Digital Trends

Samsung BlackJack December 19th, 2006 | by Stewart Wolpin

Performance

Once you get past the keypad insanity, the Blackjack performs as advertised. With its HSDPA power, Blackjack accessed Cingular's MediaNet Web home page twice as fast as using EDGE on the Blackberry 8700c. Web pages took only around five seconds to load, and streaming video took only about 10 seconds to start playing.

Blackjack's 2.2-inch 320 x 240 pixel 65k color screen is a hair brighter and cleaner than the well-respected Q's, the difference so barely perceptible that it's hardly worth mentioning, but it produces far more contrast than the 8700c's screen.

Considering its high-tech positioning, the inclusion of a 1.3 MP camera, rather than a 2 MP or higher imager found on lesser Samsung models, is a bit surprising. But like other Samsung cell cams, the Blackjack suffers from severe shutter lag. You need to wait a full second for an image to be captured after pushing the capture button, plenty of time for your subject to move out-of-frame, or just move, creating a blurred image -- or for you to move the phone mistakenly thinking the scene captured but ending up with nothing but blurry streaks. While there's a self-portrait mirror, there's no flash, another curious omission.

For voice, connections were mostly uniform and free from echo and interference. Oddly, the microphone is on the bottom right of the Blackjack's front surface, rather than on the bottom left as on the Q and the Blackberry 8700c. If you're right-eared, the mic ends up under your chin rather than across from your mouth. We often had to hold the phone more vertically across our cheek to make sure our end of the call could be heard clearly. Blackjack's rear-mounted speakerphone meant turning the phone depending on who was talking to make sure both callee and caller could hear.

Bowing to the power needs of HSDPA and its multimedia functionality, Blackjack offers 5.5 hours of talk time compared to Q's 3.9 and Blackberry's 4 hours, not to mention the extra battery Samsung supplies -- although the battery cover is a bitch to pry off.


Conclusion

Why, oh why, did Samsung shuffle Blackjack's keyboard? Blessed with Blackjack's blazing HSDPA online speed and superior multimedia features, one could easily ignore this handset's other petty peccadilloes. But why purposely place unnecessary and unreasonable hurdles to a cell phone's primary function? How great your need for a speedy smartphone will determine how much you'll put up with hunt-and-peck dialing.



Pros:

• Slim and stylish
• HSDPA/UMTS compatibility
• Bright, crisp LCD screen
• Extra battery and charger included
• Music player with Stereo Bluetooth
• MicroSD card slot

Cons:

• Badly arranged alphanumeric keypad
• No wired headphone included
• Lengthy camera shutter lag