Samsung BlackJack II Phone, Red Wine
Tuesday, March 9th, 2010
- Quad-band/3G smartphone with Windows Mobile 6 for MS Office document editing and easy Outlook email and contacts
- Internal GPS receiver with support for TeleNav software; music and video downloads and streams via AT&T Mobile Music and Cellular Video
- Full QWERTY keyboard; Bluetooth stereo music streaming; 2.0 megapixel camera; MicroSD expansion
- Up to 7 hours of talk time, up to 14 days of standby time
- Includes: Charger, USB Cable, Battery and Getting Started CD
Amazon.com Product Description
The successor to the original, highly popular Blackjack smartphone, the Samsung Blackjack II (SGH-I617) retains the thin, lightweight design, QWERTY keyboard, and large screen from its predecessor while adding the power of the Windows Mobile 6 operating system, integrated GPS, and upping image capture quality to 2.0 megapixels. It can access AT&T’s tri-band HSDPA/UMTS high-speed 3G network, which makes it easy to download music purchased from AT&T Mobile Music, stream tunes from Napster and eMusic, and watch video streamed from CNN and Comedy Central via AT&T’s Cellular Video. It also supports AT&T’s Video Share service, which offers a one-way video stream during a mobile-to-mobile phone call. The … More >>
D. A. Wade says:
March 9th, 2010
11:05 am
This phone is very compact and light in weight….however it’s battery is also lightweight in performance.
To give an example you’ll charge the battery all night, then once you’ve unplugged it, you’ll be lucky to get 4-5 hours standby…yes standby!!
I’ve hand an Apple iPhone and wanted something to replace it, that battery didn’t last much more than a day and a half.
I tell you this battery is a design fault, it’s not man enough for the job, Samsung are normally pretty good, but really this is a waste of a phone.
If you wanna carry spare batteries all day, or don’t care about having a phone that will work as a “mobile” phone…then this is for you, otherwise yes please look elsewhere and save your money!
Rating: 1 / 5
Keith Leonard says:
March 9th, 2010
11:53 am
To sum up this phone: The Blackjack 2 is so annoying, it must have been designed by someone who has never used a cell phone before.
I’ve had this phone for a week now and already it’s obvious that this is a piece of crap, like most of Samsung’s phones.
On the plus side the phone gets good reception and good battery life.
However the phone comes with many annoyances that I think are good enough reasons not to buy it. These problems are due in part to Samsung’s idiotic design, Microsoft’s crappy Windows Mobile software, and unreasonable restrictions set by AT&T.
1. Flimsy physical design — After only a week my phone already looks a year old from scratches and scuff marks even though I’ve been babying it. (I either keep this device by itself in my pocket or on a table.) Already there are small but VERY NOTICEABLE SCRATCH MARKS on the screen. There’s just something about this screen that makes these tiny little scratches very visible. I’m afraid that in a few months my screen will be near impossible to read! It also already has the kind of scuff marks you’d find on a year-old phone. Also the wheel already looks cruddy and it’s not like I have constantly dirty hands or anything. I think its very tiny grooves too easily trap dust and other gunk. So what appears to be a very slick casing is, in my opinion, utterly worthless for most people in just a few weeks time.
2. VERY ANNOYING 3 key unlock — Since this isn’t a flip phone you’re going to need to lock the phone when you put it in your pocket, bag, or what have you. Locking is easy — just hold down the End key for 2 secs. But to unlock it you have to press 3 buttons: first the power button (top side of the phone), then the left soft key (below the screen), and then the * key (middle-left of the keyboard, and not easily found at first). A very difficult combination to make. What a ridiculous and unnecessary procedure, and probably my biggest annoyance with this phone since I end up unlocking it many times a day.
3. Voice/text message tones sound only once — I miss my old phone which would tone/vibrate every few minutes to remind me that I still have unread/unlistened messages. This phone will only tone/vibrate once. There have been many times that I didn’t know I had a message because I somehow missed the notification. Very annoying!
4. VERY LOUD startup and shutdown sounds — AT&T provided the stupidest startup/shutdown screen with this phone. It plays a very annoying swooshing sound, much louder than even my ring tone! Before I turn off my phone at night I have to put it in silent mode so I don’t wake my kids!
5. Useful features are locked down or limited — First, ringtones can’t be more than 300KB in size, which limits you from using most ring tones on the market. Second, the phone’s GPS is locked down in a way that it can’t be used by apps like Google Maps and Windows Live Search. Un-freaking-believable. Some web sites list ways you can hack your phone to work around this, but they’re only for the fearless!
6. Undetectable home keys — Like most keyboards, the Blackjack 2’s keyboard has little notches on the F and J keys. However they are so small that you cannot feel them. They’re absolutely worthless.
7. No alpha-numeric mapping for 800 #s — Don’t plan on dialing 1-800-COMCAST or other such numbers from this phone unless you know the actual numerical equivalent. Understandably, the phone’s numeric keys don’t show that 2 is “ABC”, 3 is “DEF”, etc. since the number keys are already paired with letter keys on the keyboard. But there could be ways around it, like showing the alpha-numeric mapping on the screen as you dial. There was such a hack for the first Blackjack but that hack doesn’t work on the Blackjack 2.
This list is just from my first week of use with this phone. There may be more issues I have yet to come across but I felt it necessary to warn anyone considering this phone to AVOID IT AND GET SOMETHING ELSE. I also recommend staying away from Samsung phones altogether. I’ve had 2 other Samsung phones before and they all suffered from manufacturing defects, major bugs, and usability annoyances. The first Blackjack had major antenna problems that didn’t manifest for months down the line, so I’m very pessimistic that this one also will have latent problems.
Rating: 1 / 5
Bhullo says:
March 9th, 2010
1:10 pm
Before the end of the 12 months warranty I started to encounter problems. The battery would go flat within minutes. The keys get stuck. The Screen freezes. I tried to get a new one but I was sent a re-conditioned one and that’s event worse. Do not get this phone. Even 1 star is being generous.
Rating: 1 / 5
Always Samsung says:
March 9th, 2010
1:26 pm
This is a very nice phone and a better choice over the black model as the black Samsung BlackJack 2 gathers alot of finger prints. The back of the PDA is a completely different material then the one on the black version. Dont let the RED offend your BUTCH man hood. Its a very drak tint of a red. No sign of a GIRLY phone at all. Anyways its a nice phone but i hate the Windows menu option. I wish you had a choice between the Windows and Samsung version of the menu screen. Unfortunately all you can do is change the menu style the way Windows has it layed out for you. The camera is really nice and so is the camcorder, but considering that so many international GSM phones have over 5.0 megapixels, i think its time the US get above a 3.0 as well. the call quality is really clear as well. AT&T has come such a long way since the 1990’s. The web browser is really fast, i live in New York City so i wasnt expecting slow speeds since i’m at the mecca of technology central. Im very pleased with my purchase and i got it for 49.99 and Radio Shack and the sales rep was really nice giving it to me at the promo price since i’m not a new customer, it was a 2 year upgrade. The promo price was only for new clients. He was also nice enough 2 not charge me a data package as i told him i was in a hurry and would miss my bus. So i got a total bargain PDA smart phone for only 49.99. AT&T data packages are really expensive. I’d rather have gotten this phone for 0.1 on Amazon but they make purchasing phones so complicated. Compairing this to the BlackJack 1, its only a cosmetic upgrade, nothing groundbreaking has been added in except a larger screen and the scroll wheel which i dont care about as it seems unresponsive to me. The also removed the scroll wheel on the side of the phone from the 1st version. Overall i love the phone just wish the new Samsung PDA had a touch screen as the qwerty keyboard is getting out dated.
Rating: 4 / 5
CJ - MO says:
March 9th, 2010
2:43 pm
I love this phone! I have the blue one (was going to get the pink but they were out) and it is a huge improvement over my old sony ericson flip phone. It is so much easier to text message. The battery life is also good because I can talk for almost seven hours on one charge and it can sit four almost two weeks without me having to charge it.
I have heard that some of the earlier blackjack 2 phones having problems, but mine and phones of others I know work fine. I don’t know about the internet usage because I do not use the internet on my phone. I would recommend the colored ones because the backs are less slick than the black colored one. I almost got the palm centro but I am glad I got this phone instead!
Rating: 5 / 5