely adds to overall rigidity, however exposing the main screen to pressure cracks and other damaging effects.

Ease of Use
The phone is running on Windows Mobile 6.0 and is very easy to use. All applications, settings, programs, menus and options are intuitive and well laid-out. I have worked in the wireless industry for 5 years and I have dealt with almost all the phones that have been on the market during that time. This means that my opinion is biased when I say that a phone is easy to use. I have seen people struggle to find a missed call long in the most basic phones. That said, I believe that anyone that has not lived under a rock in the recent decade should have their way around the phone in no time. It's handy to keep the manual for the little things you may question once in a while.

Software and performance
Some people bash the Windows Mobile platform. When I was working with a Moto Q, which was running on Windows Mobile 5.0, I did not like it either. It was sluggish, laggy and simply not pleasant to use while multitasking. Multitasking is something a smart phone should do well.

Without getting into too many technical details, I've enjoyed the BlackJack. Since I've owned it, I had it upgraded to WM 6.1., which was my personal preference but not needed what so ever. The more powerful processor compared to the previous generation of the BlackJack and other smartphones of the time make multitasking easy. There's little hangup while you switch applications while playing music in the background.

One of the best things about Windows Mobile is the ability to customize. There are multiple free programs, cracks and various software available for this phone. One of the first things I have downloaded was a GPS unlock, which allowed me to use the built-in GPR hardware with other programs, such as google maps, and not just with the built in soft that Microsoft/Samsung wanted us to use.

Signal strength is good, as well. Call quality is good and few dropped calls. Battery life is exceptional. With 3G enabled, I can go on for 4-5 days w/o a recharge. This is considering I use about 1100 minutes a month. You can do the rest of the math.

One thing - for $100 more you can get the iPhone 3G currently. I would suggest getting the iPhone instead but if you don't care about it but feel a smartphone would be useful, the BlackJack II is a strong player for sure.
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IMBoring25
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Re: Phones - Samsung BlackJack II

Post by IMBoring25 »

One of my complaints about the phone was that Bluetooth headsets worked only for phone calls. Media Player would play only through the phone's internal speaker or a corded headset. After the WM 6.1 flash, I was able to configure Media Player to play through the Bluetooth headset.

My experience with battery life has been different than yours, but I use the internet and Media Player extremely heavily, so that would likely explain the disparity.

GPS worked with Google Maps out of the box for me, without the hack.
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AHTOXA
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Re: Phones - Samsung BlackJack II

Post by AHTOXA »

IMBoring25 wrote: GPS worked with Google Maps out of the box for me, without the hack.
I have heard about this. It seems that perhaps earlier versions did not, thus the specific hack was posted. I was unable to directly compare the two to see if the soft version is different or not.
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