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Review Of The Samsung BlackJack SmartPhone

By Robert | May 17, 2007

In both name and nature, Samsungs Blackjack clearly intends to trump the BlackBerry. The super slim Smartphone (1.2cm profile) has mobile email, 1.3 mega pixel camera, multimedia HSDPA.

Based on Samsung’s earlier i320 model, the Blackjack fixes some of the phones short comings. The backlit keys are easier to press and more responsive. However the round D-pad controller sits too close to the soft menu, send and end keys, making it easy to brush one of the while trying to click or scroll though the interface. The odd-ball keyboard layout spaces dial-pad numbers along every second vertical row. Fortunately, you can use the scroll wheel and back button, which also aids in one-handed operation.

A big gripe is that Samsung still insist on a proprietary connector for the charger and headphones instead of a mini-USB jack.

While the Windows Mobile 5 Smartphone edition OS doesn’t allow editing of Office documents, you can view email attachments through the pre-loaded Picsel viewer. This also renders PDF documents exceptionally well on the Blackjacks 2.2in 320×320 - pixel screen, which makes for bright colors and clear text.

Most of the software offering is on par for the Windows mobile course, although the Samsung’s organizer includes a simple notepad and world time clock, plus a converter. The pop-up quick launch menu runs your favorite app’s, opens documents and jumps straight to web pages. But the unit is only fitted with a 220MHz CPU.

The battery life was a modest 4 hours of talk time, with a spare battery, plus a drop-in shell that allows charging while you’re out and about.

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