Review: Samsung Blackjack II running Windows Mobile 6.1
I've had the opportunity to check out Windows Mobile 6.1 on a couple of Professional (aka touch screen) devices (the HTC Advantage X7510 and HTC Touch Diamond), but after seeing the Microsoft announcement at CTIA it seemed like the Standard (non-touch screen) devices had the biggest changes in the user interface. I was recently sent a Samsung Blackjack II (SGH-i617) running Windows Mobile 6.1 to evaluate for a bit and have to say the device is very impressive and it is great to see a manufacturer still making non-touch screen devices. I know the device has been out for a while, but I thought readers may be interested in this model with the 6.1 upgrade installed on it. According to the latest rumor mill, those of you who own a Blackjack II should be able to get the Windows Mobile 6.1 upgrade sometime in July. Check out my small image gallery of this classy looking device.
| Image Gallery:Check out some product photos and screenshots of Windows Mobile 6.1 running on the Blackjack II. |  | |||||
I started out my converged device life with the touch screen Windows Mobile and Palm Treo devices, but have since moved on to the non-touch screen devices because I find them MUCH more stable (extremely rare for them to ever reset), more responsive, more compact (except for the new HTC Touch Diamond), and better UI and performance as a phone. This latest version of Windows Mobile, 6.1, give the Standard (non-touch screen) devices more functionality and blurs the line between a Professional and Standard device in terms of power and capability.
Specifications: The Blackjack II comes in black and a cool burgundy color (simply called Red on the AT&T site), which is the model I was sent to check out. As you can see in the list of specifications below, this is quite a powerful device with the only obvious missing component being the lack of a WiFi radio. I rarely use WiFi on my non-touch screen devices so the lack of WiFi really does not concern me too much, especially given the fact that 3.5G is supported with HSDPA. The Blackjack II does include the following:
- Windows Mobile 6.1 Standard
- Quad-band GSM/EDGE (850/900/1800/2100)
- Tri-band UMTS/HSDPA (850/1900/2100)
- TI OMAP1710 processor running at 260 MHz
- Integrated QWERTY keyboard
- Integrated Bluetooth 2.0 radio with EDR
- 2 megapixel camera
- Integrated GPS receiver
- 256MB ROM
- 128MB RAM
- External microSDHC card slot
- 1700 mAh battery
- Front jog wheel navigation mechanism
- Size of: 4.4 inches x 2.3 inches x 0.4 inch and 3.52 ounce weight
Hardware: The Samsung Blackjack II is a very professional looking device and is rock solid in your hand. The front has a glossy burgundy finish and on the back you will find a textured plastic back that has the look and feel of leather. I like the way Samsung slimmed up the thickness as much as possible with the camera protruding out a bit further than the rest of the back. A chrome band goes around the entire device to add a professional look and some strength, although this band does pick up fingerprints quite easily.
A couple of years ago I posted a review and then gave away a Samsung SGH-i320 Windows Mobile 5 Smartphone that I loved. However, it had an Achilles heel of a battery life that went just a few hours. Samsung even acknowledged this by including an extra battery and stand-alone charger right in the box. The Samsung Blackjack also had this problem and I am very pleased to say that they seem to have solved the issue with the Blackjack II. The battery is a sizable 1700 mAh and easily lasts me a full day with 3G push email enabled and an hour or two of web surfing. I have yet to run the battery down completely in a single day and am very pleased with the battery performance on this device.
One of the first things you will notice on the device is the integrated QWERTY keyboard that is always available for your use. I find myself enter text on it like a madman and even though the keys are a bit slick and tight, I can enter text at a good clip. They do have good positive feedback so you do know when a key is pressed. The characters are shown in bright white and everything is very visible. The number keys have a white background with burgundy numbers and are arranged in a phone keypad arrangement on the left side of the keyboard.
There are default shortcuts for Internet Explorer, AT&T Mobile Music and Video (CV), silent toggle, camera, and email. The absolutely amazing thing that Samsung also included, that I think should be a Windows Mobile default on all devices, is the ability to assign a shortcut to 18 keys on the keyboard. By default, shortcuts for toggling your Bluetooth radio, AT&T Mall, headset manager, AT&T Music, Cellular Video, and Media Net are assigned to 6 keys and unfortunately none of these AT&T apps/utilities can be removed or altered. However, you can add your own custom shortcuts for the other 18 available keys so I set some up for Google Maps, Settings, Qik beta, Windows Live Search, Palringo, Shozu, Internet Explorer and Evernote. After setting these up you then simply press and hold the Fn key and the assigned key to launch the application or perform the action. I can't express how much I love this feature and again hope that more manufacturers, or maybe even Microsoft, implement this on their QWERTY devices.
You can find a microSD card slot that supports the microSDHC card format as well (I tested an 8GB card) on the right side of the device. I actually like the solid doors covering the microSD card slot and Samsung connector since they look good and seem to fit in well with the sides of the device. I don't like the Samsung connector since it requires me to use their headsets if I want a wired headset for calls or listening to music. Then again, Bluetooth A2DP is supported so I only use the connector to charge up the device. You are given a USB cable and an A/C adapter for connecting/charging the device.
Samsung uses a single indicator light in the upper right front that glows and flashes in a bunch of different colors (7 possible to be exact) for different states and notifications. You can even buy a cool utility called LEDAlerts that lets you customize the LEDs on the device to your personal preferences.
The jog wheel rotating navigational pad is interesting, but I never really have taken a liking to these types of controllers and prefer to just use it as a standard directional pad. The traditional left and right soft keys, send and end buttons and Home and back buttons are all found below the display and above the keyboard. Speaking of the display, it is brilliant and looks very good on the Blackjack II. It isn't VGA and could be crisper, but it is bright and quite good IMHO.
Volume is controlled with the rocker on the upper left side of the device. A flush power button is located along the top with the speakerphone grill/opening as well.
On the back of the device you will find the 2 megapixel camera and self-portrait mirror. As you can see in the photo below and in a couple others in my image gallery the device takes decent photos and is one of the better for Windows Mobile devices. I am also using a beta version of the Qik streaming video service and it is performing very well with the camera and 3.5G wireless data connection.
Windows Mobile 6.1: You will now find a new Home screen on the Standard devices that is the most obvious improvement in 6.1. The Home screen actually functions very much like the Neo interface developed by HTC and Microsoft on my T-Mobile Shadow and actually I see no real reason to upgrade my T-Mobile Shadow since it is so usable already. The new Home screen gives you 7 different "panels" with the first one being your carrier name, time, and date. The second panel is a status panel for calls and messages so you can quickly move right or left within the panel to view missed calls, voicemail, text messages, and then your different email accounts. The third panel down gives you calendar appointments and lets you quickly create a new appointment. The fourth panel down is a Getting Started panel that you can use to setup your device and then choose to remove this panel. The next panel presents the Music on your device with the following panel setup for your photos. The last panel gives you quick access to your most common settings, including profiles, wireless manager, ringtones, background image, and your task manager. You will also find that your right soft key is context-sensitive and will change with the functionality available in the selected panel.
Pressing Start actually takes you to a Most Recently Used (MRU) programs screen showing your 8 most recent applications. You can select the left soft key to show all your programs as well.
Some other cool new features in Windows Mobile 6.1 for non-touch screen devices is the ability to cut/copy/paste in certain applications and have your text messages appear in a threaded layout. Unfortunately, you still cannot create new Office documents on these devices without installing a utility of some kind. This version of Internet Explorer only adds the ability to Zoom Out on a page and the real improvements will be coming later in 2008 with a mobile version of IE 6. I also like that I can finally go into the Settings and name my device without having to use the default or play all sorts of games to name my own Windows Mobile Smartphone.
Samsung software: I think these additional utilities can all be attributed to Samsung (unless they are from AT&T as noted in the next section) since I have not seen them on a Windows Mobile device before. You will find an Organizer folder with utilities for Alarms, Calculator, D-Day, Notepad (finally the ability to create notes on a non-touch screen device), Smart Converter, Stopwatch, Tasks, Voice Notes, and World Clock. The Tasks and Voice Notes in this folder are Windows Mobile utilities. The D-Day application is for Due Day and is a stopwatch for days so you can enter in an important date and see a countdown to that event on your device.
You will find a My Stuff folder that serves as the file explorer on the device, but in a bit more user friendly manner. The Applications folder includes a mix of AT&T apps, Windows Mobile apps, and Samsung apps such as the Camera, File Explorer, AT&T Navigator download, Java utility, MobiTV, PDF Viewer, RSS Reader, Smart Search (from Syncdata), Speed Dial, Task Manager, and Office Mobile folder with Excel, Word, PowerPoint, and OneNote Mobile applications. There are several trial Java applications loaded on the device, but I loaded Opera Mini 4.1 and Gmail myself. Gmail looks pretty good, but constantly asks me for permission to access the internet and thus I stopped using it.
Microsoft Voice Command 1.6 is also loaded on the device and is a very powerful voice navigation client.
AT&T software and services: AT&T also customizes the device for their service offerings and includes links/and utilities for crapware trials of Cellular Video (keeps giving me an error when I try it), MusicID, TeleNav, AT&T Mall and XM Radio. Subscribing to all of these would add a considerable cost to your monthly bill where you will already be paying for voice and data service. The AT&T Music shortcut lets you access Windows Media Player, shop for music, launch MusicID, launch XM Radio, check out music videos, read The Buzz, access the community and view music apps (keep getting an error here too) from a single page. I do use TeleNav and find it to be an excellent GPS navigation solution that works well as long as you have some sort of connection to AT&T.
GetGood and an Instant Messaging client (access to AOL, Windows Live Messenger, and Yahoo! Messenger) is available that actually uses text messages to route the conversations over the IM clients. This is the Oz client found on T-Mobile Windows Mobile devices as well and is great if you have lots of text messages in your wireless plan.
Pricing and Availability: The Samsung Blackjack II from AT&T is available at all AT&T retail stores and online at www.att.com for US$99.99 after a two-year service agreement and a mail-in rebate. A refurb unit is available for US$59.99 and I am seriously thinking about picking one of these up instead of the iPhone 3G because of all the functionality available in the device. I wish there was a way to get rid of all the AT&T stuff that I will never subscribe to and I'll have to check out some forums, like HowardForums to see if there are ways to do this on the device.
Conclusions: The last Windows Mobile Smartphone I used was the T-Mobile Shadow, which followed my T-Mobile Dash and I have to say that even though the field of non-touch screen Windows Mobile devices is limited there are some excellent devices available for anyone looking for a high quality phone and organizer device. I like all three of these devices and find the Samsung Blackjack II to be the classiest of the three with the slick red color, 3.5G support, and well laid-out keyboard. The price is outstanding and if you are looking for something better than a feature phone I highly recommend you check out the Samsung Blackjack II at your local AT&T store.