We spin the wheel on the BlackJack II, which updates the original with GPS and improved battery. Is this BlackJack finally the winning hand you need?
Review summary of the Samsung BlackJack II:
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 The Samsung BlackJack II is no doubt an improvement over it's predecessor, but some of the so-called improvements don't actually make things better. The scroll wheel was so poor that we wished to return to the clickwheel days of yore. GPS was a nice addition, but was a little pokey finding us. The larger screen and improved battery life are great improvements, but we're always hoping a new generation will be smaller and thinner than the old, not the other way around. In all, it's a solid smartphone, with the same issues that most Windows Mobile 6 smartphones have, mostly in Web browsing and multimedia. Is it better than the first BlackJack? Sure, but maybe not so much better. If you don't need GPS, now might be the time to find a bargain on the original. Release: November 2007. Price: $100.
Pros: Improves upon the original BlackJack with GPS, a larger screen, more memory. Good battery life. Call management and scheduling are great on Windows Mobile 6.
Cons: Scroll wheel stymied us at every turn. Advanced multimedia services aren't so great, lapped by competitors. Time to ditch the proprietary cables.
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Full review of the Samsung BlackJack II:
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Design - Mediocre
The Samsung BlackJack II looks like the original BlackJack, with some subtle differences. It's not the most elegant design, though it is simple. Basically, it's a slab with a display up top and keys on the bottom. It's sort of a brute force design, out of keeping with Samsung's gently curving slider phones or well-textured clamshells. The display is just a bit larger on this device than on the original BlackJack, though it's the same QVGA resolution. Samsung has also fixed the strange key layout on the number keys since the previous device.
The keys themselves are fine to use, nothing special. Soft keys are exactly where you'd expect, and do what they're told, except that we wish the "End" key turned the phone off when held. Instead, it just locks the phone, the power key is up top. No big deal. What was a big deal, though, was the horrible scroll wheel. We were ready to say that it simply didn't work, but closer inspection revealed that our fingers weren't catching on the wheel, and it simply wasn't turning. The concentric grooves on the wheel make it feel like it's turning, but it's really not. Still, even when we got a grip and spun the wheel, it just didn't do much. It doesn't work in every app, and it doesn't accelerate, so it really isn't any better than the thumbwheel it replaces. In fact, it's much worse.
Calling - Very good
There's a lot to recommend the Samsung BlackJack II as a phone. First of all, calls sounded good. Not perfect, but very good, by cellular standards. Second, battery life was very good. The BlackJack II gains a few millimeters of thickness to house a higher-capacity battery than it's predecessor. This is good news, because we got more than 6 hours of talk time out of the phone, impressive for an HSDPA device. Third, Windows Mobile 6 is a champ when it comes to contact lists and call management. This is truly the area where Microsoft's mobile OS shines, with great searching and call logging capabilities.
The BlackJack II also packs most of our favorite calling features, including fairly easy three-way calling, a good speakerphone and reliable Bluetooth pairing. We miss voice dialing, a critical feature for drivers, and wonder why the feature was again left out, especially when the theme of the BlackJack II seems to be additions, and not subtractions.
Messaging - Very good
The BlackJack II retains all of the messaging options of its predecessor, with a few negligible additions. Instant messaging is available for AIM, Yahoo and MSN users, and SMS fans will have no problems here. Users now get AT&T's Xpress Mail for e-mail, but Outlook is a much better client, if you have a mail server that works with the mobile Outlook client. POP and IMAP users won't see the HTML e-mail handling on Xpress Mail, which is disappointing, but at least the phone does a fine job keeping e-mail accounts organized and together. Typing on the BlackJack II's keys was fine, but nothing special. The keys are nicely spaced, with a good amount of travel. The plastic felt a bit stiff, but didn't hurt our messages.
Scheduling and productivity - Good
The BlackJack II gets all the benefits of using Windows Mobile 6's calendar app, and all the drawbacks of Microsoft's Windows Office Mobile suite. For scheduling, again Windows Mobile 6 is a winner, and it offers more functionality than most PIM programs. For productivity, Office Mobile has a serious defect. It cannot create new documents. To solve this problem, Motorola wisely chose DataViz' DocumentsToGo for their competitor Q9h phone, which lets you create new files. BlackJack II owners will only be able to edit existing files. It may be enough, but with a full keyboard on the phone, it seems like a waste of capability.
Multimedia - Good
On paper, the BlackJack II seems to have all the right multimedia functions built in. Support for AT&T Music means you can use Napster and Yahoo Music files on the phone, sideloaded with Windows Media Player. Unfortunately, once they are on the device, you are stuck using the dated media player on the phone, which lacks features and friendliness, and will never compete with a Walkman phone or iPhone. Though we liked the BlackJack II's microSDHC slot, which can take cards up to 4GB, we didn't appreciate the lack of a bundled card or an adapter to use our own headphones. Instead, Samsung uses its nebulous, proprietary adapter, or forces you to use stereo Bluetooth.
For video, AT&T's cellular video service offers a wealth of short video clips to download, for free or not, depending on the provider (HBO charges extra). None of these were worth the monthly fee you'll have to pay for 3G multimedia service, but they are there, nonetheless, if you want to show off the phone's screen. Like the music player, though, the video player is also simple and basic, with limited functions and playback control. This would have been a perfect time to implement the scroll wheel, for shuttling through tracks, but it never quite works how you want it to.
Camera - Mediocre
Really, we only review the camera on a smartphone because one day, we hope, a manufacturer will use quality optics and some autofocus to produce usable images. That day hasn't come, at least not in the Samsung BlackJack II, but we're waiting. Images from the BlackJack II looked lousy, an unfortunate pattern for Samsung phones (don't you guys have some good lenses lying around over in the Samsung Camera department?). Image management was standard Windows Mobile fare, which is like looking at Windows Explorer on a laptop. Easy enough, but not really elegant or intuitive.
Web browsing - Mediocre
Pages opened quickly on the BlacJack II, thanks to speedy networking on AT&T's 3.6Mbps HSDPA network. Our page popped open in under a minute, including all of our graphic thumbnails, though the layout was a bit mangled in all of the different page views we tried, "from single column" to "desktop" mode. Again, the BlackJack II fails to take advantage of the scroll wheel. The wheel should have been used for smooth scrolling, at an accelerating pace, through long single-column pages. Instead, browsing is jerky and haphazard, and the scroll wheel is as unreliable here as it is elsewhere.
GPS - Good
GPS is new to the BlackJack II family, and it is a welcome addition, although we weren't completely satisfied with the navigation experience. The sensor seemed a bit sluggish to us. It took a few minutes to find our initial position, and it took some time to register that we had made some wrong turns. Once it had us on our route, it generally tracked well, though. Maps loaded very quickly, probably thanks to the speedy networking. We used TeleNav for navigation, though it costs a monthly fee, and it worked just as it should, with a fine points-of-interest database.
Laptop sidekick - Good
Ever since we saw the Internet Sharing app on the HTC Touch Dual, we've been more critical of the proprietary apps that the American carriers require for tethered modem support. While Internet Sharing offers one-click access to your device's modem, AT&T's Communication Manager is a nightmare of driver installations and faulty installs. It usually worked, but on the regular occasions when the app failed to register properly on the network, or failed to find the phone plugged into our laptop, restarts and re-installation was required.
Once setup, we were satisfied with the download speeds we got, but not blown away. We usually averaged about 450Kbps downloads on AT&T's 3G network in our Lower Manhattan office, and once topped 600Kbps. Still, our Sprint Palm Treo 755p often breaks 1Mbps in speed tests, so we're wondering where the extra speed is going. Also, Samsung has a nasty habit of using proprietary USB cables, which means you better not forget the cord on the road. And, if you have multiple Samsung devices, the cables often look alike, but are not created equal, so you'll probably need a label-maker too.
Comparison
Compare the Samsung BlackJack II with similar products
Who is the Samsung BlackJack II for?
Messaging users
Price and availability
The Samsung BlackJack II is available from AT&T for $100 with a contract agreement.
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