Samsung BlackJack SGH-i607 (AT&T)

Summary: When the Blackjack came through to Cingular, I was really ready for an upgrade from my tried and true Treo 650. What I wanted was the same functionality in a smaller and lighter phone, and the Blackjack seemed to check off all the right boxes.

What I got was a slow, difficult to navigate, battery-sucking little monster. As a frequent early adopter, I have never been so disappointed; here is a product which seems to have everything and yet is good at nothing. As others have described its virtues, I am going to focus instead on its fatal flaws. And while this may seem a whole-hearted attack on the phone, I don't lack balance. I am, of course, a sucker for its form factor. I like it's size and style and weight, and I think the slanted keyboard keys work pretty nicely for what they are. Above all, I really really wanted to love this phone.

The purpose of this review is to bring to the forefront some of the major flaws that make this phone ill-suited for the mobile professional looking for productivity first and entertainment second. I have observed wholehearted adoration for this phone emanating from Cingular store employees; I suspect this is because it is good for listening to music (if you can find a way to listen to it – Bluetooth stereo headphones have not fared well in reviews thus far, and there is currently not a suitable stereo hardwired headset option), viewing 20 second video blurbs, and storing contacts. I imagine they’re not doing a whole lot of corporate emailing, Outlook syncing, or .pdf viewing.

So enough of all that - here are my top 5 reasons why you should think twice before dropping your hard earned cash on this little wonder:

1) Battery Life. As commonly complained, this phone can rarely make it through the business day without a recharge/battery swap. What this means is, I take this phone off the charger, fully charged, at 7 am, and need to have it charged again or the battery replaced by 2 to 3 pm. This is entirely unacceptable, particularly as a battery replace involves powering down and restarting the unit.

2) User Interface. While the screen is colorful and sharp, it often takes several keystrokes more than necessary to reach an application, and the UI is counterintuitive at best. The customization of the home screen is cosmetic only, and allows for no remedy of this problem. The 3rd party apps that do allow customization are cumbersome, and only slow down a phone that already has a lot of problems with…

3.) Speed. To add insult to injury, this phone is SLOW. Not often advertised is it's 200mhz processor speed - a real thorn in the side of a phone which could really benefit from a faster response time. Even the most simple apps, such as "contacts" take 2 to 3 seconds to load. I also think this must slow down the browser. Despite much vaunted 3G speeds (and I live in a dense metropolitan area and am connected to 3G most of the time), internet browsing is slow and almost unusable. The phone IS fast at downloading email attachments, but it seems that the same data speed cannot be translated effectively into speedy web browsing.

4.) Outlook compatibility. Much to my chagrin, Windows Mobile 5.0 does not support syncing to Outlook notes. Why, I can't comprehend. I was under the impression that a WinMo smartphone would be better integrated with Outlook, but clearly that is not the case. The included 3rd party app to sync to Outlook notes appears to require reentry of all of the notes on the smartphone before moving them over to a new subfolder on Outlook. This is ridiculous for anyone who has a pretty healthy archive of notes. Furthermore, the notes sync destroys categories. Overall, for my personal use (and I understand that this is not the same for everyone), this failure to play nicely with Outlook Notes is a disaster. It's also embarrassing for MS, who I tend to typically defend against all the naysayers who accuse them of half-baked product integration and luke warm innovation.

5.) Reception. I don't know if this is a problem with Cingular's 3G network or what, but reception on this phone has been approximately 50% inferior to what it was on my previous phones. I will often not receive calls at all in areas where I used to have 3 to 4 bars and have no problems. Once again, don't know if this is the phone or the network, but the fact that this phenomenon has occurred everywhere (and I have traveled with it) convinces me it is probably the phone.

In summary, I think I've made it clear I was pretty disapointed with this phone. It really has all the potential to be great. I think with a faster processor and a more intuitive interface and better Outlook compatibility, this phone will be there. In the end, I've decided that I would much rather have a slightly heavier and less glamorous phone that actually works and does well the things I need it to do than be a fashion victim to the underwhelming Blackjack.